We were all excited when the news came.

Chandra Group, the number 1 company in the country, was opening a store in our village. We would have our own Supermart. The news came the way most news do in a small town. Hearsay. Which can never be believed. But this one was different.

Of course, when the talk first started, we didn’t believe it. After all, the first person who spoke of it was Bajaj, an outsider. A city slicker who’d settled in the village some months ago. He was nice but we were a close knit group and weren’t able, truly able, to ingratiate him into our circles. It would take some years, even then.

He spoke about it in a matter-of-fact manner, to anyone who was around. Then he left for the city as he always did every couple months or so. The first people who heard him out laughed in his face. But soon, the talk spread. Soon, people who hadn’t yet talked to Bajaj had heard the news through other mouths and spread the news to other ears.

Then, we heard it on the radio. The Village Elder heard it first and called all of us to sit by his house as he played the transistor at its highest volume. Yes, the radio spoke of it and it seemed true. Chandra Group would open a Supermart in our village. Many were amazed but some still held doubts. After all, why? Our village wasn’t near a major highway. People barely came here and those who did were mostly foreigners on a pit stop during their treks or drives.

It was only when the big machines came that all doubt was easily quelled. Something was being made. What? The Supermart many assumed.

One of our younger villagers, a teenage girl, managed to go talk to one of the workers, the most important looking one, and asked him if it was true. Was it true that Chandra Group was making a Supermart in our village? Yes. It’s true, really? Yes. Oh my god. Look girl, this area is dangerous so you need to leave.

The teenager ran from the site into the heart of the village and yelled, seemingly at everyone, that it was true. A Supermart was being built. And then, exactly then, the humble people of our village started to hope. They even started to dream.

Our village is a farming village but farming had become slow. Many of the young men had left for the city. Some of the young women, too. The farming was left to their fathers and mothers. For some, even their grandfathers and grandmothers.

The few children who were around helped, or tried to. Many of them were diligent students who took their studies seriously because they knew it was a way out of the village. They would follow their brothers and sisters and leave for the big city where money was plentiful and opportunities abound. Even those kids, not particularly bright at school, knew that because of their youth and the malleability of their bodies, if they could only leave the village and head to the city, their lives could change. Never mind that nobody ever came back. The village had become a place to leave for the young ones and a tomb to rot and die for the old ones.

The Supermart though, it could change everything.

It was the Village Elder who, in his rampant excitement, floated this idea. If the Supermart was being built here, then they would surely hire the people within the village to work here. Someone asked, wouldn’t we be the customers? We have no money, the Village Elder said. They must know that. They must know we wouldn’t make for good customers. So why build the Supermart here? Exactly, the Village Elder replied. They will build the Supermart here and we will all have jobs.

Everyone started cheering as if the idea was theirs. As if what would happen was pre-ordained.

It became a daily ritual for everyone in the village to watch the construction. Even those who were busy with something, be it farming or housework, kept their ears perked up to hear what was happening. The whole village’s eyes and ears were turned towards the construction like sunflowers towards the sun.

On Saturdays, every week, the Village Priest would lead a communal worship meeting where he would pray that everyone get a good job. It wasn’t mandatory but every single person in the village showed up. Man, woman or child. As the weeks turned into months, the worship meetings turned extravagant, intense, and even a bit violent but nobody minded. They all knew this was necessary. Why? No one, if asked, would or could answer.

The young teenager who had first approached the construction workers had been unofficially charged with bringing in updates on the construction schedule. At first, the workers were annoyed but the villagers gave the teenager some food and drinks to take to the workers and then their tongues loosened. It’s going to take two years, they said. The teenager relayed this message to the villagers, and they waited.

For two years, we waited.

It seemed the Village Priest became the richest person in town through all the donations during the weekly worship meeting.

The young teenager started a romance with one of the workers, got pregnant, and ran away with him.

The updates didn’t stop as another teenager was sent. This time a boy.

Sometimes, Bajaj would come and talk to us, but we didn’t tell him anything. Some did so because they were afraid he would laugh at them. Some did so because they knew he wouldn’t understand. Some did so because they didn’t want to be told anything otherwise.

Two and a half years later, the building was finished. We waited for Chandra Group to come and hire us. Or at least a representative.

Chandra Group came and conducted an opening ceremony. We waited.

News media came and reported on the opening. We waited.

The Supermart was opened and cars, usually big Tourist buses, came. We waited.

We waited and waited, our hopes never ending. Until finally, the Village Elder himself went into the store. After an hour he came back, looking confused.

“What’s the matter?,” we asked. The Village Elder locked himself in his room and wouldn’t come out for days.

The rest of us were alarmed, concerned and even a bit angry. What was this old man keeping to himself? Finally, fed up with waiting, all of us went to the Supermart to see why they hadn’t hired us.

We couldn’t understand what we saw. There was no one there to explain it to us except foreigners.

We waited for Bajaj to come to explain but he never came. The Village Elder never left his room. The Village Priest ran away.