Thursday, March 26, 2015

*1983 - Journey of Horror*Lalthan Village (Continued2)

Surya, steps out of the room, feeling a twitch in his shoulder & legs as soon as he gets off his rested bed. He flap opens the door of his room; Bhaleram, on spur of the moment, hugs him in a mingy, only to realize his discomfort}
Surya (tears rolling down his cheek): “How…Did I rough-up myself to the extent of fainting? Where…where’s…Rakhi, is she dim fit? How did…!!!”
Bhaleram: (Holds his arm. Pacifying): “lull down…just settle down…”
{In due course, Damayanti gets a cup of local shrub tea and serves Surya}
Bhaleram: “Rakhi is in a pink of her health, she was bitten with disturbance, and I wanted her to mingle with Kapil . They’ve just left towards our farm yard to pluck-off fresh chickpeas…”
Surya (while sipping the tea his dish didder’s): “uhhh…are you sure she is ok…well, for how long was I asleep? What’s the time now? How did I reach home? I feel a static in my mind and nerve, we just had a journey of horrr…”
Bhaleram: “She’s fine; you calm down its mid-afternoon. I’ve extracted the details of your journey through Rakhi; I was awaiting your consciousness, I deep heartedly regret that you had to go through abounding journey of horror. I will ensure this grief is momentary…”
{While Surya was benumbed, Bhaleram had sent an emissary towards the nearby Adivasi village and invited one of the leaders of their community, incidentally a good friend of Bhaleram, to transpire the fact of demonic episodes if he could...}

Dundiya-Daa (tribe leader) arrives in a ghastly robe, his thin torso, blanket of beard and depraved aura makes Surya feel quandary about his existence in the situation. He sits on the floor folding his legs, as his cadaverous knee cap faces the ceiling, he holds his legs firm by interlocking finger’s of his hands
While Dundiya-Daa pays due heed, Surya retrospect’s the journey and narrates the journey of horror.
Post narration, Bhaleram is astounded and struck with dread. Dundiya-Daa intermits.

Bhaleram divulges few facts about the village affairs and following is concluded:
During their journey, electricity supply was intermittent; Batteries died out. There were numerous instances when the bag they carried fell down, at time, dissected, which consumed their time and attention. They even had to go down the slope in opposite direction, to find the lost bag on one occasion. Apparently, off late, the Electricity Circuit Board of the village belt did load-shedding during this time of the evening. It resulted in every village, losing electricity after regular intervals, resulted in such a way, that the closest village (from Surya) would shed electricity first. ST department (Bus Service Department) had recently contracted the locals to rid off the dry well along with Rusted metal board and make way for the ST's U-Turn Stop. This created an identification barrier for surya and made the journey appear longer, as they apparently bypassed their destination...

Surya: “Bhau, the lights kept on crawling away, in gradual sequence…well…uhhmmm…that makes sense, what does not make sense though, was the awful holocaust episode...”
{Surya looks at Dundiya-Daa with a frown. For a brief moment Dundiya-Daa sustains silence, exhales audibly, he stands-up firm, he walks towards the door, in opposite direction of Surya and Bhaleram, rests his right shoulder on the corridor, and his eyes sight a tree…

Dundiya-Daa (utters ponderously): “For years now, we’ve adopted the concept of Gram Panchayat. Our established customs exist beyond the realm of legal justice. The government does not have any visibility of tribal affairs & crimes. We organize Adivasi Panchayat every 3 months for all 27 villages that we administer in this region and judge all the affairs along with criminal acts. Leaders of adivasi tribe pass the judgment and confine the culprits of our society. Our justice is profound and rigorous.”
Dundiya-Daa: “We live in exile and strive for basic necessities every day. In our society there are no defined rules and laws. We are distant from the clutches of local police. We don’t have any deity to worship but our culture believes in faith, we respect life and that probably is the reason why those who don’t respect it are severely punished...”
{Dundiya-Daa elaborates…Infants were baby girls slaughtered recklessly by their fathers and family members with heedless minds. All from the same family dumped the petite portions in their own backyard over a period of time. The family treated baby girls as burden and Jinx. The act was exposed when neighbors infiltrated in the backyard sensing the unholy act. They confined 3 out of 11 perpetrators, unfortunately rest fled beyond our reach…}
Dundiya-Daa (Continues): “Men were tormented, chocked to death and trussed for not respecting life.
We don’t believe in ritual killing, if need be, we sacrifice our own blood; all the ill-fated infant body parts were individually placed in a pot, besprent blood, indicated survival of life on a growing tree, they would continue to survive in our hearts…”

{Bhaleram knew tribal rituals were taboo but was astounded and taken aback}
Surya (Stupefied): “Why don’t you account such incidents to police, explaining them the gravity of the act would certainly…?”
Bhaleram (interrupts): “Tribal’s don’t utter a word to police, have abolished them. In the past, policemen themselves have created bordellos (house of prostitutes) in few of the adivasi villages. Some promised to marry the illiterate, under-aged woman and fled untraceable after the change in postings (reporting area), post bigamy…”
Dundiya-Daa: (Chewing his teeth with accelerated hate. Fouls them …)

Dundiya-Daa: (Continues) “Those men were cruel, barbarous and inhuman, so was the woman who seduced her husband’s, 14 years old, brother in law and committed adultery for years. She, believed to be pregnant with him, aborts the unborn intentionally and axes her husband while asleep, disposes him tactfully, seeks marriage with brother in law, who apparently confronts in front of those who’d beget him and succumbs to tyranny of a woman, exhausting his own life in the bargain…”
Women reciprocated inevitable heartlessness; we made her heart shallow…”
Surya: (pauses for brief, looks at Bhaleram, Stoned & Pale, he squints in one direction and submerges himself in glacier of thoughts…)

Dundiya-Daa (Continues) “We buried vicious women who swallowed life of her loving husband (Tirthank) who had distinctly transmitted the fact of infertility before they bonded ritually. Tirthank also quoted her to elope with his beloved friend and bear responsibility of the child. When she realized, after bigamy, it was her who’s barren, she accounted her husband to have transmitted the abnormality, and it was such a waste thought, though such situations are rare. She damaged Tirthank’s head to death while asleep and exhausted him to death burying him in the heart of our holy turf…”

Surya (is astonished by a storm, listening to the scandalizing reality of indiscreet tribal society!!! Still floatingly occupied in the world of thoughts…)

Bhaleram (Feels ill-fated for those bearing pain…)

Dundiya-Daa (Continues) “The old women (Janki-baa) had been requesting to perish her life for few years now. She was suffering & scuffling with pain in perpetuality…
Bhaleram (interrupts) “Ohh, I realize that, Vishnu had taken her in the city and they established ailing element of cancer that was few years ago, i think pain must have gone way beyond her threshold…”
Surya “May her soul rest in peace inside the shielded gates of heaven, away from pain and exile…”

Dundiya-Daa (continues…) “I realize it must be hard for you to absorb facts, especially ‘Bhaleram’, while being close to our society…We have been living in poverty and our only source of livelihood is Honey extraction wandering through dense forests, fishing & meals offered from landlords after working in their farms. We are hard working and skilled, in recent times we are struggling for basic survival due to intermittent draughts, even honey extraction involves lot of risk, and there is rare medical aid here both from existence & affordability perspective. Our women are skilled, the stack of women you sighted, tumbling inside the river, were the chosen few to perform a complex ritual that’s beyond my explicit capacity of annotation.
What you really need to imbibe though is a fact, that’s all of them existing (surviving) even today…

Surya “what about the girl in the river…?”
(Dundiya-Daa looks at Surya with captivating stare and walks away after uttering inaudible words in Bhaleram’s Auricle {Ear}. Surya alters unawareness. He is astonished why Dundiya-Daa left in haste. Bhaleram conveys to Surya about the unfortunate fact. The adivasi tribesmen have sighted her irregularly and her mystery is still unsolved. Bhaleram affirms to Surya that darkness absorbs things which are beyond explanation; they unfortunately sighted such an event. Surya literally beseeches for fact however decides to hide the truth with Rakhi)

Bhaleram reveals Surya, about him, falling unconscious 4 & half kilometers away from their native village, Rakhi had to halt her journey on the wicked road, after few hours of exhaustion, fear and strain, one of the villagers elevated him and guided Rakhi home in early morning hours


Surya is sitting along with Rakhi & Dundiya-Daa, all of them at the comfort of the chair, on a bright day, in Veranda, Smiling…
Dundiya-Daa (while cuddling Rakhi & Surya’s son and talking to him…)
“Son (Suryaraj), those who begotten you, have contributed immensely to the tribal society. Education & Medical aid has truly made a difference in our lives, our hope towards freedom and better life will continue to survive…”

*Post the Journey episode Surya & Rakhi had decided to stay-on in village, built local school, worked laboriously & innovatively to create development and awareness for adivasi Society…*

The End