It was nearly 4:00 PM when Tejas woke up. He felt fresh from the morning journey. To him this small nap was very essential. Village Headman was sitting in the courtyard reading something. His face was serious; it felt as if, he was someone different from the actual man.
Tejas came out to the courtyard rubbing his eyes; headman greeted him and asked him “So did you had good sleep?”
Tejas quickly replied to the question, “Oh Yes!!! Thanks”. Headman called his servant Ramu and said, “Hey Ramu!!! Get some tea for both of us and don’t forget the snacks.”
Ramu quickly ran inside the house and starts preparing, what was said. Tejas was surprised that, it’s been such a long time he is here and how come he has not seen any of the family members. He thought weather, he should ask the headman regarding his family or not. He was not sure how headman will react.
With the flow of curiosity, he gathered some courage and asked to the headman, “Sir, it’s been time I am here but I am not able to meet with any of your family members. They have gone somewhere?”
Headman raised his head from the book and looked to Tejas and smiled. He said “Oh yes!! They wanted to meet their grandparents, so they went there. ” avoiding the next obvious question he continued “I had to stay here because you were supposed to come and secondly there are some important works pending to be finished.”
Tejas was listening to this quietly and was wandering who all will be there in his family. Headman told him about is family, about his wife shanta and their 2 sons Shankar and Surya. Shankar was a year elder to Surya. Both of them finished their schooling from the village school and now concentrating on farming and other village activities. Tejas felt a urge of asking, why he didn’t send them for higher studies, but he confronted himself from doing this.
Finally Veera came running. Is face was pale because of the tiredness and it was evident that he was working the whole afternoon and didn’t got a chance to even lie down. He proudly said to all of them that the room Is cleaned and it ready to be accommodated. Headman and Tejas started walking towards the house. Veera has already shifted his luggage in afternoon only. They reached the house and found that the state of the house changed drastically, with everything cleaned.
He smiled to Veera and handed him a 20 rupees note. At first he refused to take anything, but when Tejas insisted he took the note and greeted him. His face glowed seeing the note and was also smiling out of joy. Tejas thought, In cities like Mumbai , happiness cannot be bought paying 100 rupees and see here people get so much happy after getting 20 rupees.
Villagers called Headman as “Sarpanch sahib” or “Malak”. Sarpanch Sahib requested Tejas for a small tour of the village. It was Saturday evening and so there were not many people in the village. Tejas agreed to the request and went out. Sarpanch sahib waved his hand to the lady who was sitting in the grocery shop just opposite to his house. She came out running and Tejas kept looking at her. Sarpanch introduced Tejas with Rekha. He said, “Rekha is a daughter of our school teacher, she teaches children mostly in the evenings and runs the shop in weekends”. Tejas was listening all these with lot of interest with his eyes struck on Rekha. Rekha was standing with her head bowed down and in the brief intervals, she looked at Tejas.
The village was more beautiful than expected and the planning of the houses constructed there was well planned. With every house in the vicinity, there was stretch of green fields adjacent to every house, which showed their ownership. The males of the village go for farming every morning and spend the whole day there. The irrigation facility was made intelligently which is a web of small canals had taken directly from the river.
Tejas was impressed to see the planning and rated it better from most of the other villages. Sarpanch showed him the village school and the market place. There was a temple constructed in the market place and he was told that people come here to worship here, every Wednesday. After completing the visit to all the important places and meeting with important people, they returned back to the same place. Sarpanch took him to show his farms, which was near to the river. The farms covered long stretch and there were people working for him, who did not have their own land.
Tejas found a small well digged in one stretch of the farm marking its boundary. Tejas was surprised to the well when there was such a planned irrigational facility. He was told that the well was digged much before they came up with this mechanism. Tejas found fascinating to stand there and looked to the river, flowing slowly giving a beautiful look of its majesty and grandness. There were few people there, enjoying the cold water to beat up the heat. His eyes went to the forest on the other side of the river. He looked at the Sarpanch and wanted to ask something to him. But Sarpanch’s face turned serious with a glimpse of fear, as if he remembered something horrifying and wanted to come out of it.
He turned to Tejas and said firmly, “Since you are in this village, let me tell you something very clear. No one is permitted to roam around this place after 8 in the night.” Tejas wanted to laugh out of it, but restrained to do so. He gave a surprising look to the Sarpanch and asked “Why?? What happened??”
Sarpanch’s face showed his angriness, as he doesn’t expect anyone to throw questions to him back. His tone and look was now more serious and with a harsh voice, he said, “You better mind your own business and whatever is told to you, just do it”
They quietly returned to Tejas’s house and Sarpanch called Rekha again. She came with a surprised look and asked Sarpanch, “What happened Sarpanch sahib?”. Sarpanch told Rekha, “Since he will be staying in the house alone, you need to take care of his food. But ensure that this happens before 8 PM.” Rekha understood the point and gave a nod to Sarpanch.
Sarpanch turned and started walking towards to his house, but suddenly he stopped and turned back. He called Tejas to the house and pointed to a window in the back side of the house. Pointing the window, he said in a deep harsh voice, “Never open this window in the night, especially after 8 PM”. He at once turned back and started to walk towards his house.
Tejas felt, Sarpanch wanted to say something more than just this, but he might be thinking that he is new to this village. Sarpanch might open up in some week’s time. Tejas carried town attitude and all these things, which he was listening, not only surprised him but also made him laugh.
Dinner was ready as expected before 8 PM and was delivered to his room. The food was good enough, which reminded Tejas about his family back in town. First he thought, it was much early to have dinner as the next day was Sunday and there is no hurry for him to sleep and wake up early. But he thought of the Sarpanch’s statements and took the meal. He had bought all the necessary groceries from the shop which included some eatables, which he might munch, whenever he felt bored or lonely.
He completed his dinner well in time, so that he can hand over the dishes back to Rekha.
Tejas thought “Now what??” there was no TV in the room for entertainment. He looked out from his front window and saw no one was there on the road. He thought, this might be because there are not many people in the village itself as it is a weekend. The room was hot and humid, he was feeling uncomfortable sitting in the room and with one window open, was not making much difference.
He checked his watch, it was ticking 9:00 PM. He opened is door and went out to get some fresh air. Outside the climate was better than, what was inside. He took a chair and kept it on the veranda outside the door. He thought, “Will it be safe, if I sleep here only, the weather is just fine to give me a nice sleep.”
He rolled his eyes around but didn’t see any one. He thought of the Sarpanch’s voice and entered inside the room half heartedly. The room was the same. He planned to open the other window. His hands stopped for a moment, but then he opened the window. The window took time to open as it was jammed, showing that no one has ever touched this window or opened. Cold breeze came just after the window was opened and hit on his face. He felt relieved and went to sleep.
He shifted his bed towards this window and prepared himself for a good sleep. He couldn’t sleep for some time, as this was a new place, but soon he went to a deep sleep. It was an hour or so, it jumped on his bed and started looking all around the place. His eyes were red of fear and his heart was beating fast. He looked outside the window; the river was flowing like the same nothing has changed. He leaned against the window to see outside, Sarpanch’s fields were clearly visible in the open moonlight and also the well.
It was quite a mesmerizing; he jerked his head and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He checked his watch; the time was 1:30 AM. He felt tired and went back to the bed, suddenly turning back he saw someone sitting on the edges of the well and looking towards him and within some time it disappeared. Confused Tejas thought, he might be seeing and feeling things because of his tiredness. He didn’t bother to think on this and went back to his bed.
“Sometimes unexpected seems to be too expected”..check out How Tejas cleared his doubts in my next post
No comments:
Post a Comment