The invisible wall

“I know these mean thieves. They have stolen the cabbage, tomatoes and trampled the poor radish plants. Snakes in disguise. What I have not done for these pigs. Let the lightening fall on this ungrateful family and turn everyone to grey ash...” spitting with all her might Sundari Pangi threw the sickle in her hand with all her might at the fence which separated her neighbour. The entire neighbourhood was enjoying the curses with sadistic feeling of witnessing the Patra and Pangi family turning into enemies, who were once upon a time , role model of an ideal neighbours.

“Pujariput”, the little village housed about 30 families, surrounded by green hills, rice fields, cashew nut shrubs, a little rivulet and plenty of tamarind and mango trees. Except the Misra family , all others were tribals who have been living for  generations together in this village . There was a little temple of the local goddess ‘ Thakurani’ on the hill and one had to climb nearly 50 steep steps to visit the deity. Pandit Misra went regularly to the temple to perform the Puja, climbing all those steps everyday twice was the secret of his strong and healthy body, in spite of eating all that ghee and sweets.  The rest of the villagers would usually pray at the foot hill and would visit  the temple only on special occasions or festivals.  

The Pangi and Patra family were the most well noted families of Pujariput. They owned all the tamarind trees, mango trees and most of the rice fields. Senior Pangi and senior Patra, were already in the heavenly abode and now the mantel of the family was in the hands of the wives, Sundari Pangi and Susheela Patra respectively. Sundari Pangi, was reasonably a tall, dark complexioned, sharp eyes , blunt nose and big forehead managed the house along with her two sons, two daughters-in-laws and 6 grandchildren. On the other hand, Susheela Patra had two sons, two daughters-in-law, four grand children and one unmarried daughter and in physical features appeared like the twin of Sundari. Many a times people misconstrued them to be biological sisters. 

The thatched roof houses were within the same compound , food was cooked on the common mud stove which was regularly plastered with red mud by the daughters-in-law and  Cooking started only after offering prayers either by Sundari or Susheela. The men left for fields and women did the house hold chores. 

Rupa Patra , the pampered daughter, played with her nephews and nieces with least care in the world. Besides playing, her job was to supervise the tamarind and mango trees , and when the fruits ripened, to warn any intruder with her catapult and her aim never missed the target.

 In the evening the families came together to relax under the night sky lighting a bon fire and sang traditional tribal songs. Their life was envy of the other villagers. The strong emotional bond was reflected in sharing everything like whatever was harvested in the fields, collecting and selling tamarind in the local market and with that money buying clothes for the women and children and helping each other in all situations. 

 Nature changes subtly but the nature of people is like a coin tossed in the air , nobody can predict whether it would be heads or tail. Every dawn, one is not sure the kind of surprise life would fling. Friends may turn enemies or vice versa. people say change is important but not at the cost of breaking a relationship or hurting a tender hearth. All this may sound philosophical but there cannot be smoke without fire.

After many years a guest visited the Pangi family. He was Tagru, Sundari’s cousin’s son , around twenty five years old , city bred , fashionable as per the village standards and impressed everyone with his stories and style. The Pangi family was happy to see Tagru and Patra family equally treated him with respect. The only exception was Rupa Patra , who hated him from day one, reasons not known. On the other hand Tagru was immensely attracted to her. He would look for the slightest opportunity to be with her. People like Tagru are like homeless birds , prefer to perch on any tree. He did not prefer to go to fields with the cousins but expressed his willingness to take care of the tamarind grove.  

Rupa Patra reluctantly agreed but warned Tagru to maintain distance. If she would be in the East section of the grove , he should be in the West. Their hatred and attraction was very well concealed in front of the family members, where both pretended to be cordial strangers. 

 One grey morning Tagru was hit hard by Rupa Patra . Tagru with a bleeding forehead, a sharp cut just above his right eye came to the house followed by Rupa who had no remorse whatsoever . What exactly transpired between these two youngsters know one knew but both the families supported their respective candidate. The Patras felt surely Tagru must have done something extreme to provoke the bovine Rupa. On the other hand the Pangis felt bad for causing injury to their guest. 

Sundari was furious. She shouted “ you nasty girl ! You could have almost blinded the poor fellow. What would I tell my cousin?” 

Susheela didn’t like Sundari shouting at her little one. In return she shouted at Tagru, “ you rascal! From day one I knew you are no gentleman and surely you must have misbehaved with my innocent daughter!”

 The entire neighbourhood gathered out of curiosity without knowing what had happened. Fakir, the tailor thought they might be fighting over tamarind rights. Misra Ji , the pandit thought it was the wrath of the goddess who made these people to quarrel with each other. Baku, the village headman was happy to see the families break and now he could buy the mango grove without the intervention of Sundari.

Sundari was quite aware about the lecherous activities of her guest but was in no mood to support Susheela. A crack appeared between the families, which often is an invisible warning which distances people in the name of land, nation or attitude. Countless nations have been separated by this invisible line. Now at the micro level , these two families were affected. 

 The first change one noticed was a separate mud stove appeared in the backyard. The boys from both the families built a bamboo fence in the middle thus separating both the houses and indirectly the hearts. Children were amply warned not to play with the other children. Sundari would mutter under her breath whenever she saw Susheela and on the other hand Susheela looked for every opportunity to insult the family .

 Two children of Patra family suffered from chickenpox, at the same time Pangi grandson broke his leg while coming back from the fields. Both the ladies blamed each other for all the problems. The village priest , Misra ji got the opportunity to perform prayers for the both the families to ward off the evil caused by the neighbour in return for fat dakshina or fee.

Alas! Everything changed for the two families. Just for one rascal -Tagru , who left the place after the incident. He was afraid that if the truth surfaced , these people would thrash him if they come to know that he was flirting with  kamli , the village headman Baku’s daughter. Thank god Rupa saw him but didn’t know who the woman was. When she insisted to know the truth, he refused to answer, so she used her catapult mercilessly on the flirt.

It was dawn, Sundari Pangi woke up and got ready to visit “ Thakurani” , the village goddess to pray to know why things worsened between the two families. She usually suffered from joint pains and often Susheela’s daughter -in-law gave her soothing massage but now no one bothered. She slowly moved towards the hill and started to climb the steep steps , in the half light and half dark path she saw one more figure trudging along and she wondered who that could be? After a great effort, when Sundari reached the little shrine, she saw that figure was none other than Susheela, her neighbour almost panting , and with folded hands and tears flowing , was loudly praying  to wipe away the misunderstanding between the families. 

Sundari realised that she and Susheela were like the old village banyan near the temple. Their role was to give shelter, spread their roots, keep their trunk strong and provide shade. Their love or growth should not be limited by invisible cracks of misunderstandings . Lines are meant to connect and not divide. She hugged Susheela from behind and silently both women stood with tears flowing as if to wash away all the past acrimony, misunderstandings and unhappiness.  

Holding each other’s hands both the ladies slowly walked down ,hardly speaking a word. Good friendship doesn’t require renewal, it’s a life time membership. Both women entered the compound and silently removed the bamboo barricade smiling at each other.