Continuity

Continuity

“ Chal beti lachhmi”, Chamcham invoked the gods and threw the flat pebble towards the fifth square. It landed pat in the middle…Gods were always kind to Chamcham during a hopscotch game! The rest of us stood surrounding the design drawn in mud, impatiently awaiting our turns.   

We were a ragtag bunch of 8 – 10 year olds, barely dressed in bloomers and chemise. Most of us had escaped parental diktat on having a bath and sneaked out for a quick game. I had still not got a chance to play but there was no way I was going back home without one.

Suddenly a large drop of water fell on the mud, and then there were two more. We looked up. Of course there were no clouds. On those arid plains of North India, monsoon was still a month away.

“The witch spat on us”, said Ruby, the wise one. The eldest amongst us, she always carried a somber air about her.

The narrow alley where we were playing had three houses on one side and four on the other. But we all looked up towards only one…the largest house, not only in the alley but amongst all other houses in the neighbourhood.  

I was the odd one out amidst these girls. My contact with them and the village was limited to the yearly trips we made during summer vacations. But even I was aware of the evil that lurked in that house, more so since it was right next to mine.

A silence descended upon us. But only for a few seconds… Chamcham put her other leg down, picked up the stone and slinked away. That was the cue others were waiting for. The rest of us ran off in different directions. Who wanted to incur the wrath of a witch! Everyone knew that witch’s spit landing upon you meant  certain and painful death.

Panting heavily, I reached the doorstep of my Nana’s house and stopped a little to gather my breath. Once it became normal, I tried to look as calm as possible and entered the room humming a song to myself. No one was around. I quickly gathered my clothes and rushed for bath. It’s a different story that while bathing, I was too scared to close my eyes even while applying soap…what if the witch suddenly appeared and attacked me? I was only an eight year old after all, whereas she would naturally have super powers! With a frightened heart and red and painful eyes, I emerged from the hurried bath and gladly hugged ma who was passing by. If she was surprised by the cinch, she didn’t show it, and giving me a warm hug in return asked me join her for a late breakfast. The kitchen was filled with the warmth of people assembled there, and soon in that bonhomie, everything else was forgotten.

Last year when we had visited Nana here, I had caught her glimpse for the first time. Most of the other cousins were yet to arrive from their cities, and I was aimlessly walking on the roof terrace. There were these dance steps that I had seen someone do at a birthday party. So with no one around, I was freely expressing myself through singing and dancing. Suddenly, I heard someone cough badly, and looked up to see a slight movement in the window of the opposite house. That house was a mystery to me, primarily due to its size and the silence that permeated within. It was dusk and electrification in that village was meager, but I could make out the outline of a very old and shriveled woman in a white sari. Her head was covered but I could feel her eyes peering at me. She extended her hand out of the grilled window and beckoned to me. Out of embarrassment and fear, I froze, then turned around and ran down the steps, bumping into didi.

“How many times you have been told not run down the staircase? You know it’s not very sturdy”

Ignoring her admonishing, I blurted out my question,” Didi, who lives in that big house?”

“This big house next door?” Why? What happened?” Didi asked.

God…why couldn’t grown-ups give a simple answer? And how can a question be an answer to another question?

“I think I saw a very old woman at the window, and I have never seen her before. Now you tell me please”. I answered with as much patience as I could muster.

“You saw the old woman there? In white sari, right?”

I nodded my head.

“Be careful of her Uma, people say she is actually a witch. She has powers you know. Just by looking at someone, she can turn the person into a pig. Don’t you roam alone on the terrace now.”

“And how old is she didi?”

Didi laughed, “ Old, very old. But so what? Don’t you know witches never die?”

So we had a witch for a neighbor! But did witches cough? Could they also catch cold like us?

I turned around to ask didi but she was gone.

The abandoned hopscotch game had flagged my morale but a savoury breakfast had restored the spirits. Now I was once again prepared to take on the world. Off I went to my Nana and pestered him to take me along to the orchard that he was starting for. A part-time farmer, Nana also owned mango and litchi trees in the common village orchard. Trips to this place had always been the highlight of my visits to the village. A child’s delight, the trees there were easy to climb and fruits were almost touching the ground. Despite being worried about us children getting heat-stroke, Nana agreed to take three of us along. So there we went, four of us…one six-foot tall well built adult, one child sitting atop his shoulders and two holding his hands tight. From time to time, we would leave his hands and run along the road, but would always return quickly and grab his hands again.

The afternoon passed very quickly. Running amongst the trees and eating all the fruits that we could manage, we were totally fatigued when we returned home in the evening. I fell into a deep sleep almost immediately on reaching, and don’t even recall when I was shifted to the bedroom upstairs.

When I woke up, it was pitch dark in the room. Someone was sleeping next to me. I peered into didi’s face. She was deep asleep. And my throat felt parched. I could espy a pitcher in one corner. I walked gingerly towards it to ensure I didn’t end up banging into anything. Before I could lift the cover from its mouth, I heard a strange sound emanating from outside the room. I moved towards the window and looked out by drawing the curtain aside a little. There was candle-light in the opposite window, first time that I had seen it lit. And I could see the witch’s silhouette which seemed to be the source of the guttural sound. She also seemed to be thrashing her hands and legs. What’s up with her! Has she claimed a victim? I moved away from the window and looked at didi. She was still deep asleep. But if the witch managed to reach across into this room, how could a sleeping didi save me? I mustered whatever strength remained within me and ran down the stairs straight to the bed where ma was sleeping. Hugging her tight, I got inside the quilt and buried my head into her sweet-smelling hair. My throat remained parched, but somehow that didn’t matter so much now.

Years flew by. In the rush to grow up fast and achieve success as defined by the world, childhood memories were pushed to oblivion. Summer vacations started getting filled-up by hobby camps and tuition classes. There was no longer any space in life to fit-in a small village…it kept getting pushed aside till one day it fell off the map completely.

And then the scars appeared. The tearing hurry to scramble the ladder to triumph and glory had taken its toll. Both the heart and soul were bleeding by the constant pressure I had put upon myself to emerge as the best. The mind still said – ‘Don’t give up, battle on’. But the heart whimpered and cried for respite.

Feeling sick to the core, I had gone running to seek shelter from the one person who I knew was always on my side, to hell with rest of the world.

How do mothers get that infinite patience? Is there a deep well from which they draw more whenever they run out of it? At least mine definitely seemed to have discovered one such unbounded reserve.

Lying exhausted on the couch with my head on her lap, I was drifting off to sleep when she suddenly said, “ Uma, why don’t you break free from all this for some days and go to Nana’s house?”

I shook my head. After Nana had passed away years ago, I had avoided going back to that house. For me it did not exist without him.

“No no, listen to me. Neha mami is staying there for some days. She is there to settle some deal regarding the farming land. And you have always liked her. Let me speak with her tonight itself. She will also enjoy some company instead of staying there alone.”

Ma didn’t give me another change to negate her. Neha Mami was the wife of Ma’s younger brother, and a very vivacious woman…not exactly the kind of company I was looking forward to at this juncture, but then, why Not!

Two days there and I understood why people said you should not go back to the place of which you had fond memories…you were bound to be disappointed!

All the playmates of my childhood had been wedded outside the village. Even the boys had left for the arc lights of cities. Most of the inhabitants seemed to be the elderly and the few conscientious young men who had remained behind to tend to farms and the elders at home. At least the electricity situation was as bad as earlier days…thank God for some familiarity!

Going to the roof terrace in the evening, I scanned the horizon for familiar landmarks. And then suddenly, I was gripped with a curious feeling that I was being watched. I gave in to a childish impulse and rushed down immediately. Mami was working in the kitchen, hurrying to prepare dinner before it became too dark to see anything.

“Mami,” I asked,” Where is that witch? The one who used to live in the house next-door? Surely she can’t be alive now even after twenty years!”

Mami looked up. “What witch? Who are you referring to?”

Then, before I could answer, she said again,” Oh, that old granny? She passed away so many years back. You still remember her? And why call her a witch?” She smiled enquiringly.

“Because she was one, wasn’t she?” I blurted out old anecdotes to her.

Mami remained silent for some time. I sat down next to her and waited.

Then she spoke,” No child, she was no witch…just a lonely and harmless old woman who got into the way of many people.”

And as the dusk set in, out tumbled the tale of deceit and treachery.

The old woman had lost her husband at a very young age and was left to fend for herself with a young son in the tow. Family property had already been divided before his death but now with him gone, his brothers were eyeing the lands…a familiar story. But that’s where familiarity ended. Unlike the usual scenario, this woman fought back and garnered legal help through her parents. That kept the predators away for some time. But they waited for their chance, and grabbed it when they saw one. The son was now grown and newly wedded. However he remained weak in mind and one day when someone suggested to him that his mother was sidelining him in order to cut him off from his legacy, he readily bought that point. As a well-planned strategy, these relatives started cultivating his acquaintance and started inviting the couple over to their house. Over time, the young man returned the favour and started inviting them home, despite mother’s protests. His bride was even easier to work upon. Fiercely conscious of her rights as the bride of the house, she resented her mother-in-law’s control over the house and farms, and started rebelling openly.

Her boycott was complete. The ten year old grandson was not allowed to meet her, her meal times were spent eating alone, and for days no one at home would speak with her. But for the buzzards, this was just the first step. They moved in for the kill. One day when the mother and son were having a slanging match over son’s demand to get all the property transferred to him,   they reached the house and openly sided with the son. When the woman refused to back down, they forcibly lifted her and locked her inside the room on the terrace. The daughter-in-law summoned a doctor from the nearby town the next day. And this charlatan certified her as mad and incapable of taking any decision on her own. She screamed and kept screaming for hours altogether but no one was there for her. Some conscientious neighbours tried to intervene but were driven away by the louts who by now had settled themselves in the house. In a short time, all rights were conferred upon the son who shared the booty with the perpetrators. The old woman was shunted for good in a room with no separate lavatory arrangements. Once a day, the meal would be thrust into the room for her, along with a pitcher of water.

And it was in this room that I had seen her…sometimes just looking out, and at other times, crying out of frustration. Had she really lost her mind towards the end of the ordeal? Who knows, and who cared! Why was she calling me? What did she want to share? Or was it because she was missing her grandson and wanted the proximity of a child? I will never know. If only I had the courage to listen to her instead of running away…but this ‘if only’ is such a damning word! Dripping with regrets!

Mami was done with the kitchen chores. It was so stuffy within. Mami proposed that we go to the terrace for some fresh air, and I acquiesced.

The sun had set, but there was still enough of light. I went and stood near the edge of the roof trying to look into the room on the opposite house. Suddenly without any warning, a face came to the window…the ‘witch’s’ face! A face covered by white sari, a similar hooked nose, and the same way of peering into faces.

A small scream escaped me. Mami came over to my side immediately.

“What happened Uma? Are you fine?”

Unable to utter a single word, I just pointed towards that window.

Mami laughed, and I could trace a slight cruelty in that laughter.

“That, my dear, is the best part of the story. My tale isn’t done yet”.

And then she recounted to me the rest of it.

Yes, the old woman had died after spending seven lonely years in that room. With time, the grandson had grown. Proving to be a true son of his father, he had started demanding his rights the same way his father had. And taking this similarity even further, he had become cruel to his parents. Father escaped lightly and crossed over to the other side, being bitten by a poisonous krait while tending to the farms. But his mother had to suffer the same fate that she had ensured for another woman years earlier. The woman who had looked out at me today was this erstwhile daughter-in-law!

I looked spell-bound towards the window. There was no one there now, but there was no mistaking it. The faces were so similar to each other, forlorn and witch-like!

Didi was right…witches never die! One makes way for the other, and so it goes…