Creation of a Family

Kurtha-a dress in some Asian countries

Kali- a term used in Nepal to address someone with a dark skin

(when someone had their period, she had to stay in the barn and was not allowed to make contact with anyone because she will be unholy until she bleeds)

(The event takes place in the 1950s)

"You don’t deserve to live. You carry misery and spread among the people around you." Uncle's words were harsh and cruel. He never liked Hari; his own nephew but to fulfil the last wish of his brother Hari was more of a burden of responsibility rather than a family. Hari never had a loving family that he longed for so the day Uncle Raj kicked Hari out of the house during a thundering rainstorm became the final straw for him. 

Hari made a destination to Kathmandu from all the way to Gorkha. He kept running throughout the night until his feelings got washed away by the rain. He stopped on a highway to catch a breath at nearly 7 in the morning when he saw a small boy selling fruits in a basket. Hari decided to take a rest beside him. A man looked at both of them and gave 5 rupees with pity in his eyes. 

The little boy glared at Hari and asked him to stay away. "Brother, please sit somewhere else. I earn money, I don’t beg like you."; the little boy spoke with a little fear. 

Hari stood up and ran towards the man landing him with a punch. 

"I think you dropped your money by mistake."; Hari put the money in the man’s pocket and turned towards the little boy. 

The boy was shivering with fear as Hari ran towards him and raised his hand as if he was about to slap him. The boy clutched his fist and closed his eyes with fear that he will be punched ruthlessly like the man a minute before. But Hari put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and smiled, "I am not a beggar either. I am Hari and I am 19. Yesterday I ran away from home so I look like this." 

"H-hi. I am Aaron. I am 8 and I sell fruits to earn my meal at home."

The little boy wanted to smile but was still a little afraid and forced a small cute smile on his face. Hari chuckled as he realised what he was thinking. Both of them sat beneath a banyan tree as the horses and vehicles passed by. 

"Can I ask you something? please do not answer if you are uncomfortable. Why did you run away?" 

"I think you already asked the question without me giving permission Aron."; Hari tilted his head back as he chuckled. 

"I am sorry"; Aron bowed down with a frown on his face. 

After a minute of silence, Hari replied, " My parents died in the flood when I was 6. My uncle blames me for all the mishaps in his life. Yesterday he kicked me out because the fox took away a good chicken that was about to be sold off. I wanted to free everyone from any future misfortunes so here I am beside you for now." 

The boy shed tears as he listened. Hari bent towards him to look at his face and chuckled. "It was not your fault so why are you crying? Even I am smiling right now. I don’t need your two minutes of pity."

"I am crying because I feel sorry for myself. I am not as strong as you are, big brother. I don’t even get any meal at home if I don’t earn 10 rupees a day and all I get is a one time meal. I wish I could travel with you big brother."

Aron cried as the snot was dripping from his nose travelling to his mouth. Hari stretched Aron’s worn-out shirt and cleaned his nose. 

Giving a long sigh Hari asked Aron, "I want you to come with me. I cannot promise a full-time meal for you but I won’t ask you for anything in return if I share it with you. Come with me, be my family." 

After a long minute of silence, Aron looked up to Hari and gave a small innocent smile and put his hand in front of Hari. 

"Promise me that you will never leave me or treat me like your slave. Promise me that we will be a family no matter what." 

Hari chuckled and pulled Aron’s cheek as he nodded his head. 

"Can you wait for me here for the night? You can have this one apple until then. I will come with a few stuff after dinner. Until then I have to sell a few for tonight's last visit to my family"; Aron spoke as he pulled an apple for a basket. He then ran towards the village to sell the remaining as Hari waited for him with an apple in his hand. 

As the night came, Aron entered his house with an empty basket. His parents were surprised and demanded the money. Aron looked down and closed his eyes as he knew he was going to be slapped hard. "Sorry dad, sorry mom but the fruits were stolen by the monkey and I could only retrieve this empty basket." 

Aron’s father clutched his fist as he punched Aron in his stomach. Aron rolled down on the ground with the pain that made him feel like dying. His mom was indifferent to the violence and said, "You should have been careful. You not only didn’t make money but even lost the precious fruits. You will be given only a bowl of lentil soup. That should last for 3 days and you won’t be sleeping here inside, take the stuff you need and go outside on the porch. 

Aron bowed down as he took a sheet, a few clothes, a sickle and a knife. When his parents asked him why he was taking the clothes and knife he lied to go to work early in the morning to earn for the losses he made. His father nodded and his 4 siblings and parents went towards the side of the kitchen to have dinner. As everyone was busy eating, he secretly put a note of him leaving the house and stole a pair of his older brother’s clothes. At midnight everyone was fast asleep so he took his chance and ran away to the highway with every stuff packed in the sheet. 

Aron shouted "Big brother" as he reached the highway. Aron jumped with fear as someone approached him from behind. Hari chuckled and asked, "Did you have any dinner by any chance?" 

Aron nodded and took out 30 rupees from inside his panty. He smiled and gave the money to Hari and said, "You can take this. We share this money now because we are a family. We can last for a week or so with this if used wisely. I am sorry I had to hide it there since my father could have checked my pockets. It’s dirty but we still have this."

Hari was shocked by the money in front of him and the trust Aron had in him. He felt like a father figure for the boy and his inner-self felt like a leader. Hari took the money as he tossed the apple to Aron and walked along the highway towards Kathmandu. 

It had been a month they were wandering the stoned path in Kathmandu’s small villages as they were doing all the dirty works like threatening someone for someone else or fetching the illegal kinds of stuff for their clients. They never had a permanent home and were the unpopular street thugs for the villagers.

One morning they entered a house to request a meal and offered to give money for the service. The mother in the family welcomed them but they were unaware of the dark background of the guests they entered. The mother of the family asked someone called "Kaali" to make a dining place on the porch and serve them a set of meals. As the girl named "Kaali" brought the meal and walked away Hari saw the blood drips following the path Kaali was heading to and immediately called the mother of the house to inform her that the girl was hurt. 

The mother saw the blood and dragged Kalli gripping her hair and threw her out of the house. "Go stay in the barn. How dare you walk here when you are clearly unholy to enter the house or even serve the guests? I cannot tolerate this. First I have to look after a dark-skinned girl in the house and on top of that you dare to make my home unholy." 

The mother was furious while Hari was confused with what was happening and Aron looked down with shame on his face. Hari whispered in Aron’s ear, "What is happening? Isn’t the wound supposed to be treated if she’s bleeding?"

Aron answered, "NO! This bleeding is a different kind of bleeding. They bleed from where they pee once every month and that period is considered to be unholy. They cannot stay in the house, touch anyone or visit the temple."

"If they bleed every month and it happens with everyone with a vagina then how can they be unholy. Weren’t they born that way to live? It sounds absurd to me."; Hari spoke with a rebellious look. 

"No, it’s the ritual. The society says that it’s unholy and even the Brahmins say so."; Aron replied. 

Hari chuckled as he spoke again, "So if we should do what those stupid Brahmins says then I shouldn’t be here with you. You are a low cast person and I shouldn’t be even touching you. But here we are as a family. Do you still believe that society is always right little brother?"

Aron mumbled "no" as he looked down at his meal. 

Hari called the mother of the house who was still busy cleaning the house filled with "unholy" blood. The mother was worried that she would be criticized for the event that just happened and prepared for the worst. 

"I am sorry. I will change the meal and you can come inside to have your meal."; the mother replied with a worried face. 

"What are you going to do with this meal if we have another set of the meal?"; Aron asked. 

"Of course throw it in the river. How can I serve this meal to anyone now when that wench served this meal while bleeding?" 

Hari smiled and took out the banana leaf from the bag made of the sheet they were carrying. He mixed everything and packed it using the leaves. 

He stood up and joined his hand as he spoke, "Thank you for the free meal. We would have paid for a holy meal but this meal cannot be of any price."; Hari stood up and left with no more words. Aron gave awkward smiles to the mother who had her face red as a tomato with anger and ran to catch up to Hari. 

"We will be moving to Tarai starting tonight. I found another family member for us. It's time to take in a new member"; Hari mysteriously smiled as they walked towards the open ground. 

Aron was curious but didn’t question him because of the first rule of the family; never doubt or question another’s decision. They decided to wait in the ground until midnight for another member of the family. As it struck midnight, the village was all fast asleep and Hari decided to fetch the new member while Aron waited for them.

Hari walked in the same path he walked in the morning and entered a barn. He knocked on the door and a woman answered with a question, "who are you? Please go away because I am not allowed to touch anyone. I am unholy." 

Hari then replied, "Do you remember a man and a kid you served this morning?"

Kaali replied from behind the closed door, "Please go away. I am sorry for serving you such a meal please spare my life." 

Hari laughed as Kaali was shivering with fear. Hari then replied, "I am sorry if I make you fear me. I am here to ask you a question, will you be my family? I have seen and heard enough and I can see that this is not a family for you. I cannot promise anything to you but one thing is for sure, you don’t have to stay in the barn when you bleed and you don’t need to be below anyone or serve anyone. You will be a family equal to everyone. So are you in?"

Minutes passed by but there was no answer from inside the barn. The door opened and Kaali saw Hari on the ground waiting for her.

She sat down beside him but maintained a clear distance to be noticed. "I am Hari. The boy I was with is Aron. We didn’t love the family we had nor did they ever loved us so we ran to form a family with different blood. I am 19 years old by the way." 

Kaali looked down as she spoke in a soft voice, "I am Sonya. That woman was my stepmother. I don’t like being called kali because they have hatred for my skin complexion in that name. For my age, it’s 16." 

Hari was always a charmer and somehow his charms and innocent looks pulled Sonya into the family. 

Hari then said, "I will be waiting for you on the ground near the shop. If you want to be a part of my family come there in an hour, we will be waiting until then." 

Hari walked out and turned back, "oh, and for your skin complexion don’t be sad because it’s dark, you are capable to break people’s hearts with that beauty. As for me, I don’t see any difference in skin colour." 

Hari’s word bewitched Sonya and she decided to follow him without any doubt. But before that, she decided to gather a few stuff from the house. Sonya took her sickle from the barn and walked to the house. She knocked at the door and the evil woman; her stepmother opened the door half asleep. When she saw Sonya she was about to shout but Sonya covered her mouth and pushed her back with all her strength until her stepmother was slammed to the wall. Sonya used her sickle to slash the throat of the woman she always despised. She was still not sure that her mother died so she continued attacking her mother until the head was separated from the body and it felt like she was sacrificing the goat for good fortune.

Sonya’s face was covered with blood. Her white kurtha was now drenched with red warm blood. After processing what just happened in her head, she was scared of the dead body and a head rolling over to the kitchen but a part of her was satisfied with the blood bath in the home. She used up all the water stored in the kitchen to wash and didn’t even bother to go anywhere else. She opened up the large box of clothes and packed little clothes, a knife, a sickle and a note of hundred rupees that was advanced payment for buying Sonya. 

Sonya closed the door and ran to the ground. Aron was happy and amused to see Sonya coming to join them. On the other side, Hari smirked and whispered, "I chose the right person I hope."

Sonya was scared and pleaded to run away at the moment because she didn’t want to be seen in the village anymore. They headed to a path that was unknown with a destination to Terai. It took them days to travel to Terai and years went by with them travelling without a permanent home. The family that Hari created increased with new family members within those years: Maya, Krishna, Mira, Meena and Ved. 

As the family increased they started building their own house of woods in the middle of the jungle. The family that Hari created was a beautiful combination of all castes, colours and strangers. There was no relation between them to each other. A complete group of strangers had their future built together despite any past they had hidden from one another. Hari, the father figure for all created heaven for murderers to buglers to innocent abused children. 

As the construction of the house finished they had a huge feast while sitting in a circle laughing and joking. Hari looked at everyone as he gave a toast with a glass of alcohol, "Today here we are as a family. You might not know anything about each other’s past and might be wary of each other…" he looked at Sonya and Ved with a pause. Again, he continued, "But worry not my family, I know every deed you did. I am not that stupid to take in anyone in the family.

We might have done things we regret but the pain we suffered are the same." 

Everyone looked at each other and gave an awkward smile as if they didn’t understand the words of Hari but everyone had a secret. Everyone had their own guilt and dirty deeds. But this was a family of the present with the hidden past so all of them made a toast to the bond of the family. Freedom, bond and trust was more than anything in the family but nevertheless, none of them was aware that the father figure they praised had become the master of manipulation within those years of creating a family. 

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Monica Monica

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