Beyond The Water
(Translation of Hindi Novel - Jal Tu Jalal Tu)
(16)
But when they returned, their activities gained momentum. Perina and Della sensed that Kinjan was not only avoiding either. They planned the programmed in such a way that Kinjan could stay out of their company conveniently. Sometimes during conversation between Mr. Ho and Kinjan, the atmosphere grew tense.
And then one day what Della said was no less than an explosion.
She informed that from Mr. Ho’s country a group has already arrived that would cross America’s sorld famous Niagra Falls in a special boat.
The information thrilled everyone in the house with a new excitement except Kinjan who felt he had been hit by a thunderbolt out of the blue. He was not just dispirited but felt an inferno burn uncontrollably in his heart.
He started behaving in a abnormal way.
It was only Perina who could understand his feelings to some extent. But even she did not know how much the agony, the desperation of failing in his mission was brooding in his heart. He had not forgotten his dream even after a lapse of so many years.
On the other hand Della was quite unaware of what was going on in her father’s mind. How could she know that her father had monopolized his dream to the extent that he could not bear in to be fulfilled by someone else thought two generation had passed in between!
As Della knew nothing about it all she thought if she told him about the adventurous feat of her guests it would make his mind stable. Her father himself had been a soldior a player appreciate this dare devil effort and would help the members of the group by cheering them up. It was difficult to understand why he was not interested in their errand!
She was perplexed and was constantly thinking how she could make her father feel happy!
“Daddy how could you behave in such a childish way?” Della stepped into the room of the Nursing Home scolding her father as if he was a little naughty kid. There he sat on the bed with a childlike innocent expression on his face. His hand had a bandage round the wrist as he had cut a vein with a blade in annoyance during some discussion. Perina was rear lay, others had gone out, so she informed she saw blood oozing out profusely from the cut.
Soon the news got around, Sona, Silva and Yuvan rushed to the Nursing home. Everyone was surprised, was it an accident or…? Actually what went wrong that Kinjan and Perina had such a heated discussion? Had it happened ever before, Della asked her daughters who themselves were shocked with their starting incident and could tell nothing.
Soon, the three youngsters left. Perina told Della Kinjan wasn’t at all happy with this mission of crossing the Niagras, in fact he is not even able to tolerate it. He has even expressed his intention of leaving the home and go somewhere if they did not give this mission. He wanted to send back the Chinese guests immediately to their country.
For Della al this was no less than a bombardment. What had she thought and what was happening now! She burst into tears with uncontrollable sobs.
Kinjan turned his face towards the wall and was lying very quietly. Della targeted her mother and said she had always seen her father dejected and desperate since she grew up because he could not fulfill his dream. Wherever she lived, the thought was like a thorn in flesh that since his failure in his mission.
Her father had never been happy. She kept awake night after night how she could help him, fulfill his dream. It is said that if children achieve what their parents couldn’t, if they accomplish work that the parents had left in the middle, the parents are filled with pride, but here the things were just opposite. She started crying again.
The noise reached out of the room, a nurse entered and tried to soothe Della. Perina was also sobbing. As soon as the nurse left, Della again blurted out. “When I came to knew that persons I am working with can be helpful in successfully completing the mission that Daddy had always dreamed of achieving. I compelled wooden to work with them though he did not like it much. I made all the preparation without letting a soul know about it, thinking that when I broke the news Daddy would be so thrilled, so happy. I didn’t know that a daughter had no such right…” neither Della’s tears stopped nor voice, as if a full flowing stream found its course through her eyes.
The atmosphere of the house was gloomy. Della felt she was at a loss of words, what to tell her guests, how to them from going back. She herself had been so insistent, said that it was her life’s mission, now how could she back out? What would her guest think. is this how American obsession is pursued?
Although Kinjan had bluntly said what was there in his mind but he was an experienced aged person and was worried lest Della should feel ill at ease among her friends. She was irresolute and in a dilemma. It was absolutely essential to convince her and let her come out of this perplexity.
One night when everyone was fast asleep, he called Della and very intimately tried to make her understand that there was no jealousy or ill intention in what he suggested, but actually here America’s honors was at stake why should a group of foreigners succeed in a mission that had been a dream project for so many people of this country?
“But Daddy the point is, that it is not the question of a particular country’s success, it is a feat that is going to mark human victory over nature. Is it really important where a person was born or was brought up?” It was indeed a fundamental wuestion. Then she added, “You only told me that my Granny was born in India, later she shifted to Arbia, then was married in Somalia and finally came to America. It that case which country would get credit if she achieved something? And then in all Countries, individuals have different sort of mentality. An act by a fellow country man can be a source of pride or shame for people of the country as the case may be. Nationality is not ultimate, it is humanity.”
How soon children grow up and become mentally mature, Kinjan was thinking. And yet his heart revolted, he never wanted a group of handful of Chinese to achieve success in this particular mission. The whole credit will go to Chinese people Della would have no share in it because after all she was just an employee who had accompanied them to America.
They kept on discussing the matter till late hours. Both were adamant, inflexible.
But just as we caress a bird, stroke its self fathers lovingly but in return it retaliates and attacks us with its pointed beak, things happened the same way the next morning when Della Did exactly the same thing and hurt Kinjan.
She announced she was going to accompany her friends on this adventurous trip.
It was impossible that so much conflict in views was going on in the house and that too with hearted discussions and the guests would not get an inkling of it. When disagreement and antagonism are in air, they are like pointed arrows, so Mr. Ho, Chum and Yuvan guessed something was very wrong somewhere in their host’s house.
When Della entered their room she found they were planning to shift a hotel. They were talking in soft tone but the atmosphere looked rather heavy. To wake it light and to convince the guests that all was right she told them confidingly not to worry and planned a picnic to change everybody’s mood.
They decided they would take a steamer or a small ship and go for a long adventurous journey going by taking their ship against the current in river Hudson. It was quite challenging and they started the preparations.
The most bewildering thing that happened next day was that Kinjan Became very adamant and did not allow Sona and Silva to go with them. Even the girls were at a loss to understand why he was so determined, so incident that he would not permit them to join the company of others at any cost. No one had asked Kinjan to accompany them because both perina and Della very well knew Kinjan did not like the company of his guests nor the guests wonld be comfortable in his presence.
Della had already set ablaze a fire by her announcement of continuing her mission and now Perina had fanned the fire by declaring that she too would go with them. Kinjan felt ignored and neglected but none had thought he would retaliate in a childish way by not letting Sona and Silva go. Yuvan was disheartened too but the atmosphere was already charged with menace, hence realizing the delicacy of occasion he couldn’t say he too didn’t want to go so he kept mum. Youth has its own caste therefore Yuvan felt he was very close to Sona and Silva.
Della once ordered Sona and Silva to go with disregarding Kinjan’s wish. She thought Kinjan would leave his childish obstinacy and would forget his anger to just for her sake. Girls themselves were feeling insulted. Why should someone else take decision for them? But they had realized how enraged Kinjan was, besides, they did not want to create a scene before the guests but their mother seemed least bothered about it all.
Many people were gathered around the bank of river Hudson and this isolated place was crowded at the moment and buzzing with activity. No one was allowed to go near the spot as police cars had surrounded the bank. No body had been found till now but the team of divers was trying its best.
No sign of the small ship that was sailing against the flow of the current was visible. For the police authorities the case seemed complicated because without some human error it was just not possible. The spectators were spectulating that it looked like some sailing mission because the adventurous feat of the members and the speed of the sail was drawing everyone’s attention. They guessed the number of the members was about half a dozen and a few were women.
After toiling hard for about two and a half hours, the first dead body the divers pulled out of the fast current was that of an aged Chinese. Now there was definitely a possibility of recovering more bodies. Identification of the bodies of other members of the mission would not be difficult now.
The police easily traced out the spot from where the ship had been hired and easily came to know that the unfortunate trio were guests of Kinjan who were staying at his home as guests. Perina and Della who accompanied them with adventurous spirit lost their lives too.
When the news reached home it was like a pandemonium as if all hell had broken loose. Crying uncontrollably Sona and Silwa rushed out and yet they were constantly aware of the fact that in spile of their pleading, Kinjan had not allowed them to go. Collecting all the strength that this gifted life had. They reached the spot.
Clad in while clothes and standing quietly in the Church campus, the scene at the bank of river where accident had taken place flashed constantly in front of their eyes. Yet one question that constantly pricked them was. Why Kinjan was all the time avoiding the police in fact trying his best to keep away from them. Not only that, the employees of the company from where the ship had been taken doubted that something was wrong somewhere and it couldn’t be a natural accident. But none was there to prove what was right or what was wrong. ‘Failure of machinery’ was what they called it and some people lost their lives in the flowing water. The fast current went on flowing, humming ‘forget the past’ God knows how far. What is left is the world. And thus continued its journey….
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