NOBODY LIGHTS A CANDLE
Anjali Deshpande
21
By the time Adhirath made Chetilal go with him on his bike to Nachahtar’s farm it was dark. Lights began to wake up here and there. For a while birdcall reached such a crescendo it began to seem like a racket and then all was quiet. He heard the sound of hooves. “Neelgai,” said Chetilal. He could not see the animal but it felt like a walk in the forest. He thought he could ask Cheti to lend him his cot. Nachchatar lived on a farm with several rooms in a row that were rented out. He was now a small time labour contractor. He was the one who had got Chetilal the job on the Bindal farm and he sometimes advised him about work too.
Nachchatar confirmed whatever Cheti had told him. He was not prepared to say anything more although Adhirath asked him about the malik and their ways.
“They are nice people,” was all that he got out of him.
“Then why did you quit the job?”
“I am old now. Can’t work so hard,” he said and began to peer in the utensil on the stove and began to stir whatever was cooking with a long handled spoon.
Four five people had gathered around them to listen in. Some picked their teeth some nodded their heads sagely. They also began to add to the narration. Adhirath gathered that that day all of them had been here. Fires began to be lit in chulhas outside the doors of the rooms and the aroma of sautéing spices began to fill the air. If you roasted knuckle bones here, would the smell of burning hair hang in the air or would it be dispersed far and wide by the breeze? It would spread all over. People would start running to them with bowls for the soup. How peaceful it was. ‘Hutt,’ he heard a voice that sounded like ‘get lost’ in Hindi. He looked up startled.
“It is an owl,” Nachchatar said. “Lives here.”
The owl was right. This peace he knew now was only the absence of noise. There had been a murder here. There could be another. Adhirath began to make a move to leave. He peered outside the circle of light that the lamp in Nachahatar’s room threw. Even the twilight was over. It was dark despite the moon that was waning. Chetilal also got up with him.
“Go only by the main road, sahib,” Nachchatar said. “Sometimes you meet snakes on the kutcha road.”
“Arre, he has a motorcycle so he will take the main road only,” said Cheti.
“Tell me, why did you not tell the police all this?”
“They never asked, sahib. They only asked me when I had quit my job and what time Cheti came here that day. Even otherwise, why should we tell the police anything?”
When he dropped Cheti at the Bindal farm he did not feel like leaving the place at all. He switched off the engine and began to walk slowly with the bike by his side. At least some distance he could drag his bike. It would give him some more minutes in this peaceful place. Chetilal had shut the gate. The bolt was in, the lock in its place. The road was empty and quiet. If someone came here now who would notice? Who knows who came here that night? Had a car come someone would have seen the headlights.
All of a sudden he heard footsteps behind him like someone was chasing him. The blood froze in his feet. He could not move at all. Then he heard some sort of a faint whine like that children make when they are unable to decide whether to bawl or not. He got onto his bike in a hurry. The illusion of peace had been shattered. It would be best to run away. That is when he heard the call “sahib, sahib…”
He turned. It was Chetilal.
“What is it?” he asked harshly.
“That Parduman, he…”and his teeth began to chatter.
“Hurry up. Parduman, what?”
“I am going to Nachahtar’s. I will lay there.”
“I will throttle you now. Has Parduman done something that you are so frightened? There is something you know that you are not telling.”
Chetilal sat down on the road. Adhirath kick started his bike and sped up to the gate of the farm. The gate was open. He went in and looked around. A person could hide anywhere here. there were so many trees throwing so many shadows. Even at the back of the plot trees stood still like guards. He banged on the door of the house. It was closed from inside. There was no movement inside. When he got out Chetilal was standing in the middle of road shaking like a leaf in a strong wind.
“Now tell me. Has the driver come here for the first time that you are pissing in your pants?”
“He was standing here sahib, near the gate behind the tree. Why would he need to hide? I was about to go to my room having locked the place. I saw him. The car is not here. What is he doing here? What does this mean sahib?”
He got Cheti to sit pillion and drove him to Nachchatar’s room. When he turned to drive back he found Bharat’s scooter following him. He had to stop.
“Did you go to check with Nachchatar about the faram? Yes, it is fertile. They have water also. Lots of it and it is sweet,” said Bharat. “SO now you will check with your employer, will you? Get them here once, they will see it for themselves. That is when I will talk to the faramhouse people.”
Adhirath felt that he had guessed everything so there was hardly any need to hide anything from him now. Even otherwise, how can anyone hide anything in a village?
“I want to tell you something.”
“Hoon,” said Bharat.
“I am not looking for any land. I am a cop.”
“Aren’t you? I had guessed that very day. But you are doing no work. Looks like you are enjoying your friendship with me. Isn’t it true? Agree, don’t you?”
“It is very tough to get the villagers to tell you anything,” Adhirath said. “You say nothing remains hidden in a village. Here whoever I talk to claims that he knows nothing.”
“Silence can treat a hundred diseases,” Bharat said. “Now look at me. You bid me goodbye and did not leave. I left but I got to know where you went, who you talked to and what you talked about. Everything. In a village you can only survive if you keep your mouth shut. Suppose the pradhan is doing something. You see it. you have to pretend that you did not see anything. Everyone carries a needle and thread to stitch their lips shut. After all the panchayat is his. You agree, don’t you?”
“Then tell me, a woman was killed in the farmhouse, nobody went into the farmhouse. How did it happen?”
“A ghost may have done it,” said Bharat and began to giggle.
Adhirath kept quiet. Only a ghost could have done it. It was not his headache. Whoever did it, how did it matter to him? Now he had told this man too who he was. He wasn’t even drunk. Anyway how drunk can you get on two beers and that too after a nap. He had no excuse to justify such carelessness. Then he recalled how rested he had felt after such a long time. That is why he may have felt so generous, even grateful, to Bharat. He had begun to feel that the world is not such a bad place after all. Anyway, what was done could not be undone. He should leave now.
“Come, come tomorrow evening. You will get to talk to everyone. But don’t tell anyone about your being in the police. Nobody opens his mouth in front of the police, believe me.” What choice did Adhirath have but to agree? “You haven’t already told them have you? Does not matter even if you did. I will handle them all. Anything else?”
“I haven’t but you don’t go telling everyone. After all you are a villager, you will be on their side.”
“I am not from this village,” said Bharat.
Adhirath kept quiet.
“What are you thinking?” Bharat asked.
“I was thinking, there will be rabbit, and booze, if there were something else too…”
“Oh, you are a colourful man. What? Unluckily she has been killed or I would have checked,” Bharat said and began to laugh.
“You had asked her earlier? For someone else?”
“I don’t get involved in such things. But that pradhan, I have heard that he and the former sarpanch, both of them had had a dip. On the night of Holi. Sonu had gone to massage the pradhan and saw this big mark on his shoulder. As if someone had bitten him. There were scratch marks also. But the real information is this. That night they were both missing for quite sometime. When they returned they looked very calm and cool. You understand? As if some itch had left them. Everybody is talking. That the girl has left a mark of love on him. Love bite. You understand?”
Adhirath did. He got it, totally.
email: anjalides@gmail.com
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