Usobha: Case 5
By JIRARA
© JIRARA, November/December 2020
Published by JIRARA on matrubharti.com
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, for any commercial purposes without the prior permission of the author and/or publisher.
Disclaimer: This is the work of fiction as far as all the characters, their names and the names of all the events are concerned and all these are imaginary and hence any resemblance to the persons (and their lives) dead or alive, and any places are coincidental. Even if a few events might look realistic/’real’, these are fictionalised and the associated names are changed in order to maintain their privacy, honour, and security. No intention whatsoever is meant to hurt any feelings of whosoever, irrespective of their personal/cultural beliefs, social or political inclinations, religion-orientations/practicing/philosophy, life styles, and work/business. The ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘me’, and ‘mine’ (if any used) do not necessarily mean the author of this book, and these and other such pronouns: her, hers, his, he, she, him, you, your, yours, ours, theirs…; are used for effective personification and dramatization, and the readers should not take these on their ‘own persons’. The readers should take these stories/verses/thoughts with/in good spirit. The presented ideas and material are based, where feasible, on readings and (thought-) analyses of scientific/other open literature (which seemed most profound and trustworthy), with as much care as possibly taken. The readers are requested to verify these notions on their own, and use their own discretion. However, these stories/verses/thoughts/ideas (mostly original) are expressed here with an intention of increasing awareness of the readers with a hope that in an overall sense, their (and ours) consciousness would be heightened (in all and multiple directions), so that we all can live our lives on this planet with true happiness, ever-lasting peace and real joy (irrespective of our orientations). The author and the publisher will not be responsible for any negative effects/situations arising as a result of reading these stories/verses and/or following the suggestions if any. No discussions/dispute of any kind will be entertained at any time and in any way, manner, and/or forum; because the dictum is that if you like(-d) you read, otherwise ignore, what is the point in making a fuss about it?; anyway you are independent to judge the messages in the stories and utilize for your benefits if found useful, since here the idea is in the direction of ‘consciousness raising’. JIRARA.
*****
Dedicated to the wives who died ‘dowry deaths’
And to their parents who then lived very difficult lives.
***
Usobha: Case 5
One fine morning when his parents woke up and called him, Usobha was not there, they searched for him all around, but was missing; it was ascertained that he had left the house and run away. Due to the prestige issue in the village and their community they did not make it as a big thing, and did not report to the police, of course for the latter they would have had to go to a nearby town, which they avoided due to various hassles, since they did not have even a photo of their son, and they even did not remember his birthdate/age, etc.
***
This adult boy spent few years roaming in various nearby towns, and begged for the food, and slept on footpaths, and sometimes in inns of some nearby cities, wherein he came in contact with some inmates with whom he started working as an assistant or a helper boy; these people were dealing with recycling of waste materials-products (of course not the usual garbage). Eventually, Usobha settled with a small shop where he used to buy off the house hold- and industrial waste-left out products as the second hand items, and used to also sell the same things to other customers who needed these for their use. So, in the process of a decade he opened a bigger shop for buying and selling the scrap materials: house hold things, and even broken iron/steel and wooden gadgets, windows, and so on. He became a sort of whole seller of such second hand products, that he would buy these things at a very less price, and sell at a higher price, and from these margins he made his life stable and made some profits.
***
So, after almost one decade of his struggle, when he thought he had settled, he visited his parents who were too happy to see him back in their home. The parents got him married hoping he would stay with them, but Usobha said he had to go back to the city, since he was doing very well in the scrap business, and he also invited his parents to his residence in the city of his work.
***
He went back to his home and business along with his wife, and even opened a new shop, while he continued to have scrap business, next to his house in the city, where from he sold building materials: cement, steel, sand and many more things, and made lot of money, and eventually was able to have his own apartment.
Then by one more decade’s time he got four daughters and one son, and he even trained all his children in the techniques of his trade of scrap and building materials, since for this business he needed more hands; thus in two decades after he had left his parental home, he had made tremendous progress: he had very good business, had his own three bed room apartment, and had trained his children in the same trade, and of course they were doing reasonably well in their studies also.
***
He got his first daughter married, who eventually, of course after some years, with her husband settled in the same city and the same area where Usobha’s house was located; in fact the couple also started running their own shop, and also occasionally helped Usobha in looking after his shops. Since, his first daughter was very happy in her marriage, he thought best to get his second daughter also married in the same village, but in the other family, and not in the same house hold of the first daughter.
Things seemed normal for initial two years for the second girl, but then something odd was brewing in her family; her in-laws started asking her to get more money from her father, to which the girl initially complied, so her father also. But, this demand continued for more years, and then the father realized that this was ‘dowry’ exploitation, and he started resisting the extra demands from her in-laws, who in turn started ill-treating the bride, and she started visiting her parents’ house very often; this in fact aggravated her situation in her husband’s house, and it so happened that her husband also stopped supporting his own wife, since he was too obedient to his parents, who wanted to expand their business at the cost of others.
***
One day there was a sudden call from the girl’s father-in-law to her father informing that his daughter had committed suicide, by burning her own self; which shocked her parents, sisters and brother. The life turned miserable, and the father got fainted; but all of them rushed to the girl’s husband’s village, and found that his dear daughter was almost charred in the fire in the kitchen. They took photographs, and returned to their own city of residence, and then decided to file a law suit against the husband and his father for being responsible of ‘killing’ the lovely and innocent daughter of Usobha.
While the case was going on for some years, concurrently the father, who was yet in deep shock, decided to get his third daughter married to some descent member of some mature family in another village. However, since the third daughter also was so much in shock, and panicky that she refused to get married; at least not so soon. However, father wanted to fulfil his duty; since he had still one more daughter and one son to be married off. Eventually, the third daughter agreed, but she was so scared that she might meet the same fate as met by her elder sister, even though the family might be different in a different village.
***
The third daughter also faced similar situation, but was very bold and courageous, so she survived, but finally quit her husband’s family, and came back to stay with her parents, who accepted her without any qualms, since the parents were happy that she saved her life. Eventually, she took official divorce from her husband; and her father renamed her as Lighty, since he considered her as a brave girl who brought some enlightenment in his family. After a few years and after lot of persuasion from the parents, Lighty agreed to marry again, but now to the man of her own choice and on her own terms and conditions, mainly regarding the dowry.
Still, Usobha had to get married two more children: the fourth daughter and one son. He got this daughter married to a family in a village much far away from the previous villages to where he had got his first three daughters married; ironically and of course fortunately the first daughter’s in-laws’ were very decent people, and that too they had allowed their son and the daughter-in-law (Usobah’s daughter) to live very near to her parents and also help them in their building material business. Now, all the daughters were married away, so only one son was left who also then got married and chose to stay with his parents, and helped in the chosen family business; Usobha’s family has some respite now that all their children were settled, except that his second daughter was no more, and that he continued to pursue the law suit against this second son-in-law and his father.
***
Usobha’s treasury was soon depleting, having spent lot of money in the marriages of all his children, and that their help in his business was also considerably reduced, since these children used to do lot of hard work and used to support his family, so that he did not have to spend lot of money to hire various services that might have been necessary to run the house-hold and the businesses in a fairly decent manner.
He was very much bent to fight the case in respect of his second daughter, and in the process spent lot money as fees to the lawyer/s, getting documents, attending the court proceedings, and getting witnesses (who would, by unwritten rule, extract good money from the proponents) and like. His situation was very precarious in the matter of getting witnesses because his own people were not there at the place (in the second daughter’s in-laws’ village) and at that time when the daughter was ‘burnt’; that was the village away from the city of Usobha’s home. And the opponent party was influential and they got all the witnesses who maintained the line of argument that the girl died of burns while the stove burst into the flames and fell on her, and she was in the kitchen (that would be in most old houses a small room with a few basic things and not more). Usobha was fed of these rhetoric arguments, and he maintained that his daughter was ‘burnt’ intentionally by the two men: the father-son (the husband of his daughter) duo; mainly because they wanted more and more dowry, and that the girl had visited Usobha on several previous occasions for getting money from her father, and then providing to the duo; and on one occasion when the girl argued strongly against this kind of exploitation with the duo and her mother-in-law, they got infuriated and had felt insulted and hence, they ‘punished’ his daughter with this kind of heinous and cruel treatment.
He fought the case for several years, and finally he drained out of the money as well as energy, and he was then convinced that he would not win and get any proper justice, so he decided to dodge and stopped attending the dates of hearings, and so on; and although he was advised to strike some compromise, and reconcile with the situation, he did not agree.
He finally stopped attending the court, and in the process of time the case got either ‘dissolved’ or ‘back-shelved’; and when once he was asked by his children as to what happened to the case, he replied saying he didn’t know anything about it.
In the process of time he accepted superficially his failure to provide justice to his beloved daughter, who he considered died a ‘dowry death’, but inwardly he lived a life of a father who was still fighting with his awkward situation, and trying to reconcile with his complex condition, and this plight was now accentuated with the death of his own wife due to her prolonged illness that was triggered by the untimely death of her second daughter.
Usobha could not withstand the psychological pressures (even though he had then got some success of his children having been settled) due to ‘lost’ court case, death of his wife, and depletion of finances. This started affecting his health adversely, in addition to he being already BP/DB patient, and he occasionally used to suffer vertigo symptoms, which added to the worries of his children, for some who were not staying with him and of course for the ones who were always staying with him.
***
He used to get wild dreams and in the middle of the night he would wake up and would be found talking to his second daughter (SD):
He: My dear lovely daughter, I am very sorry that I could not get justice to your sacrifice.
SD: Dad, please don’t worry, I am fine here, please take care of your health.
He: Yes, but I feel very guilty that I stopped pursuing the case, since I was not winning on any of my arguments and defence; the opponents argued that you died of the burns from the bursting stove that slipped from the counter and fell on you, is that true?
SD: It is only partially true, but the fact was that, since I vehemently argued in your support, and bluntly told them that from now on they would not get a single penny from my father, so then insulted by this they warned me that one day I would meet my end.
He: So, what happened then?
SD: Next morning they put the old kerosene stove in the kitchen and ordered me to use that for some days to spend away the kerosene that was lying unused and that it might get spoilt otherwise.
He: So, you started using it for cooking.
SD: Yes, I did, but told my husband that the stove was not good, and he should get it repaired, but he ignored my suggestion. And one day it burst and I got frightened and screamed that there is fire in the kitchen, and I am scared of it, so someone should come and help me.
He: Did anybody rush to help you?
SD: Yes, my father-in-law rushed, and immediately in haste and anger took some stick from behind the kitchen door, and pushed the burning stove from the platform on to the floor, and the stove landed straight on to me, and I soon caught the fire; and by that time he had left the kitchen.
He: Oh my darling daughter, what a gruesome thing to happen to you?, did anybody or your husband come to save you?
SD: I did not see anybody for a few seconds, and then I was not able to scream or even speak, and see anything, since the room was full of smoke, and I was in tremendous pain due to burns and heat, I was gasping for the breath.
He: That was cruel of them not to come to your rescue.
SD: I overhead the duo saying: the poor lady died due to her own fault, she did not know how to use the kerosene stove, and she should have run away from the kitchen soon as the stove burst.
He: Oh, what a dangerous situation, and why did you not run away?
SD: Dad, I tried but the door was latched from the outside, and I was convinced that the stove was intentionally thrown toward the direction I was standing in panic due to the fire; and I had overheard them say further: the poor, egoistic and over smart lady met her own end as predicted.
He: Terrible, really terrible and immoral act, what a pain and agony you suffered, I am really grieved and am not able to sleep properly since that incident happened to you.
SD: Dad, what happened has now by gone, you tried your best, now please take care of your own health.
There was some noise in his kitchen, and Usobha stopped lamenting, since his own daughter-in-law being an early riser had started working there for preparing the breakfast for the family. He then again slept for some time until there was a call for the breakfast.
***
Usobha continued to get similar dreams and was a-periodically found lamenting which was at times heard by the family members who could only decipher his part of the dialogues, but not the ones from the deceased daughter. Then, he would recall all the conversation very cleverly adding the ones (‘presumably’) uttered by his dead daughter; in fact these lines were his own fantasy and imagination, that assured him that he was one with his daughter and that he was in communion with her so that she did not feel lone and left out.
His family members were surprised but got reconciled soon with their father’s behaviour which unfortunately was deteriorating day by day, mainly because of his this kind of mental activity that sapped away lot of energy from him, and he used to have loss of sleep aslo.
And one day he lost control, and started shouting at them for some irregularities in handling the business that for life long he had managed so well, and earned the livelihood for the entire family. This became frequent and one day Usobha experienced severe vertigo, and fell down injuring himself, so, he was admitted to the nearby hospital by his son.
There in the hospital he was treated for vertigo, BP, and DB problems and in addition some psychiatric condition, and several clinical instruments and devices were connected to his body parts to monitor several vital parameters, and since he was covered/wrapped around with so many wires/cables that he resisted this and used to scream and yell at the nurses and the doctors saying that they had tied him and he did not like this, he felt that the people around him were keeping him captured in the hospital to get rid of him from the home; and he did not like this ‘jailing’ like thing/act at all. One fine early morning when the attending nurse visited his bed for helping him with his morning chores, she found that all the equipment were chiming and all the wires/cables were hanging, and Usobha was not found even in the room's toilet.
Usobha had felt that he was better and conscious so, he had woken up earlier that day and had detached and removed all those connections from his body and very quickly sort of had run away from the hospital and reached home. He then was not admitted to the hospital again and was regularly treated at home; and over a period of time and with a prolonged treatment he started gradually recovering.
His lamenting and murmuring had reduced drastically, only he used to recount and narrate the complete dialogue that he used to have with his second daughter to some important guests if they visited his house. He always insisted to them that his daughter had really talked with him on a number of occasions.
***
The sincere, hardworking, honest, and family loving, now lone father who had run away from his parental home some decades ago when he was just crossing his teenage phase to the adulthood, and grown out of begging, sleeping on footpaths and temporary shades, and dealing with scraps, and who in the process of time had carved out his own and his vast family’s livelihood, now lives with his son’s family, and yet in the ‘astral union’ with his lost daughter, for him there is no other solace and relief.
Usobha had missed attention, affection, care, and guidance from his parents during his transition phase since he had, for some yet unknown reasons, run away from them, and wandered as a vagabond in the lanes of several towns and cities, before he could get settled in one place and one business. Subsequently, he used to be in touch with his parents who were then on his side during his struggles with his ‘misplaced’ and ‘offending’ destiny. But, ultimately he had to bear the blunt of the occasionally derailing journey and its jerks; that is the way the bad times and ugly diversions, in the space-time world on this Earth, treat us the humans occasionally; but fortunately not always!
I am still not able to understand what was Usobha's fault?; in my analysis none; but why he was 'treated' like this and why he sufferrd the ordeals, is a mistery of his 'destiny' and 'karma'; these two aspects of our lives seem deepely connected, but not really undertood why and how these are connected, and I often doubt that such things really do exist; maybe his life's events were/are shear coincidences that are the effects and outcomes of the uncertainties of the life's 'drama'; or were/are the spikes of the tidal waves of the oceans of 'evolutionary' upheavals, that most of us have to experience in one or the other way in some measure, in some quantity and/or quality. Isn't is often said: The mysterious are the ways of the Master/s?
Though this had happened nearly sixty years ago, and since, I had seen the second daughter playing innocently in Usobha’s compound, I feel to say again: May her soul rest in peace.
*****
