39
THE INCIDENT
[When the evil man who poses as kings begin to feed on human beings and try to destroy the righteous, banes the knowledge to the poor people Lord Kalki, as the man of people, will destroy this evil man with his weapons.]
That night Krupa reaches my hut in the dark hours after the dawn when even ghosts take their rest. I’m reading a book about machinery.
She smells of fish, dust, and foodstuff. She smells of the sweat.
She is tired. She is feared. She is exhausted. Her clothes are shocking wet in sweat and his face is covered with dust and perspiration.
He knocks my hut door restlessly. I hide the book under cot mattress and open the door to see her standing outside the door. She is trembling to her toes. She is twelve, a thin girl with blonde hair and a beautiful face. Her face is round but this time her big beautiful eyes have fear inside her pupils.
“What on the earth are you doing here?” I ask as my eyes observe her. She is barefoot too.
Cold semi-desert wind I running in the night.
“I’m…h...e…r…e…” she has no courage to answer.
What on the earth has happened? I think as I know she trusts me enough to answer.
“Why are you stammering?” I ask, “You should be with your Ma, with Daxa, with your family, safe in your hut.”
“My hut isn’t safe.” This time she gathers the courage to answer.
My hut isn’t safe. – The word rings in my mind. I know what it means. I know when a hut in the wall is not safe.
Oh! No. god! Tonight can’t be that night.
“Is there raid on your hut?” my voice is shattering.
The thought of raid is spinning in my head. In the wall, we have hardly any raid but when it is it is horrible.
I’ve seen a raid when I was ten. It was in a hut two huts away from us. It was in uncle Ratan’s hut.
That night a troop of fearless was inside the wall, not in the station but in the streets. That night was different. That night was a curfew in the wall. A fearless troop of ten soldiers was riding on motorcycles in our streets. All had helmets on their heads so we hadn’t seen their faces. No one dared to go out that night.
When the troop raid on Ratan’s hut the sound of shouts had jolts us awake. My parents had a cat’s sense of sounds. My mother had lit the lantern and we have peeped from a hole in our hut, eavesdropping what and watching what was happening in uncle Ratan’s hut.
The sight outside was horrible. The fearless troop had dragged uncle Ratan, his wife, and their two children out of the hut and all the four souls were on their knees. Their hands tied behind their back.
My mother pressed me to her body, my chin resting on her chest. She gave me a smile – mother’s sweet smile – the one she gives me if I wake from a nightmare or we run out of food. Everything will be fine, the smile says.
But that night was different. I knew anything won’t be right.
One of the fearless had a book in his hand, “the rebel.” He read the title and looked at uncle Ratan, “from where did you get the book?”
“I found it when I was roaming around the station,” Ratan answered.
“Books can’t be found in streets,” the fearless said, “and not this one. This is even banned beyond the wall.”
“I’ve found it.” Uncle Ratan had the same answer.
“Listen, Sunya.” Fearless said, “I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want to hear your excuses. What you have is dangerous. You should have this.”
“What is this?” uncle Ratan asked.
“It’s a book about rebel against the god,” Fearless said, “and you know it?”
“I don’t know,” uncle Ratan pleaded, “I’ve just found it and wondered what this is. The only mistake I’ve done is picking up that cursed stuff.”
“You are lying,” the fearless said, “for whom are you working for?” Are you working for the resistant?”
Uncle Ratan was silent but I saw the answer in his eyes in the lights of fearless motorcycles.
“You’re a traitor to the god,” fearless shouted, “You are siding with the resistant. You’ve stolen the book from beyond the wall. You’ve tried to learn from them and then taught your people to rebel.” He pauses a while, “and you know the PATNAGAR raids, jails and kills for such crimes.”
“I know but I’ve not done any crime.” Uncle Ratan was firm, “I’ve just mistakenly picked up something which I shouldn’t.”
“What have you done are a betrayal,” fearless shouted again, “I’m asking you for last time – do you work for resistant?”
“No,” the answer was.
Fearless didn’t say anything. He went near uncle Ratan’s wife and put his long knife on her throat.
“Shall I split her beautiful neck?” he looks at uncle Ratan.
“Now I’ll ask only a few questions and with each wrong answer each member of your family will die.” Fearless said, “How did you get this banned book? How did you sneak in banned books library when you were beyond the wall?”
“My answer is the same.” As uncle Ratan said the fearless pressed the knife deep into the soft neck of Ratan’s wife and the blood oozed from her neck. As the fearless release her she fell to the ground.
“Can you read?” the fearless went to Ratan uncle’s son Suraj and asked, “and if you can’t then how do you know this is the book of rebels?”
“I said I’ve just found it and I don’t know anything else,” Ratan said.
I surprised to see how uncle Ratan could remain calm. I knew he was a teacher and the book in his hut was stolen from beyond the wall but he hadn’t stolen it. But the strange thing was even the death of his family couldn’t break him. He wasn’t revealing about the thieves.
“You are prepared for this,” the fearless said and the knife in his hand moved so swiftly that I didn’t understand what he had done. Not until Suraj fell to the ground with a loud scream.
The fearless had gutted him, stabbing a knife in his stomach.
“The last member and the last question?” the fearless said but before it, Suraj’s brother Manan leaped towards him. While fearless was busy talking with his father and killing his brother Manan had loosened the knot of yarn at his hand and his hands were free when he leaped. He clutched the throat of the fearless. I saw rage of a lion in his eyes but it wasn’t enough against a fearless warrior.
The fearless knocked him to the ground in a split second and was on him, raining down blows.
“Please stop this,” uncle Ratan cried, “he’s just a boy.”
“You have brought this to your family,” The fearless shouted back at him, “you made treachery and now the consequences are in front of your eyes.”
I was in my hut, watching everything from a hole. I wanted to help them but I knew I can’t save them. A voice was crying in my head – help them, move.
Another was in my mind said – don’t do any stupid or your family will be killed the same way.
The second voice was more insistent, more powerful and I found myself following it.
“Are you telling the truth or not?” the fearless asked, pinning Manan on the ground with one of his knees and looking at uncle Ratan.
“I’ve told the truth.” As the word fell out of Ratan’s mouth I saw the hand of the fearless flashed once, leaving a thin red line across Manan’s throat, a line that grew wider and redder in a second. Manan died, without a death cry.
“Bind him and get him into an interrogation beyond the wall,” the fearless said, standing up from the ground. He brushed his clothes, dust scattered everywhere.
Other fearless forced uncle Ratan on his feet and drags him to their motorcycles.
The last thing I can remember of that night is the screams of uncle Ratan slicing right through the air. I still hear them, sometimes like a nightmare and sometimes as a testimony of my cowardliness. I know I’ll hear his cries until I’m dead. He was my first teacher. After his death, Jagmal is my teacher.
“There is no raid on our hut Samrat Bhaiya,” Krupa says. Her voice jolts me from my thought and I find her pulling my hand.
“Thank god!” I mumble.
“What has happened to you I’m trying to get you back?” she says, “I’m pulling your hand but you weren’t responding.”
“Nothing,” I say, exhaling with relaxation. If there is no raid then everything is okay, “what happened?”
“Uncle Bhadra and other sweepers have attached my hut and they have kidnapped Daxa.” Krupa is trembling while speaking.
“What?” I say, unable to understand why Bhdra would kidnap her. Bhadra is one of us. He is a Sunya.
“Why they kidnap her?” I ask.
“I don’t know but they were saying that Daxa is a rebel and they will punish her.” her voice in terror, “they will punish all the rebels who are getting trained by the fearless troop inside the wall.”
“Oh my god. My fool people,” I say to myself.
“Samrat Bhaiya,” Krupa says, “Please save my sister.”
“I’ll. Nothing will happen to her. Go to your hut and tell your mother nothing will happen to her. I’m going to get her back.”
“Where?” she asks.
“I know where they would have taken her.” I say, “I’ll go there with my friends and we’ll save her. You don’t worry. Go home your mother is alone.”
As Krupa goes I turn back to see my parents eavesdropping us.
“We have heard?” my father says, “I’m coming with you. If Bhadra has kidnapped her you need more people.”
I don’t answer him but my eyes say – let’s go then.
I throw bow and quiver on my shoulder and take a sword in my hand. My father takes our old hunting bow. We run to my teacher’s hut where we can find Tarun and Teena. We need fearless to get Daxa back.
The last thing I see at my hut is my mother standing at the threshold, her eyes wide in worry.
***
to be continue...
