Anil was totally serious in morning when he bragged to Misharwa that Kusum daughter of Gajju dhobi would be his by the evening and he was pucca sure she had touched his hand deliberately day before while returning the bundle of clothes of his uncle the Choudhary Batuknath Rai landlord of Risia in Deoria near Tarkulwa , now things stood totally demolished in evening he got the berating of his life by Dhoban after he tried to grabbing her from behind.
Choudhary had taken in Anil’s mother in his shelter as gratitude to Bhuiyan the low caste Lathait who fell in the field defending choudhary ambushed by his cousins fighting over land and did try to make up by giving little more respectability than could have usually earned, now he was a confused soul mixture of timidity of his natural blood and assertiveness of his surroundings, he never could look up to choudhary and his family and amongst his own he was a changed man, blending nontruths and halftruths he got reputation as a ‘Phenku’ life was spent in idling away the time amongst fields, orchards, canals. Illusions of grandness of landlords were there and same pride he got as if owner of the fiefdom.Batuknath was getting old and any type of bonding was never developed with the new masters whilst in his heart he was never ready for kinship of servants and masters, meanwhile the marriage happened early.
Choudhary had taken in Anil’s mother in his shelter as gratitude to Bhuiyan the low caste Lathait who fell in the field defending choudhary ambushed by his cousins fighting over land and did try to make up by giving little more respectability than could have usually earned, now he was a confused soul mixture of timidity of his natural blood and assertiveness of his surroundings, he never could look up to choudhary and his family and amongst his own he was a changed man, blending nontruths and halftruths he got reputation as a ‘Phenku’ life was spent in idling away the time amongst fields, orchards, canals. Illusions of grandness of landlords were there and same pride he got as if owner of the fiefdom.Batuknath was getting old and any type of bonding was never developed with the new masters whilst in his heart he was never ready for kinship of servants and masters, meanwhile the marriage happened early.
( Carefree existence of Anil painting by Ms Joshita Rawat)
It was day before Dushhera during 1997 and Ruby the famous Nautanki dancer of Muzzfarpur was holding shows in Tarkulwa, Anil had already bragged his closeness with Ruby to his listeners and promised everyone the show from the front bench. Passing off as nephew of Batuknath his entrouge was given the seating preference, Anil proudly sat in front bench as he looked back encouragingly for his group to come forward he was perplexed to see fear and confusion in their eyes and then Sky fell for him his new masters was sitting beside his chair red with anger they knew he would bow out immediately and then something overcame Anil, he stayed put!.... masters went out.
In the early dawn darkness with every bone aching from the beating given by in the night, two black eyes and the moustaches shaved off his face by the masters and with whatever small package his mother could gather for him Anil made way for bus to Gorakhpur, In the evening he boarded first moving train he saw, the ‘Kathgodam express’ he did not know where Haldwani was but self satisfied he could still recall the pride and awe on the face of his group after his masters went out he noted to himself to get back the moustaches soon after all he was a Rai!!, train was gathering speed and faraway through the train window he saw the flames and the burst of crackers..Ravana was burning.
It was day before Dushhera during 1997 and Ruby the famous Nautanki dancer of Muzzfarpur was holding shows in Tarkulwa, Anil had already bragged his closeness with Ruby to his listeners and promised everyone the show from the front bench. Passing off as nephew of Batuknath his entrouge was given the seating preference, Anil proudly sat in front bench as he looked back encouragingly for his group to come forward he was perplexed to see fear and confusion in their eyes and then Sky fell for him his new masters was sitting beside his chair red with anger they knew he would bow out immediately and then something overcame Anil, he stayed put!.... masters went out.
In the early dawn darkness with every bone aching from the beating given by in the night, two black eyes and the moustaches shaved off his face by the masters and with whatever small package his mother could gather for him Anil made way for bus to Gorakhpur, In the evening he boarded first moving train he saw, the ‘Kathgodam express’ he did not know where Haldwani was but self satisfied he could still recall the pride and awe on the face of his group after his masters went out he noted to himself to get back the moustaches soon after all he was a Rai!!, train was gathering speed and faraway through the train window he saw the flames and the burst of crackers..Ravana was burning.
(Purely a fiction any resemblence to persons living or dead is incidental)
6 comments:
Good action and pace in this one. I think this one is closest to my style of writing, so far. So, the introduction rounds are over? Now, is the real challenge.
every day is new and everytime like a soap new things are being added so twists can come anywhere, introductions too were not previsualised so let us see how things unfold, characters have ability to carry on life...sobeit.
tell you truth i am totally confused now....what happened to that chironji
Chironji lives or not but its a different space altogether.Chironji was father of Rakesh mehta.
Anil Rai is a different character.
good posts in ur blog.ur blog is very beautiful.
Haiku Poems
Thank you, we are trying!!
What's your blog.
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