The Nomad-1

Kanwaali is an old rustic village, untouched by modernization, in the heart of Haryana. The village is surrounded by acres and acres of rich, fertile and cultivable land on all sides.

(pic by AK)

This land, owned by the richer section of the village, is ploughed and seasoned by the poorer section of the village. Clout comes with money, and the richer section has formulated traditions which benefit them. Over a period of time these traditions became unwritten but adhered laws. The women of the village still follow the pardah system. They keep their faces covered with “duppata” from each and every men of the village, save their husbands. They have their duties assigned. In the morning they cater to cattle, in the noon they cater to cooking, in the evening they again cater to cattle and cooking and in the nights they cater to their husbands. Swift black uncovered drains, resembling rivulets, carrying wastage water from households run by the sides of homes to join the main bigger drain outside the village. Mehar, an old man in his sixties, prevents these drains from clogging.

Mehar a childless man till now was on cloud nine these days. His wife was expecting after many unsuccessful years of unsuccessful trails. She was in the ninth month of her pregnancy. Besides Mehar but for different reasons, the whole village prayed the child to be a boy. Mehar wanted a boy to keep his lineage alive and to bring another helping hand to his meager income and the village prayed for a boy to find a replacement who would prevent their drains from clogging.

The second month of the year 1990 witnessed Mehar becoming a father. He named his child Vijay after the name Amitabh Bachann used to take in most of his films.Each and every child borne in Indian villages falls under one of the two categories. The first child is more out of curiosity when newly married couples are trying to fidget with their newly found amatory explorations; the second child and the trail that follows is on account of desire for a boy or the absence of Idea’s 3G in villages! India has a population of over 1.2 billion; let us give Abhisekh Bachann some credit. To be frank and tell you the truth, Indian’s don’t give birth to children- they mint them as Federal banks mint money and call them gifts from god. Even god must be amazed to hear this and would be retorting back with, “what did I do?” and I can vouch my life on the reaction and hard time the God’s wife (and in most cases wives) would be giving them. If Lord Shiva was on facebook his update messages would have been something similar to, “Sleeping empty stomach on the icy Kailash floor tonight. Sati refused to give me food after some x villager in y village called his son my gift!” The mockery of population is to such an extent that the government happened to pass a law about limiting children per family to two, and the chair person of the House had four children and one of the veteran member boasted of a complete football team.

Most of the families, I am not counting the ultra rich in the village, have enough means to decently educate one child, but insufficient means to insufficiently educate and feed their siblings. Mehar a drunkard by habit and a sweeper by profession neither had enough resources nor savings to bring up the boy with a fine education. The amount he earned per day was exactly to suffice his family two meals and hooch for himself at night. Was Vijay supposed to be flushed down the gutters as his father; be nothing more than a speck of dust that happens to gather after a storm and be wiped out clean by the first rain? Was he destined to do nothing but stay illiterate and sweep the drains of illiterate villagers, or had fate decided to unleash a mutiny? Only time will say!!!