eFiction India eFiction India Vol.02 Issue.09 | Page 62

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STORIES

bus keeps on standing like a dumb king.
The driver, cleaner, and conductor of the
bus let every passenger off the bus, one by
one, and then they lock the bus and disappear. Eating and drinking comes to end.
Going to the toilet is over. Roaming around
also comes to a stop. Still the door of the
bus does not open. The passengers roam
around the bus like flies because there is
no place to sit. Legs start hurting. Bodies
are in pain. Still, the bus stands still like a
lifeless statue.
On that occasion, all the mischief of the children has come to an end; the eating, drinking, and buying of magazines. Nothing is
left to do. They roam around like flies as an
old man appears. I don’t remember who the
aged beggar turns to first. I don’t remember
who among them nods his head and says
“no.” The aged beggar does not leave their
side. Aravind moves slightly and everyone
follows, even the old man.

touches Aravind.
At that moment, Aravind screams, “Get lost
you scoundrel” and lifts his leg as if he wants
to kick the old man. Instead of being afraid
of the ferocious look of Aravind, everyone
is full of shame thinking, perhaps, all the
people present at the bus stand have come
to know of his meanness. First the son slips
away to a distance; the daughter follows
him. The old man, who is in the verge of
crying, challenges Aravind, “Want to hit
me? All right, hit me, hit me.”
Aravind does not repent for his actions.
Parijat is also embarrassed and wants to
leave. “Disgusting” spews out from her
mouth.
Aravind asks her with concern, “What happened?” Parijat does not answer. The look
in her eyes expresses her hatred.

Aravind says in a loud voice, “Go away from
here.”

Part V

The old man does not go.

FTER SCIENCE HAS solved
every mystery as simple child’s
play, questions still remain like:
why do the raindrops drizzle from the sky?
Why do waves beat every moment? Why
do countless sperms run down through
dark alleys?

The son says, “Papa, please give to him.”
Aravind does not put his hand into his
pocket. Parijat does not open her purse.
The old man’s thin hand keeps on pointing towards them like a stubborn child as
if it would create a hole in their world comprising of four lives. Aravind is irritated.
He now angrily shouts, “Can’t you hear? I
told you get out of here. Get lost.” Aravind
moves further ahead. Everyone followed
him, even the old man.
The old man appears very sick. His hair is
curly and looks like jute. His legs are black
with blood vessels protruding. His eyes look
as if they belong to a dead fish. His feet are
hard like the cow’s hoof.

A

She kept on pondering. Why do living
beings die? Why does the sun rise? Why do
desires control your life like grass even after
they are rooted out? Does God ever tire out?
Why does the wind never rest? Why does
the mother never forget the loss of her son
till her death?

The son says, “Please give to him.”

Sometimes these things happen. When she
sits alone, she gets drowned in fog. Does
not know if it is cloud or fog. Everything
looks hazy. At a distance, a blue safari is
seen. She forwards her hand. Her hand
swims in the clouds and fog.

The pleadings of the son give some incentive
to the old man and he continues nagging,
“Babu, please give me, please give me,” and

She can’t touch the blue safari suit.
Gradually, she notices the man who has put
on the blue safari suit to be Aravind. Just

eFiction India | June 2014

like a drowning person holds on to a straw,
she wants to cling to Aravind. Two drops of
tears have already gone into her ears. Her
hand that swims in emptiness clutches
onto Aravind. She wipes her tears and asks,
“What happened?” Two other people were
standing next to the bed. Aravind asked
Parajit, “Have you got back your senses?
Are you in severe pain?”
By that time she had come back from the
world of clouds and fog. She was able to
understand now she was lying in one of the
beds of a nursing home. On a bed nearby,
a girl of 14 or 15 years old quietly slept in
a frock. She had an IV line in her. Aravind
asked the man next to him, “What has happened to the girl?” The woman sitting next
to the feet of the girl started crying aloud.
Both Aravind and Parijat were shocked
to hear her cry. Aravind tried to maintain
decency and did not ask anything else. But
the matter does not end there. Aravind
collected information about the girl from
somewhere else. A short time later, he bent
down and whispered to Parijat, “The girl
was pregnant at just fourteen years of age.
One of her distant maternal uncles made
her pregnant. The father had threatened to
kill him. In the process of aborting the pregnancy using native herbs, the child had died
and had begun to decompose inside the
young girl’s womb. After the girl became
seriously ill, they had brought her here. She
has been discharging pieces of rotten flesh
for three days now.”
Parijat closed her eyes out of fear. She felt
pain in her stomach and wanted to vomit.
In fact, she got up from the bed two to
three times intending to vomit but it never
happened.
Aravind moved his glance from the girl and
set his eyes on Parijat. He patted her back.
He moved his fingers on her hair and worriedly ran to the doctor. Tears from Parijat
eyes had once again entered into her ears.
A nurse came and asked her if she was