Dec 5, 2015

The First class — Part 3

Continuing from Part-2.

Alekhya took a brief moment of pause to gather her emotions.

She went on to add, “Everyone in the village became curious to find out what got the neighbouring village’s head all riled up. Surely, it wasn’t the medical camp. There had to be something else.People seem to have forgotten the diagnosis presented by the doctors.It is as if the doctors never mentioned the ill effects of their health condition. That is the kind of impact poverty has on one’s life. You tend to think about what gets you going to keep the food on the plate instead of the worrying what would happen to your health. May be they resigned on the fact that the village wouldn't be able to afford the treatment.”

“The word fluorosis intrigued me, I wanted to find out what that means and what are the side effects of that diseases.I asked my Mom about it,trying to get hold of any information the doctors told at the adults table. She shooed me away saying that it was big people’s talk and I was too young to know. We managed to sleep that night and the next day was the just another day with no semblance of what happened yesterday.Nobody spoke about the doctors until they turned up after a week as they promised.”, said Alekhya.

The head doctor requested me to gather the entire village as he had to make a key announcement. I went running through the village,shouting and knocking on the doors. The entire village gave each other looks and wondered what the announcement was. The head doctor took the lead and said, “We have come to share some bad news with you. We ran tests on the water sample we have taken and it has been confirmed that the well has been the root cause of the health issues in the village. Our primary diagnosis of fluorosis is right however we also found out traces of other drug in the water. It has been later identified as a form of “slow poison”. We are worried that someone is intentionally corrupting the only water resources of the village. The poison takes 6–8 months to kick in and once it does, in a matter of 30–60 days, we see people die of severe convulsions and muscle aches, very consistent with fluorosis, only this drug is going to put the symptoms on a pedestal.

We asked the doctors about the remedy and his answer was, “there is high likelihood that the entire village is suffering from advance stage of the disease and he is not sure what the right medicine is. He feels that the village might need to relocate the nearest city and only then they could arrive at the necessary treatment.”

There was an uncomfortable hush but Alekhya knew what the village was thinking. There is no way that the villagers are leaving this isolated place. The head of the village said, “We will think about it and requested the doctors to stay for dinner.”

“The doctor was a smart guy, he took a rain check and insisted that he would report this to the right authorities. He was an honest guy, he did report to the authorities, something we weren't really aware of until it was too late.”,said Alekhya.

Exactly 18 days later, it was turn of the month and the moon was bright in the sky that night. It was a full moon day. The head of the neighbouring village stormed into our village with a bunch of goons. He was like a raging bull. He was furious. He trashed everything on his way. He screamed, “How dare you still talk to the doctors inspite of my warning? Now you guys are all over the news and are the sensation among the state.” He kept flashing the latest newspaper and threw it on the face of the village head.It is a pity none of us could read what was written.

He shouted, “I wanted to keep this going in a silent way but now you guys give me no choice.” We had no idea what he was talking. He went on to add,”You ignorant fools. You have no clue as to what I am talking, do you? This village is golden goose and you are my hatched eggs. I have every right on your lives.”

He let out an evil smirk face and said,”This village is on top of a huge reserve of bauxite. The government doesn't give me permission to mine because it is a tribal territory. I tried bribing the officers and even the central ministers. You little filth of 45 people are standing between me and the riches I could possible take.” We didn't know what bauxite meant back then. We were only scared that we got the only man who gave us some sort of food was mad at us.

“Guess what, I was the one who got the well contaminated with the poison the doctors spoke about.I had to add tiny amounts of powdered poison every night and this little kid was my accomplice”, said the village head. He pointed at me.

I couldn't recall how I poisoned the well. By now I was shaking in fear. It took me a while to realise that the “holy” powder the village head gave me after every days’ work was the poison, recalled Alekhya. He only mentioned that the powder contained holy powers and it would help the villagers health because he was worried about the deteriorating health of out village. He added that he got it from a tantrik in the city, who prepared it after a special puja. He never mentioned why he only gave me small quantities daily and I was too young to ask him. I was only happy that the village head knew me personally and cared for me. Little did I know the evil bastard’s plan.

“You thought I was a nice man because I let you pick cotton in my fields,didn't you? You fools, that wasn't cotton, it was opium and why do you think it was inside the thick forest.”, said the village head with an evil grin.

He said, “Now I am forced to do it the hard way.” He instructed his goons to wipe off any trace of life in the village. The goons opened fire recklessely.

“I was scared. I was lucky to have managed to run into the forest quickly as soon as the fire opened. May be it was due to my height, I was a small kid and the shooters were aiming higher than my height. I ran as fast as I could to the top of the hill. From there I had some visibility into the what was happening in the village. In a matter of minutes all the villagers were shot. Streams of blood ran on the ground. They hacked every soul that was left with any trace of last breath. They didn't spare even the cows, goats, hens and the little village dog. They took the words of the neighbouring village head seriously when he “no trace of life”.They picked up every body and dumped into the well. Stacks of bodies piled over one upon the other. I could hear the sound of bones cracking and crushing in spite of me staying on top of the village. They poured gas and brunt them.”,squeaked Alekhya while she was choking on her words.

15 years later I read about Jallianwala bagh and the first thought that came to my mind was my village. If yesterday it was the English, today it was my fellow country men. Things haven't changed really.

“I heard the sound of someone coming through the forest. I hid behind the tree. Soon I had sight into who they were. These were the rebels, the Government feared the most. They must have heard the sounds and the smoke from the fire. I was trying not to speak but somehow I lost grip of my position and rolled down the hill. One of the rebels saw me and quickly grabbed my hand. He asked my whereabouts.”, said Alekhya.

“I told them the whole story and it was unanimously decide that they escape the place the quickly because they feared there would heavy police force around the village and it was not safe for them to stay. One of the rebels asked what they should do with me. The leader, who I later came to know winked and a lady picked me on her shoulders. I had no say in the decision and my life was about to change forever.” said Alekhya as she picked another glass of water.