The sting of the black widow!

Ramtari is very close now…informed one palanquin bearer to another. They were transporting the newest bride of Ramtari, Sukanya, to her new home. Sukanya was married to Ramvilas Singh, the youngest & favourite son of Brijbhushan Singh who was the zamindar of the village. After her vivah, she had stayed back since she was only eight then.

It was only when she attained puberty & was as tall as the wheat crops that her father, Pandit Ramdayal Pandey pondered about her gauna. Gauna was a custom when the nubile bride was officially sent to her sasural for the first time. It was a grand affair & despite Panditji’s meager teacher’s income, he had left no stone unturned where his dearest Sukanya’s gauna was concerned.

The best pochampalli’s, tussar’s & banarasi’s were acquired from hither & thither. The preparation of basket loads of khaja, gaja, maath & bundia, to be sent with the bride was specifically supervised by Sukanya’s brother, Shiv Ranjan. The mood was festive as well as sober. The life of the pandey pariwar was going to leave them finally.

Ramtari is situated at the banks of the Koyel River that snakes through the valley passing Neterhat. Situated at a high altitude, the weather is pleasant most of the year. The valley area is formed of massive felspathic granite & laterite with sal & bamboo groves stretching as far as the eyes could reach.

Sukanya peeped thru the veils of her palanquin at her new basti & marveled at the sheer beauty of the place. The fields at either side had huge trees at the seams & cattle grazing up yonder. Looking at the sheer beauty of the place filled her heart with happiness. Ramvilas, her new husband would peep at her every once in a while to make sure she was ok. His love gestures made Sukanya flush shyly as she fidgeted & adjusted her ghunghat.

Ramvilas was a potent young man who couldn’t wait to meet his bride in private. As he entered his room, he was amused to find his bride sitting on the large bed, legs dangling in mid-air chewing paan. The juices in her stuffed mouth threatened to overflow from the corners as she looked startled at his entry. Her innocuous offer of paan from the paan-batta won his heart over.

Aren’t you supposed to offer me milk or something instead of paan? It was then that Sukanya remembered the ever giggling Chanda didi had brought the kesari doodh & had tutored that it was supposed to be offered to her husband first thing when he arrives. Tapping her temple, tongue sticking out, she hastened to bring the kesari doodh to win her husband’s approval.

Ram was so bowled over by his new bride that he lost no opportunity to see her during day time, stealthily hiding behind the drums in the storage room that was opposite the kitchen. He would creep from behind & lift Sukanya, the moment she entered the store room to take away rice to be cooked for lunch.

Though Sukanya yearned for his touch, she would shy away, afraid of being caught by the family members. Couples’ meeting during the day was a taboo in the pandey household.

It was the month of October, Durga Puja being wrapped up a day before. The Bauhinia & Cassia trees in the courtyard had blossomed exploding the surroundings with a riot of pinks & reds tickling the olfactory senses due to the strong pungent fragrance emanating from the dark barks of the Cassia.

Ram had left for Ranchi to tide over the family business of food grains promising his sobbing wife the most beautiful lac bangles decorated with tiny glass chips that dazzled every time it captured the rays of light. She had finally relented promising to control the saline fluids building up at the very reference of his journey.

It had been seventeen longs days & Sukanya was getting restless. Ram had said he would be back in a fortnight.

Hriday baba from the neighboring village hastily arrived by noon with some grave news. The boat ferrying Ram & a few others across the Koyel had capsized. Frantic rescue efforts on the part of the onlookers had been futile. One by one, the bodies were surfacing along the bank of the river. Ram’s body had been found this morning & was being brought on a tractor by baba’s son.

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It was as if the world around Sukanya had caved in, disintegrating into tiny irrelevant bits. Misery had suddenly made its permanent abode inside Sukanya. In the anguish & gloom that followed Ram’s death, the women of the household huddled around Sukanya customarily breaking her glass bangles & wiping her sindoor adorned forehead. A few accompanied her to the well where she was given a bath & handed over the stark colourless saree that would be her only garment for life now.

Her wedding finery & other ornamental articles were confiscated & her bed shifted to another room. A rough bamboo matt with a coarse bed-sheet completed Sukanya’s stark room. Her wedding, the love she had received from her husband, the joy of togetherness, the bonding, and the feeling of total completeness had been so ephemeral.

She felt numb, her eyes vacant. All the tears that she had once shed for the simplest of reasons when with Ram had suddenly desiccated leaving the eyes unglazed. The family members avoided her presence & she was instructed to take her bath by the well at dawn when everyone else was snugly comfortable in their beds. The meals were supposed to be cooked with Shantima who was a widow too.

Shantima had been despotic towards Sukanya from the very beginning. She was extremely unforgiving, finding faults in the noblest of gestures. She had been widowed at nineteen when Brijbhushan Singh’s younger brother, Shambu had succumbed to cholera.

All her life, she had lived a squalor existence, living at the mercy of the family patriarchs.

Shantima most of the times taunted Sukanya for being clumsy & bungling-up in the kitchen. Her contempt made Sukanya dread her even more & in her nervousness she always managed to invite more ire in her direction.

But Sukanya’s widowhood had brought a difference in Shantima’s attitude towards her. She had suddenly become more tolerant & forgiving. Sukanya’s new social status had made her cross over & join Shantima’s. They bathed, cooked & slept together.

Winter had set in & it was an ordeal to bathe in ice cold water that chilled the bones. Shantima had to act real stern to plod Sukanya to the well in the dark of dawn. As Sukanya shivered in her wet saree, she felt someone watching her from the corner windows of the main house which was Chanda Di’s room. As she pondered who it could be…she suddenly saw Gopal Bhaiya, her late husband’s eldest brother staring at her with an expression that she couldn’t comprehend.

She hastily clambers back to her quarters quite jittered. That morning as she prepares the chulha stuffing it with dried wood & coal, waiting for a decent kindle to prepare the morning tea, she sees Gopal Bhaiya once again with the same look. As she serves tea to everyone, he accepts his cup with a slight caress to her wrist.

Sukanya’s mind’s confused. Is she reading too much into Gopal Bhaiya’s act? She doesn’t have to wait long enough to find out his true intentions.

As she was working on the grass cutter to prepare fodder for the cows, she’s suddenly seized from behind. As she struggles, she realizes its Gopal Bhaiya. She’s bewildered at his actions as he muffles her scream & pins her down.

Shantima’s impatience at having to wait too long for the little imp to share the morning tea makes her go looking for Sukanya. As she calls out to her, she hears a muffled scream & runs in the direction of the cow shed.

The sight of Gopal on top of Sukanya fills her with rage as well as revulsion. She screams. Gopal flee’s the scene being caught off guard. The hapless Sukanya with her hair disheveled & clothes torn clings to Shantima sobbing like a pitiful child.

Shantima’s trembling too. She’s felt such disgust coupled with anger in a very long time. The honorable family was in actuality a cesspool. She pledges not to let this child face the same fate that she had experienced a few decades ago at the hands of her brother-in-law. This time she would fight these satanic vultures.

But the question was how? She had to scheme in such a way so as to silently kill the snake without breaking the stick.

That evening Bhola delivered the dried wood a bit late. As she scolded him for his slackness, he apologized saying he was late since he had to turn in their neighbour’s rowdy bull that had wandered off to the other side of the fields after breaking away from its tether. Bhola’s guts & helpful nature plants the first seed of hope in Shantima’s plan.

Bhola was a birjias by nativity. He belonged to a nomadic tribe that had settled around Ramtari, cultivating different vocations to earn their livelihood. Bhola used to cut wood from the jungles & sell it to the villagers of Ramtari.

Shantima asks Bhola to meet her the next afternoon at an hour when everyone in the family retired for their siesta. Sensing her urgency, Bhola arrives on time & is troubled to hear about the obscene prurience of the supposed cultured first family of the village.

After hearing out Shantima, he inquired how he could help her. Shantima laid bare her impeccable plan & they decided to act on it the very next day.

That day Gopal ventured out after a sumptuous breakfast to supervise the fields & go downs. As he walked briskly towards the river, he was bushwhacked at a secluded stretch. A woolen blanket was thrown on him so that he couldn’t recognize his perpetrators.

The thick bamboo sticks mercilessly beat him to pulp. Once Bhola was finished with Gopal, he growled menacingly in a threatening voice that Sukanya was now the daughter of the entire village & anyone harboring vile intentions towards her would be dealt with brute force. As for Gopal, he would be beheaded silently if he ever dared behave iniquitously towards Sukanya.

A whimpering Gopal was left to recover, limping back shamefaced. As he knocks at the huge main door, Shantima opens the gate & seeing his state, exclaims in horror. She hovers around him fussing, inquiring how he had hurt himself.

Gopal grimaces & replies that he had been in an accident trying to save a kid. Chanda Didi's mighty proud of her husband & decides to visit the village Hanumanji’s temple offering 2.25kgs of motichur laddoos for looking after her brave husband.

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