A Kanglei life
- Part 2 -

By Nameirakpam Bobo Meitei *

The Government Wanted Not To Talk A Bit About It And The Student Organizations Pointed Their Fingers At The 'Occupation Forces' , Something The 'Occupation Forces' Had Been Rather Hasty In Denying Categorically. He Couldn't Rely, Like His Peers, Upon The Re-Opening Of The Schools. As Long As One's Parents Could Cough Off Extra Bucks For Private Tuitions, Which Had Mushroomed All Over The State, Technically Replacing The Schools And Colleges, Their Children Could Always Manage The Alternative.

But Those Parents Couldn't Afford Should Entrust On The Malicious Caprices Which Had Been So Prevalent. Punshi Fancied The Notion Of Imagining Someday Being With Someone With A Professional Career Like Any Other Young Men Of His Age. Youth Would Know No Limitations. Their Energy Would Enable Them To Be Ambitious.

He Had Been Struggling With Political Science And He Couldn't Make Any Sense Of What He Had Been Reading On Democracy. How Beautiful, Rosy And Advancing It Looked Like Any Other Ideologies He Had To Read In His Senior High School Textbook. When He Got To 'Basic Fundamental Rights' And 'Justice' His Face Became Quite Serious As Though These Parts Were Clear Mockeries To Human Existence In This Part Of The Planet. Despite The Feeling He Must Read Them And Understand Them As They Would Comprise A Bulk In The Final Exams.

Being The Citizen Of The Largest Democracy In The World He Must Understand After Having Read And Re-Read Them. You Are Just A Speck In This World And How A Speck Stand Up To The Monolithic Establishment Which Has Been Approved By The Trading Partners And Has Been Looked Up As An Absolute Role Model For The Dependent Countries.

You Must Swallow What's Forced Down Your Throat. If You Didn't Then You Would Starve Yourself To Death. While Reading And Re-Reading The Candle Was Now Almost Burnt Out, He Placed The Book Next To His Pillow And Blew Softly To Kill The Light. He Rose Up To Shut The Window, Through Which Chill Wind Had Been Pouring In, Then He Pattered About Groping His Way To Pull Down The Mosquito Net Which Now Served As Another Layer Of Defense From Cold.

Inside The Net Wrapped In Thick Patchy Blanket He Wondered What His Mind Began To Wonder About His Family; The Family Had Been Living Off His Father's Meager Pension And Everything Would Not Have Been Enough Without The Arduous Work Of His Mother In The Kitchen Garden Growing Vegetables Of All Kinds And Selling Them Off Early In The Mornings.

Next Week There Would Be More Expenses; Examination Fees, Money To Hire A Taxi For Few Days To Take His Father To The Pension Office To Show He Was Still Alive. When He Thought Of All These Expenses He Wondered Seriously How His Family Could Manage To Send Him To Some Big City In India To Get Better Education.

Simply Impossible. Had He Been Some Defeated Young Man Who Had Been Residing In Dejected State He Would Have Given Up Everything On Life And Instead He Would Have Been Someone Taking Refuge Somewhere, But The Sprouting Youth In His Life Didn't Allow That Shade To Creep In. He Could Envision Something In The End Of The Tunnel.

Half-Drowned In Imagination, Half-Submerged In Confronting Reality He Had Exhausted Himself And Soon He Slid Down Into Slumber. Outside The Moon Had Scaled To Claim Its Zenith And Its Rich Light Had Penetrated The Enveloping Mist. The Clumps Of Thick Tall Bamboos Stood Grand Casting Tall And Narrow Shadows Alongside The Golden Oaks And The Other Large Trees As The Moon Shone Overhead.

Surrounded By The Shadows And Engulfed By The Mist And Yet Illuminated By The Moonlight Showering All Over The House Stood As Some Sort Of An Abandoned Place And Everything About The Place Displayed The Touch Of Deep Melancholy. After The Prolonged Silence In The Distance The Cooing Of A Cuckoo Could Be Heard Reassuring The Place Was Simply Asleep. There Was No Knock, There Was No Sound.

May Be He Didn't Hear Any Noise At All, Perhaps Everybody Was Deep In Their Sleep. May Be No One Didn't Hear That Jackie Had Been Barking Himself To Virtual Death For Long. When He Was Dragged Down From The Mosquito Net Covered Bed To The Cold Earthen Floor He Realized Something Unnatural Was Going On In The House And When That Sense Had Dawned Upon Him He Heard Jackie's Faithful Incessant Barking.

With His Back To The Cold Floor, One Foot Still On The Edge Of The Bed And The Other Resting On The Part Of The Fallen Thick Patchy Blanket He Lay There Propped On His Elbows, And His Face Was Faced By A Horror-Stricken Face And The Mouth Releasing ' Get Up Sisterfucker! Get Up Sisterfucker!' Was Reeking Of Alcohol.

He Was No Other Than The Commander Of The 7Th Sikh Regiment. Major Democracy Singh Was A Decorative Officer Whose Infamous Reputation Was Well-Known In The Valley Part Of The State. People Used To Say ' If He Got You, You Would Be Hung Upside For Few Hours, Then Sometime In A Water Drum And Finally Those Naked Wires On Your Testicles.

It Would Be A Lot Better If He'd Shot You Dead Rather Than Letting You Go Half-Crippled. Crippled For A Lifetime.' His Men Had Ringed The House And They Didn't Bother To Knock, Perhaps The Door Was Too Tempting To His Men's Feet. So Was Jackie But He Gnashed And This Frightened Them And Left Him Carry On With His Faithful Incessant Barking.

Punshi Had Been Dragged Out From His Room And Was Thwarted Upon The Floor Of The Room Where His Father's Bed Was. His Father Was Seated In The Same Chair, But He Wouldn't As He Had Become Hysterical And This Had Induced One Among The Major's Men To Exert His Physical Power And Put A Lid On The Paralyzed Old Man's Affectionate Hysteria.

His Mother Was Panic-Stricken And Yet Instinctively Protective Of Her Son And She Couldn't Take The Fact That Her Man Should Be Treated In That Manner. She Began Yelling At The Top Of Her Voice In Her Native Language Making The Major Quite Irritated By Its Twinkling Sound.

This Time The Major Screamed In His Official Language ' Old Bitch! Shut Up' This Wouldn't Do The Trick And He Was Out Of Options Except For One. His Heavy Hands Defending The Largest Democracy Came Down On The Frail Lady Who Had Pestered Him With Her Twinkling Language. After He Had Applied His Democracy Defending Heavy Hands On The Frail Lady, He Retreated To Watch The Squeaking Lady.

The Petrified Father Had Been Stilled, The Mother Still Squeaking And The Son Still On His Back Propped Up On His Elbows Planted On The Cold Floor It Was Just The Frame Any Powerful Hand Would Desire. The House Had Been Swarmed By The Major's Men Like Insects Had Swarmed Crops And They Had Almost Ransacked The Place; Pulling Down Clothes, Kicking Utensils And Flinging Papers After Having Observed Them Under The Bright Light Of Eveready Flashlights.

They Hadn't Found Anything Substantial And This Seemed To Have Embarrassed The Leading Man And He Raised His Voice To Summon A Masked Informer. A Tall But Lean Figure Who Spoke The Native Language, He Had Bloodshot Eyes And He Limped When He Walked. Although He Was In Over-Sized Military Uniform He Had No Arm On Him.

Few Armed Men Brought Him Out And He Was Presented Before The Commander And The Commander Did Exactly Rebanta Had Presumed. He Shouted At The Limping Man's Face And The Man Was Pushed Back By The Shout But He Was Brought Back To His Expected Position By The Commander's Men. The Limping Man Moved And Hastily Pointed With His Trembling Finger At The Young Man With His Back On The Floor 'Him! Him! He Knows!'

Punshi Was Pinned To The Cold Earthen Floor For No Reason ,He Wanted To Know What They Were Shouting And Why The Man Had Pointed At Him With His Trembling Finger. He Struggled To Stand Up But His Struggle Was Put An End With The Quick Arrival Of Booted Feet On His Chest.

He Lay Flat On The Cold Floor, His Spread Out Arms Under Booted Feet, And Few More Landed On Different Parts Of Body. It Was Unbearable To Him But It Was More Than Unbearable To His Parents. The Mother Sprung Up And Jumped On The Commander And Scratched The Face. She Was Quickly Plucked Off By The Strong Well-Fed Hands Of The Major And He Thrush Her Against The Floor.

The Father Rose Up To Release His Incoherent Hysteria. This Time His Hysteria Was Met With A Stronger Blow And This Put The Man Back In His Original Un-Disturbing Position.

Every Object Had Been Kicked, Every Wall Had Been Poked, Every Piece Of Cloth Had Been Pulled Down And Trampled And Whatever Was Useful Was Pocketed. When The Legitimate Ransacking And Pillaging Came To An End They Gathered In The Room Where The Commander Stood, The Room Where The Masked Man With The Trembling Fingers Stood, The Place Where The Parents Were Forcibly Silenced And The Place Where The Marked Man Lay Flat On His Back With The Arms And Chest Below Booted Feet.

As The Young Man Happened To Be The Marked Out Man He Was Now A Chosen Man. There Was No Way He Could Prove His Innocence And How He Would Do So In Their Language. All That He Could Do Was To Yell To Show How Petrified He Was And He Wasn't At All Harmful As They Thought. But When You Are An Element Of A Respectable Establishment One Shouldn't Yell About So Much As That Could Be An Act To Tarnish The Cleanliness Of The Prestigious System.

One Mustn't Scream Nor Must One Demonstrate Instead One Must Suffer And Put His Shoulder To Its Wheel To Ensure It Functions In The Manner They Want It To Function. The Frail Mother Rose As Though She Was Suddenly Charged Up And Threw Herself Over Her Son, But She Was Just A Bat Clinging On Someone So Suspiciously Malignant To Them. Like Human Hands Would Pluck A Bat Off She Was Plucked And Cast Her Against, One More Time, The Floor And There She Lay Scattered Only Capable To Moan.

And The Father, He Just Wouldn't Have The Strength To Gather Himself, All That He Could Muster Was The Mental Strength Which Choked On His Throat And There His Affectionate Hysteria Stayed As A Stuck Lump.

The Screaming Young Man, The Screaming Man Who Had Allegedly Tarnished The Image Of The Establishment, The Screaming Man Who Had Been Marked Out Was Now Dragged Out , His Bare Feet Over The Floor, His Mouth Releasing Begging Words. To Bundle Him Was As Simple As Throwing In Chopped Woods. Broom.. Broom They Went Off With The Hunted.

As The Sound Of The Vehicles Died Out The Moon ,Which Had Been So Conspicuously Flamboyant, Disappeared Suddenly As Though It Had Suddenly Realized It Had Been Doing Its Right Work Over The Wrong Place. They Were An Able Kind, And Everybody Knew That.

Long Piercing Headlights Pierced Through The Darkness Thickened With Mist And With Creaks, Few Brooms, Short Purring And Long Rumbling They Left The Village Leaving Behind Them Only The Pot-Holed Road And The Entirely Silhouetted Place.

The Mother Had Been Slow To Act But She Acted Holding The 'Arrest Memo' Sheet In Her Hand And Hollering In The Possible Pitch To Get The Villagers To Come And Help. Those Who Were Disturbed Rushed Out With Clubs And Stones To Beat The Electric Iron Poles.

To be continued.....

Nameirakpam Bobo Meitei

* Nameirakpam Bobo Meitei, a resident of Bangkok, contributes to e-pao.net regularly.
The writer can be contacted at bobomeitei(at)hotmail(dot)com
This article was webcasted on December 05 2010.