SHORT STORY (TRANSLATED) - 2021

Sritharan’s
Two Thousand and One
The soil, the tree, the cloud and the rain in unison and in dissonance
appeared to have surrounded him. As the wind had not joined this
crowd, his hut was still in its place. He, his wife and children had
huddled themselves in a corner. In the night, darkness also would engulf
them. They could not escape the darkness till daybreak.
After that…
The light also would not last long. Yet another night and darkness would
come. Then… a day!
There was a lantern in the hut. But there was no kerosene for it. There
had been no kerosene for a week. This lantern had been with him since
the time his memory could go back. It had been in his cart. As the
lantern in his hut had broken and as the cart also had gone from him, this
had come to his hut. He could not remember whether the price of the
lantern went up or that of kerosene did. What he could remember was
that, only if he could harvest an additional bag of paddy, he could buy a
lantern. And the kerosene also had to come from a far off country, it
appeared! It came from down the earth, they said. Like the water from
the well!
One of his friends who was knowledgeable said even this well was
drying up.
If the ‘oil’ came from the well, from somewhere the oil had to spring up.
Would there be a rain of oil in such places?
The price of the kerosene was going up and the amount paid for a
week’s supply was now just enough for getting kerosene for a day’s use.
What was happening?
In the deserts where there were date palms, there were oil wells, they
said. Who knew that?
If we also planted date palm, we could have oil wells.
The carpenter’s son who had to gone to far off countries for work said,
“there oil is like water and water is like oil.”
Possible.
The rain was pouring down unabated. In the steady rain the bunds of the
hut were slowly dissolving.
When the rain did not fail, the sun shone in season and if everything
went on well, were not the fifty bags of paddy harvested enough and
more?
Now?
Rain.
There was a flash of lightning followed by thunder. The dusk, partly
light and partly dark, was slowly dissolving. The sky was just above the
head. And the oil well?
The oil wells were somewhere in the far off desert, it appeared. Lighting
his beedi in the smoldering ember, he was silently still observing the
rain. His wife covering his children with her old sari, murmured, “What
rain is this!”
“m…m,” he spit the saliva across outside the hut.
Tractor rent, fertilizer…
Oh, all the prices had gone up.
He needed the cost of a quarter of a bag of paddy to get kerosene to light
the lamp. The rain was still pouring down.
He counted the money in his worn out shirt. This could be the hundredth
time.
His wife looked at him. She saw him count the money in his tattered
shirt.
Once again the flash of lightning like a whiplash followed by thunder!
With this money he could not buy even a small quantity of kerosene. He
could get at least something to eat. They had been huddling themselves
past one weak without a lamp; this kerosene problem was not a big
bother.
Now even at day time, darkness hovered over them so there was a need
for a lamp.
The firewood from the villages had gone to the town; they had to cook
with dried leaves and twigs..
Oh, in this rain even that would have become wet.
The glow in the beedi was nearing the stub and inhaling it till the end, he
threw it away. When the smoke from the beedi subsided, there was some
discomfort in his chest. He coughed.
“Amma,” the children moaned, stretched their legs and once again drew
them in.
“If we care about this rain, nothing can be done,” he murmured and got
up. It was clear that his wife did not like him getting up. He was looking
for something to cover himself and he was about to take the gunny bag
in the corner.
Then he saw that snake on it. It was a small one curling itself without
movement. It should have been like that for a long time, it appeared. His
wife also noticed him without paying attention to it and woke up the
children and went to a corner.
“All of you, move away,” he ordered. He walked backwards towards the
wooden door and opened it, all the time keeping his eyes on the snake.
There was a sudden rush of wind and rain, and water drops splashed into
the hut and tried to erode the hut’s mud floor ().
He came fast but stealthily, caught hold of the four corners of the sack
and threw it with great force.
The gunny bag fell down with a thump at a distance.
At that very moment there was a flash of lightning and the snake
shuddering and twisting could be seen in the sky. It was followed by
thunder.
When the darkness was engulfing the earth, the snakes would only
increase in number, he thought. The snake would come again. Nobody
could prevent its arrival in this darkness.
He heard somebody calling him. It could be the neighbouring farmer.
What did he want? He answered in a loud voice. The loud voice startled
and woke up his wife and children again. It was night after the dusk. The
only light was the silent glow of the embers covered by the ash.
There was no response to his call from the neighbour. All were intensely
listening. “What do you want?” he asked.
Now there was a reply. But nothing could be heard in the torrent.
After a short while, they could hear somebody waddling through the
rain. He realized that it was his neighbour. In the flash he could see him
having a small bottle in his hand. The neighbour also found that there
was no lamp in his hut. “Could not this farmer guess that I had no
kerosene?” he murmured in anger. His anger was expressed in the words
he used. The neighbour started walking back.
The neighbour could hear the laughter of his wife and children on
hearing his reply. He also laughed. After he had gone a little bit away, he
said, “What a fool he is!” in a soft voice and laughed again. When the
waves of the laughter subsided, and when he closed his eyes he
remembered the snake. It could come back. He was listening tensely
whether there was a different sound coming through the uniform spatter
of the rain. He could not do it for long and the barking of a dog could be
heard. The neighbour was perhaps going in search of kerosene
somewhere, he thought. “Who is going to give him oil at this hour?” he
told his wife a little aloud. “Why does he need a lamp now?” his wife
also asked.
The children once again huddled themselves. His wife also sullenly
said, “What kind of rain is this?”
The noise of the branches of trees rubbing against each other along with
that of the rain was heard. Such a torrential rain was there earlier also.
Five years ago there was flood.
Oh, what fierce flood!
At this moment, the rain was pouring down uniformly. But there were
times when it had failed completely. And it also had hurt them. The
fields have dried ,cracked, and crops had been burnt.
If the oil under the earth also spurted out like this rain pouring down
from the sky…!
But that is different.
This is rainy season. However much it is expected , either it fails or
causes floods. The crops live depending on this rain. And depending on
the crops..! Lives dangle in the chain linked like this. When the links of
the chain snap, the swinging music loses its harmony, losing its
trajectory holding on to another chain…
During plowing there is one kind of noise, during the time of sowing
another kind, and during harvest season music and dance.
Now everything is gone and the harsh noise of the rain and the raging
wind alone rule. Will it remain long?
It will last long, it appears now.
After what devilish rage will this stop?
“Can I go and see?” he asked but his wife stopped him. “What are you
going to see?” was the question unasked.
They could hear the noise of a tractor passing through not far off, in the
backdrop of the rain. He tried to look out moving the door a little. On
seeing the glimmer of the single light he said, “…’s tractor,” he
murmured and said to himself, “at least it has a light.” Now the croaking
of the frogs joined the noise of the rain and wind. Children’s moaning
seemed to reflect their enjoyment of this new mixture of sounds.
Though it was a luxury to coil oneself shivering in the dark, unable to
stir out in the rain and the wind, he could feel the pinch of hunger
whenever his eyes opened.
If he could walk across along the bund and reach the tar road….he could
crawl towards the corner shop. He could get something… he could
start…
When he tried to open the door by pushing it, the rainy storm splashed
on his face like a bucket of water. She asked him softly but sternly to
keep himself at home. But he once again opened the door and stood for
sometime as if to weigh the situation.
His wife asked him once again to close the door and come inside. But
ignoring her words, he said, “Wait, I will come back in a jiffy.” He
started walking fast in the dark on the familiar bund, covering his head
with a sack. The lightning lighted his way now and then.
His wife tried to stop him then also.
“Stop….Stop.”
But he was not ready to listen to her. At times the force of the wind
wrapped the sack around him. Sometimes it also started to fly with the
wind. At times it twisted him along with the wind. His wife was
helpless. Then she again asked him to come back. But she had never
succeeded in fighting him. She could not catch sight of his walking even
in the occasional flashes of lightning. She was murmuring something, in
frustration.
The eldest child got up and holding the mother’s leg tried to peep
outside. The wind once again splashed the rain inside the hut. She turned
back murmuring something.
Great force of the raging storm could be seen from the trees falling
down all around. She got up startled. The children got up and crowded
around the mother. Opening the door she looked out to see whether she
could spot her husband. She could not see anything in the dark. She
raised her voice and shouted, asking him to come back. She could not
compete with the howling wind. She repeatedly called him. Children
also joined her. The wind was now fierce and unhinged the door and
blew it off. The rain entered the hut with greater force.
The howling wind became stronger uprooting the trees. The hut itself
started to teeter in the storm. She called him stating that also. She could
hear the woman in the neighbouring hut shouting something. There had
been disputes between them. On hearing her voice, she stopped calling
her husband and listened to the woman intently. The noise of the wind is
the sound! What is she saying at this time? But when she stopped
speaking, woman’s reply also had ceased. Again she called her husband.
After calling once she stopped. She became ready to listen to her
neighours. ..her husband would return without any harm.
The devilish fierceness of rain and wind was intensifying. In the flashes
of lightning there were many shapes and figures. But she could see
nothing.
While she was trying to see through all this stupefied, the wind started
to uproot the hut. Shouting about it, she came out without minding the
rain and wind, hugging her children. Nothing was visible in the
darkness. “What kind of darkness!” She could hear human voice from
the next hut. She was scolding her husband aloud for leaving them like
this. They stood drenched in the rain. As the neighbouring hut also could
not withstand the onslaught of the wind, they were rushing out. The
neighbour called them to his hut.
For a moment she looked for her husband and walked slowly towards
the neighbour’s hut dragging her children.
The man who left home was fighting with the wind and struggling with
the flood between the tar road and the fields. Not knowing that the path
leading from the fields to the road had been submerged in the flood, he
stepped into it. The whirling water dragged him and he tried to come out
of it by holding a tree nearby. The tree also was tottering in the wind
which was trying to uproot it. The sack covering his head had been
washed away by the flood.
When he finally succeeded in coming up grasping the tree and balanced
himself, he could hear people’s movement on the road. He could hear
them saying “flood”. He raised his voice and asked for information. The
noise of the wind uprooting the trees drowned his voice. He outshouted
it and called them. Water level was increasing. ..all could take shelter in
the village school, it appeared.
He turned towards his hut, worrying what would have happened. He
could not walk fast in the dark. Midway he realized two families
waddling through the water. He came to know about the fate of his hut.
He told them about the flood increasing and the affected people taking
shelter in the village school. They could not take the usual path to the tar
road and they had to take a circuitous route. He and his neighbour
decided how to proceed. Both families started wading through the water
in the dark. They started discussing how to save their cattle. Now the
fierceness of the wind and the rain continued unabated. After discussing
it for some time, they decided to take the families to safety first, and
they could think of saving the cattle later. They continued walking, the
fathers carrying their children on their shoulders.
When they approached the school, they could see a lamp and a small
crowd.
There was water all around the school, but the classrooms were above
the ground level. They took shelter in the school. There was a big crowd
inside, all wet and disheartened. They exchanged details. The cruel rain
had not abated yet.
Both men started back to save their bulls and cows, but the crowd tried
to stop them. “No, no,” they said and started walking. But before long,
the knee deep water reached their waist and they realized they could not
succeed fighting the flood. They returned and they dried their clothes.
They looked for their families. While many were sitting, leaning on the
wall, their families were sitting along with other families in the middle
of the room and they joined them.
The chatter of many people speaking at the same time tried to outshout
the windy rain. A man who was reclining near them asked them about
their search for their bulls. He then said that they would have been
washed away by the flood. They were irritated because what he said
might be true. They were discussing what they could do. The wind was
cold. Their present state that they could not put up a struggleany more,
was unacceptable to them.
It was pitch dark outside.
Hesitatingly they lay down on the slushy floor. In such situations, time
passes very slowly. Children are crying. People wobble in the bitterness
about nature.
When will the day break?
Outside, the wind and rain continued to be vigorous. The noise of the
trees breaking and the loud chatter of the refugees coming towards the
school made everybody sleepless.
Because of the rainy clouds it took time for the daylight to come.
Someone put out the lamp which was giving out a faint light. It still
continued to rain. The water level of the flood was rising up to the stage
of the school. Some got up and watched the flood. Slowly the wind was
losing its vigour, but the water level seemed to be static. They could see
cattle being washed away in the flood. They were saying that none could
swim through the water to reach the school. Without realizing that their
very survival was a boon, they were only talking about the loss of their
belongings.
When could be the counting of time?
It appeared to stop.
They could hear some machine then.
It was not the usual ‘r..r..r..’ sound. This was like the crickets chirping,
‘ng…ng..ng.’
Only when a big motor boat came followed by four or five and stopped
near the school, the refugees understood what they were.
They had brought food for those affected by the flood. All became active
and started moving towards the boats. Someone from the boat, perhaps
an officer, shouted for order. There was some kind of calm restored.
These people tried to go in some order to get their food. He also stood in
the queue along with his wife and children. Many were jostling with
each other exchanging words aloud.
It took a long time for the excitement and confusion to subside caused
by those waiting to get food. Then only they saw the white man.
It was only drizzling now and the atmosphere was a little thick. The
people who had brought food were getting to ready to leave. Some from
the crowd went to help them.
He also joined them. They put the utensils on the boat. They asked them
when they would have their food next. The officer was speaking to the
white man. When the question reached the officer, he talked to the white
man. His reply, that it would come later that day, spread through the
crowd.
He spoke to a boatman. The boat was new, it appeared. There was no
need for oil and it would go faster.
The children regained their spirit and started playing. Those who came
by the boat started leaving. People who were watching the boats drawing
waves on the muddy water, began to have new worries. Those who were
watching the boats began to speak among themselves. He told his
neighbour about the boats which needed no oil. The other person was
not ready to believe him and the discussion continued. Children were
playing excitedly. Women were conversing in small groups. The clouds
began to clear.
A kind of daytime.
He had a feeling that the rains would cease hereafter. But he murmured
they must be patient and he was getting ready to go with his neighbour
in search of beedi and matchbox.
The flood was still there outside, but it was subsiding. All saw a few
slivery streaks in the sky. Now the flood would recede.
Translated by S. Vincent