Mamta Kalia

a drunken fit, the bastards made her drink
poison. Someone has said that they took
her to Sangwan Nursing Home for a ‘test’.
The test revealed that she was carrying
a female child. Durga did not agree to
an ‘abortion’ so all three forcibly made
her drink something. one held her arms
tight, the second opened her mouth by
force with his thumbs pushed into her
cheeks and the third made her drink
something out of a glass. All three were
together in killing her. All three are
murderers. An elderly man in the village
was saying that the middle brother told
him that now they knew the place and
the ‘rate’ as well.’This time we will pay
the price of a buffalo and get two wives,
be sure tau (Uncle)!’
Diary of the Following Day
Today we went to Badkal Lake and
Suraj Kund. We went boating. Rested for
a while in the Tourist Hut. My daughter
was at school. Utkarsh was with us. The
programme was not pre-planned, suddenly
we had felt like it. Utkarsh was making
buildings with his plastic blocks and the
two of us were resting in the Tourist Hut.
Then we went to Suraj Kund and had
a late lunch. It was a day well spent but
the evening was full of tension. Some
aggressive women who were part of an
organization called ‘DurgaVahini’
descended on us at our residence. Well,
I had got the information earlier that
‘DurgaVahini’ was on a dharna in the office
lawn. They came in a rush and started
firing questions as to why the Jamalpur
case had not yet gone to court. It is
a clear cut case of murder by poisoning.
We talked to many villagers yesterday.
112 :: April-June 2010
Here the thanedar had made the criminals
sit in the police station for three days.
Police is not supposed to make a mockery
of the law of this country, Mr Barua!’
Maybe there were six or seven of them.
They were very aggressive in the beginning,
all of them speaking at the same time.
One went to the extent of saying, ‘If you
are aware of the case, then I suppose
you are a corrupt officer…and if you don’t
know the details of the case, then you
are an inefficient…’
—‘I understand your feelings madam,
please take a seat.’ I said to the most
aggressive and outspoken woman,
suppressing my anger. I made all of them
sit down. My wife had also come to the
drawing room. She sat with them and
started saying to them, ‘do you know that
Mr Barua has not been able to sleep for
the last two nights! He has lost his sleep
over this case. I am also deeply hurt.’
The servant had placed some eight
or ten glasses of water on the table. The
women of the ‘DurgaVahini’got involved
in ideological debates on the degenerating
condition of women in the country and
the world. My wife was also saying
something now and then. I was quiet.
At some point of time I felt drowsy and
went out of the drawing room on the
pretext of going to the bathroom. I reentered
the drawing room when the servant
had served the guests cups of hot tea,
hot samosas and gulab jamuns.
I said to them, ‘The enquiry is going
on. Have faith in us.’ Just then my daughter
entered the drawing room. All the women
made her sit down affectionately. The woman
who had been most aggressive in the
beginning, asked her a number of questions