Mamta Kalia

about her school, syllabus, timing, the
nature and qualifications of her teachers
etc. After some time she looked at me
and my wife and then said, ‘Sensible parents,
sensible child. Happy family.’
I said ‘thank you’ to her and then
my wife also remembered to thank her.
The atmosphere had become homely by
then. Their anger had disappeared. At that
moment it seemed to me that they had
even forgotten the reason behind their
anger. All of them said good bye and
went out. Suddenly one of them
remembered, ‘The memorandum that was
to be handed over to Mr Barua is lying
in my purse’ She came back and gave
a copy of the memorandum to my orderly…
Late in the evening I got a call from
SHO Sadar informing me that the situation
during the day was calm except for a
demonstration of the women belonging
to the ‘DurgaVahini’. Members of the
Jamalpur Panchayat had come in the
evening. The Sarpanch (head of the
Panchayat) there is a woman. She had
brought three tempos full of women from
the village with her. The entire Panchayat
was of the opinion that this was an accident,
not a case of murder. The woman had
constipation and she had drunk Jamalghota
or something to get rid of it and died.
Sir, the post mortem report did not mention
the kind of poison and Jamalghota is a
something of that kind. Two or three seeds
are enough to churn the stomach of a
person lethally. The three brothers belong
to a good family and not too well off.
Why should they kill a woman whom they
have brought to their house with such
difficulty? Today, some time back, all the
three have been let off because of what
the Panchayat has said.
There was a call from the Minister
at about nine thirty at night. ‘Hello Mr
Barua, good night. How are you? Many
many thanks, you have set our men free.
But iss SHO ki nakel kheencho, saala bahut
paisa peet raha hai. Thank you.’
I was amused for a long time at the
Minister’s attempts to speak English in
a Haryanvi accent.
The next week we will deposit Utkarsh’s
fees at Saint John Paul. Now I will stop
writing, am feeling very sleepy…
Courtesy : ‘Vagarth’, Kolkata
Harjendra Chaudhary,born December1955, teaches in Delhi University
College of Vocational Studies.He has taught in Japan and Poland. He
writes short stories and poems. Presently teaching in Tokyo University,
Japan.
Purabi Panwar translates from Hindi and Bengali to English and regularly
contributes Book-reviews to various literary magazines and Newspapers.
She teaches English at College of Vocational Studies, University of Delhi.
She lives in Delhi.
April-June 2010 :: 113