37
Kamla, one of the village women in her late 40's had gone to the forest and then to the pond area towards the thicket of trees where she had seen Ramu and Tara kissing passionately, and this was too much to hold back for her. As soon as she entered the vicinity of the village, she confided to one of her friends about it. By early evening word spread quickly, from the farms to the barns and to the alleys. Within no time the entire village was talking about it. Late evening Tara's parents had returned after seeing the doctor in the next village.
The news reached Tara's father too. A sudden gush of anger ignited him.
"Taraaaaaaaaaa, Taraaaaaaaaaa, Taraaaaaaaaaaa!!! Come out you bitch, today I'll show you how to disgrace your parents," he shouted. It seemed as if his vocal chords may burst. Feeling timid and insecure while longing for stability and safety, she stepped out of her room. She knew she was vulnerable to her angry father.
Gangu pulled her forcibly with one hand and wagged his finger angrily at her. He raged,"This girl must be punished." He asked Shyam to tie her with a rope to the pole. Shyam tied her waist with a rope holding the other end tightly. Gangu lifted a tree branch into the air. Tara bowed her head. The first lash came, then another, and then another.......ten in all. She let out a wail.
Cries for help are frequently inaudible.
Eventually, her mother who was a mute witness to all the torture started uttering, "Enough, enough," although she didn't move to stop the beating. Finally, Gangu threw down the stick. It's over. After a few seconds he started chiding at her for her affair with Ramu.
A crowd of neighbors had gathered by then, around the door of their house. Each one of them was whispering into each other's ears, "What a shame she has brought upon her family by having an affair."
Tara, sobbing, denied the accusations. But she built up the courage to say, "I don't have an affair with Ramu. We both want to marry each other. If any of you don't trust me, you can call Ramu and let him satisfy your queries and accusations."
Ramu was called instantly. As soon as he came, the murmuring stopped. Then one of the elderly men stepped forward, "Ramu, do you want to marry this girl?" he questioned him in a sarcastic manner.
"Yes, I do want to," Ramu replied boldly.
In the mean time his mother reached the place of commotion where she heard what Ramu had to say.
"No, never, I will never want Tara to be by daughter-in-law. We are upper caste, we are Brahmins and how can I bring a daughter-in-law from a low caste family," Ramu's mother spoke angrily staring at Ramu hard.
There was a whisper in the crowd. Ultimately, it was decided that this matter should be judged by the panchayat.
"Whatever the panchayat decides, we all will agree to their respectable judgment," called out an elderly man from the crowd. "Yes, this is the right way," all of them in the crowd mumbled slowly.
"Let your daughter realize that the girls who play with fire must remember that smoke gets in their eyes," one of the younger ones said pointing and wagging his finger at Tara.
The panchayat was called upon the following day. Tara and her parents were summoned along with Ramu and his mother. Nearly half of the village gathered together to listen to the judgment of the elders who were educated enough to understand the fragility of this case. The judgment came after thorough grilling of Ramu and Tara. "If an adult man or woman wants to marry, no individual or society can question them. Whenever there is any kind of collective attack on a boy or a girl who are adults, it's absolutely illegal. In our opinion, these young hearts should be allowed to tie the knot. There is no low or upper caste. We all are humans and the same color of blood flows through all of us. Birth is no virtue, karma alone is. So, let's trash away the concept of birth based caste system," the panchayat said in unison nodding their heads in approval with smiles on their faces.
Tara and Ramu jumped with joy on hearing the judgment of the elders. What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life-------------------------to strengthen each other in labor, to rest in each other in sorrows, minister each other in silent unspeakable memories in the moment of their last parting.
Ramu's mother was not at all happy with the decisions of the panchayat. She called Ramu aside, "This relationship of yours should be ended completely and perhaps God will compensate you with someone better than her and will compensate her with someone better than you," whispered she as if not to make herself audible to others.
On hearing his mother's statement, Ramu got infuriated and walked away silently.
On seeing Tara alone, she called her aside. "What tribe do you come from?" she asked her lovingly.
"I come from lohar's tribe," Tara replied fearfully.
"You know the girls from your tribe don't marry outside it," Ramu's mother said in an insulting tone.
Tara stood there speechless, not knowing what to say, wondering what she should make out of his mother's message. But inside, she felt very hurt. Her intuition was that Ramu would have to fight tooth and nail for her to be his wife. But her heart said "DON'T GIVE UP!!! If Ramu really loves you, he can change everything."
There was a solace in her mind after this thought. She decided to raise this issue with Ramu immediately if he had to be the man of her life. Unfortunately she wasn't sure if Ramu had the heart to defy archaic traditions for her sake or whether he would be easily influenced by his mother against her. Whatever the case, she knew she would engage him candidly to find out his position in this matter and that she would have to be prepared for anything. The whole night she kept on thinking on these issues.
Next day she met Ramu in the forest, her eyes still feverish and frenzied by the sleepless night. She narrated her talks with his mother.
"It appears as if your mother has her own motives. Otherwise why didn't she tell all this to me in your presence? Ramu, with these outdated traditions notwithstanding, our bond and marriage will only survive storms if we both stick together unconditionally. I'm really feeling scared that my would be mother-in-law will try to derail our relationship by her strange beliefs."
Ramu turned to her startled and erratic, as he took her hand into his and looked at her earnestly in her eyes. He thought for a while and then muttered slowly, "Now look here Tara, even if you are wedded in another family of, say your own tribe, then also, you will face challenges there. These are just part of life and relationships. For any relationship to survive, the people in it must mutually desire to see it last."
Tara was flabbergasted on hearing this from Ramu.
"Ramu, you are such a wise person, I never knew about it," Tara quacked lovingly putting her other hand in his.
"I'm nothing special, of this I'm sure. I'm a common man with common thoughts and I lead a common life, and you know, love recognizes no barriers, it jumps hurdles to arrive at its destinations full of hopes," Ramu giggled back.
"Ramu, I did feel insecure and impatient after listening to your mother, but thank god, now again I feel rejuvenated and relieved," Tara spoke smilingly.
Ramu pulled her and encased her in his strong steadying embrace.
"Now, Tara you let go of these stupid thoughts from your silly mind and now let's return home as I'm in a hurry to talk to my mother," Ramu quipped.
Once home, Ramu called upon his mother to serve him food as he was too hungry by that time. On partaking the last helping of rice, "Ma, why did you marry father?" he asked his mother smilingly.
His mother sniffled through her nose, looked at him then smiled.
"I wanted something more and he was it. We both had big dreams."
"That must have taken a lot of courage to marry my father. He was so different from you, as you always told me about him," Ramu said.
"It was hardly courageous. It was just the only thing to do. We were in love," his mother laughed saying all this.
"Now listen to me Ma," Ramu said slowly, "Listen to me very carefully, nothing is the same. Nothing will ever be the same again. There lives on this earth a girl who can be my wife. Do you understand what a marvelous thing that is?"
"A low caste is a low caste," his mother interrupted, "The whole world knows that."
"If that's what the whole world knows, then the whole world is wrong. If I believe the whole world, I'll lose her," Ramu spoke irately.
"I'd been fighting to be who I'm all my life. What's the point of being who I'm if I can't have the person who was worth fighting for?" Ramu spoke furiously and got out of the room in an indignant manner.
He came back late evening and they argued and then again the next day, and the next. The arguments always started about the low and upper castes and then after four days began to stray out into more interesting topics like, the relationships and the inter-relationships in their families and finally about themselves. The arguments started early and ended late: it was almost improper.
After about five days of this, Ramu's mother realized that her son was going to have his own way, come what may. Ultimately, she had to bow down to her son's wishes by giving a go ahead for him in marrying Tara.
"Oh!!!Thank you Ma," Ramu sprang up in jubilation, giving a tight hug to his mother.
The marriage was fixed for the following Sunday at the temple. There were maybe thirty people in all to attend the marriage. They all wore their best clothes. Tara and Ramu were dressed in the temple clothes according to the customs. The pandit(priest) came and asked Ramu to kneel on the right in front of the statue of goddess and Tara to kneel on the left of Ramu. Then he gave some advice. This is typical of every priest. It included returning to the temple often.
The priest performed the marriage ceremony which sounded pretty similar to a basic marriage oath. Every priest has exactly the same words. After the marriage the guests greeted both of them. The males giving hugs to Ramu and females to Tara.
Later Gangu led all of them to a table spread with village delicacies.
Once when they had all gone to feast, Tara and Ramu went to the nearby rooms in the temple to change their temple clothes to their own. Once back, they mingled with the guests accepting pleasantries. It was evening by then and time to return home with his bride. The guests too had gone back. With tears in Lachmi's eyes she gave farewell to Tara and blessed Ramu when he touched her feet.
Their wedding night was in all truth a thing of beauty: the splendor of celebrations, the hushed intimacy of private talks under the sheets and finally the silent tears in each others arms that of joyousness which went through the night that seemed infinite in it's innumerable dimensions.
"I know, I'm not going be in your head all the time. But once you know me, I will forever be in your heart," Tara spoke out rapturously.
"But already you are!!" Ramu said affectionately.
It was morning and the temple bells started ringing. But for both of them it seemed too early to get up from the tiresome journey of life they had gone through. After an hour, Ramu's mother knocked their door asking to be let in. Tara rapidly swung up, pulled a sheet over Ramu and ran to open the door.
"So, you too had a good night's sleep?" his mother asked mischievously.
Tara hung her head in shame giving an impish smile to her.
"I thought, you two lovebirds would like some breakfast, and I've whipped up something delicious. It's going to be gur(jaggery) porridge for both of you with milk. At least you both require plenty of protein and rehydration," cracked Ramu's mother in a zestful manner.
"Tara, if the woman has the physical fitness and a meritorious luck to bear his children the family is a fortunate one. You know, villagers always look at sterility with a squinted eye, and the misfortune lays solely on the women's part. As such, a childless woman often becomes culprit for her entire life, and I want and expect a grandson from you," Ramu's mother spoke affectionately, putting her hand in Tara's hand.
Ramu's mother started making a loving relationship with her daughter-in-law and Tara too gave her best to make everlasting relationship with her. They usually spent most of their time together and got along with each other. Tara herself was too hard working since beginning.
One day out of love for her, Ramu's mother spoke out to her affectionately, "My son is very lucky to have a wonderful bride like you, and I'm also lucky to have such a sweet daughter-in-law. Knowing you for a month, I can only say that we can drop the 'in law' part now. From today, I won't address you as 'bahu' but by your name only."
Tara felt elated after hearing all this coming out from her mother-in-law who was a tough lady in her eyes. She hugged her and said, "Ma, I'm and will be your daughter always."
Gradually a couple of months passed.
------------------------------------------ONE DAY-----------------------------------------------
"Tara, I want to go to Delhi to earn," Ramu said.
"Cities are murky places------hatching ground for monsters and soulless people live there," Tara replied in a suspicious tone.
"No matter how chaotic the cities may seem, everything about them grows out of a need to solve a problem," Ramu said giggling at the thoughts of Tara.
"And you know, it's next to impossible to make a living here in the village. In the years to come there will be an increase in the family and I would very much like that my children should study and not remain like us totally uneducated fools that we are," Ramu said, suddenly getting serious.
To Ramu, Delhi had seemed like a great place to discover who you are. It just seemed to him there was a lot to experience here, as if all you had to do was show up and the city would take care of the rest. But he never knew that a city, that too, a metropolitan city like Delhi pulls back the curtains on who you are; it tests you and shows you what you are made of.
After a week, Ramu packed his bag to swap the sleepy suburbs of his village Shamli.
The travel blog he always had floating around in his mind had finally eventuated. Now, he finally had the time to sit down and dedicate his attention to make it a reality.
Teary eyed, Tara and his mother came to see him off at the bus stand.
"Now look here Ramu, as you are going to the big city and you know living in a big city can add to your mental clutter and less access to nature, so don't get caught up in the daily grind of the work and life and become weighed down with worries. Do keep on writing to us about your health and work and don't forget to communicate with Tara too. You know she's three months pregnant and do make it a point to return at frequent breaks," Ramu's mother tutored him with sobs.
"Why do you worry Ma? I'll be back within a few months," Ramu said, hugging his mother and Tara in both his arms.
The bus arrived and he was off to a new world of opportunities after an eighteen hour journey.
For Tara, it was more affliction than affection which literally knocked her down at night, and raised her up in the early morning, for when she dragged herself off to bed, having spent another day without his presence. Her heart beat like a gloved fist against her ribs, and in the morning when the sun was up in its glory, long before, she was fully awake. She felt a longing so bitter and tight, it yanked her out of sleep swept clean of dreams.
"Oh God!! What's wrong with me? Why does nothing ever work out?" murmured Tara to herself.
