This Could Have Become Ramayan Chamar's Tale

by Subimal Misra

  Bipinchandra Pal

  ‘There’s no straw on their roofs, no clothes on their hips, no rice in their stomachs – but even such poor and helpless people could go at any time to the East India Company’s police stations and record their complaints against the mighty and powerful zamindar’s oppression, and if they had evidence and witnesses, they could bring him to the court of the English and make him stand in the accused’s cell.’

  Diary

  Ramayan is the beloved creation of my pen, my inheritance. As I write, I can see that it has become an obsession. I’m unable to discard a single situation. I also read about other things, and so, in a scattered way, I managed to read something about Premchand. In my own way. In a somewhat inconsistent manner. A question arises, why didn’t Premchand meet Rabindranath despite numerous invitations of various kinds? Was he avoiding it, or was it the pretext of not having time? Or something else, something different? Something else, something intense. I already knew then that Premchand had uttered the word ‘effeminate’ regarding Bengali novels; about Shantiniketan – ‘flower vase’, a floral decoration. Of course, nothing is revealed by all this, logically speaking. For that matter, not even the piece of information that Munshi-ji used to hang a picture of Khudiram in his room. After that, I re-read Kafan through the night. Two at night, sleepless, by candlelight, as there was load-shedding. The relationship takes on more faces, questions keep springing up in Ramayan Chamar’s tale, all slippery and inconsistent. And so the night was spent in this manner, the smell of the burning wick emanating from the melting candle. Even the squirrel had assisted in bridge-building, and that’s why it received Lord Rama’s blessings. What did Rabindranath receive – he got the people’s unstinting love – isn’t it? The man had terrific gall, in that era, so it was suicide that he chose.

  Pir Ali’s song comes wafting in from far away

  [This extract is to be sung by two persons, the writer

  and Ramayan]

  ‘You can shoot and kill me, but you can’t make me surrender. I fight for the exploited, I protect the honour of women. This land shall one day belong to the one who ploughs it. Even if you people kill me, this is going to happen. Behind me are many more like me, queuing up. They shall come – they will come – they will keep coming.’

  Panu Mullick: ‘But what do the people say?’

  Bimal babu: ‘Let it pass, you can’t retain your dignity if you listen to what each and every one says at all times … we can think about the people at the time of elections.’

  At first, an entire chapter is deleted. Next to be deleted is the important section where the writer becomes mired in his real-life writing crisis.

  In the following pages, one will find quite a few bits from the history taught by the colonial sahibs, which has been copied without quotation marks.

  The subject matter, arranged according to its loftiness, is lowered and the shot is taken – this use of the camera is a low-angle shot. The villain must be given prominence, he has to be shown like the hero, there’s no problem – use a low-angle shot. In Indian films, the villain is an eternal truth. And at one time, he has to go and rape the heroine. Later, he will also engage in judo and karate with the hero. In such scenes, in order to show the heroine as being extremely helpless, frightened and terrified, take the shot from high above. You’ll see tears come to the eyes of the audience. And at that moment, in order to show the villain’s oppression, take the shot from a low corner – in the distance and from a corner – you’ll see that the flow of tears will be uncontrollable.

  Everyone’s branded

  [Casting new light on the Gandhi assassination]

  Three persons, and sometimes four or five persons, they have headphones over their ears and they keep talking. A strange and ghostly atmosphere, like an El Greco picture; the nation burns in the moonlight and corpses emerge from their resting places, breaking the earth; zombies roam around in all directions, standing at the back, green in colour; snip-snip-snip-snip, the scissors cut away – all the papers are cut, the papers, all the papers.

  This section can never be completed without the readers’ active penetration. The readers themselves enter into the writing, they ask questions, the questions become entangled until finally the writer and reader become one. The sentences marked out by them for query lend another dimension to the writing, can do so, for that matter it can even be that, suddenly, according to one’s mental capability, our regularly employed sense of understanding is altered. The main thing is the reader’s active participation, or else the writing only manifests futility.

  Unseen, the announcer

  Sunlight moves from the upper floor to the floor below, and it keeps descending like that, as if some invisible sweeper were descending along the stairs, from the top to the bottom, cleaning the succession of stairs.

  : Goats will be sacrificed here, in this arena, in God’s name, isn’t it –

  : Yes, actually that zombie – that walking corpse –

  : That’s our nation’s Janak

  : Tell me, tell me, please tell me the name – what happened, why is your head lowered – tell me, the name is being asked for

  The corpse lies covered in white cloth – it does not say its own name.

  The writer’s slippers left outside, grey with mud.

  : Now I can understand, I can understand that you are one of the murderers

  : Some people can use the power of their will over the dead – draw them out of the grave, and get them to do things

  : I get that – I get it that you’re one of the murderers

  : And were also the killer of Archimedes long ago

  : Yes, went to kill Kingsford, but two innocent lives were lost

  : All of it, everything, and in this manner – whatever is our pride and whatever is shameful

  : We were educated but have no taste … isn’t it, master, isn’t that so

  : Nothing begins and nothing ends

  : Does the programme consist only of all this?

  : No, the programme takes form gradually. Over many days, in the very process of going beyond bounds –

  : What happens after this?

  : Nothing at all, nothing in particular, however, for the protection of the elected members of the legislative assembly, more and more policemen have to be posted all around

  : And our polity – I mean, what’s to become of democracy?

  : What does Ramayan-da say about this?

  : I don’t know, but there’s one thing he often says – if, like Lord Rama, the ghost of upholding truth possesses you, then you’ll have to go and weep in the forest and someone will come and run off with your beautiful wife

  : Master! Look! Civilization’s tail has caught fire

  : Really, a terribly heart-rending enticement

  : Look here, I am what I am

  : Actually there was no purpose for all this, for all these things.

  It was completely burnt, wasn’t it, everything had to be prepared anew

  : Master, look, see the whole place is redolent with the odour of illicit liquor,

  wavy images are flooding the screen

  A dark green Ambassador follows them

  keeping a few feet behind.

  : The incident took place in public, on the road, at noon, among lots of people, isn’t it?

  : That was just the commencement, I don’t have anything more to say in this regard

  : You say it wasn’t planned?

  : Look here, if I have to say it, then I’ll say it was not the associations and assemblies of ten or twenty educated middle-class folk but pulling the whole country into the movement that was his achievement

  : Yes, drawing the masses into the struggle and keeping them far away from the struggle of toiling people

  : Do you know, if someone scalps tickets standing more than ten yards away from the cinema hall, he can’t be legally apprehended?

  : But the pair of dragons drawn on the flag – with alluring eyes, staring in
tently at your face

  : I’ve understood everything, but who’ll play the role of Brutus?

  : The zombie can play both roles simultaneously. Has done so many times

  : There’s been a terrible mistake in this regard, Ramayan-da has not been asked about anything at all

  : The police found lots of papers inside the folio

  : Sure they found them, the independence of colonies was sold at quite a good price

  : And the intellectuals were then

  : They’ll stand in front of the mirror and comb their hair in front so that their progressively expanding baldness is covered

  : [pokes him in the stomach, laughs quietly] And what was inside the lockers of the Swiss banks, pal?

  : Master, whether you believe me or not, they used to call this the golden coffin

  : Rubbish

  : In that case, let it be me who sings the ditty, in the way they say it, in tune

  : Say it

  : A for abuse

  B for black-marketing

  C for cunning

  D for dishonesty

  : Actually it was supposed to be this way, exactly like this

  : Believe me, master, everything went away into the files of the external affairs ministry

  : And all these relations – it’s called matrimony or something – the husband-wife sleeping together business

  : If you say obscene things, the censor will catch you – yes

  Far away, the sound of the clock striking 2 a.m. can be heard. The zombie stirs.

  : They have prepared codified ideologies to be employed for specific purposes

  : There has not been any proper discussion with Ramayan-da

  : But is there any notion which has not become old by now?

  : Yes, it’s a fixed pillar, above which is a circular dome, a circular one

  : Nothing begins and nothing ends

  : But all these streams are very useful, at least at present, at this time

  : Look! The zombie is waking up – its hands and feet and head are moving – its eyes are flashing – beware [screaming] the zombie is waking up – beware – everyone beware

  : Damn! It’s green in colour

  : A few thousand times in its lifetime, a few million times

  : What’s the role of the zombie?

  : It should never be prompted loudly or audibly – the ghostly atmosphere gets destroyed by that

  : If Ramayan-da were here, he’d say this is no ghost story

  : But what’s the role of the zombie?

  : It has no consciousness of its own, if one doesn’t speak loudly it can’t hear

  : The day Mother India arose from the deep blue ocean – the zombie shall sing this song as it’s about to enter, and all of us will sing the chorus

  : Good heavens! That song on the lips of the zombie – people won’t understand, they’ll get enraged and throw stones out of patriotic rage

  : I have a nice part memorized, master, it’s very exciting, people will flock to hear, it can be put into the zombie’s voice – [reciting]

  Oh you wicked one, what gall you have

  Go, brother Dushasana, fetch Draupadi

  Let’s see what Bhima, the son of Pandu, can do

  : But that’s Duryodhana’s dialogue

  : It will match the zombie’s voice, master, and everyone will just love it, no one will be interested in knowing the relevance

  : But what if Ramayan-da says something?

  : You and your Ramayan-da all the time – it’s because you pay him so much attention that he lords over you now

  : Of course, master, whatever all of us together decide

  : Nowadays revolutionaries no longer use cleavers

  : But yes, at that time, in the days of revolution, what a song Sachin babu had sung – Ooooh dear friend, knoooow that this spring month was fruitless

  : But love’s imperishable, master, in every age the love story of India

  : But a resemblance is indestructible

  : Only a single wall in between

  : Yes, beneath the arch, in the distance, and within a corner

  In the electric light, one can see a person driving nails into notches in the stone.

  Brow furrowed, the zombie observes the activity.

  : Look, see how the screen sways in the breeze

  : It happens like this and this is what is called ‘nationalist mentality’

  : Within a cordon, confined within a geographical limit, isn’t it?

  : Alexander’s battle against Porus begins – I expect to be treated like a king by a king

  : But Ramayan-da does not talk so vaguely

  : The precise matter is that even if nationalism was not there, love for the nation did exist

  : That’s what we have been made to understand, right?

  : Carry on, sir – carry on – Akbar versus Rana Pratap … Siraj versus the English company … Aurangzeb versus Shivaji – festival of Shivaji

  : But weren’t Shivaji’s Marathas marauders?

  : I’m burping, I ate too much – the chicken was brilliantly cooked

  : [in a loud voice] Come let us become united through struggle – and what’s the rest of the expression? I’m terribly forgetful

  : The people have to be made aware of the goal of complete democracy

  : No, no, that comes in the end – where’s the prompter

  : I have matches – this dynamite’s bad – nothing ignites with one stroke nowadays

  : A thousand lives bound together in a single thread – does the song come here?

  : It is through the struggle against ignorance that one stays aware

  : Yes, yes, that part

  : Instead, why not have this song, master, it’ll be grand, no one’s going to see whether it matches the part, [singing]

  I didn’t come to this world to laugh and play

  We have to serve the mother alone

  : Ramayan-da has a role here – wonderful dialogues [speaks in jatra style], don’t you recognize your mother? She’s everyone’s mother, the ruffian’s mother, the black-marketeer’s mother, the goonda’s mother, the gentleman’s mother, the villain’s mother … this sattu-wallah who sits under the shirish tree, sattu basket and shiny washed brass plates arranged in a little bit of cleaned-up space, around whom is a crowd of rickshaw-wallahs, under the noon sun … she’s his mother too, and then again, also J.J. Birla’s mother

  : But you didn’t mention the names Naxalbari and Srikakulam in the song

  : Mind it, counter-revolutionary thoughts are arising

  : Can’t these names be inserted in the middle of the song, master? That will solve all problems

  : We have to face the frenzy of the intoxicated masses

  : Yes, burnt bedding, broken suitcase, smashed hinge

  : The disavowal of liberation too

  : You could say this is only an imposed limit

  : It’s the second stage now

  : Those who are in their thirties, they won’t understand any of this. Everyone’s a ‘paint-factory craftsman’ now

  : At a meeting of party supporters the other day…

  : Everyone had to shout and scream

  : Yes, the zombie too

  : And this red coat?

  : If I have to explain everything, then I’ll have to laugh like a nincompoop

  : But where will the protest agitation be inserted? It is an ever-changing situation

  : But actually the neck becoming stiff

  : I suppose this is what’s proverbially called spilling the broth on one’s own lap

  : We did not search at first in that direction, there was no need for that

  : How was it reported to you?

  : The exact words were – ‘Please put on your coat quickly, we are waiting outside’

  : In the middle, the trickling stream flows along – that ditty wasn’t taught

  : But it’s taught to everybody

  : There are various things that have not b
een said, it would be unbecoming to make a hue and cry about them

  : The kind of conduct that should be expected of responsible citizens – that lesson too

  : Everything was taught by rote, no one mentioned anything about understanding

  : Despite that, the murder situation was prepared – it was prepared eventually

  : It has to be, there’s only the one subject matter

  : Non-violent cruelty

  : No, the two aren’t the same, master, cruelty may be all right, but violence is not acceptable, it’s against the Constitution

  : The zombie doesn’t have any sense of its own – it’s simply a mobile corpse – it was made to do it

  : In the end is the scene with Ramayan-da engaged in a sword fight with this very zombie, isn’t it? To the sound of drumbeats – a marching song

  : I don’t exactly know the ending

  : But master, the writer says that Ramayan-da himself doesn’t know that his death is not to be at the hands of the zombie but at the hands of his own people

  : Oh, I don’t know much – it’s all ganja-smokers’ conjectures – come on, give me a cigarette

  : We don’t have matches, master

  : All of us know that revolt is a prelude to revolution…

  : What happened to your matches?

  : They’re damp, master, they don’t light

  : So in that case, you had only so much to say to Gandhi-ji

  : Yes, I can only finish him off in the way I finished him off

  : I’ve heard a few hundred thousand dollars were given to get this done

  : But the incident depends upon whom you voted for at the time of the elections

  : Since when have the words ‘false voter’, ‘ghost voter’ and so on been in currency in our democracy, master?

  : So the thing happened in just that way

  : Of course, the reactionaries are not at all self-indulgent dream-lovers, like we concluded

  : It’s because the bullet was fired from two feet away that people are now talking about suicide

  : Nothing begins and nothing ends

  : But what exactly happened?

  : Ramayan-da says that under specific conditions, even as society is sought to be advanced towards people’s liberation, yet so many incidents