‘We watched over Rani’s health. We watched over what she wore. Because we knew that if that fairy-like body got spoilt, Rani would be of no use to us. If she stopped looking good, we wouldn’t need Rani. Just as people sell off old and dry cows to the butcher, we too would have had to sell Rani off somewhere.’
Now Sukhamoy paused for a longer while. He scanned everyone’s faces once. There was a glimmer of reaction in those eyes.
‘But midway, everything was turned upside down. Rani betrayed us. We brought her to this seaside town so that all of us could have some fun. We would bathe her naked. We would be excited all night by the warmth of her body. But she went and died. Not once did she think about all the money that we had spent tending to her needs. Not once was she grateful to us. She didn’t think it necessary to inform anyone. Pop! – and she just died, without anyone knowing. Shouldn’t she have told us before dying that she was going to die? Now, you tell me, isn’t this treachery?’
The three figures now nodded their heads. They agreed that it was treachery.
‘If that is so, if it is indeed treachery, then according to the laws of the civilized world, she deserves severe punishment. But we are decent people. We have faith in democracy. We come to terms with one another to erase differences and bitterness. We can’t lose faith suddenly. Because we’ve learnt that it is a sin to lose faith in humanity. We can’t become uncivilized just because Rani betrayed us by dying suddenly without telling any of us a thing. We can’t go and ask for compensation for Rani from her father. We are decent folk. We wouldn’t go so far.
‘But injustice must be punished. Or else, democracy cannot work, the earth couldn’t go on, the sun and the moon wouldn’t rise and set. Unless those who pollute this sacred earth of god with their unjust actions are punished, why, it would amount to tolerating injustice! A terrible punishment ought to be meted out for the injustice committed by Rani for dying without informing us. For the way she suddenly left us in danger.
‘But we are decent men. We are civilized men. We can’t be rude towards Rani just because she committed an act of injustice. Besides, her fairy-like body gave us pleasure so many times. Considering all this, I have thought of a course of action. We kept Rani. We fed and clothed her well every day. By that token, we can claim something from Rani. By virtue of this claim we want to punish her.’
Rajat, Tamal and Dipen too now screamed out in one voice: ‘Yes, indeed! We’re not yet willing to forfeit all our claims over Rani!’
Sukhamoy laughed and said, ‘I know. I know our minds. I can swear on the whole wide civilized world and say that there’s nothing sinful whatsoever in any of our minds. We know the butcher does not throw away anything from the animal sold to him. He sells the meat and the blood, of course, but the skin, horns and even the intestines are not discarded. We can very well claim a little something from dead Rani. That’s well within our rights.’
The three of them exclaimed simultaneously, ‘Of course we have a right!’
‘We liked various parts of Rani’s body when she was alive. By virtue of the aforementioned rights, we can now cut out all those parts from Rani’s body. There’s no sin in that. Nothing unfair about it. We are merely exercising our own rights!’
As soon as the declaration was made, the three men leapt. With a single pull, they removed the white sheet from the body. The blade of the knife in their hands flashed in the candlelight. They moved speedily and were soon busy cutting out the flesh from various special parts of the corpse. The light from the candle filled the whole room. One man expertly dug the knife in his hand into the left breast and, with a circular motion, deftly took out the whole breast in his palm. The corners of the room were in darkness. The light from the candle did not reach there. Another man cut out and held the fleshy part of the lower abdomen and was about to take his pleasure by licking it with his tongue. The third man cut out the other breast.
Without any further delay, Sukhamoy joined the band. The body was full of gaping craters. Bloody. Sukhamoy pushed and turned the body around, looking for some juicy piece. Nothing nice remained. But among the remains, like an expert butcher, he spotted a bloody thigh. The fleshy thigh was still intact. As if he were slicing off the flesh of a kid goat, he cut out the flesh from the shapely thigh. Then he tried to find excitement by fondling that soft flesh.
The candle burnt in the room, but its light did not reach everyone’s eyes. They were all busy with their lumps of flesh. Their faces were extremely agitated, eyes elated, and a kind of growling sound emanated from their throats. Perspiration dripped from their exhausted bodies, yet they were rapt and busy with their hungers for a long while. The candle burnt dimly and, in its light, their shadows danced chaotically. Lost in themselves, they were aroused by those dissected parts and sections and fantasized about Rani’s live body to the very last moment.
By and by, their movements subsided. Having long nursed those fantasies in their hearts, they dropped down on all fours, like dogs in heat, and panted. Gradually their excitement abated. They returned to their senses. The night was coming to an end. Some arrangement needed to be made about the dead body. Sukhamoy still lay on the bloody lumps of flesh. The heap of flesh was flattened under the weight of his chest and hips as he panted. After a while, he stood up. His hairy chest was daubed in dark blood. Everything in the room was topsy-turvy. Rani’s body now looked the way an animal carcass would after its flesh had been torn out by vultures.
All this while, Sukhamoy hadn’t looked at Rani’s eyes. Now he felt the two eyes staring pointedly at him. Sukhamoy was a bit scared. He turned around and went to another part of the room. Then, with great trepidation, he turned around again and looked. It did look as if Rani was glaring at him. An icy fear seized his heart. His heart seemed to tremble. The room looked spooky in the candlelight. The distorted corpse lay in the middle of the room. In three corners lay the three youths, each one in his own posture. Moving gently, they lapped up their pleasure. And in the middle, the corpse seemed to stare haughtily at Sukhamoy. He felt as if his life was in danger. Opening the window and poking his head out, he gazed at the sea. Dazzling moonlight outside. The roar of the sea floated in. The vast seashore, desolate, desert-like, immense. It was close to dawn now. He felt perturbed. He called out to the other three youths.
They rose quickly, as if from slumber. There was a purple haze of intoxication in everyone’s eyes. Sukhamoy shared his anxiety with them. It was very dangerous for the corpse to be lying here like this. There would be no trace left behind if they went and buried it in the seashore. Everyone would be safe.
Each of them now wrapped up their lumps of flesh in handkerchiefs and kept them in secure places. They could be used again when needed. They then arrived at a decision. It was best to take the corpse outside. If they buried it in the sand it would never be found by anyone. The four of them took the ravaged body outside. Terrifying bright moonlight outside. The roar of the sea nearby was clearly audible. The white moonlight enveloping the ghostly black sea froze each one of their hearts. They were seized by an inner dread. But none of them could say anything to anyone else. The four youths carried the corpse together to take it far away. Moonlight shone on the deep craters in the corpse. They could see how repulsive the dissected body looked. Sand everywhere, here and there a clump of thorny shrubs. A flood of moonlight, and the sea’s deep roar. They felt as if they were walking through some terrifying nightmare landscape. As they walked on the soft wet sand, they made four sets of heavy footprints.
Sand blew in the wind on the seashore. Gusts of chilly breeze hit their faces and eyes. Every now and again, the moonlight, the sea and the dark earth appeared to become one in their eyes. Nonetheless, they trudged on in search of a safe refuge where Rani’s body could be hidden from people’s sight. But they could not find a suitable place. As they walked, their bodily strength began to wane. Their legs ached. Their chests heaved. They realized they were exhausted. They did not have any more strength to lift and carry th
e young girl’s corpse any further. Very soon, they came to a halt. They looked at each other’s faces, trying to find some answer. Finally, putting the corpse down on the sand, they sat down in a circle, gasping for breath.
As they sat on the sand, they were struck by a terrible fear. They could not help hearing their own hearts thumping. The thumping seemed to fuse with the roar of the sea. In that primitive desolation, these four living beings grew increasingly perturbed for some unknown reason. They examined each other’s faces again and again. But they were unable to say anything. Nothing remained to be said. Sukhamoy was the most worried of the lot. He felt an icy chill inside him. He spotted a palm tree across a sand dune. He saw the seashore stretching to the horizon. He saw the terrifying black sea. Nothing was clearly visible. But the sound of the sea was unceasing, primeval. It seemed to rush forth and crash into his ribs. Gazing at all this, his eyes finally returned to Rani’s corpse. He felt the two eyes now stare terrifyingly at him. He tried to turn his face away. But Rani’s face seemed to pull at him. Helplessly, he looked at it again. Even his spine quaked in fear. Rani stared at him and smiled.
Sitting in that seaside moonlight, Sukhamoy broke into a cold sweat. What was this! Bravely trying to steel himself, he looked again at the dead face. Now he saw Rani’s face melt into tears. Tears flowed out of the corners of the eyes and down her cheeks. Sukhamoy rubbed his eyes. He tried desperately to be normal. With the back of his hand, he wiped the sweat off his brow. Rani’s blood was still on his hands. Cold, dark, congealed blood.
Something strange was happening to Sukhamoy now. He seemed to have lost the ability to think. A trembling sensation swept through his entire body and rose up to his head. Attempting to reach out and touch the youth sitting beside him, he saw that he too was staring fixedly at Rani’s face. Sukhamoy looked at the faces of the three men in turn. The shadow of terror hung over all three faces. They were now seized by an awful terror. They did not want to sit any more in this deserted beach with the hideous corpse. Sukhamoy’s body turned to ice. The deserted seashore in the vast moonlit darkness seemed to be full of only darkness and more darkness. Sukhamoy could not see or hear anything except the deep thunder of the sea exploding in a terrifying roar inside his head. He was at a complete loss now. He had lost all sensation. In front of him, he could see the three youths, terror-stricken, stand up, leave the corpse behind and run for their lives through that impossibly white moonlight.
Sukhamoy’s senses deserted him. For the last time, full of fear, he tried to look at the corpse. Now a smile lit up the face. The very next moment, he saw a look of frightful horror on the same face. And the next moment, he thought the face melted into tears. All feeling abandoned Sukhamoy. He tried with all his might to remain composed. A strange kind of terror assailed him from within. He imagined that if he stayed there any longer, Rani’s dead body would rise again and ask for her lost body parts to be restored. Sukhamoy tried his best to stand up. He wanted to run away from there. His hands, feet, hips – none of them seemed to function normally. Dazzling moonlight showered down haplessly from the sky above, and the steady, immaculate sound of the sea beside.
Moving like a zombie, Sukhamoy wanted to escape from there. As he ran helplessly in that desolate seashore, he felt Rani’s corpse had risen with a terrifying cry. Guffawing, it chased him. It was about to catch him.
1968
Blood
There was a jungle of wild orange berries around the disused path skirting the pond. It extended right till the veranda of the house. The whole place was littered with old stones, parts of the broken roof beams lay scattered around. Observing all this, one would easily think it was a burnt-down house. Hence, fearing snakes and various other such dangers, people never set foot in these parts as far as possible.
Sanjay said, ‘This kind of setting makes it much easier for us. Or else we might have been spotted by people at any moment, and then it would have been difficult to carry out the party’s work.’ Sanjay sat with his legs stretched out. He lit a cigarette. Nripen and Rajiv sat with their backs against the wall, their heads slumped. Rabin still appeared excited, his back erect, arms crossed over his chest. He paced up and down. A candle burnt in the room. Taking a couple of puffs of his cigarette, Sanjay turned and looked at Rabin. He said, ‘Rabin, you don’t look normal at all. That’s not good in such work.’ Hearing him, Rabin suddenly stood still and then he again began walking briskly around the room. Even though he thought of saying something, he didn’t. Then, after pacing some more, he came and said, in a dreamy voice, ‘The man tried to clutch the earth with his hands as he fell.’ Sanjay took another couple of puffs of his cigarette. A jackal howled nearby, from the fringes of the orange-berry jungle. Then it stopped. Everything was silent.
Rabin was pacing across the room. The sound of that – in the midst of the stillness, only that sound resonated, it rang in the four hearts. Rabin clutched the hair on his head with his left hand, then released it. He clutched it again, released it again. Once again that dreamy tone came from his lips, ‘The man didn’t realize my intention even a moment before he fell.’ Sanjay’s head was slumped, he lit another cigarette. He didn’t raise his head. In the brief light of the matchstick, his head had a reddish cast. And then there was silence. Again there was the sound of feet pacing. It beat loudly inside the four hearts. Blowing out a lungful of smoke, Sanjay saw that the candle was almost finished. After this we’ll have to sit in darkness, he began to worry.
After a while, Nripen moved. He lifted his head slumped against his chest. He saw the candle was almost burnt out, its smoke ascended a little and dissolved into the darkness. As he watched, he wondered what time it was. He flung the question at Sanjay. ‘What’s the time now, Sanjay da?’ Sanjay coughed a little, cleared his throat and said, ‘I think it’s past twelve.’ ‘But the last train hasn’t gone by yet.’ ‘Then there’s still some time left.’ Once again, everyone fell silent. As if whatever there was to say had been said. The last dregs of the candle burnt now. Smoke rose. Rabin paced, the sound of it audible. Nripen saw all this, heard it. And as he did so, he tried to act normal, he tried to speak. ‘Was he supposed to arrive before twelve?’ ‘That’s what I had heard.’ ‘But we still have to wait.’ ‘By the way, is he coming from Calcutta?’ ‘I don’t know for sure.’ ‘Will he come here?’ ‘We’ve been asked to wait here.’ Nripen fell silent. He again dropped his head to his chest, but before that, he saw the candle burning, the smoke ascending and dissolving into the darkness. Sanjay flicked away the cigarette butt to the corner of the room. The fire’s red was visible in the darkness. Sanjay continued to observe it. He saw that when that red was finally extinguished, the speck of space was filled with darkness. He looked at the candle. He saw that the flame of the candle wasn’t exactly red, it had a whitish tinge. This little bit of light in the room could not be retained for much longer. He looked at the others.
Rabin continued to pace through the room. He was very childish. He had fulfilled his first responsibility all right, yet he was childish. He was uneasy staying silent like this. Sanjay tried to look at his face. It wasn’t visible. Even if it was, it couldn’t be recognized, even if it could be recognized, one couldn’t exactly comprehend anything. He decided to speak. He said, ‘Rabin, what are you thinking about?’ Rabin slackened his pace, he looked towards Sanjay and said, ‘Sanjay da, can I ask you for something?’ ‘What?’ ‘A Charminar.’ ‘But you never smoke!’ ‘Feel like smoking.’ Sanjay took out a cigarette from the pack and gave it to him, took one himself and lit them. Rabin sucked inexperiencedly at the cigarette. He coughed. ‘Charminar is a very strong cigarette, not everyone can smoke it.’ Rabin didn’t say anything. He took another puff. He coughed again. As he coughed, he looked at the candle. ‘Sanjay da, the candle has burnt out, so what now?’ ‘Now darkness.’ ‘Do we have to wait like this?’ ‘That’s what we’ve been told.’ ‘Sanjay da, I’m very tired.’ As he spoke, he chucked the cigarette to the corner of the room. He clenche
d his hair in his fist. Sanjay did not say anything. He puffed at his cigarette. ‘Sanjay da, it’s getting darker and darker.’ Sanjay took a deep puff of his cigarette. ‘Sanjay da, the whole room will be dark very soon.’ Now Sanjay raised his face. ‘It seems like that initially, it’s nothing.’ Sanjay didn’t say anything else. Rabin stopped his pacing and gazed at the candle’s flame. Everything was absolutely still now.
Nripen and Rajiv sat with their shoulders hunched. Sanjay threw away his cigarette. In that desolation, Rabin gazed at the inside of the flame. As he gazed, he saw a rustic boy hunting birds with a catapult in the riverside woods. ‘The man’s chest had been pierced, blood gushed out and welled up and soaked the chest. For a second, I saw that, just before running away.’ The shadows of the two men crouching enveloped their bodies. Sanjay’s shadow was spread out on the wall. The candle burnt. Rabin was gazing inside the light. ‘Do you know, Sanjay da, in my childhood, I wanted to write poetry.’ Rabin paused. ‘But of course, I didn’t write any poetry.’ Sanjay’s face was turned elsewhere, he inserted his hand into his shirt pocket, took out the pack and from it a cigarette, lit it, then blew out smoke and said, ‘You’re still very sentimental.’ At once Rabin retorted, ‘Not at all! If that were so, I couldn’t have killed the man like that and come away.’ ‘I compliment you for that. But you’re sentimental.’ ‘Because I used to write poetry?’ ‘That too.’ ‘But at that age, all boys think of writing poetry.’ ‘No, not all boys, I didn’t think of it.’ ‘You’re special, Sanjay da!’ Sanjay did not reply. He took a deep puff of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke. Once again, everything was silent.
Now the candle’s flame flickered animatedly for the last time and then went out. Everyone, all four of them, saw the light dying. Nripen shifted a bit and said, ‘It has become dark all at once. We have to wait in this very darkness.’ No one added anything to that. A jackal howled again nearby. Nripen wondered what time of the night it was. He thought that the last train must surely have left, none of them heard it. This desolate, burnt-down house, not a soul around, no sounds whatsoever reach here, he thought. He tried not to think of anything. Here, in this darkness, in this wretched darkness, we must wait, just like this! Until he arrives. Perhaps all night. Perhaps until morning. Perhaps eternally. He would come, but we haven’t been told where he was coming from. We haven’t been told how he would come. He would deliver something to us. All very secret. We have to deliver that at a particular place. Rabin would leave with him. He would be in hiding for some days. Right now, it wasn’t safe for Rabin to be in this area. In the darkness, Nripen brought his hand to his chest. Then he dropped his hand again.
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