by Anindya Basu
The LEPERs: Rashtradharpur Government Colony
Srikrishnapur was a small town 22 Km. by train from Howrah station. Sumantro’s only uncle Achintya Sen’s college batch mate Ajanta Auddy’s father, a central government officer, owned a large two storied house near the Rashtradharpur Government Colony, a 15-minute walk from the rail station. Rashtradharpur Government Colony was inhabited by people who were derisively called LEPERs by Achintya, LEPER standing for – Low-class East Pakistani Effeminate Refugee. The reason for Achintya’s revulsion was that these low-class Hindu refugees had totally wrecked and debased the gentle, civil culture of Bengal after they had come over from East Pakistan, kicked out by East Pakistani Muslims.
Achintya and Ajanta were the two toppers in their class, but instead of making them rivals, this had turned them into close friends. Ajanta had invited Achintya for lunch on a Sunday. Which was mixing pleasure with business. Business being assisting each other with preparations for the impending first year exams. Ajanta was quite elated when she saw Achintya at their door. Achintya, who lived with his parents in a concrete jungle i.e. a typical upper-middle-class flat in a monolithic apartment in a congested locality, with the sunlight and greenery banished from sight, gushed at his friend’s spacious two storied house surrounded by greenery. Ajanta warned him, “You know, even roses have thorns. And in this case, we have got more than our fair share of thorns.” Achintya looked quizzingly, but Ajanta refused to divulge anything more.
And the two got busy in serious business. And got up only after Ajanta’s parents forced their books shut. After a sumptuous meal in which Ajanta’s doting parents doted on Achintya for a change and forced him to stuff himself like an overcrowded train compartment, the duo got back to business as usual. After a few hours, Ajanta’s parents asked her to take Achintya for a stroll on the rooftop, before they were to have evening tea. Ajanta agreed, but only for 20 minutes.
On the rooftop, she explained to Achintya, “The stupid, narrow minded people we have as neighbours may think something and pester my parents.”
“You mean they may think we are lovers.”
A giggling Ajanta nodded. “They are still mired in the nineteenth century.”
Sumantro, after strolling about the front portion of the rooftop, started going towards the back portion, when Ajanta caught hold of his hand, and asked him not to go towards the back.
“Why? Do you have treasures hidden in your backyard?”
“Er, there is something there I don’t want you to see.”
“Ha ha. If you don’t want me to see your hidden treasure, then do not.”
“Look, it is not our treasure or something like that. Fact is…”
Achintya was surprised at Ajanta’s strange coyness. A visibly reddened, flustered Ajanta blurted it out, “Fact is, if you go there, you will see girls roaming about naked.”
Achintya fell over laughing. “Ajanta, you are studying too much. You must take some rest otherwise such hallucinations will keep on occurring.”
“Oh well Achintya, you don’t believe. You think I am fibbing. All right.”
Ajanta walked firmly to the back of the roof. And stood there for quite some time. Then she spoke out, “Here she comes.”
She went up to Achintya and determinedly grabbing his hand, almost dragged him there. Achintya saw in the neighbouring house’s garden, a petite girl of about 16, with a bucket of water in one hand and a towel in another hand, walking towards a small detached room with a single door located near the boundary wall. With her back to them, the girl hung the towel on the clothesline running from the wall to the room, pulled off her frock and hung it on the clothesline, pulled off her bra and hung it on the clothesline, pulled off her panty and hung it on the clothesline. Then the completely naked girl, unaware of the neighbouring house observers above, turned around and facing them, walked up with the bucket of water in hand to the small room, and opening the door, went in and closed the door shut.
“Now do you believe me?” asked Ajanta after the two of them moved away.
Achintya, who still could not believe his eyes, asked, “Can you just tell me what’s the matter?”
“Well, you must have got it surely that that small room is a toilet. Now you would like to know why do not they have a toilet in their house. Yes, they do have. But they, especially the girls cannot use the toilet out of fear of peeping Toms from their neighbour’s house’s rooftop. Those shameless peeping Toms have contrived a long periscope sort of thing which they can fit on to a hole in the ventilator, and whenever they see through the open toilet window, a girl entering the toilet and shutting the window, they insert one end of their periscope inside the loose tiles covering the toilet to see the girl undress and…”
“But why don’t the girls’ parents go to that house and inform the house-owner of the rascals’ transgressions? Or better, inform the local guardians of the locality?”
“Well, it is not only the boys living in that house, but almost all the boys in the colony are peeping Toms. In fact, quite often they gang up at a friend’s house to indulge in their peep shows. I have heard that some of them are so shameless that they do not hesitate to peep through holes in toilet doors in their own houses when their own sisters and mothers are inside the toilets. In addition to being peeping Toms, they are also marauding thugs, who care two hoots for their elderly parents. If their parents try to chastise them they would only get filthily abused in return. As for the guardians of the locality, they would be the last persons to protest. After all, they need those boys for their party’s dirty tasks. Yes, the guardians of the locality are members of the communist party and they have drafted those peeping Toms cum marauding thugs into the communist party. And you know that in West Bengal, no one dare speak out against members of the communist party, whatever misdeeds they perform. In the past, some persons had spoken out against those communist thugs. And do you know what had happened to them? They have had their windows in their houses shattered at midnight by brickbats. They have had plants uprooted and stolen from their gardens. They have had rubbish thrown inside their homes. They have had vile, filthy abuses hurled, heaped on them. And worst of all, they have had excreta thrown at their front gates and doors. In fact, being peeping Toms is probably the least of the offences of these communist thugs. They are at their worst when they carry out this Kali Puja of theirs. Playing obscene Hindi songs at the maximum possible volume all through the night. Getting drunk and loitering naked through the streets at night. Climbing up on walls and peeing inside people’s gardens. Raiding the shanties by the rail station to pick up girls with whom they can spend the night. There is no end to their misdeeds. But don’t think the women are all innocent. There are some really shameless sluts who, whenever their husbands are away on business, deck themselves up and indulge in dirty activities with other men in secluded spots.”
Achintya had been stunned at Ajanta’s vivid description of the total moral decay under communist rule.
On his way back, in his car, returning from Achintya — who was still grieving Ajanta and her husband’s death in a Kashmiri Muslim terrorist attack in Haridwar — Sumantro was thinking to himself, “The LEPERs like to have lots of green chillies and red chilli powder with and in their dishes. Their spineless capitulation before Muslim fundamentalists calls for those green chillies to be stuffed down their ass-holes and red chilli powder to be rubbed over their genitals. The LEPERs are extremely fond of fish. Instead of chewing up the bones of the fish they could transplant those as backbones in their bodies. They could also do with infusions of the red blood of the fish in their arteries and veins.”
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