The Kurukh's Friend, Chapter 3 - Visitor's Novel

by Ratan Lal Basu
(Kolkata, India)

Following local custom work at the marsh was inaugurated by puza of the elephant god Ganesh, the serpent goddess Manasa and apparitions worshipped by the local people. After the religious rituals, the laborers sang and danced and thereafter haria was distributed among the laborers and they returned home tipsy. They did not forget to keep the haria for the elephants at different corners of the land.

At night, scores of elephants came out to drink haria potted in large earthen vessels and trampled the bushes and thickets, broke off branches of trees almost making the land look a cyclone devastated field making it easier for the laborers to clear it.

The next day before clearing started, fume of an herb was spread to chase away the snakes. The laborers started chopping the bushes and branches of trees with axes, choppers and sickles and clearing the ground with hoes and spades. The birds on the trees fluttered away in panic and the animals in the burrows took shelter in the deep forest.

The clearing started with much enthusiasm. The small bushes of fern, kalkasandi, akchhatti, datura and akanda could be easily rooted out and small branches of all the trees except the mango tree were all cut off and the bare trees looked like skeletons. Nimu permitted the Rajbonshis of the nearby villages and madeshias of the tea garden to clear the debris. Some took them for herbal use and some for fuel wood. Children hollered around and collected fruits of futki, akchhatti and telekucha and nests of birds. A madeshia laborer caught an ichneumon and took it along at daybreak for a good feast. Some snakes were also killed and madeshia laborers took them for eating after chopping off their heads.

In the evening when the full moon spread its charming glare on the marshy land, the mango tree stood like a lonely giant in between the tea garden and the dark forest.

The following day, the laborers started felling the bare trees and the logs were carried by open vans and small trucks to Siliguri for selling to a saw mill contacted by Meghraj. In a few days the lowlands and ditches were filled with sands carried by vans from Chawai bed and now the place looked neat and clean with the mango tree at the middle.

While making payments to the laborers in the evening, Nimu asked them when they would start cutting off the giant mango tree. At this the laborers looked panic stricken and an aged Rajbonshi laborer took Nimu aside and told him that it’s a sacred tree and no laborer dare fell it and told him the legend.

Nimu became perplexed. How could he set up the saw mill with the tree at the middle? For the next few days he tried all the nearby villages but no laborer agreed to perform the sacrilegious job. Nimu too thought of the legend and while he told the matter to Urmila, she too got panicked and suggested him to wait and resell the land after price increase. Nimu got disheartened. Would his long cherished hopes be shattered after so much toil? He thought it would be better to seek advice of Meghraj.

Meghraj told Nimu that he may try to find out laborers from Bihar through some labor contractors but it would take time. While Nimu mentioned the legend his uncle laughed and said, “It is simply cock and bull story of the rural folk�. He explained to Nimu that this is a rare species of mango that grows at some remote areas of northern Bihar. The marshy land was a site for safari camps of the Raikat kings of the Baikunthapur estate and it is quite likely that the tree had grown from some mango seed thrown by the them in course of their safari camping.

Meghraj’s argument was convincing to Nimu who returned home triumphant and thought of the time likely to be taken to contact Bihari or Nepali laborers from outside. Suddenly an idea came to his head. Last month Urmila had painted her hands with beautiful tattoos. Anchai Devi had paid the godna-expert Madeshia girl Saiba a higher fee than she demanded. She, later on, told Nimu that the girl is miserable. Her husband Etwa had lost his job at the closer of the tea garden he worked in and the company did not pay the dues of unpaid salary and provident fund. She has three children and old widower father-in-law. The husband and wife now perform odd jobs to run the family.

The reminiscence made Nimu ebullient and hopeful. He would offer unemployed Etwa the job of a permanent porter in the shop if he agrees to fell the tree and to come out of financial problems Etwa must agree. Next morning he took a rickshaw for the shanty of the laborer near Denguajhar tea garden.

The shack with thatched overhanging roof stood on a small plot of occupied railway land. The rickshaw could not move along the narrow path to the house and Nimu had to walk to the house and while he called the name of Etwa, he and Saiba came out with smiling faces revealing their ivory white well set teeth. The children also jostled around their mother. Saiba who wore a red bordered white pandhat like the Rajbonshi fota, the sari worn from above the breasts up to the knees with neck and legs bare, took out a bamboo mora but hesitated to ask a rich Marwari to sit on it. Nimu assured her and sat right on the mora and told them about the job. Both of them were elated at this and thought that Dharmesh had heeded to their prayers.

Nimu was honest enough to disclose the reason why he could not find local laborers for the job. This made the faces of Etwa and Saiba pale. The tree was planted by Mahadeva who is none but Dharmesh himself. How can he fell down such a sacred tree? Saiba said unequivocally,

“Sethji, we are poor, but considering the well being of my kids I cannot let my husband fell a divine tree and incur the curse of the deities. You ask us to do anything else and we would oblige, but not felling the sacred tree.�

Utterly disheartened, Nimu made for the rickshaw and noticed Etwa’s old father Dhanesh beckoning him from behind. He stopped short and Dhanesh coming close to him asked straight away, “If I myself perform the assignment would you offer my son the job?�

“Certainly, but at this age, can you fell a vast tree?�

“Yes I still have the prowess. I’m the best axe-man around here. I’ve lost strength with age indeed but I could compensate with skill and technique.�

“Have you seen the tree?� Nimu queried.

�Why not? I’d been an employee of Rosemary garden and used to see the tree everyday. Then there was labor trouble and I was among the retrenched. Fortunately my son then got the job. Now see he too has lost it.�

“But people say it’s a divine tree.�

“I don’t buy it. Dharmesh and Singbonga reside in sal trees, not in mango trees. Moreover, my wife was a Birsait Munda and their family influenced me to become a Birsait in faith and since then I don’t subscribe to the tribal superstitions. I, however, stick to the basics of sarna to love nature and plants.�

“If you love plants, how could you kill a vast tree?� Nimu said smiling.

“You know the government and thieves, sponsored by the politicians of the ruling party, are destroying the entire forest. What additional harm could be unleashed by felling an isolated mango tree?�

“Talk with your son and daughter-in-law and then take final decision.�

“No need to consult them.�

“Then come to my gaddi tomorrow and I’ll take you to the spot.�