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Desarted Land
When Mohan get out of the train, the railway platform was empty. This place is his in-law's home. He works in army as a soldier. Recently his wife is living here with her parents since he was posted at the border of the country. He got a letter from his wife to come and take her along somewhere else. The village was attacked by cholera. After receiving her letter Mohan applied for a leave. It took some time and his application was granted. Then he started his journey from a corner of the country to another. After a long journey, at last he reached at Sonapur rail station, his in-law's village.
It was afternoon. Only the station master was working in his chamber. There was no other person. Last time when he came here, the picture of the station was not same. However, he cam outside the station premises. He expected some vehicles to go to his in-law's house as usual, but he became dishearten when he saw the place was empty too. After that long journey, he had to walk two and half miles with luggage. Daylight was proceeding to the end gradually. He had to hurry. Otherwise it would be difficult to find out the way in darkness.
The village paths were also soulless. Not a single man or an animal was there. Both side of the narrow lane were covered with jungle. The ponds were covered with scum. The farmlands were barren. Some village huts were stood here and there lonely and broken. The village was surrounded by an uncomfortable silence and bad smells of rotten flesh.
Soon the day were at it's end. Mohan stopped in a mid point of three paths. They went in three different directions. He was tired. He had not much energy for a walk in a wrong way. He needed to ask someone about the right direction of his in-law's house. But there was nobody. He was thinking about what to do and looking all around. The daylight was being erased very fast. He had a torch light. But it would not be helpful for him in a unfamiliar area. He was feeling like every living object in this world had demolished except him.
Suddenly he saw a man in twilight, sitting on a broken branch of a tree just beside a pond, facing to it. Probably he was watching something in the dirty water of the pond. Mohan became happy. At least one person who can give him proper direction of the way. He went near him and asked, "Excuse me! I have to go Ramen Acharya's house. Can you tell me the way?" The man didn't response him. But the response came from another side of the road. "Who is that?" An very old man holding a curved stick approached to him in that twilight. Mohan was surprised. Even a few minutes ago the village was totally abandoned, from where these people are coming? But he asked his in-law's address. The old man gave him direction with his shaking voice.
Mohan was walking on a path among those three and entered in a village. He had to cross two more villages to arrive his in-law's house. On the way he saw the place was not abandoned as he thought. Some women with long veil, were busy to sweep and clean their surroundings. Some women were walking to the nearby pond with some kitchenware to wash them. On the steps of the pond some men were brushing their teeth. Over all the picture was just like a beginning of a day. The evening scattered thin darkness everywhere. A slice of moon appeared on the eastern sky. There were many people in the next village. They were busy in their work. But they all were silent.
Mohan noticed a strange thing, when he was passing through the village path, the villagers stopped their work and stared to him astonishingly. He was feeling uneasy. Their gaze were not normal. He paced up to reach his destination as quick as possible.
When he came out of two villages, he expected that he was about to reach his in-law's house. But the path was so long. Suddenly he heard a very light sound of smiling behind him. He turned and saw some of the villagers were following him silently. When he turned to them, they hide themselves from his torch light's focus behind the roadside trees and bushes. Now Mohan became really panicked. What was happening around him? He started walking very fast.
He reached in a village which was familiar to him previously. But this village was entirely lifeless. But when he was passing by a jungle of bamboo trees, he was face to face with three ferocious village dogs roaring at him. When he stepped back, he saw those villagers. He was surrounded by them. Suddenly he heard a very familiar voice. His wife Shyama was there. He came back out of his panic attack situation. Shyama was holding an oil lamp in her hand and smiled at him. Mohan saw, there was neither any villager nor the dogs. Shyama said, "Come with me." Mohan followed her obediently.
When they entered into Shyama's room Mohan's watch was showing it was 8 pm. Shyama placed the lamp into the room and went out in the darkness. After a few minutes she returned and said, "Go to the bathroom and take a bath." Mohan was tired and sweaty. He wanted to take a bath.
After being fresh he entered the bed room. Shyama was sitting there waiting for him. She gave him some dry foods as snack. Mohan was hungry. He started to eat and asked, "Where is others?"
"They are sleeping." Shyama replied.
Mohan asked, "So early?"
"They all are weak after suffering from cholera."
"What was outside there? I mean those people?"
"I'll tell you later about it. Now I have to cook dinner for you. Lie down and take some rest here. I am going to kitchen." Shyama left the room with an another lamp.
Mohan was lying on the bed, probably was sleeping. He was tired but at the same time anxious. Shyama said that others in this house are sleeping. But he was hearing whispers around the room. The windows were closed. He felt some presence at other side and inside the room. Faint sounds of somebody's movements, sound of cloths and bangles, whispering, puzzled him. When the shadows on the wall took human shapes, he decided to go and spend time with Shyama in the kitchen. He felt uneasy in that room.
He took the lamp and went to the kitchen. But when he reached there, he saw through the kitchen door, Shyama was cooking something on oven. She stretched her legs inside the oven. Her legs were burning there as firewood.
It was enough for one evening. He collapsed down there with a loud wail.
When he opened his eyes and became conscious, he was lying on the bed of Shyama. An oil lamp on an upper shelf of wall was creating twists of light and shadow in the room. He sat on the bed. The upper portion of the room was enlighten by the lamp, but the lower portion was covered with thin darkness. He saw Shyama sitting at the door of the room. It seemed she was weeping. Mohan said with fear, "Let me go."
Shyama stopped her weeping and told him, "I can't do this."
Mohan felt sweat on his forehead. "I was your husband. Please don't kill me. Let me go."
Shyama replied, "You were my husband. And that is why I can't let you go now in this night. They are waiting for you outside this house. Me and my other family members are protecting you here. Once go outside, you will be in great danger. Wait for dawn."
Mohan got her point. He remembered what happened at evening. Shyama saved him from that danger. If her intention was to harm him, she could do it easily. But she didn't. He became eased with this thought. He asked, "What happened to you?"
"Not only me. Ours and our neighbour villages have emptied by cholera. When I died, there was nobody to give some water into my thirst. Who were alive, escaped from here. Nobody remained to burn the dead bodies." She stopped for a few seconds. "When I sent you a mail, still then our village was ok. But cholera spread out very fast and ended all of us. My body is still lying where they surrounded you under a bamboo tree."
Mohan was silent. His heart sank into deep sorrow. He loved his wife. But now, she no more belonged in this world. Who was sitting on the doorstep, had teared all the bindings with this world.
"Didn't the station master tell you anything?" Shyama asked.
"He was working on his table. Didn't notice me." Mohan replied.
"If you talked to him, you had not to suffer here. At least you could went back by the next down train." She paused and spoke again, "Now sleep a little. You have to do a long journey again tomorrow. We are here to protect you. Don't worry."
Mohan believed his wife, but the panic was not leaving him. He wanted not to sleep, but his tired and exhausted body was unable to be awake. So he slept there.
When he woke up, it was morning. The daylight was entering into the room through the gaps of the closed windows. Shyama was not there. He opened the window. A fine morning was welcoming him outside. He saw a portrait of Shyama and him hanging on the wall of that room. He took that picture and packed into his luggage. Then came outside and went to that bamboo tree. A half rotten body was lying there. Though it was half eaten by dogs or something, but still he could identify the body. He brought a cutter from inside the house and gathered some dry woods. Beside the pond he prepared a funeral and placed Shyama's dead body on it and flamed the furnace.
When he returned at the station leaving the abandoned villages behind, the station master was watching him with wonder gaping his mouth. He asked him, "Where did you spend the night young man?"
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