Fate

The village of Barbaruah is about 12 km away from Dibrugarh. A happy and perhaps progressing village is it. In that village, once lived a Nibir Saikia.

  Nibir Saikia lived in a joint family. He was drenched in the mud of crisis. Nibir worked at the electricity board, and was the only earning member of the family of seven. There was also an outsider whose income was greater than the rest of the family members, it was the cow. It was probably because of this, that Nibir's father Raghuram Saikia called his two elder sons "worse than a cow".

  Now, you might be thinking how a cow can be an earning member. Well, simply because it was a female cow. The cow alone made a sum of 9000 bucks in a month. This money, along with Nibir's well respected 37,000 made the family run well.

  This wellness was, however, disturbing for Raghuram Saikia, Nibir's father. It was too perfect to be real for him. He wondered why God was being so merciful. He doubted this perfectness as the calmness that comes before a violent storm. Raghuram's problem was that he wondered too much. So, when the above mentioned train of thoughts started in his mind, it broke his sanity and drove him partially mad. He was too old to be taking stress. Sometimes he knew it, but most of the time he ignored it. That led to his becoming bed-ridden. His tensions drew him closer to the vast blackness of death. He started to see the end. He knew it would be very soon. His life suddenly seemed useless. Someday, he will take in his last breathe without even knowing it. After that he would be forgotten. His mere picture would be eradicated from the minds of his own sons. Now, this thought haunted him. It was his mental disease to worry.

  There were seven members in Nibir's family. Raghuram, Nibir's wife, his son, his two elder brothers and their wives. Raghuram didn't like to feed on his son's money, so he fed himself on the cow's earnings. But the other six members were fed by the money of both Nibir's and the Cow's, put together.

  Nibir's elder brothers were jobless. Also, they were reluctant to do any laborious work, because of their laziness. They were okay to feed on their brother's money. But their wives were envious of the fact that Nibir was the only person in their family who earns. One day, one of the envious wives, planted the idea of farming in the jobless brothers' minds. They were reluctant at first, but the continuous yelling of their wives made them leave their laziness. It was decided that they will do farming. But to do farming they needed a decent piece of land, and to get land they needed money.

  There may be hundreds of job opportunities for a poor and illiterate man, but the question is, whether the man would do these jobs? Well, that depends on his circumstances. If the man is in some real need of money, or he can't manage a square meal, he will even agree to clean one's ass for money. But envy is different.

  A man who is envious can't do any of the hundreds of jobs, without once thinking that it will destroy his prestige. Same was with Nibir's brothers. They were envious, not in need. Even though they could do other easier jobs, they chose the harder one.

  Now, for the money they approached to the bank in the first place. But the banker won’t lend them any money, because he thought that they won't be able to return it. Once, they tried to ask Nibir for the money, but when they told the plan to their wives, Rupali and Anu, they scolded them that it would completely destroy their image in the society. At last, after much bargaining, they gathered 2 lakhs, from about half of the village. They bought a neat piece of land adjacent to their house for one lakh and divided it among them into two equal parts. The remaining one lakh was invested in farming the land.

  Meanwhile, their father worried more and more about the peace and prosperity of the house. He was happy that his elder sons were doing something. But still he was worried about the future. About what would happen if his sons fail to succeed in their work? What if their crops get some disease? What if draught occurs? What if ... There were uncountable possibilities of misfortune in Raghuram's head. He was too worried that his illness grew more serious.

  Nibir's family couldn't provide him good treatment, due to the lack of money. Moreover, nobody wanted to lend them any money for they were already in debt.

One day when Nibir was changing Raghuram's bed sheets, which had yellow patches of urine stain, Raghuram said, "I am not going to live anymore. I'll die soon. I can feel my body slowly terminating itself."

"Stop talking about death, father," Nibir gave a sharp reply.

  Raghuram smiled faintly, maybe for the first time in months. Then he said, "When I die and go to heaven, or maybe hell, somebody there will ask me, 'In all those years of your life, what had you acquired?'

  "I will reply, 'I've learnt to smile.'"

 "What kind of reply is that?" said Nibir, jokingly.

 "Well, that's the most befitting reply I can think of. It will certainly make a dramatic effect," Raghuram tried to lift the corners of his lips; instead a sparkling droplet of tear streamed its way across his cheek, "I have done many mistakes my son, many mistakes in my life. Now, I am regretting them. I've learnt why we are always so sad. Why we are always worrying about our future. Why we always get disappointed when something doesn't meet our expectation. It's all because we care too much. We always invest our present for the future, forgetting the fact that, that future will too be our present someday, and on that day there will be a new future. We keep forgetting that it's actually a never-ending loop. Like a whirlpool in the river. It sucks us in. It kills our soul and what lives is only our physical presence. We become machine's which work only for the future, destroying their present. In that way, we will all be cyborgs someday, not human. Every one of us, feels sad for the past, and worries for the future, without even appreciating the existence of the present. Just think what we are. We are nothing. We are born one day and dead on the other. We know that nothing is permanent, yet we destroy our souls in the search of eternity. That's not good. If we always have the option to be happy, then why do we need to be sad? Listen, son. Don't waste your life thinking about the bad that can happen to you, don't work for avoiding the bad. Instead live for the good."

 An awful silence hung in the room for the next few seconds. Nibir was getting pulled down by this gravity... "Seems like you've attained enlightenment!" Nibir laughed the gravity away.

  When he remembered this conversation a week later, tears blurred his vision. Through this blur of his tears, he stared at the corpse of his father lying peacefully dead in the bed.

The next month, the crops were flourishing in the fields. The elder brothers were happy. They had no father to feed, and so didn't the cow. All the money was theirs now, except for Nibir's earnings. They had also made a small garden of vegetables in the backyard. They sold those vegetables and made money from that too. This they used in improving their life standards, rather than paying the debts.

  All the tensions of Raghuram seemed to have shifted themselves to Nibir. He could not bear being in debt. One of the villagers, Badan, needed money for his wife's ulcer operation. Earlier, he had lent money to Sukhiram, the eldest brother. He came to ask for the money. But Sukhiram won’t give him any money. He said that he couldn't return the money without his crops getting sold. Badan knew that they had the money to give him the amount back. After all, they got all the money from the cow and also some more from the sold vegetables. And Badan only lent five thousand. But, still the brothers refused. Badan made a great fuss about that among the villagers.

  That evening, when Nibir returned home, he saw a large group of villagers were waiting in front if his home. He went quickly and asked what the matter was and requested him to return the money.

  "So now you're with those filthy beggars too!" replied Sukhiram, with the tone of arrogance. Sukhiram glared at Nibir. His fiery eyes reflected the deadly fire of pride which has singed him. Nibir saw that fire. He saw it in the eyes of Nandan, the second-eldest brother, too. Nibir went inside his own room without saying a word, opened up his cupboard and took out three crisp notes from the drawer. Then he walked out and gave the notes to Badan. Without making any further fuss the villagers retreated.

  In the midst of the darkness of his own room, Nibir thought about his brothers, after he had the dinner. Their newly acquired wealth had changed them. Nibir knew that they will also build new houses once they get the money from the fields. He had seen other similar incidents in the society. He thought about the brothers all night long and so for the next few days. He grew tired. He couldn't sleep. His dark circles grew bigger. People from his work asked him if he was ill. Even the villagers started to ask.

  About six nights later, Nibir's wife brought him sleeping tablets which Nibir bought for his father.

  "Take this," she held the tablet and a glass of water out towards him.

  "What's this?" asked Nibir, without really concentrating on the question.

  "This will help you to sleep," said she, without even the slightest idea that it was a heavy sedative.

  He took those tablets and for the first time in seven days, he actually fell into a sound sleep.

  It was 12:30 am. Sukhiram got up from his bed to urinate. He went to the open patch of ground behind their house. Loosing up his lungi a little bit, he began pissing. While doing so, he lifted up his head and looked beyond the fence, to his field. His crops were almost finished growing. The magical veil of darkness was covering them. Yet the moonlight pierced through these veils and showed Sukhiram the crops that swayed with the breeze. The gentle breeze brought with it the sound of rustling leaves and chirping of crickets.

  Sukhiram tied his lungi tight again. He turned away from his field and went towards the house. But, before Sukhiram could open the door, he heard a nerve chilling sound. He froze for a moment. His heart skipped a beat. Slowly and reluctantly he turned back and saw what he feared. He was suddenly alarmed. He cried out to the household, "Elephants!"

  His shout was so loud that all the family members woke up, except Nibir. The neighbors also had also heard the terrifying sound. They also started shouting, "Run! Run!"

  The wild elephants had entered Nandan and Sukhiram's farm and started to destroy the crops. The hullabaloo of the villagers caused panic among the elephants. They started to run here and there. One big female among the herd ran at full speed towards Nibir's house. Sukhiram took out his wife and told Nandan to run. Nandan's wife went out too. Nandan noticed that no one of Nibir's family was to be seen. He saw the elephant running towards the house. He knew that if he didn't save Nibir's family, they will all die. He ran inside the house.

  All the villagers ran for their lives. The peaceful silence of the night was shredded into pieces by the villagers' cries. The whole village of Barbaruah created a great hullabaloo.

  "Bou! Dada! Get out of here!" shouted Nandan as he entered the room.

  Nibir's wife was waking up Nibir. But, he was lying unconscious on the bed. She took the pot of water, which was on the bedside, and poured all the water on Nibir. But he didn't move at all. Nandan pushed him out of the bed. He fell on the ground with a thud. But still he didn't wake up. He was breathing Nandan could see that.

  The thuds of the elephant's footsteps were coming closer. Nandan could think of no way to save Nibir. He carried Nibir's son in his arms, then he told Nibir's wife that he will drag Nibir out.

  On that assurance, the wailing woman took the boy from Nandan's arms and ran out.

Nandan pulled his brother. Nibir was too heavy to drag. Nandan took him to the door with all his strength. But suddenly the elephant broke the wall and entered the room. Seeing the huge beast, Nandan couldn't gather enough courage. He left Nibir there and ran out for his life. The elephant wreaked havoc to the room. Then she crushed Nibir's head. She kept stumping her feet on Nibir until the floor became crimson with blood and then the elephant went to another house.

  Nibir's head became a red lump of blood. His ribs, hands and legs were crushed. Outside, his son was wailing and his wife became senseless. The cow got unleashed and it ran somewhere far away. Somewhere where those horrible cries of humans were no more audible; somewhere silent; a place where the owls were screeching occasionally and the night was totally silent...

- Kritaarth

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