English Literature – Juvenile Fiction ☆ The Tide of will – Part-2 ☆ Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury

Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury

Brief Introduction

• Birth – January 18, 1955
• Education – MBBS (IMS/BHU)
• Publications – 4 books (2 in Hindi, 1 each in English and Bengali) and two are yet to come.
• Translations – Books and articles are translated in English, Odiya, Marathi and Gujarati.
• Awards – CBT awarded stories and novel, “Kamaleshwar Smriti Katha Award (2013, 2017 and 2019)” by Kathabimb.
• Honour – “Hindi Sevi Samman” by Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Wardha (December 2016). 

☆ Juvenile Fiction ☆ The Tide of will – Part-2 ☆ Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury ☆

The Nest

It’s said that the land of Kerala is God’s own country. The lush green fields are there everywhere to see. And Haripadam is a non-descript village on the bank of the river Pampa. Quite unseen by most of the people.

There are a few important festivals widely celebrated in Kerala. In April when it’s the time to sow the paddy in the field, it’s Vishu. Mostly observed by the Malayalis and the Tuluvas communities. In August September, when it’s time to harvest the paddy from the fields, they celebrate Onam. Then there is Thrissur Pooram, but Onam is the most important among all.        

By his habit Sasidharan Narayanan was an early riser. Everyone in the village respected him deeply. It was his daily schedule to walk up to the bank of Pampa for a dip in the river. After having a bath there, he usually came home for his morning meditation and worship.

One morning Gayatri was already awake while he was getting ready for his early morning rendezvous. She came out rubbing her eyes, ‘Appupan, I want to go with you.’

‘Is it? Will you swim in the river?’ he patted her head.

‘But I don’t know how to swim. How can I?’ she was a bit scared probably.

‘Oh, certainly your appupan will be with you. Then why do you worry? Well, get ready soon. Otherwise we’ll be late and the sun will start glaring. It’ll be pretty hot then.’

A few met him on the way. They exchanged the usual pleasantries. He reached the stony platform from where the steps were leading down to the river. Next, he took off his full sleeve shirt, readied himself and dived into the water.    

Little Gayattri decided to see everything only from above. She thought, ‘It’s better to stay here at a safe distance. Well, I’m not going to dive into the water. Oh, god, it scares me!’

Narayanan was swimming. He called out from the deep water, ‘Come on Gayatri. You too can do it. Come and join me. At least you take a dip today.’

Gayatri became quite nervous, ‘Oh no, appupan, not today. But some other day I’ll try.’

‘My dear kuchumol, always remember, fear is not a friend but it’s our foe. So….’ Narayanan came out from the water and climbed up the steps, ‘be brave. If you don’t dare how can you go ahead in your life?’

However Narayanan ultimately decided that it was better not to press much. He thought, let her take her own time. He had patience and he knew lessons could never be imparted like bullets. One must wait whole night for a sunrise. Both of them returned home and merrily he roared with laughter, ‘Look, Gayatri didn’t take a dip even in Pampa. O my god! You being my kuchumol, how could you get so much scared?’

Gayatri’s father Manishankaran was sipping his morning coffee, sitting in the courtyard. He said to his father, ‘Achchan (dad), every day you go to Pampa. Why don’t you take Gayatri with you daily? She could then learn swimming at least. Won’t it be good for her?’

Mani had a busy schedule. Every day he had to leave home a bit early. He would catch a ferry to cross the river. Only then he would be able attend his office in Kottayam. By the time he returned home every evening, darkness dawned upon the place. So he didn’t have much time.

Narayanan smiled back to his son and went to the room of worship. It was his daily morning ritual.          

By the time everybody went in, something unforeseen happened. And Gayatri had to run to protect her little brother, Rajan, who had just learnt to walk lately. He was sitting there on the floor picking up the puffed rice with his small hands and eating them one by one. He was quite busy in his job. Unmindful of an uninvited guest who had appeared on the scene. It was a crow, sitting on a tree, wobbling its head and eyeing everything. It was an easy opportunity for the bird. It flew from the tree and swooped down near the child. Full with confidence, the crow was marching ahead.   

After washing her legs in a corner Gayatri was hanging his grandfather’s wet clothes on the washing line. The moment she saw the crow nearing her brother she shrieked in fright, ‘Hey, go away. Amma, there’s a crow.’ 

In the meanwhile, rubbing her both the knees, Gayatri’s granny, Lalithambika came out too. Because of her knee pain it was quite difficult for her to walk properly. She called out to Gayatri’s mother, ‘Oh, Ananti, just see for yourself what’s going on. Hey, you black bird shoo, shoo! How dare you come near my grandson?’ waving her hand she tried to shoo the crow away.

But the crow didn’t bother a bit. It knew pretty well that the old lady was not capable of doing any harm to it.

‘Oh Gayatri, where were you? Why don’t you take care of Rajan?’ her mother, Ananthi, dashed out from the kitchen.

But Gayatri was already there. The saviour of her brother. With stretched arms she took Rajan in her lap and started pampering him,

‘Go away O’ black crow, come not to my brother!

 A fairy comes to kiss the little emperor!’                           

Ananthi was the engine of the whole family. It was she only who would look after every household affair. Not only the cooking but she had got loads of stuff in hand to do every day. From early morning, just after Narayanan, she would get up and start her daily routine in the kitchen. Next she would make the prayer room ready for her father-in-law. Besides, she would buy the vegetables and remember the due dates of various bills and all. It was she to remind Narayanan, ‘Achchan, today you’ve to deposit the money for the electricity bill.’         

Moreover, Lalithambika, her mother-in-law, was not keeping well lately. Ananthi would send her for a medical checkup. Although she had been suffering from knee pain, nevertheless, she was a great helping hand to Ananthi in her household chores.

Many a time Mani had suggested his mother, ‘Amma, let me take you to Thiruvananthapuram. I’ve heard the Ayurvedic centre over there treats this type of cases successfully.

 But Lalitha denied out right, ‘No no, I don’t need all those treatments. If only the god Padmanabhaswamy would wish, I’ll be alright and reach his holy abode of Vaikuntha.’

Hearing this Narayanan would laugh and say, ‘Of course. The god Vishnu would get up from his bed of Anantanaga, the snake god, and welcome you himself, ‘Come Mrs. Lalitha Narayanan, well, did you have any problem reaching here to my abode, Vaikuntha?’

Everyone would laugh at this type of verbal exchanges.

It was in this kind of nest Gayatri was being brought up.

Her grandparents were very much fond of her. And now it was she, around whom the retired headmaster Narayanan had been weaving his hopes. He would dream of her future and quite often ask himself, ‘But how -?’ 

Contd…      

© Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury

C0ntact: Care Dr. Alok Kumar Mukherjee, 104/93, Vijay Path, मानसरोवर, जयपुर, Rajasthan 302020