Where Woes Lie

"Hold these for me."

"What will you do with these?" asked Lob.

"I will throw them one by one." Daddoo said, "Yes, one by one."

"And where will you throw?"

"I don't know," replied Daddoo, "but I must throw."

"Does it work?"

"I can not tell." said Daddoo picking up one of those.

"You should know, then, where to throw."

"Where should I?" asked Daddoo.

"Where woes lie." said Lob.

Jugnu

It was bad to be old. I was a boy once, as rustic as my village was. How beautiful was that place and how rash was our trail! What might have become of that place? I wondered some times if it would it still be there. "I must go there sometime to find myself. Some part of me should still be there waiting for me."

And I decided to go back, to see that place for once.

It was laughing at me.

"What an old fool I must be looking like!"

I knew many such old fools when I lived there. "When are you going to die baba? We cannot wait for the sweets.” We used to shout, “They say the older you die, the more sweets your son will distribute." "But we can not eat this much!" I was quite witty.

"Who said that? Who was there?" I cried. There was no one. I must have heard my voice. It felt bad.

"Has everyone left this place?” I thought, "They must be sleeping." It was quite late in night for a village.

"How can she afford such thing?” I heard my mother yelling, "That crone does not have a dime and she is throwing a treat."

"Why should it bother you?” father said, "She must be saving for this. After all whom she has to spend on."

I was not sleeping. I heard my mother whispering, "I am telling you she must have lot money, that old fly!! She killed her man for it,” she continued, "and must have hidden it somewhere in the house otherwise what business a hound has for that crone."

"You are mad." My father preferred fewer words.

"I am mad!! I am mad!! Your brothers will take your farms and our son will die licking their soles.” she started crying, "I would have sent babu to city school if I only had some money. You think I am dying for myself".

"Babu! Jugni is throwing a treat!!"

"Kandu! Let's go. I don't want to be late."

"Bheela! Are you invited too?"

I saw a group of boys on my porch. And I noticed how young I was. "My mother says Jugni is rich."

"She must be so. She has a dog.” said Bheela, the son of Dhiru potter. Everyone laughed.

"A dog! That is a beast. And baba told me that they both eat from the same bowl"

"Is she so poor?"

"Then how is she going to treat us?"

By the evening everyone in the village was talking about the party, "Has she gone mad? She has invited all the village children."

"How can she afford it?"

"I will not send my boy there. She has a beast in her wretched hut." mother shouted, "And they both eat from the same bowl."

"That dog can attack our children."

"She loves children." Someone said.

"She has never had one.” It was a familiar voice. "She hates them."

"She is a witch!!"

"A witch! A witch!" shouted all the boys and started circling around a burning heap of garbage.

"What is she going to serve us?"

"To what is she going to serve us?"

"May be it's the beast? Or may be it's the Lady who will taste us?"

"A witch! A witch!!" we kept shouting while marching behind the villagers to her little dingy hut.

"Oh! What an aroma was that!" could not forget that moment when we all stopped shouting and rushed inside the hut as if we were mice.

It was coming from the only room which was there. "It must be a trick!! Don’t let the boys eat anything!!"

"She is a witch."

"Beware of the beast."

"But the food smells tasty." said Bheela. I was confused when suddenly I heard a roar. It was Jugnu. He was as tall as I was and as big as a buffalo. I screamed as if something tore me apart.

The villagers barged inside the room. There was a noise coming from inside as if there was an earthquake.

Jugni dadi came outside, yelling. She was coming towards us. I picked up a wooden log and threw at her. It hit her head and she fell down. I ran outside and didn't stop till I reached home.

I stood still for sometime. There was no sound at all. It was the same hut and I could still hear the shouts. "A witch! A witch!" I could still smell the delicious food. I didn't hear about Jugni dadi after that. "Did they kill her that day? Or was it the wooden log?"

I stepped inside. It was dark inside. I could not see anything clearly but the place was hardly unfamiliar to me. I felt like the young Babu I used to be. The room was to my left. I could feel the commotion going inside the room. It was silent now. There was no one there.

I entered the room. I could not see anything. After sometime as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could hardly make out the outline of a bed to my left and that of a small kitchen to my right. There was a large bowl lying at far end of the room.

I was frozen to my bones when I saw two eyes in the dark near the bowl. I could not move an inch as the beast leapt at me. It was Jugnu. I fell down at one end of the bed.

When I gathered my senses there was no one there. It was just me. There were no shining eyes. I could hear my heart beat. "A witch! A witch! A witch!" And then, "A beast! A beast! A beast!"

"Only you came back." I turned my head to my right and it was her face. She had not changed a bit. Still the same old face with white hair falling around her face. "You naughty little rascal! You came back."

I was trying to scream but I felt like I was choking. I tried to run away but she caught me by my hand. I cried, "You are still alive."

"You never let me die.” she said looking into my eyes. Then she smiled, "You are old now, like I was." She kept staring in my eyes.

"I have something for you." She was holding a bowl in her hand. It was the same aroma. "Have it. It's for you only. We have had our share."

She put the bowl on the floor.

I looked at the bowl. It was the same bowl. “They eat from the same bowl” I remembered. I looked at her. She said, “I called you for a treat but you ran away.”

I started eating from the bowl. First I tried with my hands then I sat down on my knees and started eating with my mouth in the bowl.

"Why did you run away?" she asked while she kept stroking my head with her hand. "I will never let you become a beast again."