The Life and Adventures of Naushati Lal- 1.2 Lost and Found

Naushati Lal couldn't remember when he fell asleep but when he opened his eyes Kichlu was nowhere to be found. Confounded as he was, Naushati Lal left in search for his only friend- the piglet, which his mother bought as a birthday gift for him.

A lean clumsy figure, wearing only a long ragged shirt covering him till knees, he wandered in the village for the whole day. By the time he reached home, he had stopped crying. Face- covered with layers of dust and trails made by tears and running nose- was no better than his feet. He heard the voice of his mother scolding him for being lost the whole day, when suddenly he spotted dried blood in the corner where Kichlu often used to hide. The memories of last night flooded his mind. Next moment Naushati was on the streets again, only this time he was not crying but was red with rage and hate.

By the time Naushati reached the woods outside the village, the sun had already set. He kept running towards the thick woods on the terribly rough road. He fell three times, injuring both his knees, before reaching the woods. He cried aloud his friend's name repeatedly. He kept wandering into the woods, crying and often wiping his tears to keep his vision clear. He would run for sometime and would stop sometimes trying to hear his friend's voice or the hunter's. By the time it was dark, he could take it no longer. He stopped near a big tree, ran around it few times until he stumbled and fell. He gave a loud shriek. Naushati Lal then stood up and stared at the tree for sometime. He picked up a stone and hurled it at the tree. And as if taken by a fit of rage, he continued pelting stones at it.. He then ran towards it and started pushing it, hitting it as if trying to root it out. Failed, and overwrought, he sat down under the tree. He cried for some more time before falling asleep.

When Naushati Lal was born, he was upset. His mother lay unconscious for more than a day and there was no one to hear him cry. How Naushati survived that day was no less than a miracle. It was at a nearby clinic where his mother looked at him for the first time. They would later say, "he was no more than a skeleton, with head as big as a two kg melon, and arms so long that they were reaching his toes. No one could dare look at him." His mother looked at him, held him close to her bosom and smiled as if she was laying eyes on the most beautiful thing in her life.

The tree, that was as silent and calm today as it had always been, was equally silent and calm when the new born Naushati cried for almost a day under its thick branches before being spotted by an English lady who also happened to be a doctor.

The Life and Adventures of Naushati Lal- 1.1 Beauty and The Beast

“Amma, am I not beautiful?” Naushati Lal would often ask.
“Yes, you are.”
“As beautiful as Kichlu is?” he asked.
“You are the most beautiful my son.”
Naushati Lal looked at Kichlu. Then he took Kichlu in his lap. “No, Kichlu is the most beautiful. I am next to him. Am I right Kichlu?”

When Naushati Lal turned three, he met his first friend- a piglet. It was a birthday present. He named him ‘Kichlu’. The two became best friends. Neither could live without the other. Naushati Lal found himself in Kichlu. “We are very much alike,” he would say, “He is the most beautiful and I am the second.”
“But Naushati, the pig has a tail and you do not.” Naushati would think and reply, “That’s why Kichlu is more beautiful.”

One night a squeal woke up Naushati Lal. He opened his eyes and did not see anything but a pair of amber eyes. He heard the squeal again. There stood a jackal hardly five hands from Naushati with Kichlu in his jaws. One thing that Naushati did not know was fear and the poor hunter was not aware of this ignorance. Naushati gave a loud cry and pounced on the jackal. In a moment he was lying over the poor canine pumping fists into his belly and had already broken some of his bones. He stopped when he heard Kichlu squealing again. As soon as he moved towards Kichlu, the jackal limped itself out in the dark. Kichlu kept squealing for rest of the night, Naushati Lal kept crying and the poor jackal kept howling.

Next morning Kichlu was gone.

The Life and Adventures of Naushati Lal- 1.0 Prologue

Naushaati Lal and Munnat Lal never met each other in their whole life. In fact the two lives spanned mutually exclusive territories on the calendar.

Naushati Lal, as they would say, was the second most strong man in the village. It was said that he had killed an elephant with his bare hands. Naushati Lal was also the second most fast man in the village. He was once chased by a locomotive but he easily outran the machine. When Naushati Lal died, he was happy. Naushati Lal, as they would say, was the most unintelligent person in the village.

Munnat lal despised the English so much that he did not take his sick wife, who was in labor, to the only clinic in the vicinity. The clinic was run by an English lady. Munnat Lal, rather, decided to take his wife on a drive in a bullock-cart on a dreadfully rough road to help her in the final stages of the labor. Munnat Lal, as they would say, was the strongest man in the village. He was also the fastest man in the village. Munnat Lal, who was the father of Naushati Lal, was also the most intelligent man in the village.

When Munnat Lal died, he was happy too.

End of introduction.

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."

Daddoo's Battered Half

"What should I do with it?" Daddoo asked.

"Cut it in two equal halves."

"Aren't halves always equal," asked Daddoo,"and two in numbers?"

"Sometimes."

"And sometimes...," Daddoo wondered.

"...they are not equal."

"But they are halves!"

"Yes, each could be a half. A half from a different 'one'."

"What about the original one?" asked Daddoo.

"Which one?"

"The one we got halves from."

"Which one? Where is it?"

"Of course it is no longer there."

"Then it doesn't matter."

"Am I stupid?" asked Daddoo.

"Half."

Born on a Train

"She was holding him tightly to her chest."

"Did you hit her?" asked Daddoo.

"All of us."

"How close was she holding him?"

"I could see his eyes."

"What was in there?" asked Daddoo.

"We all died yesterday. On a train."