Extracted from Meleng Pp: 79-82
Translator - Gitanjali Das
“Not Peer Ghat, more like heaven’s banks,” Meher Ali
murmured looking at the soi made with
jengou paat, “Since the meleng
will be anchored there, I will have to decorate it.”
The Longai’s water was still rising. The sandbank was under
knee-deep water now. Despite the discomfort, everybody was making melengs. Meher Ali had decorated the soi with dexterity. Meher called Irshaad
and pointing at the soi, asked, “Oi. How does it look?”
“Wow! Amazing,” he went inside the soi and checked it. He came out and said, “Is the kundhi broader compared to last time?”
“It has to be.” Meher said in a teasing tone, “Will the melengial alone go inside the soi? Many dreams will also sail.”
Comprehending the implied meaning of the words,
Irshaad laughed.
 |
MELENG
Basanta Das
AnGik Prakashan, 2005
Rs50, 148 pages
Hardcover/ Novel
|
“We will sail at such an hour,” Irshaad said, “so that we
reach Peer Ghaat late at night.”
“Eh! Don’t boast
so much,” Meher Ali chided, “I have experienced much to reach this age. Get me
some tobacco in a silim.”
“There you are!” Irshaad thought looking at his chachajaan’s face, “Chachajaan makes him run on such errands taking advantage of his
weakness.” The hookah was already in chachajaan’s hand. He snatched the silim from the hookah and went inside the soi.
No fire burnt in the kundhi’s kitchen
yet. He took a tikira from a
container, prepared the silim and
attached it to Meher’s hookah.
At that moment they heard Nimai Das’ voice from the edge of
the river bank. He carefully climbed down the bank.
“So why are you so late?” Meher said, “I was waiting for you
at the bus-stop.”
“I am late because of problems at home.” Nimai said, “You
already know, bhaijaan. We are a joint family. My wife and sister-in-law are
always fighting with each other. Now my wife won’t take it anymore. Now our
family has broken into two.”
“Eh! That is too
bad.” Meher said, “Nimai, there is never any happiness in a family that is in
debt, in ill health and quarrelling. Sort out the problems with your brother
and bring him back home.” After a moment of silence, Meher asked, “When will
the meleng set sail?”
“I have sent the helpers day before yesterday. They have already
built the bamboo pola. Once the melengs are tied, we can go upstream.”
Nimai asked, “Are you leaving right now?”
“We were thinking about it.”
“All right. Go. We will follow.” Seeing the swollen river,
Nimai said, “Pray for us, bhaijaan.
See how the river is in spate.”
Meher looked towards the river! Huge currents were forming
in the frothing water of the river that had turned saffron from eroding the red
soil from the mountains. The damaged trees were signs of the devastation caused
by last night’s storm.
Meher smiled. He looked skywards and said, “The badshah of the world exists. If Krishna
wishes to save who can kill, if Krishna wishes to kill who can save?”
Irshaad rolled with laughter like an imbecile. Meher looked
at him askance and asked, “What has gotten into you that you are laughing like
that?”
“Krishna’s name on a miya’s
lips”, he kept on laughing.
“Bopai o. He who
knows only one religion,” Meher said, “does not know any religion.”
Meher burped all of a sudden. He took out a container from where his lungi was knotted around his waist and
popped a pinch of soda into his mouth.
“Bhaijaan!” A shocked Nimai looked at Meher’s hands and
asked, “Didn’t the three doses of medicine work?”
“It did.” He said sheepishly, “But then you asked me to
avoid eating two things, no?”
“Yes. Bengena and xukan maas.”
“And?” Irshaad added, “And what about xukan jolokia?”
Nimai said, “Iss iss,
you made a big mistake bhaijaan.”
Nimai’s eyes had fallen on the soi on the meleng and he
observed, “The soi looks different.”
“Is it nice?” Seeing the silim
dying out, Meher took a few quick puffs till it started glowing again and
extended it towards Nimai.
“Will you smoke?”
Nimai took the silim
and after a couple of puffs said,
“The meleng looks
like a zamidar’s pansoi.”
Meher laughed raucously.
“The flame of gunaah
will burn inside the soi.”
Irshaad was tying knots in the meleng. Provoked by what his chachajaan
said, he retorted, “Nimai chacha. Our
chachajaan always keeps talking about
gunaah. Tell me who does not have a
fault? Only the dead and the babies do not. Are we dead or babies?”
“Era! Irshaad has
learnt how to speak!”
“Nimai,” Meher said, “I am talking to you. Why should this
little boy interrupt the conversation between two old people? Insolent boy!”
“It’s ok bhaijaan.
He is young.” Nimai said, “I forgot to tell you the main thing. It’s my
daughter’s wedding. The 17th day of ahin.”
“That is very good news.” Meher said. “Where are you
marrying her off?”
Nimai said sadly, “What do I say, bhaijaan. Foreign land, in Jagiroad.”
“Jagiroad! Are you still a frog in the well?” Meher Ali said
laughing, “Are we not people of Axom?”
“We are.”
“Then how can Jagiroad be foreign land?”
“Meher bhai, do
you know why I called it foreign land?”
“Why?”
“Isn’t the language different there?”
“It’s different, yet the same.” Meher said, “When we say
‘kita’, ‘kita’, do you think it is Bangla? It’s a branch of Axomiya. The tree
has grown strong with all these branches. We are Axomiya because we are all
part of this tree.”
“I did not understand you.”
“You did not understand?” Meher closed his eyes for some
time and searched in his mind. Finding his expression, he said suddenly, “From
Sadia to Baxirhaat, Jonai-Darranga to our own Hailakandi, the same Axom has
many different dialects. Does that mean that the people from one place will
call another place a foreign land?”
“Ok, I undertand.” Nimai said, “That means the girl will not
go far from home.”
“What does the boy do?”
“He is a trader in xukaan
maas.”
“That is good. She will live happily.” Meher said, “Invite
me, alright?”
“Why won’t I, bhaijaan?”
Nimai bid farewell and waded noisily through the water towards his melengs.
Meanwhile, Irshaad split the two ends of the logi and then flattened them a bit, so
that it would be easier to row through the water in the middle of the river.
Meher looked at the melengs
one last time and set sail. The melengs
floated away with the current of the water.
No comments:
Post a Comment