Mamta – finds her lost home

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Mamta – finds her lost home

 

'Mamta'
(only an representative photo for the narrative)

I am the only one till date who is aware as to what her actual name was, her present name is the name coined by me for her ‘Mamta’, looking at her complete dedication and love for her child, despite all the odds faced by her in her daily life and it is this name that she goes by even today.  The story of Mamta is based in my adopted village in Uttarakhand, where I had chosen to build a small home for my post retirement days during mid-nineties.  I had purchased some space within the spacious compound of one Rabindra Negi, as I did not want to have a solitary life, but one that would be inter-twined with the residents around.  As the person was a bit aged and needed some quick cash, he agreed to my proposal and I purchased a portion of his house overlooking the compound, with two rooms and kitchen overlooking the compound and the road across that a refurbished as per my needs.  Whereas, Negi ji occupied the entire left had side of the compound and the right hand side housed the toilet etc. built by me, but is also used by the family, at times, during my absence.  The funny part is that Negi ji would always be nagging about a broken tap or door knob, as if I was obliged to put them on, despite being used and broken by him, but that is how the villagers in these hilly regions are, they embrace everyone as family and make demands as such.  So with a sly smile, I obliged to these small irritants and in return enjoyed a blissful co-existence, whenever I visited for short breaks. 

These small expenses were miniscule, as compared to the benefits that I would usually reap from such gestures.   The village being remotely located and the public transport system was not all that well developed then and even today, it took quite some time from the rail head to reach the destination village that I had chosen to be my home.  After traversing by train, I would take a bus up to the district headquarters and thereafter, hitch a ride in the locally available Jeeps/Maxi-cabs or other forms of transport available and would reach my destination only late in the afternoon or rather early evening.  But because of my small pampering’s, my room would have been cleaned and fresh water placed in my small kitchen and a cup of piping hot tea would await me at my arrival.  I would just sip in the tea relaxing, sitting in my small balcony, enjoying the Himalayan ranges at sun set or the play of clouds or light and would experience bliss and always looked towards these short vacations to rejuvenate myself.  It would also be not out of place to mention that I would also receive a treat of local delicacies being prepared in the kitchen of Negi ji often, whenever I was in the village.

Quite a few years back, during the late nineties, I had visited the destination for a good few days and got struck there for another few weeks due to sudden landslide because of untimely rains, when the incident related to Mamta unfolded.  Just across the road, is the residence of Rawat ji, he has two sons and a daughter, she being the youngest.  The elder son’s name was Sandeep and he was working as a Chef in Kashmir and has been missing since then.  His younger son named Suresh is a hard working boy but a bit dull and not a very literate and smart person.  The younger daughter named Guddi was much younger and was born when the brothers were adolescents and thus, she was a pampered kid in the home.  There was another young lady, whom I used to see going around doing the house hold chores like collecting potable water, firewood, tending to her little kid etc. and assumed her to be the wife of the elder son, although I had never seen him. 

Today while just musing through my past reminiscences, I happened to remember the incident that occurred during that period and thought of penning down the same.  One evening I heard a lot of commotion in the Rawat house hold, with Guddi and her mother shouting and the young lady crying in an inconsolable manner and Suresh trying to pacify the parties and on this Guddi accusing Suresh of having an illicit affair with the young women.  As I had gained a respectable position in the village community by this time, because of many monetary helps provided for community services in the village, I thought of intervening in the matter and walked straight into the arguments.  Seeming me in their house stopped the cacophony immediately.  I asked Rawat ji to explain the situation, so that an amicable solution could be attained to the problem.  Even before Rawat ji could start, his wife started lamenting that because of the ‘manhus’ (cursed person) in the house, her daughter’s marriage could not be solemnized, as many a good matrimonial proposals being received were not maturing and she held the young women i.e. Mamta responsible for the same.  I showed my concern for the unfortunate state of affiars and asked Rawat ji to first narrate the entire sequence of events, so that I could understand the problem and find a solution, if possible.

Rawat ji narrated the incident as that his eldest son was interested in working in the Army, as is the practice in many of the villages in Uttarakhand, but despite his best efforts he could not make it.  He thereafter underwent training as Chef and gained employment on contractual basis in the local Cantonment nearby.  However, as the unit moved to the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir during early nineties, since employment opportunities was scarce in the region, Sandeep had chosen to move out with the brigade.  There were no Cell phones available during those days and land lines too being a scarce commodity in the villages, contact was to a bare minimum.  The last physical contact with Sandeep was his one short visit in summer of 1991 and he had painted a very grim scenario about the conditions and the life in Kashmir.  Thereafter, there was no contact with him for many years and they had all but given up on him, till this young girl with an infant in her clutch, turned up on their door step in 1994.  She had a letter from Sandeep addressed to his father wherein he had again painted a very desolate and grim picture of Kashmir and explained that the girl was a Kashmiri pundit girl, whom he had married, as her parents had been killed by the militants, but unfortunately failed to mention her name in the letter.  One poking and prodding further, Rawat ji stated that the girl i.e. Mamta had brought in a marriage photograph that was almost washed out with Sandeep and about Rs.35,000/- (quite a princely sum during those days), as being the payment meted out to late Sandeep by the Army.  They had accepted her as their daughter in law and has been living with them ever since.  The money being received by the family from this girl, on behalf of late Sandeep, was never disclosed to the villagers by Rawat ji’s family.

So when I asked them about the reason for berating her and abusing her now, the wife of Rawat ji again jumped to the fore stating that in the absence of any proof of solemnization of the marriage with her late son Sandeep, many of the would be grooms for Guddi, her daughter, were reluctant to go ahead with the marriage proposal and hence she and Guddi were not only perturbed, but also held Mamta responsible for the same.  So in order to take the conversation to a logical end, I asked that the girl or daughter in law to be called, but I was informed that she could not speak and on asking her name, Rawat ji’s wife simply said that she was not aware of it.  When I asked them as to how they addressed her, she simply said that she would merely point out the work to be done to her.  By now I was not only anguished, but was also losing my patience at the crude behaviour of Rawat ji’s wife, but the time was not such that I displayed the same, as it would have been detrimental to the interest of the poor daughter in law.  So I asked her as to what was the name of the dog that they owned, whereupon Rawat ji’s wife retorted, his name is Rocky.  I said you name an animal, but cannot give a name to your daughter in law?  So from today let us call her ‘Mamta’ and henceforth we will call her by that name.  I enquired from them that I had seen the daughter in law teaching English alphabets to her young son by writing on the Slate (a small portable black board made of slate stone), so I called the young daughter in law and started conversing with her by writing on the slate and exchanging it.

It emerged from the written exchange in Hindi that the young daughter in law was a daughter of well to do Kashmiri pundit family and had two young brothers studying in local colleges in Awantipura locality in Kashmir.  Despite their request to move out of the valley, their father was sure that no harm would come their way and continued staying in their house.  However, on fateful night their house was torched and when the family members rushed out, they were gunned down by the militants.  This girl had fallen and struck her head on the stone on the ground and thus, rendered senseless and the militants left her for dead.  The army recovered her the next morning and she was kept in a camp within the precincts of the army cantonment for safe keeping.  Her actual name was ‘Chandri’ meaning moonlight and she came in contact with late Sandeep here and found him to be a genuine and loving person.  They bonded and got married in the Cantonment itself in a simple ceremony performed by the local priest.  But she felt that her life was to be a tormented one, with endless agony was in fate for her, as per her own statement.  She was in the last month of gestation and they had planned to return back to his village for good after the delivery.  On one such day Sandeep wrote this letter with address etc. and handed it over to her mimicking that in case anything happened to him, she should head back to his village and hand it over to his father.  She berated him badly for such a bad joke, but probably late Sandeep had some premonition about his untimely death.  As fate had ordained, a rocket propelled grenade shot by militants landed in the kitchen portion and late Sandeep received severe injuries and died instantaneously.   The news of Sandeep’s death was so shocking that she (Mamta) immediately collapsed and emergency delivery had to be conducted and she lost her power of speech because of the shock from the ghastly incident, but could hear and understand everything.  I was almost shell shocked at the type of torment being borne by her, without an iota of response from her side.  When I asked her about this, she said that at-least she had a home for her Son, late Sandeep’s son and did not want to lose it any cost and hence continued to bear the tormentors for her son’s future.  I was moved and I responded that I had coined her name as ‘Mamta’ and that hence forth everyone will know her by that name only because of the immense sacrifice on her part for the love of her Son.

The Rawat family was perplexed as to what was happening by passing of the slate with each other, but kept quiet.  My brain had by now started working overtime, as I understood that the situation could only be handled with a ‘carrot & stick’ policy.  I knew that the people in hills were much attached to cash money and would not easily part with it, so I decided to use it as a stick.  I politely asked Mamta to leave the room and she did so without any hesitation.  Then I told Rawat ji and his wife and also Guddi that the money that Mamta had brought in, was actually a parting gift from late Sandeep for his sisters’ marriage, so I felt.  In case the girl Mamta was a crook, she could have easily used the money to settle anywhere else and they would have never known about the demise of their Son and the siblings about their brother.  That brought about a bit of remorse on the faces of the family members and seeing their reaction, I further queried that as to whether the kid resembled his late father.  Upon this, the wife of Rawat ji burst out in tears and said that the kid was a constant reminder of her late Son, who looked exactly the same during his childhood.  I could gauge that I had hit the right chord and continued that if they forced Mamta out of the house at this stage, they will not only upset the spirit & soul of their departed Son, but the family may face financial problems as well and to drive home the point, I immediately told that Mamta was an educated person and may have details of payments received from the Army and in such a scenario, if she was driven out, she may ask for the money and the amount of Rs.35,000/- would have grown to more than a lakh of rupees and that Rawat ji may have cough out that amount.  In the same breath, I told Rawat ji that at this juncture this amount was significant for his daughter’s wedding and that God willing, Guddi would get a very good match, as a person’s karma is always rewarded by the almighty.  Seeing that everyone of Rawat ji’s family were now nodding their heads in unison with the delivery of my verdict, I immediately addressed Guddi, as to why she was abusing her brother of having an illicit affair.  A sudden hush fell in the room and after a few long drawn seconds, Guddi said that the villagers used to make these kind of accusations that had reached her ears as well.  I had seen that Suresh had a soft corner for Mamta, so I mentioned that there is a practice in North Indian plains, where young widows of elder brother are married off with the younger brother and as to whether such a practice is prevalent in the region as well.  The answer was in affirmative, although it was not so common a practice here.  I then put an option before the wife of Rawat ji that as to whether she felt that Mamta had all the qualities of being a good house wife, she agreed to that.  Upon her admission I played my final card and suggested that if they got Suresh married elsewhere, the problem with Mamta may continue and they may lose their peace of mind and financially also.  So if both the parties agreed i.e. Suresh & Mamta, then they could first get these two married at the first instance and that would not only settle the rumour mongering in the village, but also settle the issues arising in respect of Guddi’s marriage.  I then left them to decide the issue amongst themselves and this was my final trump card, as over indulgence on my part would have created doubts in their minds and I left for the day.

Early next morning, I found Rawat ji standing at my doorstep, early in the morning, he entered with a big smile and a sense of gratitude and was happy over my intervention.  He was always in favour of solemnizing the relationship between his younger Son and Mamta, widow of his elder Son, but the female family members were not conducive to the proposal, so he had to defer the same.  My intervention had truly drawn out the picture for them and Mamta was reluctant at first, but when she was told about the predicament of Guddi’s imminent marriage, she agreed and that had changed the equation between the two.  The marriage was solemnized in a small ceremony in the village temple and I participated in it whole heartedly.  Now many years have passed, the family of Rawat ji is in a perpetual bliss, Mamta is an adoring daughter in law of the home and had borne another Son to Suresh.  Guddi is married off into a family that was much more affluent than Rawatji and has two loving children, a son and a daughter.  Rawat ji believes that it as a blessing of God for having done a good deed and now his wife fully agrees with him.  Looking at this one happy family, I always enjoy the moment I became the almighty’s conduit to bring them this bliss and feel blessed for the same.

© S Roy Biswas