a chapter

“I saw you cheat with my own eyes”

“I said you already that I have not cheated.”

“You cheated, you cheated.”

“No I did not, I did not.”

As two boys argued working on their voices with the all the animosity they could muster, another couple of boys, the only known twins for villages around, stood and watched with bored expression on their identical faces. All four of them were bare bodied and barefooted and wore half pants those had few of their buttons missing and seams splitting up at several places. The boys were playing marbles in a clearing at the edge of a bamboo plantation. It was a favorite place for the village boys to spend their time. The place was cool beneath the awning of the trembling bamboo leaves. Surrounded by paddy fields, it was secluded so those who were into smoking could fulfill their urges without fear of being caught with wreaths of smoke snaking out of their nostrils and lips and as it was outside the village and off the village street there was less possibility of parents coming to fetch for their son to having him run some errand, which the latter rightfully detested. The spot was reached by a narrow trail that branched off the main street. The trail continued through the groves of bamboos that talked among themselves by making eerie creaking noises and was mainly used by farmers to reach their farmlands that lie on the other side of the bamboo plantation and at times by women coming to collect dry bamboo leaves that matted the ground below to use as fuel to cook their rice.

“You are lying.” Laxman suddenly shouted as if he wished to put an end to the squabble by stunning his opponent with an extraordinary burst of lung power.

“What did you say? I am lying?” His opponent was far from being angry by his vociferous accusation. Instead his face began to break into a cruel teeth clenched grin as though Laxman had handed him a new weapon to attack him with. “You know thieves lie,” Nimai said staring into his eyes, chewing on each word with relish before spewing them out, “And I am not a thief. You are.”



Nimai had barely finished his words when a head butt from Laxman had him sprawled on his back on the dusty ground. As he tottered on his feet and then fell backwards his hands desperately clawed the air in a futile attempt to grab his attacker to take down with him. Laxman stood and looked down at Nimai without making any new move. With this sudden development the two silent spectators felt their excitement rising. They watched Nimai expecting him to respond in a fitting way.

“Are you going to lie down there all day,” one of them screamed.

“Get up and fight him,” his twins exhorted.

Nimai was quick to get his composure back. He was suddenly trying to look as though he was unaffected by the attack, as though it was not unexpected. He took his time to get up on his feet. He made an attempt to beat off the dust from his body with his hand. His back was white with dust and his hand would not reach there. Nimai went to great length to keep looking away from his opponent who eyed him with frowning eyes and tightly pressed lips. He was looking at the twins. Nimai winked at them and then swerved abruptly and launched his attack, for which the twins had been waiting for bated breath, on Laxman with his fists; war cry emanating from his mouth, “y...e..a...a...a...ah…..”

Laxman was ready for him. He tried to grab him and pinned him down to the ground. He put his hands around him over his arms. However, Nimai was boiling with vengeance and he resisted Laxman’s effort to put him back to the bed of dust. Attempt to hit in the stomach with knees did not turn out to be very much effective because Laxman was holding him tightly and their bodies were pressed against each other. Amid the struggle Nimai managed to free his arms to some extent. He could just reach up with his hands and get hold of his opponent’s hair which was coarse and tangled. His fingers blindly ran through the hair. They curled into fists. Nimai pulled at the hair with all his might.

The pain enraged Laxman. He pooled his strength to garner a push that had both of them down on the ground, with him on top of Nimai. The latter had reflexively released his grasp on the former’s hair, to use his hands to break his fall.

“I will kill you!” Nimai uttered in a strained voice. He tried to roll Laxman under him but the latter held him with the weight of a rock.

The subsequent dwell mostly involved rolling around in the dust, clinging to one another as though their limbs were entangled and they could not let themselves free. The dust on their sweat soaked skins formed paste. They breathed hot flames into each other’s faces. It was Laxman who had the upper hand most of the time but it was Nimai’s voice that could be heard the most. He swore at Laxman and threatened to do terrible things to him. His voice was raspy, guttural and breathless. Laxman barely made noises except for some which escaped his voice as he endeavored to get a better grip.

The twins enjoying a ringside view were no longer silent. They were apparently a supporter of Nimai. They clapped and exhorted Nimai to give his rival a good thrashing.

Nimai succeeded in getting Laxman under him and he spat spitefully in his face. Laxman saw what was coming. He closed his eyes and grimaced, tightly pressing his lips together. Bubbles of thick saliva, coming from a mouth dry from struggle, floated on his cheeks, eyelids and forehead and reflected miniature images of Nimai’s angry face in them. Nimai worked his salivary glands and delivered a second helping. The twins shrieked in joy, which was cut short as Nimai’s cry of pain filled the late afternoon air heavy with the clammy aroma that rose from the young waterlogged paddy fields.

“Hey! You boys. What are you doing? ….Stop.”

The fighting two could hardly pay any attention to the voice, but the two spectators become fidgety when they saw a man approach them from the main street along the narrow trail. They immediately restrained themselves. They did not want the man to think that they were enjoying the fight and also adding fuel to it by taking one’s side. They tried to look very worried and lost, as if not sure what to do at this situation.

The man, now closer, spoke to them, “Why are you standing there? Get them apart before they hurt each other.”

The twins moved forward and tried to extract the nails that had dug into the skin of Nimai’s face. They were surprised by the ease with which they could pull apart the fighters. Perhaps, Nimai, in pain was too happy to be rescued and Laxman, his face smeared with saliva, was satisfied with the punishment he had inflicted upon his adversary. By the time the man reached them the twins were standing on either side of Nimai, each holding one of his arms, as though they were trying to prevent him from restarting the fighting. Nimai’s face, marked with bright red semi lunar nail marks looking like he had contracted a disease that formed peculiar rashes on the face, smarted and his eyes filled with water.

Laxman rubbed his face with the back of his hand and stood up to stare at the man who looked at him maliciously.

“You had no better things to do?” the man said, “Your sister had come and here you are fighting.”

Laxman looked at the man surprised.

The man turned toward Nimai and he became more sympathetic.

“I knew you to be a good boy. Since when you have been going around fighting? Would you like it if I report it to your parents?”

Nimai looked down at the ground. He bit his lips and tried to fight back tears. The twins silently stood on his either side, without holding his arms.

“He was cheating,” Nimai croaked, “He was cheating and when I caught him he said I was lying.”

His eyes watered more.

“And you got into a fight?” the man asked incredulously.

“He hit me first.” Nimai explained. The twins nodded gravely in agreement. The man nodded too as if to say that he understood.

Laxman wanted to speak badly. He wanted to air his own grievances. He wanted to shout, “He called me a thief.” Then he imagined the man’s black face breaking into a smile showing his yellow teeth and him saying, “Did he call you a thief? Why did he say that? Are you a thief my little boy?” And he thought better of it.

The man watched the boys for a few moments in silence, wearing an irritated look on his face. The twins watched him intently. The man saw the round eyes of the twins staring at him. He took a better look at them unconsciously trying to find out some differences in their apparently identical faces and found none. “What a freak of nature” he contemplated, “One person in two bodies.”

“Ok boys,” the man finally said breaking his contemplation about the twins, “Now you all return to your homes. I will stand here and watch till you go. No more fighting.”

The twins and Nimai prepared to leave together while Laxman stood still where he was. He did not feel like walking back to the village in their company. Let them go, he thought, I would stay here as long as I wish.



The expression on his face changed as though something was happening inside him. Then he began to cough which shook his frail body. He hunched up his shoulders and cupped his mouth with both hands. A strange rasping noise came out of his throat. After the brief but violent bout of coughing subsided the man stood catching up with his breath. He cleared his throat noisily and turning his head sideway shot a large glob of sputum into the air. As the man cleared his throat, his prominent Adam’s apple moving up and down, Laxman had almost feared that he was going to spat on him.

“Are you getting up from there or not? You are damaging the paddy plants.” Bruised by coughing, his voice sounded a little different from before.

“You said my sister has come?”

“Yes I saw her and her husband while I passed by your home.”

The man looked very tall his head against the background of bamboo leaves. Laxman looked away and watched the dragonflies that swarmed above them. Some of the insects were curiously attached to each other as they flew around. Laxman knew it had something to do with breeding but he was not sure how attachment of the two insects, apparently one male and the other a female, by the tails could lead to babies.

“Get up!” The man repeated but Laxman ignored him. The episode of coughing had left the man feeling weak and soon he left mumbling, “Do as you wish!”

After the man had left, for a while Laxman debated in his mind whether Nimai had claimed the final victory by pushing him into the mud. To him it seemed he did and he felt dismayed. Then he reasoned, as though to console him, if victory was determined by the amount of hurt inflicted and overall domination the victory was surely his.

The paddy plants had almost reached their full growth and the jungle that their lush leaves formed was home to caterpillars which gnawed at the greens to satiate their extraordinary appetite. Now these prickly creatures began to crawl over his body. Laxman first became aware of their presence when he felt a tickling sensation on the skin of his neck and reached with his hand. He got up from his bed of slush hurriedly and walked over to the dry ground before removing three more confused caterpillars roving around his body. He struck the creatures with the tip of his index finger and they fell to the ground on their back revealing soft white bellies.

He could not return home in the state he was, his back caked with mud- at least not now when Sulekha had returned. He must find a way to wash himself clean somewhere. He avoided the main village street, and instead meandered his way among the narrow alley ways that ran through the interiors of the village to reach the Goldighi, directly opposite to the side where their house was. The main ghat on this side of the lake was crowded with tired looking women who usually bathed late after completing their household chores. Laxman steered clear off the main ghat. He went along a narrow trail that ran parallel to the lake through the trees and reached a smaller and secluded one. It did not have concrete steps only a few decaying trunks of palm trees lying half submerged in the water. The water was strewn with fallen leaves and long legged insects skimmed over its surface without getting wet or sunk.

Gelatinous clay pulled at his feet as Laxman made his way into the water. He proceeded tentatively-he was unfamiliar with this part of the lake.