Superstitions

Her smile was vivid and serene. Her etheral face glowing celestial. She was wrapped in a twinkling saree that was long kept for this moment.

Baba smiled, his mouth gaping and torso half covered in quilt.

Amma's lusturous hairs were done neatly in a bun. Her beauty reflected tranquility. She was calm and elegant. But, in a vague moment her smile started contracting. Her face getting wrinkled, like an old leaf.

"Still Sunita is with you?" She was despondent. Tears embracing her divinity.

"Don't you know dear, it is a sin." She continued in her remorseful voice "It has been two years she is with you. It is said that after marriage a girl's life, her rules, her Dharma all belongs to her husband."

Baba with his eyes shut, gave a centimeter nod.

"No matter what he does but Sunita's life is for her husband. If you continue to keep her, we would both suffer in hell. Here they say, they would torture our souls, they would burn us in steaming oil, feed our flesh to hounds." Amma was sobbing.

"And our rebirth? It would be of a locust, or a cockroach, or anything futile we could think."

Amma started crying profoundly. Tears of blood flowing, like someone was crushing her eyes. Her mouth wide open in pain.

"Please.." she shouted. "Please, don't hurt…"

"Aah… aaah…" her screeches echoing in darkness. Her cries painful and unbearable, tearing ears and echoing in darkness.

"No…. No… please…" There was sweat on baba's forehead. His lower lip shivering, unable to close his mouth.

"Baba… paani" Sunita, his daughter, offered an urn. Baba drank in haste, spilling half over his thumping chest.

"Did you see it again?" Sunita asked composedly.

Baba nodded, his eyes wide open, trying to gasp the horror he has seen.

Sunita went inside and brought a plastic canister. She took a palmful of gangajal from canister and splashed a little on baba.

"Oh God, protect us" she prayed.

Baba, upright on his bed, sat motionless, quilt dangling from cot.

Sunita, baba and amma's only daughter was married in another village five years ago. Her husband, a zamindaar, was an alcoholic. He used to hit her daily, force her, often broke her arms or legs. She lived a life worse than hell. Amma would persuade her to adjust, to not leave her husband. But one day, after amma's death she returned to her father and never went back.

"Take me to panditji" baba uttered, still motionless.

Sunita paused for a moment. Panditji! At this moment. From past month, panditji had conquered baba's mind. Every hopeless situation was delt by him. He has advised baba to slaughter a goat every Monday and fast on every Thursday. But most of his rules were unknowingly linked to Sunita. She was not allowed to visit the market, talk to neighbour and do any errand that fetched money. She was to burn her belongings that gave her happiness every Friday.

Panditji was weird in every way. Baba didn't talk about him. Sunita has never seen him, or even heard from other villagers. "Women shouldn't see him, they are impure" baba would say. "Panditji's energy is from nature" baba would explain, "so he sits in jungle near Parvati river". Sunita had doubts about panditji but baba would glare and say "never doubt panditji".

With a white dupatta over her head and baba following her, Sunita was leading the trail.

"Sunita don't make noise, no one should know." Barked baba.

"Careful baba, it is muddy here." Warned Sunita.

"Yes, yes" baba mumbled.

Noiseless they crossed village and fields. They covered their faces when a wanderer crossed. Baba in a rush often warned sunita not to make a sound. His thoughts oscillating between amma's horrific cries and Panditji.

'Panditji at this hour?' Sunita pondered 'Baba is suffering from some serious ailment. From months his behavior has changed. Oh! That rotten face he makes. Sometimes it is unbearable.' Sunita turned and looked at baba. 'The same rotten face.' She grinned.

Baba gave a disgusting look. 'How can she smile? Her sins, they are the reason, they are the only reason of going to hell.'

Baba touched Panditji's toes and straightened with a sign. Panditji blessed him with a raised hand.

"Again a dream?" Asked panditji, his eyes closed.

"Yes panditji…" baba's voice was weak.

"Dreams, it is beautiful to have one. To see one who is gone, to talk to them, to see them wrapped in a saree, smiling and then… blood tears. Agony. Pain. Horror in their eyes." Panditji opened his eyes with force, they were blood red.

"Haa…" baba was shivering, his tongue trembling, his palm touching and fingers intervened.

"Wha..what.. to do.. pan.. panditji?" Asked baba, his lips shaking.

Panditji closed his eyes. Inhaled deeply.

"To end a sin, kept for long, a terrible act must be done" panditji looked like a mirage, his voice from a different world.

"When a weed grows, not its leaves or branches are cut but it is uprooted." His words were reverberating in the silence. "When an apple is rotten, it is thrown not kept in a hope of plant." Baba was listening earnestly. "Your daughter's sin is rottening your karma. They are affecting your wife too. Her sins are adding, becoming venomous now." Panditji forced himself near baba, glancing like his eyes will pop out of skull. In a wisper he said "you must kill you daughter."

"No… no.." Baba stepped back, his eyes filled in tears.

"You must" panditji insisted, closing his eyes and puffing his chest out.

Baba after a moments wait returned to Sunita. His eyes on swampy ground, reminiscence of horror in his eyes.

"Baba, what did panditji say?" Sunita jumped in agitation.

"Nothing..." Baba could never think of ending his daughter's life.

On return trail, baba headed, he could not lift his eyes. Just few days ago, Sethji, a shop owner had said, "You shouldn't keep Sunita with you either throw her or poison her." Baba had given him a disgust look "Chachaji, Chachi would have done the same." He had replied.

On a distant tree an owl was hooting. Sunita gazed miserably, she could never understand baba's mind. She wanted to talk a lot but could never. With every stride she built confidence, and the moment she looked at her father, she was tongue-tied.

'Was panditji right? Sunita should be get ridden off?' Baba thought. 'Panditji has never been wrong. He had predicted amma's soul is in unrest, she is suffering great agony. And villagers, they treat us as untouchables. Refusing to meet eyes. Often suggesting to throw Sunita out of house.' Baba stumbled over a bolder in path.

"Careful baba" sunita exclaimed.

Baba turned around and gave a disgusting glare, 'this venomous girl' he thought.

Sunita reflected her winsome eyes. For moment she thought, and insisted again "Baba, what did panditji say?"

"Nothing… nothing… nothing…" baba shouted in dark silence of fields and turned around to move. But Sunita held her hand with a force "Listen to me baba." Sunita's voice flaring, her words anxious.

Baba turned in vexation, 'may be panditji is true, she must be killed'.

"Baba when you went near Parvati river…, to meet panditji, I followed you" baba's eyes widened, his heart ceased "…baba.. you were alone, frightened, worried, crying, talking to yourself, like… a maniac.… there is no panditji ba…"

Baba grabbed Sunita's throat with his hands. And forced to break her larynx, pressuring her neck.

"Baaaba… baaaba... please." She cried breathless, forcing her hands to lessen baba's grip. "Babaaa… you… you… were with me… when my husband left me…." Tears were becoming heavier in baba's eyes. He has to shut Sunita's mouth, forever. He forced, gripping with greatest force he could. "Baba…." Cried Sunita, her eyes wide open and no thumping on her neck. She was dead.