Crime Today News
Draupadi was never so timid, not even in her childhood. As a child, she would cross dark streets alone in the evening hours quite comfortably to reach their neighbour’s house. During sunny summer afternoons when the streets were deserted, and the chirp of crickets shot through the air from the fields surrounding the village, creating dread in the minds of mischievous children, mothers would force them to lie down for a nap warning them that otherwise ghosts would appear. Draupadi dared crossing the streets alone to reach the pond at the end of the village. She would sit under the shadow of the gulmohar tree and throw pebbles into the pond. An intelligent student, she never hesitated to answer the teachers’ questions, whether they were aimed at her or not.
She wondered how this sense of dread, which couldn’t deter her during her childhood, overpowered her after she had grown up.
Draupadi felt there was a strong connection between responsibilities and dread, just as there existed one between wealth and hazards. During childhood, she was not smothered under the weight of responsibilities. Those days, her parents took all her responsibilities upon them. Her elder brother’s twin assurances, “Don’t worry. I’ll replace whatever you demolish; I’ll get you what you need,” always comforted her. These days, she lives in a city alone. The responsibilities of raising a small child rests on her. Concerns about her husband, who lives far away, hang heavy on her mind. Were not these enough to constrict her?
Of course, she had been used to Debadatta’s absence. She no more complained about it. Whatever complaints she had were but temporary outbursts. However, she had never thought that she would have to live away from her husband for such long spells.
The rickshaw carrying Draupadi had reached near the school gate. She dropped Pintu there and was returning to complete the unfinished chores of the morning.
But suddenly she opened her mouth. That was her mistake. Later she would realise that it wasn’t wise on her part to give in to momentary impulses like that.
Before she realised how to respond, the words had already slipped out of her mouth. She shouted loudly, “Hey, what’s happening there?”
Draupadi’s words angered the bearded man who had parked his motorcycle by the curb and sat on it. His look reflected utter vexation at the fact that an unknown woman was unnecessarily poking her nose into his affairs.
The face of that person seemed to emit fire. His bearded face looked menacing, like the face of an angry chimpanzee. The long red tilak on his forehead glistened with sweat. He was wearing a black shirt and matching black trousers. He held a chain in his hand and looked around for signs of danger.
They were three in all. The bearded man sat on the motorcycle, keeping watch on the passers-by for any signs of danger. The other two dragged the boy and hit him mercilessly. Blood ran from the mouth and nose of the victim. Exactly at that time, Draupadi had reached the school to fetch her son.
At first she thought that the young men were fighting over some trivial issue. Such things were quite common in a city. Almost every day, one would come across such incidents on the street. Like wild bulls, young men from different lanes would fight each other.
Draupadi knew that the young men couldn’t be faulted entirely for this state of affairs. She accepted Debadatta’s arguments on this point. What would these young men do if they had no way to channel their energies? These had to be spent anyhow and fighting among themselves was the only option left for them.
Today however these young men weren’t fighting amongst themselves. The two strong and stout looking ones had dragged the 25-year-old and flung him onto the ground in front of the bicycle repair shop. One of them was repeatedly punching him on his stomach, back, thighs and face and the other one was approaching him aggressively with a shining sharp knife. It was then Draupadi yelled, “Hey, what’s happening there?”
Draupadi’s yelling alarmed the two youths. The young man with the knife stabbed the one on the ground two times in the stomach before fleeing to the motorcycle. The bearded young man had already kept the engine on. He turned on the accelerator and they sped away.
Draupadi stood frozen. The distressed and pathetic wailings of the man shot through the air. The surroundings reverberated with his bitter cry, “Oh Maa! I am dying.”
People present in the vicinity soon rushed to the spot and surrounded the man. Draupadi turned from her rickshaw-seat and found a crowd there. She could not figure out where these people were a moment ago.
She could not sleep that night. The gory scene flashed before her eyes time and again. The miscreant, while fleeing from the spot, had stared at her threateningly. The bearded man’s look was the most menacing one, as if he was not a human being looking at another but a snake staring at a frog, ready to swallow it whole.
Excerpted with permission from The Labyrinth, Gourahari Das, translated from the Odia by Manoranjan Mishra, Thornbird/Niyogi Books.
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