Excerpt – In Search Of The Pitcher Of Nector
I turned my face from the window towards the compartment. Everyone was asleep. I was as if the sentry of the night.
Suddenly, I noticed that two skeleton-like hands were trying to peel off an orange with some difficulty. What I had so far thought to be a bundle of blanket at our feet was actually a man inside a blanket. Thin, emaciated body with a lean, bearded face. His deep-set eyes were unnaturally bright. A bunch of amulets were hanging around his collarbone.
As I caught his eyes, he smiled silently. His eyes were also smiling like a mischievous boy’s. Inclining his head, he said in Hindi, ‘I’ll also go, for sure.’
It was addressed to me. My surprised counter-question was automatic, ‘Where?’
‘At the Kumbh-mela. Why, can’t I go? I was more surprised at the earnestness of his voice. Why could he not go? I became a little suspicious and asked, ‘Are you unwell?’
He did not reply immediately but went on chewing the orange for some time. Then he started talking without my prompting. His monotone became at one with the drone of the moving train. His ancestral house was in the District of Balia in Bihar. He used to work in a factory in a Calcutta suburb. There, he had his wife and children. His wife also worked.
No, I should not miscalculate his age by looking at his present appearance. He was just twenty-eight. His wife was a healthy young woman of twenty-two. She was a kind person and was looking after his need with care and concern. But-
An unbearable pain clouded his sick eyes. He said, ‘I cannot bear the agony of this disease anymore. Hence, I am going to Kumbh-mela.’
‘But why?’
Now it was his turn to be surprised. Looking at me with those sunken eyes with disbelief, he said, ‘Don’t you know why? Why are you going then? Haven’t you heard that the gods hid the bowl of nectar at the Prayag-Sangam, to deceive the demons?’
‘Yes, I’ve heard about it.’
He smiled sweetly and asked, ‘Why do people from the whole world go there? Why do saints and monks come there to take a dip? Haven’t you seen how bright they look? How well-built their physique? People are cured of their diseases and receive a hundred years of lifespan if they bathe in the Sangam at the auspicious Kumbh moment. This is why I am also going.’
While saying so, his skeletal face lit up. Perhaps the excitement of speaking so many words at a time made him breathless. He quickly covered himself with the blanket and lay down. From inside, I heard a rattling sound from his chest along with the rhythmic uttering of God’s name.
The compartment was asleep. It was dark outside. The stars in the sky were hazy. The train suddenly changed track with a jerky movement. Even before I could begin to wonder about the man inside the blanket, he started coughing phlegmatically uttering in between in a choked voice,
Oh, unbearable pain! Oh God, not now, not yet. It is still far, very far.
What is very far? I watched him writhing in pain with fear, and asked, ‘What are you saying?’
He said, ‘Open the door, please open the shackles. Oh God, I am dying. Still very far.’
How could I open the door? There was cold wind outside like whiplashes.
He kept coughing and shouting frantically, ‘Open it, Babu. Please open.’
Suddenly, a red stain shone on his blanket. Blood. There was blood on the sides of his lips also. So, it is tuberculosis.
And this man was a passenger in search of the bowl of nectar! He was a seeker of hundred years of lifespan! Oh God, had this train lost its way?
