Chapter 19 :: Amma's departure?
1865 Words
another years went by.........
Insiyaa was now 18.....
well almost, ...... just 2 more month!
with the onset of winter in Jodhpur city, suddenly things took worst turn possible.
last year 2/3 months after the Mawlana's visit to Raichand Havelli Amma was diagnosed with uterus cancer..........though the family started treatment but still due to her already old age and frail health condition, doctor said her body can not handle Chemo so, they just put her on some medicines.......
just to go to reach the end of the day ---
days actually.
yes!
and from the start of this year, Doctor continued to come and go giving the same answer......
no hope!
they only have days to count......anything can happen at any time, be ready.
everyone was anxious from Jodhpur to Bikaner Royals......ever since Ahana died, Raanisa Umma Singh Rathod helped Jubayda in every way raising 3 of Amarendra's children alongside her own 2 grand daughters especially with Insiyaa being so little.
and in the meantime Mawlana was in Rajasthan that time for a Waz mahfil, somehow he heard about Amma and came to their house to pay a visit when Amma finally took her last breaths
the whole Havelli was so silent.......as if someone sucked the whole air out of that gigantic house.
in such difficult times, there was one person in their locality whose name was Tolaram ; once he was a lower class hindu but later he converted and started working in the havelli....he mostly stays with Amarendra...but his aim in life was either to cremating the dead or dig grave to bury them so, If anyone was seriously ill, he would go to the doctor that is treating the patient..... everyday and find out about his/her condition. As soon as he heard that there was no hope left, he would arrive there at least two hours ahead, barefooted and with a gamchha (thin towel) on his shoulders with few of his disciples with a serious face and keep chanting around everyone about.....
"how there is no more virtuous deed in the world than this"
It was around at 8 p.m. after Isha prayer ended at night when Amma was carried out from the bedroom into the huge courtyard by the female neighbour women....with both her grand daughters behind sniffing
Insiyaa however.....didn’t come out the whole time from all the proceedings of Ghusl Mayyit to the point when the men was about to pick Amma's dead body up and take her out of the Havelli toward the Masjid to perform the Janaza.
but 3 men of the Raichand Havelli knew that she was upstairs staring at her care giver's dead body via those huge wall ventilator vacantly.....and though she didn’t cry a single tear,
While they were lifting up the dead body,
Amarendra looked up and that was only time in that whole day he saw his daughter's face and his heart broke because nothing in the world can be compared to such a look. One can never forget it for a whole life......
in a way Jubayda amma wasn’t just Amarendra's children's but also this whole Havelli's care giver.....so, while every men left behind the dead body....the grand daughters stood quietly crying
while Insiyaa only let out a shaky sigh and run up to the terrace......
The Masjid ground was huge and open.....situated no far away from the huge lake and it could be easily seen from the Havelli's terrace. When they reached there and placed the cot with the dead body on the floor.
It was a bright lunar fortnight and the empty stretches of the sandy ground spread out endlessly in the moonlight. A cold north wind across the lake rise to big waves,.....
it was almost 12 o'clock when the Janaza was done and all were to came back home with the body......
actually, Amma wanted to be buried beside her husband.......who lived in Pakistan so, Amarendra was trying to contact her younger son who was still alive....so the process of taking her body back to Pakistan would be easy.
All of a sudden thick grey clouds rose from the horizon across the lake and strong northerly winds started blowing towards the side where the mosque was. Warily Tolaram said,....
"waqhat thik na lage hai manne...."
[ things are not looking good ]
Mawlana gravely nodded as well....
“The signs are not good – it might rain. We shall be in trouble if we are drenched in this winter night.” There were no shelters nearby,.....except inside the mosque but that can not hold a crowd that big......
far away there was a mango orchard with few gardeners' huts but it was not an easy job to run so far out there at that time of the night.
Dark clouds gradually covered the whole sky, the moonlight disappeared in the darkness, and everyone could hear the hissing sound of fast-falling rain. Like sharp arrows, a few drops first pierced whole crowd and by the time they could make up their minds as to what should be done, heavy downpour began. To save themselves, everyone ran helter-skelter leaving the dead body behind.....
yes! nobody even bothered to put Amma's cot under Mosque's ceiling......
When the rain stopped about an hour later, all came back one by one. The sky had cleared, the moonlight reappeared as clear as day.
"But why didn’t Tolaram return till now ?" Rahat said looking around
"Has he run away home in fear ?” Sankalp scoffed
Annoyed with Tolaram's absence, the Mawlana replied,.....”If he was so frightened, why was he claiming on the way that he'd be sitting down holding the dead body ? Even if thunder and lightening had struck me, I would not have left the dead body.”
“What happens when one leaves the dead body ?” Shawkat asked
“What happens ? A lot of things can happen...bad thing” Mawlana whispered conspicuously looking around
“but you would not feel scared to wait alone in this ground alone with a dead!” Gyan Singh, Ranaji's butler curiously asked
“Scared ? Me ? Do you know that I have buried at least a thousand dead bodies ?” Mawlana proudly said
After all Mawlana had reasons to be proud.
in the mean time when suddenly Tolaram came out of the dark and said in sindhi, his native tongue from Umarkot, while scratching his head confusingly,.....
“hasn’t the dead body swollen up to double its size?”
Without looking up at him Mawlana replied,.... “why wouldn’t it swell ? All the blankets and quilts have been drenched in the rain.”
“But cotton is supposed to squeeze smaller when wet, not swell up.” Amarendra Raichand grumbled frowning at the cot
"So, baba we should carry it back in the Havelli ?" Rahat asked
Amarendra gave him a nod......
again four of them positioned themself that way and just when Sankalp was about to pick the cot....he stopped suddenly and said,....
“uncle, something moved ?” looking at Amarendra and Mawlana
Tolaram angrily came forward and said in his own language ...... “I have never seen such a coward like you. Why do you volunteer for such work! i'll carry, you follow us with the crowd....you donkey!”
with a tightened jaw Sankalp gave up his position.....
And again just when they were about to pick the cot up.... even Shawkat suddenly noticed something and jumped a few steps back, leaving his position and looked at the steel cot and warily said, “No.....Things don’t seem to be all right....amma wasn’t fat, was she!"
Amarendra however let out an extremly annoyed sigh and that time giving out a loud laugh Mawlana said,.... “You youngsters, do you want to scare us now ? me! who has buried over a thousand dead bodies ?”
“but something is wrong all around it,” Sankalp begrudgingly said
“Yes,......it is moving. It has become a ghost to eat you up” Tolaram angrily shouted.....sarcastically
but even before he could finish his sentence, one side of the velvet wrap over the dead body shot up on a kneeling position and shouted in a shrill, fearful voice,......
“No, no.....not you. I will eat the Mawlana”
with a thud......Tolaram already fainted on the wet floor while scared to death,.... the whole crowd started running as fast as they could.
now! everyone knew Mawlana was old....so, unable to run behind the crowd, he went as far as bank of the lake and jumped right into it.
Standing abreast in that cold water, he kept on shouting, “Allah rahman ur rahim, I’m going to die. Ifrit is going to eat me up......."
and with that he started chanting Sura Fatiha, Sura Ekhlas, Ayatul Kursi.....in short whatever it takes to ward off an evil spirit
The ghost on the other hand finally uncovered her face and kept on shouting,......“Bhaaaai....Baba don’t run away. I am Insiyaa. Come back, come back—all of you”
The moment her voice reached them.....all of them did came back. Shivering in the cold, the Mawlana also came up to the embankment.
Amarendra Raichand was very much pissed at his only daughter's childish nature......he narrowed his eyes at her and she on the other hand greeted everyone there and added in a shy tone that she was missing Amma and wanted to see her one last time before the embalming process begins, so, she came when everyone was away busy taking shelter and that since....
“Everyone left in fear of the rain. I could not leave her and just go, so i just got under the thick wrap flattened myself beside the cot”
“Very good, dear. You’ve done a wise job....go home, now, Shawkat go with her" Amarendra sighed shaking his head
"ji baba...." Shawkat answered glaring at his sister and they started walking toward the huge main gate when they heard
"now who have the smelliest shoe here!" Rahat let out a tired drawl and they burst into laughing fit again and others started snickering.....even in that sad moment
so......almost after 15 minute when Tolaram got his consciousness back.......and started blabbering in sindhi which translated like...."I’ve never seen such a wicked girl in my life.......what did you feed her, are you sure She is actually a she ?”' He asked to Amarendra Raichand who only chuckled and sighed again and answered at last......"bakchodi ka koi gender nahi hota"
[ silliness has no gender ] making everyone there burst into laughter once more
after all he knew her daughter well, and he had no qualm with her........in a way it was invisible slap at both man's face...who were displaying such fearlessness and taking pride for the work they usually do.
and still it was impossible for every single men there......let alone a grave digger and a Mawlana to actually stay alone at night with a dead body. What bad could happen at this point.....it was a dead person for God's sake.
He knew that his daughter was not a faint hearted soul........
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- Writer
