Risk
E.K.Eeshwarappa is a twelve year old, lean boy. He stays in a village Eegipura.His father is Mahabala. Mahabala has got 15 hectares of farmland having several rows of coconut and areca trees. He has also got paddy fields. They have got two cows in their house. They used to call them as “Ram and Laxman” since both cows return to hut at a time from pasture. Winter is quite deep in Eegipura. Mahabala used to cover the hut of cows with plastic papers and jute bags to protect cows from extreme cold.
There are two nearby huts. They are also farmers like Mahabala.Eegipura is a quite backward village. Only panchayat president and members houses are built with bricks and electrified. All other houses in the village are mud walled with tin sheets or rural tiles as roofs. All these houses should spare kerosene-fired lanterns to spend nights.
In May mid month plague attacked Eegipura.Till it got attention by city doctors and they rushed to Eegipura, several people died including Eeshwarappa’s mother. Soon he was looked up by neighbor lady. She had two sons. Along with them he used to have food. Next year Eeshwarappa even lost his father in a road accident when Mahabala.
was crossing the road he was hit by fast moving private bus.
Now entire care of Eeshwarappa belonged to neighbor lady. Her name is Ningavva.She is a clever holistic Gowda community lady. She made him as coworker in her husband’s field. He has to work till evening in the field. In the evening when he comes to home he has to look after cows. It is quite a huge dairy since Ram and Laxman are also introduced there. He has to feed straws to the cows, clean the hut, and feed water to them. Morning when he gets up he has to help her in food preparation. Ningavva is quite impatient.² You Brahmins are quite lazy … Never improve…”She used to scold.
Navaratri is Eegipura is quite festive. Nine day festival is celebrated quite elaborately.Kirthan Pandiths like ShambuLinga Swamy ,Swamy Keshavan come here to deliver kirthans like “Krishna Parva”,²Dashavathara” etc.Whole village people gather here on this occasion. This takes place in Devi temple. It will be decorated with glowing bulbs. Temple in charge Swami Thirtha Hari is 58 years old , bald saffron cloth wearing pandit.He completed his mantra course in Shrangeri Sanskrit School. He is working here for last 15 years here. Every night during Navaratri big pooja takes place here. Then prasadam and free food will be delivered. After that Keerthan Prograamme will be delivered.Ningavva is used to send Eeshwarappa to the temple for preparation of food and earn more from that.
One day Ningavva was serving night food to the children. Village Surpanch Mahadev Gowda came and sat in the door verandah and started calling her. ²Surprise visit …at this odd time.. “ reacted Ningavva.”How are the children ? …” asked Mahadev .”They are doing well…”
“How old is Eeshwarappa ?..”
“He is fourteen now..”
“Why not you send him to Ashram at Bhandi Nagar…It is owned by Swami Chinmayanand..Let Eeshwarappa take his high school studies there..Food, books everything is given free there by swamiji…Yesterday he phoned me and asked me to send any dependent boys …” said Mahadev.
“Certainly.. It is great kind of you…”reacted Ningavva.
Soon Eeshwarappa got sent to Ashram at Bhandi Nagar ..Ashram has got facilities .They used to put eight children per room. There was a big prayer hall. Swami Chinmayanand is a kind man. Some time he used to come personally and to preach Mahabharath ,Ramayana and Vedas. He used to deliver good spiritual books like “How to develop concentration?..”,”How to reach eternity?”,” Vedas and modern life?..”.Government Primary school and High school and colleges are nearly situated. Some time Swami Mahadevananda used to come and to illustrated Yogas.He taught asana like Matsayayana..”Etc.
Things went well .Eeshwarappa was quite intelligent in studies .Some time group of boys accompanied Eeshwarappa and went to nearby Kalinga lake and used to swim like fishes.Eeshwarappa stood first in school swimming competition in all years. Soon Eeshwarappa finished his high school education with first class.
In February Annual Day of Ashram used to take place every year. There were lectures on spiritualism by great swamis of country. It is used to run for two days. There were cultural programmes Ashram boys used to present some of them. In drama “Kidnap of Sita…”,Eeshwarappa played role of Laxman.Dresses to drama are supplied by Bora Drama Dresses stores. His fees are compensated by swamiji.In the drama ,Laxman says to Rama ,”Sita is kidnapped by Ravana..”Listening to this Rama travels along with his soldiers Hanumanthas to Lanka.During the scene tails and knickers of the inmates acting as Hanumanthas used to fall as they are loose which brought greater laughs to audience. During the time of Ugadi there used to be kite shows. These shows were organized by town people. There were amazing kites representing ghosts , Ravana,bats,kings Etc. flying high in the sky.
Things changed when CBI arrested Swami Chinmayananda with a charge of terrorist activities along with his colleagues in the charitable trust.
Soon Christian missionary took Trust. Administration was poor. Quality of food served became worst. Pressure was there to give money to study or to get converted to Christianity.
Life is full of risks. It has got greater unexpected turns in its path before reaching the final destination.
One afternoon white Mercedes car came to ashram. Driver of the car was Hussain.From the car a fat man wearing jubba and lungi got down. He had worn a white hat and chewing tobacco. Purpose of his arrival is to hire some of the dependent students in the ashram for his laborious work in Mandi Bazaar at Lucknow.He is 58 years old and wears long distance specks. He had got no children His name is Heera Lal.
He was welcomed by Antonio Edward, a Bishop of the trust. Soon auction began at the central hall.Eeshwarappa got hired for a heavy sum of Rs 22,000.
Soon Eeshwarappa got shifted to Luchnow along with four of his inmates in Trivendrum-Howrah Express train.Lucknow is big.Mandi Bazaar owned by Heera Lal is full of crimes. It is a storage unit for unpermitted tobacco bags,sugar,wheat bags. Sometime trucks used to come to Mandi Bazaar to take these bags to required destination.Eeshwarappa and his colleagues have to take these bags on their shoulders and put it into trucks.Heera used to have huge profits from each of the trip. Things were risky…Yes….Very risky. Sometime police used to ride the Mandi.Eeshwarappa and his inmates have to close the shutter and hide behind bags. Sometime there used to be encounter between them.Eeshwarappa is quite intelligent. Never he was caught by police.Heera Lal is appreciator of him and used to say, “Aap jaisa admi.. mujhe pahele kohi nahi mila…”(I have not got the candidate like you never before)
Time was plenty during the work. Soon Eeshwarappa got himself registered for B.A. final examination under Open University scheme. He had subjects like Political Science, Psychology, Economics, Sociology, Philosophy and Economics are his favorite subjects. He is closely watching political developments of the country. He is quite aware of falling economy of the country. Nothing was implemented through programmes like free jobs for two months in a year for rural people. Farmers were badly struggling to fight draught in Bihar, Rajastan.Illiteracy and false assumption rate was increasingly alarmingly. Eeshwarappa wants to improve existing structure of society by entering into politics. He passed his B.A. with first class.
Soon he appeared for Uttar Pradesh(U.P.) Police Service Examination to get police sub inspector post.Heera Lal helped him to fill exam fees. He got selected as PSI under economically backward category.
Lucknow is famous not only for cultural and historical heritage but also for crimes. Here everything runs like terrorism, murders, robbery massacres etc. Chain of under world kings is there here. They smuggle ganja, heroine bags from Pakistan and circulating it across Uttar Pradesh, killing youth world. They have got chain of casino complex, several night beer bars. Everything runs here, sometime murders when clients are heavily drunk. Everybody is helpless including U.P. police, as their life is not secured. Even some top police officials are greatly involved behind all these scenes and getting huge commissions. Famous, sacred river Ganga flows in U.P.These days it is highly polluted like social, political and cultural affairs of U.P.
U.P. villages are greatly black shadowed by dacoits (burglars). Every weekend dacoits group attacks the villages of U.P. on horses. They demand crops, gold, money from villagers. Docoits are ruthless. They shoot those who protest to submit the demands.
Communal clashes are bitter. People are quite illiterate and false assumption believers. Sometime massacres will be due to matters like caste superiority etc.U.P. Politicians are quite venomous. They are like underworld kings. They involved in robbery, scams and are supporting all these people. They are even involved in entry of several terrorists’ gangs to enter into U.P. These gangs are bombing crowded areas, distributing duplicate currencies. Etc.
Eeshwarappa wants to improve all these. He deeply studied criminal happenings in U.P. Identified sensitive areas. Within a month of his joining as PSI of Vaishali he arrested a gang of people who are smuggling 150 kgs of ganja, heroine across the boarde.All are charged and arrested within 15 minutes of the arrest a phone call came to Eeshwarappa.It is from home minister of U.P. His name is Nanda Mehta.”Aap galath rastepe jaraheho…U.P. ka ijjat barbad nahi kijiye..Unlogonka chodthijiye..Aap ko promotion be milega aur bada rakkam be…” (You are going in a wrong path..U.P.history is glorious..Leave the arrested people..You will get the promotion and huge money…) Eeshwarappa ignored the call. Soon he received the call from chief minister. He ordered him to release the gang otherwise he will be suspended from the post.U.P. Politicians are rodents …Yes..They are rodents …Life is full of risks..Yes..risks..
Eeshwarappa released the gang. Soon he became like all U.P. policemen. Now he has got recognized post in police system, huge money and flat. He has now contacts with all great underworld kings. They are all his friends. One of his underworld friends Neelesh Mehta came in contact with a French lady Mary in his night bar. So he fell in love with her. With the help of Mary he escaped to France. He is now citizen of France and married to Mary. Recently he sent an email to Eeshwarappa.He writes “Life is respectful in France…Now I am the owner of big Hotels, Chemical companies here..Life is very interesting here..”
Recently Eeshwarappa came in contact with a reporter David Albert. He is author of several famous books like “Memories..”, “Shadows of pasture” etc.He came to India to write a book on changing values of India. He wants to gather some statistics from Eeshwarappa.They went to hotel for tea. Then they visited some of the nearby villages.” I very much know the happenings in India after its independence..Particularly I have got deep knowledge about terrorism..in Kashmir for the last few decades..Bombing in Jiapur..Ahmadabad by terrorists may be due to religious attack.. I have studied great books like “Violent Politics” by William Polk etc…I want to make research on insurgence and violence in India.. And motivated factors behind terrorism…” said David to Eeshwarappa.
He visited Eegipura when he got promotion. He recollected every moments of his glorious past. Ningavva was not there. She and her husband died due to plague. Somebody else looked her house. He went to cows hut but could not find Ram and Laxman.
Years went. Soon new political scenario changed. New government called Uttar Pradesh Mukti Morcha came into power. Ruling party now wanted to add several criminals of U.P. into police force. Soon Eeshwarappa lost his post. Dismissed letter reached Eeshwarappa when he was sitting in a room in the fourth floor of his flat in “Alankar Tower” and listening to radio. In the letter every criminal support given by Eeshwarappa was thoroughly described and hence dismissal decision by government. Song of a film was coming in radio.
“ I smoked cigarette..
I drank wine..
I wandered in amazing forest..
I did not find new facts..
New horizons..
Between diseased mind..
Masks..
Meaningless human relations..
Risks..
New horizons are demanded
For political, social and cultural
Affairs…”
About the Author:
I AM A CARTOONIST.MY SEVERAL CARTOONS ARE PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH AS WELL AS KANNADA MAGAZINES.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Risk