The small nationalist protests which had spurred in various parts of the country was silenced for a few days since the police under the colonizers has been perpetrating brutal torture on the nationalists in search of an information and almost twelve swadeshis were taken to police custody in the last twenty-four hours, though none could give any clue even after immense whipping.
The newly appointed administrative governor general, Lord Victor Haverstone was busy in a conference with lieutenant governors and chief commissioners of various provinces and territories and other high officials with a discussion regarding their control of land revenues and new laws to be introduced when suddenly after having the snacks, twenty officials fell unconscious. The doctor was called immediately but to everyone’s surprise they were declared dead though for an unnatural cause. No trace of any unnatural substance was found in their body in the post mortem and it was called ‘death due to heart congestion’. However, the Haverstone could smell the involvement of the swadeshis in the murders and had assigned the case to Inspector General William Ruthless, another infamous tyrannic police officer who tortured the nationalists ruthlessly in the prison.
Ruthless was having a tough time as the nationalist movement was gradually gaining power and it was indeed quite difficult to control the mass, especially the young activists with bubbling enthusiasm. The very last month, a young boy had thrown a bomb before an official’s carriage. And then another group of young boys had thrown stones at the on-duty constables who stopped the protesters with barricades. However, a new problem had roused after the introduction of the forest laws imposing revenues on forest resources. The unpolished tribals attacked any officer who came on their way, as these white men often took away young tribal women of families who couldn’t pay revenues.
The day before a man of the Neladi tribe was caught for protesting against the chopping of trees in the Nelavedi forest for resources since local Neladi myths believed it to be the earliest source of sustenance. Also, the feminine deity Nelavi, whom the tribes worshipped as Divine Mother, was believed to have first appeared in the forest in the form of a deer. Ruthless threatened the man and whipped him miserably. And then when was brought before the officials, he noticed the forks sealed in the sample sachets and muttered ‘Karabi! The poisonous snakes of Nelavedi’ seeing the logo engraved on the cutlery set which gave the cops a clue for investigation. Ruthless promised to leave him if he helped them in his investigation to which he agreed.
The next day the Inspector General himself along with the Sub-inspector and a few constables marched towards the forest in search of the gang. The Neladis were the largest tribal communities living in the Kalari and Vahili, two adjacent villages, densely covered with the forest. The Karabi was a group of tribal nationalists who was believed to have lived in the innermost part of the forest and was believed to have supplied poisons to nationalist groups intending to kill the colonizers. Being covered with extremely poisonous creepers and shrubs, the place remained unvisited by most of the visitors, for which there were numerous mysteries and myths growing since a decade. For some villagers, the Karabis were a group of poisonous snake men, and for some, young abandoned kids who left home and ended up in the forest but lost their way, forbidding mothers to leave their children alone near the trees.
Young boys and girls, too wove stories. When they were asked about the Karabis, they said, ‘A group of powerful men who lived in the tree houses. They extracted poison from plants and flowers and stored them in small hives which they stole from the bees. In the center of the forest was a huge tree with a very tall tree house where they stored these poisons. At night, the men would carry the hives to the house and squeeze poison into small bottles and leave it in a box next morning, from where they would be transported to the city secretly.’ But then, the officers found this story more realistic than any other myths.
The man guided them all through the village. On their way, when they were extremely tired they stopped at the hut of Nishi, a middle aged tribal lady, blind in one eye. She had completed steaming the rice and was about to sit for lunch when she heard a masculine voice knocking, ‘Nishi Maaji! Maaji! Have a look at these visitors.’
Nishi came out of the house, ‘Kaun? Riku!’ and then said amicably to greet the guests, ‘I am a poor old widow. Haven’t cooked much for lunch but would be happy to serve you food.’ The officers, first felt a little shy but the man said, ‘No one leaves our houses without lunch if they arrive in the afternoon, Saheb! We greet everyone with love.’ On her keen request and warm hospitability, the men sat for lunch. Food was served on sal leaves- rice and sautéed taros. Also, she had offered a few jaggery fritters for sweet. The officers stared at the lady. She had a long cloth draped around her, a tribal necklace on her hand and neck. Her eyes were dark and skin wrinkled. She had made a bun with a stick pushed into it.
Riku, in the meantime, had gone to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. But then when Riku was walking back to the lunch place, a dart from the east pierced him on his left neck and he succumbed immediately. Nishi Maaji was in the kitchen. She came running. The officers left their food immediately. Everyone was horrified. ‘Riku, my child! Wake up!’ and then she yelled, ‘Saheb! Do something. Please save him, Saheb. I beg you.’
The doctor who was with the force examined him and said, ‘Expired. He’s no more.’ Nishi yelled holding his dead body. ‘Those Karabis. They did it. I know. They…they…’ The hut was near the forest and there were long bushes extending for miles behind. The officers were lost. But the lady said, ‘He was my nephew but I brought him up like a son. I want those men hanged, Saheb. I would guide you to them.’ She said firmly and they left for the forest immediately.
Both Kalari and Vahili were extremely peaceful places which had gonged up with violence during the colonial rule, especially since the declaration of Tribal laws and forest policies which forced the tribal population into servitude as the old browns found it difficult to pay the taxes even after working all day. But when they resisted, the government imposed all forms of brutality to bring them under control, right from killing the tribal revolutionists, taking away their wives and daughters and selling them to imposing capital punishment and charging them with sedition act. But there were still a few villagers who favoured the whites, as they would say, ‘They wanna reform us…it’s for our good…we must learn civility from them.’ Neither could they give up the mimetic desire to become like their masters nor did their masters leave a chance to abject them.
On their way Nishi Maaji cautioned them against wild animals and poisonous plants. Ruthless took a keen interest in native practices and indigenous culture. He loved scripting the stories of superstitious myths and folklores of the colonized. On his way, when he came across a memory stone with a few incenses and flowers around it, he was curious. ‘What’s that?’ but then he noticed the engravement, ‘In the memory of every woman who left us early.’
The officials were thirsty on their way. Their limbs were aching, too. Having walked long way they wanted to hold on for a while, for which Maaji took them an old thatched hut, build along a banyan tree. There, they found a small circle of burnt leaves, a few bones of wild animals and some vegetable peels. They had degraded and was almost stinking and hadn’t there been a few wild flowers with strong aromas, they could have hardly sat there.
‘Who lives here?’ Ruthless asked in his native accent.
‘Kani…a young beautiful lady. She was the wife of Bhilu, the tribal head. He was shot by the white officials. The then Inspector General Stephen abducted Kani and enslaved her for five long years. Every night he forced into her and treated her miserably. And then one night, when she could bear no more, she stabbed a vegetable cutter into his stomach and escaped. I saw her on her return. Her body had innumerable fatal wounds. But unfortunately, the villagers refused to let her enter the place in the fear of defamation. And then, on one night she dissolved into the forest. The next morning, a burnt dead body was found in the forest and people assumed it was hers. Maybe she had put herself to fire in grief.’
They were about to leave when they found a few of them were snoring heavily. Those constables were checking the jars and pots on the cases and might have smelt any of them. ‘Be careful officers. Every little thing in this place can be poisonous and might have various side effects, so do not touch anything without prior knowledge.’
They stared outside. It was noon already and they needed to return before evening, so they decided to leave them and continue on their way. The forest grew darker as they headed forward. A few wild animals were found howling uncannily. Suddenly, a small squirrel-like creature ran and climbed to Maaji’s shoulder. The officers were terrified. They stood with their pistols pointed at the creature. ‘Calm down Saheb. They won’t harm you’ and then took the animal in her arms, scratching its feathers with her nails with great affection. The animal stared at her. It’s a special breed of squirrel, native to this forest. They neither bite nor harm. But when they get scared, they excrete a chemical which is so highly poisonous that even if you touch a drop of it, the poison who enter your body through your skin, your body would fall blue and within minutes you are dead.’ Soon she made a weird animal sound and it ran away.
They had crossed the transition area long back and was about to cross the buffer zone too. But then the super-intendent, Wilhem directed everyone’s sight to a tree house. ‘This must be the house of those Karabis, prepare to shoot constables.’ And a man was about to shoot when Nishi warned them, ‘Noooo…stop. They live in the core area. We are yet to cross the buffer.’ The sub inspector somehow didn’t like Nishi much. He always had a strong hatred for the non-whites. For him they were fallen creatures. But when she said, ‘They know spells which can make the very soil poisonous. One wrong step and they would be alarmed.’ He stopped.
After sometime, another inspector secretly drew their attention to a tree which had the word Raka scratched on its bark, but Nishi Maaji noticed it and began to narrate. ‘Raka was ten back then when his father, unable to pay the taxes to the zamindars had committed suicide and their land was forcefully acquired. Raka’s mother too, starved to death and when the young Raka went to find food in the forest she never returned.’
The lady had tears falling down her cheeks. ‘The little girl loved my fritters and chocolate balls. If only she had been alive! But alas! She too, has dissolved in the night sky.’ After sometime, she opened a knot from the edge of her draping, took out a betel nut, broke it on a tree and tossed it into her mouth. Her lips were red already and her teeth, too were full of stains and borders. After sometime, when they came on the crossing of the buffer zone, they came across a thin narrow rope bridge connecting the two edges. In the middle was a deep waterfall of warm water and strong water currents. The old rotten strings were almost hanging free and it was only wild moneys that dared to cross that long deep waterfall through that bridge. Maaji was in the front. She had crossed the bridge and was waiting on the other side for the officers to pass. Ruthless too came her side. But then as soon as Wilhem came to them the rotten ropes tore apart and the bridge fell and all the others fell down. Their screams filled the silence and continued echoing for quite long. The birds had fled from the branches. The flapping of their wings could be effortlessly heard.
But Ruthless said confidently. ‘Never mind, a few mere sacrifices for a great cause is worth. I, and Wilhem shall go with you and we are enough for those illiterate indigenous tribal men. We would cut their heads and bring them with us to be displayed in public. The punishment for civil disobedience. Just show them to us once.’
‘Now, we enter the core zone and you must be very careful and mark your steps.’ They walked with their fingers placed on the trigger. She heard Wilhem whispering in Ruthless’ ears, ‘Sir, I find this lady suspicious. We must arrest her first. How come she knows so much of the forest? She isn’t a guide.’
‘These natives know the forest better than any guide, Wilhelm. Don’t be silly. And more than anything, she is a native woman, what can she do? At worst, pet wild animals. Not civilians like us.’ Yet he asked for Wilhem’s satisfaction. ‘How come you know so much about the forest, Lady?
Maaji turned back. There was a glisten in her eyes. ‘When I was born, my parents abandoned me in this forest. I grew here with the animals and the trees until a young handsome hunter found me and fell in my love, married me and took me to his home.’ She blushed.
And then Maaji showed them a few tree houses. ‘These are made by Bira. Many tribes believe.’
‘Who’s she?’
‘Years back when the company was in power, they abducted her from our villager and forced her to work in a plantation. The man who was in charge of their plantation field was extremely cruel. He forced women to work for twelve long hours after which they were used to satiate his lust overnight and it was only in the evening that they could sleep for two hours. This continued for ten long years after which one night she tactfully escaped from the place and came to this forest. She is believed to have built the first tree house in the forest. Had she been alive, she would have been in her late fifties.’
‘And how can you be sure that she’s dead?’ Wilhem asked with great curiosity.
‘Its hardly possible to survive in this land of wild flowers and deadly beasts.’ And suddenly while they were hearing her carefully, Wilhem fell in a deadly trap. In minutes his body turned blue and soon he was dead. They could hardly do anything but let him die. Nishi did try to rescue her but the ropes were so strong that even her sharp knife, which she always carried to the forest for protection, failed to tear the net.
After long journey in the late afternoon, they reached the Karabian zone, the highly restricted poisonous section of the forest. ‘How come you know that this is Karabian section? This looks like all others.’ Ruthless asked.
‘But it isn’t, Sir!’ Nishi Maaji smiled. ‘Look at that flower.’ The saheb turned around at the exotic bloom with crimson petals, its black attractive stamen. A few stems had black fruits hanging from it. ‘This fruit can kill masses.’ The man became cautious. Soon, they crossed the canopies and entered the inner core. It was already like evening. Light could hardly penetrate and reach the lower layer.
Ruthless walked down, stood in the center and looked around with a scrutinizing eye. The reptiles and the birds were chirping softly. Nishi Maaji had spited out the betel remains of her mouth.
‘Where are the men, Maaji?’ Ruthless asked. His heart had already begun beating faster for an unknown cause. But why? Was the civilized saheb scared of untamed wildness? Maaji stared at his eyes with a wild smile.
‘And yet your eyes have failed in vision, Saheb?’ she laughed aloud. The bird in the trees flew away. The flapping of their wings could be clearly heard. The man pointed the gun at her. She drew herself closer to the gun point. ‘Shoot me! And you are lost in this dead trap forever.’
‘Where are the men?’ he asked angrily trying to molest her.
‘Men? Which men?’ she turned innocent.
‘The Karabis. Where are they? Who are they? Wild snakes whom you tame? Wild animals? Who are they? Tell me about them right now!’
‘I told you all the way long. I never knew you are so blind, Sir?’ and then Maaji shouted, ‘Kaaaaaraaaaaaaabiiiiii……..’ immediately three brown tribal women jumped from the trees with their bows. The saheb stared at them. Native drappings, wooden bangles, necklace made from animal bones and a few flowers pushed into their buns. They were all chewing leaves. ‘Ka-ra-bi…Kani Raka Bira…the lost women of Vahili… The poisonous snakes of Nelavedi…haahhaah.’ The saheb could hardly believe his eyes. ‘These women!’ he laughed once. ‘Are you trying to befool me? These women!’
‘You think we are weak Saheb! We would die?’
A snake crawled around Raka’s body. It was the deadliest of the species. But Raka had tamed it long back. They sleep together in the same tree house.
Saheb was about to pull the trigger. Kani shot an arrow in his arm and his arms slipped into a quite numbness, immediately. Bira shot him in his leg and he fell on the green floor.
Saheb smiled. ‘My men will be here soon.’ Ruthless was clever enough. He had been leaving marks all his way for his men to follow him in secret.
‘No one can enter this place without our consent, Saheb. You too, have come cause I wanted you to. Years back, your men had shot me in one eye. I lost my sight…my family…my childhood…But I am not blind.’
‘So, Wilhem was right?’
‘He was too very clever, Saheb! Pulled the rope and he fell on the trap. I tightened the knot and the poison entered his body through the innumerable needles on the knot.’ She laughed aloud.
‘But Riku…he was your men! Why did you kill him?’ the saheb began uncoiling the mystery.
‘Yes…but he was a traitor, trying to betray his motherland…when he came to the kitchen and saw the cutlery set with the Karabi engraving, he guessed my involvement with the gang and was about to expose me.
‘But how did you kill those men at the conference? All the foods were well tasted before serving!’
‘The poison was not in the food but on the fork. Your men checked the food but not the sealed cutlery set.’ She said wisely.
‘You silly women you don’t know what can I do? My men would give you so violent a death that your very soul would cry.’
‘First save yourself, Saheb! Whose gonna save you now! Your men destroyed so many lives. You have to pay for all of them.’
‘but we won’t kill you so easily, Sir. Rather let death creep down your white breeding and let your every bone ache.’ Another lady said.
‘You would never be free. No matter how much you beg!’ his eyes had turned red. The Saheb’s was a slow poison, it would paralyze his body and then the wild wolves would have him for dinner.
‘We won’t beg for it, either. We would snatch it.’
‘The literates did try to protest with civility but you took them as their weakness, so now you must face our wildness.’
‘What makes you so proud, you ugly browns?’ Saheb asked panting heavily. The poison had begun spreading all over his body and was causing irritation and breathlessness.
‘If you can be proud of your whiteness, why not we of our brownness, Saheb? The Sun has baked us, the soil has given its colour. The land is ours! Ours! We shall be free, for sure. Azadi! Azadi!’
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