Eeru
With his feet dipped in the cool lucid waters, he sat beneath a big bamboo bush with his back inclined to a small, soft projecting rock on the bank of the river ,which from the West flowed towards the East. The breeze was pleasant and dreamy , or rather soporific ,inducing distant colourful dreams.
They called him Eeru ; and he was on this side of twenty. He was well built, healthy and negligent of his attire or clothes. He was always taciturn and never believed in opening up his mind ,or displaying his feelings ,before anyone.
He had found his way into the little hamlet by chance. His mother while crossing the river in the floods , was drowned and lost .That was when he was about 8 or 9 years old . His father had died much earlier owing to some prolonged illness, for which he never got any treatment.
The few occupants of the land bordering on a forest area had been vacated by the authorities because of the thickly grown valuable timber and precious wood for which poachers were a constant threat.There were nocturnal activities of poaching going on, which had to be stopped.
As such the few families around , had to quit the newly reinforced and fenced forest land.
Eeru having lost his mother followed the others in transit, who showed some compassion and sympathy towards the boy. Some fed him for a few days .They settled in a newly found vacant land of which they formed the majority, since the original inhabitants were fewer in number.
A middle -aged man, whom people called Somu ,was medium built and the original native of the village, styled himself as the ruler of both the clans. He volunteered to intervene in the affairs of every one in the surrounding place.
The main occupation of the little village began with making some articles from the bamboos, clay, or some such things. Some went into the forest gathering fire wood and the wild forest- fruits , to sell them on the cross road near the highway.Gradually each family made it's own hut and necessary things needed for every day life.
A few of them even ventured to sell tea and a couple of common eatables in a small , hut- stall .Gradually most of them turned towards agriculture and farming in the bordering tracts of the land adjoining the forest and the river bank.
With the passage of time ,the hamlet grew into a bigger village and people also seemed to grow both in their possession and their profession. A school was set up and an old man came there to gather the students and teach them.
With Somu's help a hut -school with mud, bamboo and tiles was built. The teacher was aged and alone. He chose to live in a portion of the hut.He prepared his food, the ration for which he would bring once a week ,or sometimes even later than a fortnight, from the town to which he often went. With difficulty and constant reprimand he could gather about a dozen students.
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Eeru, had been in the personal service of Somu and his family.For his manual labour which included washing clothes and utensil, sweeping, and such menial work, Eeru got some thing to eat ,three times a day.
Before, Somu slept Eeru had to massage the back and the legs of the former, whom Eeru had now come to call ' odeya' ,meaning master.
As days passed Eeru grew older. He was well built and looked over -grown for his age, with broad shoulders, strong hands and brawny body. But he lacked the spirit of a youth,of a full-fledged human being.
He was submissive, diffident and looked crest- fallen.That was because though he had been given food, clothing and a place on the pyol (a low -roofed portico) of Somu's hut. He was always treated as a waif, an orphan, and with a strange kind of reservation or suspicion.
Now he was quite a young man capable of living on his own. But he needed some one to show him the way. He needed to know his own entity, his own identity which was his biggest flaw and obstacle.
In other words neither his sub-conscious nor his conscious mind had found any exposure to any kind of specific development as such.
The villagers looked at him as if he were a drudge ,meant to be only in the service of them all. Even feeble, old women never hesitated to order him to get their petty work done.
He never refused anyone ,nor declined any work.In fact he did it all with dedication and commitment.During the noon hours he used to sit outside the school and listen to what the teacher taught inside.
This had happened over the years and now he had learnt to read and write as the old man had taken interest in teaching Eeru just because the latter obliged him with his menial work, including occasional cooking under the instructions of the teacher.
During the evenings ,and on the days the school remained closed, Eeru would be seated on the bank of the river, under the same large bamboo bush, with his back inclined to the flat projecting rock
He had discovered that he could bring out some sonorous notes blowing through one end of a reed which he had plucked from the river inlet.
Gradually he devised a kind of musical pipe or flute- like thing and he went on making improvisations of it. On a fine day he found that he could create musical notes out of it.He had on his own, made an invention and a creation.
But he was more engrossed in it than happy. He spent most of his time now on the bank of the river, away from all people.
Sometimes he was followed by some young boys for whom also, he had made such flutes.
But they could not catch up with him either in tune or in making the flute.
It became his hobby to pluck the neat reeds and shape them into blowing pipes of his choice and pitch.He became a kind of expert in his job.
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Sometimes when the other boys insisted, he would go with them to the outskirts of the village- as far as the cross roads leading to the large endless looking , tar- laid highway .
On those days he was alone and had nothing else to do, he would go there and climb a small hillock from where he sought a clearer view of the other side of the road.
It was certain the road brought passers - by from somewhere and carried them beyond, somewhere.He didn't know the beginning or the end of it. He used to be scared of it in the beginning.
But as he grew older and as he frequented the place he had a secret urge to go along and find where it led to.
But he never ventured it nor ever stayed longer in the place, but withdrew himself.
As Eeru returned to the hut before noon he felt exhausted because of over working for his master on the previous night. He had been peeling and packing the coconuts in the moonlight till it was almost dawn . He had also to stow the coir peels in an order, and tuck them in such a way that they stayed back without falling and occupied the least space possible in the backyard of the hut .
As Eeru sat on the pyol (a low -roofed portico) of the hut, he felt drowsy and being over come by sleep, closed his eyes and leaned his left shoulder against the wall ;and he went into a nap.
Just then Somu's third wife Suji returned from the riverside. She had gone there to fetch two big pots of water at a time ,as she did everyday at noon.Somu had taken her as his third wife after his first wife died, a few years ago ,and his second wife he felt, was not up to his match.
Suji was in her teens and was from a neighbouring village .She was very skillful and talkative. She always tried to be more attentive to Eeru , irrespective of the presence of her husband.
Somu used to get disturbed in the beginning ;but soon he started getting irritated and short tempered. The least lapse or mistake on the part of Eeru made him abuse the latter and shout at him in loud voice. Eeru felt puzzled and sad;but he was quite helpless.
Besides he never knew the proper cause for his master's ill -temper towards him. It so happened that when Suji saw Eeru napping on the pyol of the hut she had kind of complex feeling-- of pity, amusement or what , she could not decipher.
She stood there for a few minutes looking at his face without even unloading the water pots. The moment found the entry of Somu who was shocked and astounded. He no more could control himself; he got to the pyol and forcefully with his right leg kicked Eeru who was in calm sleep.
This sent him rolling down the pyol - three feet above ground, on to the little trench in the front- yard of the hut, besides sending Somu down on his back to the wall.
Eeru was shocked more than hurt .He thought he was in a dream and took quite sometime to know what had happened to him. Somu was more aggressive and louder this time. This brought the occupants of the neighbouring huts, outside for watching the melo- drama
Eeru was utterly confused and sad and stood there looking at the ground. He thought that his master was angry with him for sleeping on the pyol at that hour.
Somu took Eeru's bag, which contained many self- made flutes and such other things, and which was his only belonging. He threw it at Eeru and ordered him to get out of the village and never again come back.
Eeru knew his master's voice was final in the clan and the village .He stood there for some time and when more aggressively ordered to get out, left the place.He was completely broken, sad and hurt even physically.
It was a bright day heading towards it's close as the sun was about to set. Eeru had walked away from the West, for quite a distance along the tar road of the highway. He felt like sitting for some time and chose to sit on the flat marked milestone.
Hardly a few minutes had gone when from the Western side of the road, a medium- built motor -cyclists came along the road and slackened his speed.
He looked hefty and healthy. He had a big cased camera, with its belt hanging in his front from the neck.
When he saw Eeru, he felt happy for finding a living creature on the road. He decided to spend a few minutes chatting with him. He parked his two wheeler and neared Eeru ,who stopped playing his flute. The intruder asked him to go on with his tune. In fact he was happy and felt relaxed as Eeru had a couple of lovely tunes for him.
The intruder now introduced himself to Eeru as a journalist; and he came to know that the flutes ,and even the tunes had been made by Eeru himself.
The journalist now became more friendly with the latter as he came to know in brief about Eeru's plight.However he offered to help him to seek some job in the new place, Eeru wanted to go to .
He was good enough to give him a lift to whichever place he wanted to go to ,as long as it was along the road, to the journalist's destination ,which was some hundred miles away from there.
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The duo entered a town which looked big enough. The rider offered to take their supper in the small dhaba they saw in the entrance to the town.The food was hot and really good. It was a dhaba maintained by three men , who called themselves partners in the business; one of them who looked rather old, seemed to be soft and mild. He observed Eeru carrying some flutes in his bag. Inquisitively , he wanted to know if Eeru could play some tunes for him.
Eeru forgot himself playing tunes one after the other. Soon the dhaba was over crowded with people. It fetched good money to the owners of the dhaba, besides entertaining everyone present there.
A new idea occurred to the owners trio, of the dhaba ; and instantly , as they came to know that Eeru was on the look out for a job in the new place, they offered him the job of an entertainer -cum -helper in their dhaba.
They offered to pay him some wages besides food , and shelter to stay in the dhaba. Nothing better could be there for Eeru. He thankful y greeted the journalist who ,with a broad smile and wishes left for his destination.
Some six months had gone by and Eeru was now in a better position .But some stringent uneasiness haunted his mind if some one asked him about his parents ,or his native place , and his caste and community.
He would go into depression for quite some time later ,and retire to a corner to regain his lost spirit.
He was, as days went on, mainly preoccupied with a kind of complex, a kind of alienation , a kind of rootlessness or even a kind of being unwanted or rejected by the people around him.
He observed, and specifically too, that people were interested in knowing his roots, origins, parentage, caste and the like, more than his music.It was as though his talent as well as his identity was lost in the barren land, wherever he sought to cherish hope - to live like all others.
He constantly loathed to belong to someone, to someplace and to some clan.
A sense of alienation, a kind of identity- crisis always over- powered in whatever he did.
As such his voice, his gestures and all his actions reflected a certain split - a certain crack, and shape him into a persona, different from what he was within. In other words, he was at war with himself , but looked calm and composed like still waters that run deep.
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Vicissitude has its own course in every one's life .Strangely some sudden waves appeared in Eeru life too.
He had become almost mechanical, a robot -like working and living in the dhaba .One evening a long white coloured car pulled up in front of the dhaba. Soon it was followed by a big deluxe bus.
Passengers from the bus and the occupants of the car entered the dhaba which was now modified and had become a posh , highway resort,with provision for the sit- out and entertainment. The owners were happy to learn that it was a film shooting party on its out- door shooting errand.
The fashionable weird looking little man in the group ,who was recognised as the director and the controller of the entire unit, felt extremely happy to find Eeru's talent for flute -playing .Besides he was impressed with the latter's brawny, muscular slow movements as he walked composedly,
Reluctantly Eeru agreed to join them .
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After playing a few small roles and good many tunes in music, as wanted by the director, Eeru soon came to play the main role.He had now earned money and got everything necessary for a life of luxury.
But his constant worry was his identity. He was now an actor, musician and every other thing which the cine director wanted him to be .But his identity was lost.He had also been given a cine name- a false name, 'Prince ' which sounded well ;but yet was hallow for Eeru.
He played several roles as the leading man and brought about corresponding emotions of every role effectively. He was ultimately chosen to play coveted role of a play -boy.This role was set for him in most of the movies ,he serially acted in . But it was always his false persona which he brought out in such roles.
He was never easy with himself ;and never ever at ease. The set role was the swan song of his career and life.
One morning he woke up and turned obverse towards his looking glass.He saw some strange image of a wild man with a ghastly face in place of his own face in the reflection. As he began to shout, scream and run about the room in panic,his attendants ran to him and pacified him saying that there was no such thing as he had visualised. They asserted that it might have been an illusion and that he needed sleep at that hour.
For many months since, Eeru could not get rid of horrible illusion of himself. Despite all counselling and treatment under the care and observation of efficient doctors and psychiatrists, he could not be restored to complete normalcy.
He was broken down .One morning as usual when the attendants came to Eeru's posh residence to attend on him, they found his body hanging from the big loop in the ceiling, leaving behind obvious signs of suicide.
The leading newspapers and the telecasting agencies for the days that followed, were busy covering details of his life, describing the roles he played and the lilting musical tunes he composed. No one ever seemed to probe into the real cause of his death, the horrible one - his identity crisis and sense of alienation.
They reported that the death was on account of series of his failures as an actor in the new roles he played in his recently released movies .In fact the movies had failed because of rivalry among the producers . Those movies later gained considerable success at the box -office.
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