The Sinister Lapse

Mankind is perhaps the most wonderful and enigmatic of all living creatures on the earth.Endless is the variety of people with strange, yet significant values, gestures, attitude, and ofcourse , aptitudes.
It is not only enlightening but also in a way complacent to know where one stands in comparison and in contrast with others, by way of introspection.

Raj was in his early thirties and was a drop-out from school. His father Somashastri was a tradition- bound, conservative ,in religion.
He had a set way of life into which he fitted everything including music, sports, politics, finance and all such mundane factors.

Believing in the benevolence of luck and the grace of God ,he had fathered some eight children in the divine hope of getting a son.
At last he succeeded . Raj was the result of such a dogma.Being the youngest and the only male issue in the family,he received the utmost attention and concern from everyone in the family,including the distant relatives.

Generally there is a tendency in such children to go astray and turn out to be a disgrace to the family in the end.
Raj, from his childhood days encashed the extra attention he received in the family.
The old people pampered him and handed handful of coins for his small purchases of mint, sweets and the like , of his choice.
He was never scolded, ranted or reprimanded by anyone in the family. Needless to say that in his early 'teens itself , he turned out to be a vagabond ,and an evasive boy.

In studies, he never bothered to read or write. At an early stage he fell in the company of about half a dozen such drop-outs.
During the school - hours they would all gather on the platform surrounding the big peepal tree which was by the side of the road leading the town to the highway.
The whole day these boys managed to gamble in the games they had invented themselves for the purpose.
They would stake the coins and one or two, of them, strong enough to fight or shout , manage to take away the money of other boys.
They began with marbles from the ground and later chose to sit on the platform surrounding the tree and with some drawings with the charcoal or chalk ,they made squares with houses in them.

Thus began their gambling early games. There was no skill or intelligence involved in such games.They would use rough dices made from slabs of stone or cowries (shells).
Each was eager to win the stake money. Sometimes they quarrelled and fought.Sometimes it ended in the weakest, being beaten and left alone crying while others found there way back home.
Somashastri, was a priest by profession, though he was choosy at times to perform certain rituals.
He had inherited an old house and an acre of ancestral land. He dependent on his self-styled profession of match making.He undertook to get all kinds of unmarried grooms and brides married ,in certain communities, for which he charged a certain fee.He professed to be a
horoscope reader also and discouraged some grooms and brides from getting married if he found some wicked planets effecting their prospective married life. Some loudly thanked him, while others cursed him under their breath for his impulsive predictions.

Somehow , without much effort and loitering, he got his seven daughters married. It would be more appropriate to say that they sought and found their
own grooms , irrespective of caste, creed or ability to maintain the family.
Somashastri s wife uma soon became, bed- ridden more , because of her depression.She was almost an invalid.

Under these conditions Raj, remained outside the house all the time.
His companions under the peepal tree never left him alone.
With the passage of time, and their growing older, more sinister hobbies and habits came under there practice.
At times one of them would manage to get tobacco, wound in dry leaf or in paper, sold as beedis and cigarettes ,All of them took special delight in smoking
and posing under the spiral movement of the smoke.
There were days when they , at least some of them ,never returned home.

On a rainy day when the river was in floods these young men stood on the edge of a rock , looking at the flowing waters .
Four of them were interested in watching some glimmering object below, from where they were standing.
Perumal ,the oldest of them all ,held Raj by his hand and wanted to show him some fun. They went behind the other four and in a wild manner Perumal pushed them into the running deep waters.
The height was more than ten feet from the rock and the waters were deep at the spot. Perumal knew that none of them knew swimming.
They all fell into the deep water and were lost in the moving river.
This shocked Raj , as he was not prepared for such a wild and dangerous prank.
He stood there speechless and staring at the flooded waters carrying away his four friends. Perumal ran away and vanished.

The whole night Raj could not sleep. He would get up and sit for hours with a blank mind.
Three days later, four bodies were reported to have been taken out of the river. People thought they must have drowned while trying to swim across the flood.
Perumal came to Raj's house and asked him to come to the usual place of meeting.
For a few minutes none of them spoke a word about the friends they had lost. Perumal wildly and excitedly patted his own back for not being traced in the crime.

He came to the conclusion that staying away from disclosure or exposure to law is more important than the crime itself.
Accordingly he brushed the susceptible mind of Raj.Evidently he became Perumal's strong follower and was in his complete control.
One morning as they were sitting on the concrete platform, their usual place ,Perumal came close to Raj and put a wild idea in his mind.
He told him that luck and their skill would help them if they tried gambling on a large scale, especially in races or in such places were lots were considered
a way of life. For that they needed to go out of the little town,and also money, good enough to support their living and enterprise.

In the middle of the night, when Raj could not get over his anxiety and excitement anymore, he got up and searched the big old chests in the house.
He was delighted to find some cash, some silver articles and a pair of gold bangles of his mother ,which her father at the time of marriage had given to her. He picked up those things and noiselessly left.
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More than two years had lapsed since Raj and Perumal were brought into city prison. In the beginning both felt it impossible to live there.
However a few months passed and they came in contact with Yogesh, a social worker who had dedicated his life to the service of the people who needed help and counselling.

Yogesh was a post- graduate in social welfare and came from a rich background.
But his mother had brought him up in a disciplined manner.
Under the influence of such a committed mother ,Yogesh had learnt about the significance of family and social responsibility.
He had decided to spend his spare hours during the week-end ,with people who were frail, underdeveloped or misfits in society.
Though he never prided in himself for this commitment, there were those who were guided by him and rehabilitated,who always remembered him with reverence.

Soon he learned about the background of both Raj and Perumal. He found that together ,they made a pronounced evil pair.
So, he set them apart and made each of them realise the importance of work and the significance of equity - based values in life.

He made them realise that one must not live just for the sake of living; nor should one be self-centred.
During his weekly visits Yogesh told them about the significance
of conscience as the sole, divine instructor and guide in all matters. He insisted that a strong moral code prompts a good conscience.
He strongly asserted that the voice of a seasoned, trained inner mind is above all religion or law. The former dictates , while the other two might loosen their grip on a person ,if he or she finds an evasive way to escape their clutches.

Perhaps, there was a loud realization on the part of perumal. He was reported to have comitted suicide in the prison .
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After his release Raj returned to his home-town. Now he discourages all children who idle themselves in the town.
He makes use of any opportunity to help others.Having lost his parents, he has managed to secure and continue his family ties with his sisters.

Moreover he firmly believes in hard work and discards any possible compromise with luck .

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