Laalu ~~ II

His pet name was Laalu. He must have had some proper name, but it has slipped out of my memory. You perhaps know that in Hindi, the term 'lal' means 'favourite'. I have no idea as to who had given him this nickname, but seldom has there been such a congruence between a person and his name. He was indeed a great favourite with everybody.

After school, all of us joined college, but Laalu said he would pursue some independent business. He asked his mother for ten rupees and became a 'contractor' on the strength of that. We said, 'Well Laalu, your capital is ten rupees. He laughed and retorted, 'How much more does one want? This is more than sufficient.

Everybody was fond of him, he manage.d to get jobs. On our way to college, we would frequently spot Laalu, with an umbrella over his head, and a few labourers with him, engaged in small road repairs. He would grin seeing us, and tease, 'Run, run! You will score a duck in the attendance register.

When we were younger, in a Bengali-medium school, he used to be the handyman for all of us. In his school rucksack there were always waiting in readiness a head of a pestle, a norum, a broken knife, an old head of a harpoon for making holes, a horseshoe-no one knew from where he had acquired these, and there was nothing he could not accomplish with these odds and ends. He would mend umbrellas for the whole school, fix the frames of slates, instantly mend clothes that had gotten accidentally torn while playing countless such tasks. He would never say 'no' to any job. And he used to handle these tasks with great deftness. Once, during Chhar, he bought a few paise worth of coloured paper and shola, made attractive toys with them, and taking a position on the banks of the Ganges, he managed to make two rupees and fifty paise by selling them. He then treated us to a big treat of nicely fried peanuts.

As the years went by, we all grew up. There was no one to equal Laalu in the gymnasium. He did not just have tremendous physical strength, but also an equivalent share of courage. I think he really was not acquainted with the sensation of fear. He was ever-ready to respond to any call for help; he would be the first to reach a person in trouble. However, he had a terrible weakness-he just could not control the desire to frighten anybody if he saw an opportunity to do so. Before this compulsive desire, everyone-old as well as young-was completely equal. None of us could imagine how, in an instant, such amazing ideas to terrorize people would unfailingly occur to lum! Let me narrate one or two stories. In the locality Manohar Chatterjee was performing Kali puja in his residence. Late at night, the local blacksmith was absent, yet the auspicious moment for sacrificing before the Goddess was fleeing fast. People rushed to his residence to fetch him, only to discover that he was senseless with colic pain. When they relayed the news to the others upon returning, the rest sat holding their heads in despair-where was the solution? From where could another executioner be found at that hour? The Goddess's worship was going to be ruined! Suddenly someone said, 'Laalu can behead goats. He has done it so many times. People rushed

to his place; Laalu awoke, sat up in bed, and said, 'No'. What no! If the Goddess's worship is interrupted, a terrible

catastrophe will befall us!" Laalu said, 'Let it happen, then. I have done such things when I was a boy, but I no longer do so

The persons who had come to call him banged their heads against the wall in despair: only ten or fifteen minutes to go, and then, all would be over, all destroyed. The wrath of the Goddess would kill everybody. Laalu's father ordered him to go. He said, "These gentle folk have no other alternative and so have come to you. It will be wrong if you do not go. You must go' It was impossible for Laalu to disobey such a command.

Chattujje Mohashoyey felt reassured the instant he clapped eyes on Laalu. There was hardly any time. Swiftly a goat was dedicated to the Goddess; and it was quickly garlanded with red hibiscus, sindoor smeared on its forehead, and then put into the sacrificial stock. The helpless, gentle being's last appealing bleats rose, were completely drowned by the entire household collectively roaring out 'Maal Maa!" Laalu's hand holding the khaanra and an instant later, slashed downwards; from the severed neck a fountain of blood spouted and reddened the dark earth in a wet gush. Laalu closed his eyes for a moment. Gradually, the terrific clanging of knasar, the beating of drums, fell silent. The other goat, which had been trembling a little distance away, now in its turn, had its forehead daubed with sindoor, a red garland swung round its neck: again the sacrificial stock again the terrified last appeal, again the collective roaring of many voices-Maa! Maa!' Once again, Laalu's hand holding the blood-stained khaanra rose and, in the blink of an eye fell: the beast's headless body beat a few times on the earth in a final plaint to Somebody and then it stilled; blood from its severed neck further reddened the already-red earth.

The drummers went mad on the drums, the many shouts from the completely packed courtyard rent the air. On the adjoining verandah facing the courtyard, Manohar Chattuje sat on a carpet, absorbed in meditating on the name of his Ishtadevata. Suddenly, Laalu let loose a tremendous yell. Abruptly all noises ceased everyone was struck dumb with amazement "What was happening!' Laalu's pupils were distended, his eyes were bulging and revolving fast in their sockets-he shouted 'Where are the other goats?'

Somebody from the household, stuttering with fear, managed to say, 'There are no more goats. We always sacrifice just two Laalu swung around the blood-stained khaanra in his hand above his head a couple of times and yelled in a terribly harsh

voice, 'No more goats? No way! I am mad with bloodlust either give me a goat now, or else I shall sacrifice before the Goddess whoever I can lay my hands on! Maa, Maal Victory to Kali!' On the very utterance, with a gigantic leap. he was over the sacrificial stock, his khaanra whirling madly in his hand. What happened after that cannot be described in mundane words. In one accord, everyone raced for the main exit, terrified in case Laalu would catch hold of any of them. In that desperate race, there was such an enormous pushing. elbowing and jostling that it felt as if a Daksha yagna" was being held once again. Some had fallen down and were still trying to roll away, some were crawling away and had managed to get their heads stuck between people's legs, some had their necks held in vice-like armpits and were gasping for breath, somebody had been trying to escape over another person, and had fallen flat on his face in the thick of the crowd-but all these frantic efforts lasted for the space of a second. The next, the place was totally deserted.

Laalu shouted loudly, "Where is Manohar Chattujje? Where is the priest?"

The thin priest, under cover of the frightful din, was already safely hidden behind the idol of the Goddess. The family guru, seated on a grass-mat and engaged in reading religious tracts on Chandi, had hurriedly risen in the face of the fracas and taken refuge behind a stout pillar. However, Manohar, inconvenienced by his huge girth, had found it difficult to run around for a safe hiding place. Laalu went forward, and gripping one of Manohar's hands with his left hand, said, 'Come and put your neck in the stocks!

On the one hand, Laalu's iron fist, on top of which in his right hand was the khaanra: Manohar Chattujje almost died in fright. He began to plead tearfully, 'Laalu! Baba! Please calm yourself and look at me-I am not a goat but a human being. I am like your uncle through kinship, baba. Your father is like my younger brother."

'I don't want to know! I am now ruled by bloodlust come, I will sacrifice you. It is Maa's command Chattujje burst into a loud wail, 'No, baba, it is not Maa's command, it can never be her command-Maa is the Mother

of the Universe!

Laalu said, 'Mother of the Universe! What do you know

of that? Will you sacrifice more goats after this? Will you call

me to sever goats' heads again? Speak!"

Weeping, Chattujje declared, 'Never again, baba, never again! I am swearing thrice in front of Maa-from today there will be no sacrifices ever again in my house." 'Is that true?'

'Indeed it is true, baba, indeed it is true. Never again. Please let go of my hand, baba, I need to go to the toilet. Laalu loosened his hold, and said, 'All right, I am letting you go. But where did the priest run to? Where is the family guru? Where is he?' So saying, he again leaped across the courtyard and approached the thakurdalan (sacred yard). There arose two wails of fear in two different keys-one from behind the idol of the Goddess and another from behind the pillar. The mingled sounds of a reedy voice with a thick one were at once so peculiar and so comic that Laalu could contain himself no longer. 'Ha-ha-ha!'-he laughed and flinging the khaanra down on the ground with a bang, he ran out of the house.

It was then absolutely clear to everyone that all the talk of being under the influence of bloodlust had been a pack of lies, his idea of a joke. Laalu had been wickedly teasing everybody and frightening them all out of their wits. Within five minutes, everyone who had run away had returned and reassembled in the courtyard. There were still much that had been left incomplete in the worship of the Goddess because of the interruption. Amid the general hubbub, Manohar Chattujje began to swear repeatedly before everybody, 'If I do not make his father take a shoe to that rogue and make him smart under fifty blows by tomorrow morning, my name is not Manohar Chattujje.

But Laalu did not smart under any blows from a shoe. He fled before daybreak to a secret place no one knew about, and not a whiff of his whereabouts for a good seven to eight days came through. After about a week, he stole into Manohar Chattujje's house after dark, and begged his pardon after making obeisance, and managed to escape from his father's wrath. Still, be that as it may, because Chattujje had taken an oath before the Goddess, goat-sacrifice during Kali-worship did come to an end in Manohar Chattujje's house from that time onwards.

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