My Wanderings - 56. Short Story No 37. Facts of Life

Pooja was  just seventeen   when she completed   her School education  and stopped studying   further as there was no college in her village . She was the only child of her father, who was a rich Landlord of the village and her mother a seasoned housewife.  Therefore, Pooja was a pampered child of family and  brought up with much fanfare. But Pooja was very innocent by nature and totally ignorant about the facts of life as compared to other girls  of her age. Now Pooja had left school, radiant, bursting with life , thirsting for happiness , ready for all the joys and all the risks which she had already anticipated in imagination. She looked like portrait of Godess , with her dark hair and fair complexion. Her eyes were blue with a dark mole on her chin. She was tall with a developed bust.
Once sitting  near the window of her bed room she began to dream of love. For sometime her thoughts  have  been filling up with anxious anticipations of its advent. She had only to meet him . What would he be like? She did not really know . She only knew that she would worship him with all her heart and soul. They would go on long walks , they would hold hands , pressing close to each other , hearing their heartbeats suddenly she seemed to feel him close by her side and a shiver of sensual  longing ran over her whole body.
After some time  village priest brought the proposal of a boy namely Ashok who was a graduate and living in a near by  village. But the parents of Ashok had  already expired . Pooja's father asked the priest to bring the boy someday to their house so that they know each other better.  Ashok was a very smart boy of average  height with a very good  sense of humour.  Every body in the house began to like him gradually  as he started to visit their  house.
One day Ashok proposed Puja when her parents were not at home.  Ashok seizing the hand of Pooja whispered to her, " tell me Pooja dear, will you be my wife?" She bent her head and when he again whispered , " Do give me an answer, I love you". She raised her eyes gently to his and he read her answer  in her glance.
She was blushing ,panting and strangulated with emotion when her father one day  added  with  a smile ,  " we can not do anything without discussing it with you. Your mother and I have no objection with this marriage , but we do not wish  to put any pressure on you. You are much better off than he is, but when it is a question of lifelong happiness , the consideration of money ought not to come in . He has no near relative living , so if you do marry him , he will come into our family as a son , whereas with someone else it will be  a case of our daughter going among strangers. We like the boy .We seek your opinion. Pooja stammered in affirmation and marriage was fixed.
On the night of marriage Ashok pressed the ears of Pooja with his lips, saying ," Today you will be my little wife". Although she had learnt the facts of life from her school friends, she still only thought of the romantic aspect of love and was surprised .His wife? Was not that she already ?" Then he clasped her in arms and she surrendered because she remembered the words of her mother that from now  on you are all his. Finally  with some inquisitiveness some pain and some excitement marriage was consummated.
Excitement of marriage lasted for some months when Pooja noticed some indifference  in the attitude  of Ashok towards her.  Ashok had taken full charge of the  farms of his father in law. Pooja first  thought it is because of work load of Ashok that he can  not afford to give her much time. But soon it transpired that Ashok had developed illicit relations with some farm girl , who had become pregnant by now. This  ill action  of Ashok gave a shock to the whole family in general and particularly to Pooja. She wanted to severe all relations with Ashok. But father of Pooja,  who was a seasoned landlord and a business man ,  gave serious thought to the problem and paid  considerable amount of  money    to   father of farm girl and  advised him to arrange the marriage of his daughter , which he did later on.
But it was difficult for Pooja to compromise with the situation. She dared not face the people she met, convinced that they would whisper behind her back. She felt a grudge against Ashok in her heart for not understanding her and having no refined modesty and delicacy. She felt as if   it were a veil , a barrier between herself and him, realising for the first time that two people can never understand each other's deepest feelings and thoughts. They may walk side by side and sometimes embrace , but they remain apart and moral being of each one is eternally isolated all through life. Pooja could realise  that facts of life are not always  sweet but sometimes bitter also. 

My Wanderings -55. Short Story - 36. Return of warrior with a Storm

Anita was living along with her two kids Anshoo and Amit at Jammu. Her husband Major Anil was in Kashmir on frontier duty somewhere near Kupwara . It was monsoon season in Jammu and raining heavily through out  that night . Anita after rising from bed and finishing  her daily  early  chores went over to the window, but the rain showed no sign of stopping . The downpour had rattled all night against the panes and the roof . The lowering sky , full of water ,seemed to have burst , drenching the earth and reducing it to a muddy paste like melted sugar . Furious gusts of wind were blowing , laden with stuffy heat , and the roar of flooded gutters filled the empty streets , where the houses like sponges sucked up the damp , which found its way inside and made the walls sweat from cellar to attic.
Anita was very happy today as her  husband Anil was   coming  soon to  home for a long leave as she was now ready to grasp all the joys of life of which she had long dreamt. She wanted to visit Malls , shopping complexes and cinemas along with Anil and children. She was only anxious about the weather so that it may hinder the home coming of Anil. She wanted the weather cleared and for many times she scanned the horizon anxiously  that morning  . Suddenly she noticed that she had forgotten to awoke her children  from bed as their school time was approaching fast .No sooner  children arose from bed , she promptly prepared them and went to kitchen for preparing their breakfast. After serving them breakfast, she accompanied the children to  nearby  street to board them in the school bus . The downpour continued and Anita took the children under umbrella towards main Street. The howling wind drove the rattling rain against the umbrella  and flooded the roadway making pools and puddles of  muddy rain water. Soon the children boarded the school bus and the Bus drove on splashing muddy water of the pools through its wheels. While returning to home Anita could observe the  violence of storm abating gradually . Soon it was only a kind of drizzle , a fine mist of flying raindrops. The cloud ceiling began to rise and clear , and suddenly through an invisible opening a long slanting gleam of sunlight shone down. Now on reaching home she was happy to see a blue and clear expanse of sky spread over the whole earth . A gentle fresh breeze passed like a sigh of relief from the window. But it is often said that there is a lull before a greater storm. Soon the telephone bell rang and Anita was informed by an unknown  Voice from the unit of her husband that Anil was martyred  last night while fighting with  the terrorists. Anita could not beleive  the words . The whole world appeared  topsy  turvey before her eyes. She could not bear the gravity of message and collapsed in comma on the floor near by dropping the receiver unawares.
When she recovered from comma, she could see her apartment filled with unknown people . The dead body of Anil had also arrived  in tricolour with full military  honours. Anil had shown much valour while fighting the intruders and killed three  of them single handedly. All the five Pakistani  intruders had been neutralised against the death  of one  Indian  Major Anil, who had proved himself to be a real warrior.  The name of  Major Anil had also been  recommended for  Kiriti chakra award .
But Anita appeared indifferent to all this , even she was not attending to her wailing children sitting besides her. She had turned into a stone. Her sunken  and vacant eyes were dry. She was like a corpse. Every body was worried about her mental state and wanted she should cry.
At last after much persuasion of the womenfolk around her she cried while embracing her children. It was with  a wild shreik ,  tears began to  flow from her eyes. She wept bitterly shedding torrents of tears. She wailed bitterly. All the woman and even menfolk  around there could not hold tears. The storm in the life of a person is  sometimes much more stronger than the storm of nature . But the people around heaved a sigh of relief on  shedding of tears by the Anita , because this sudden shock could have affected her balance of mind.

My Wanderings - 54 Short Story - 35. Enchanting Pilgrimage and a possessed Pilgrim

                       I have been often  misunderstood  for being an atheist because of my rational outlook on matters of religion and for  my  habit  of  pleading against superstitions.  As  per my convictions there is possibly no relation between rationality and atheism. I would hereby like to narrate an incident of my life ,which happened a very long ago, when I was a young man and had  recently joined my first job in Meteorological Deptt. I along with my brother and his  family  decided to go on Amar nath  yatra . The seats  were booked in a chartered Bus which was going directly to Baltal en-route  Sona Marg.  Actually Bus was arranged by a group of Punjabi business men for their families and we could manage few seats in it. The main purpose of booking our seats in this Bus was that it could  wait for us at Baltal and bring  us back next day to  Srinagar   immediately,  once all of us  assembled in the  bus.
We boarded the bus at Srinagar around 2 P.M. and reached Baltal at 7 P.M.  As  we arranged   for a small  hut for night halt and slept in there after taking some light dinner ,which we had brought from Srinagar
Next day before  dawn we arose from our beds and  quietly started our journey towards Amarnath shrine. It was really wonderful experience to ascend high mountain  peaks and cross the slippery glaciers of ice, where we had to walk on man made paths enough to hold single foot of a person at a time and beyond which were slippery deep ravines and slopes of glaciers. A wrong step of a person could cost  his life and it would have been impossible to locate for the dead bodies  even because the slopes of mountains were thousands of  feet deep and fully laden with ice of glaciers​.
There were  really  thrilling and heart wrenching experiences which  prompted us to go ahead  carrying our  fatigued  bodies and numb nerves. I can not still forget the taste of lemon shake which we made with ice water. It was really like a life elixir  which refreshed our bodies to the hilt. It was only after crossing mountain peaks, glaciers, ravines , slopes and canyons for hours together, we could locate the great Amarnath cave welcoming us with its Majestic  grandeur . While reaching near the holy cave , I could not control my nerves  on witnessing  the enchanting atmosphere around. It was really a new experience. The place appeared untrodden by human species , animals or birds. The ice cold water of river Amravati flowing fast and making a white foam like substance over it. The White snow  mountain peaks, white clouds hovering over the sky  and white stones all around added to the grandeur of the  place. The scene was mesmerising , bewitching   and beyond any description by  human words . The spectacle of nature was  at its peak mingling slowly with the divinity in  conspicous mode. No body could afford to be an atheist in such a serene atmosphere and among the chanting of Shiva shankara echoing around . A dip in  ice cold water of Amravati was enough to refresh the body and soul of any pilgrim . 
After paying our   obeisance  at the captivating  piligrimage  and taking some food , we started our return journey. Our return  journey was not so tiresome but  it was risky as we had  mostly to descend slopes . But heavy rains made our return journey more risky as it made our paths very  slippery . Anyhow we reached our base camp Baltal drenched and shivering with cold rain water despite of our rain coats and umbrellas.
After reaching Baltal we boarded the bus waiting for us. When  all the passengers assembled ,driver drove the Bus with out any hassle. But only after driving  few kms., Driver abruptly stopped the bus  near a slope and left it  along with conductor with a promise to return  soon.  We were waiting in the bus for Driver to  return for an hour, but he did not turn up. Some pilgrims  guessed  that he might have gone for dinner in a near by village. All the yatris were drenched with cold rain water and were  weary  to the hilt. Most of us were dozing and waiting anxiously for driver to return.
In the mean time a boy sitting somewhere in back seat stood up abruptly and started chanting 'Jai Mata di' and all the yatris responded him loudly in the same manner. The yatris thought that he was possessed by 'Mata' and no body dared to stop him when he hurled abuses on Driver and seated himself on Drivers  seat and tried to start vehicle. He declared something  unrighteous has happened during the pilgrimage and Mata wanted to punish all.  Few yatris alighted  out of the bus to save themselves but most of yatris remained in the bus with closed eyes chanting Jai Mata di. I was also  one among the yatris who came out of bus . We looked at each other in much bewilderment  and mustered  enough courage to take hold of the boy sitting on drivers seat and pulled him out of the bus after thrashing him a little. He rolled his body on the road and started weeping .  He admitted that he was hungry and tired  so much that he lost his balance of mind. Then some food was provided to him and he was again bundled in to the bus. In the meantime Driver appeared  with much apologetic disposition and drove away the bus. We reached Srinagar at mid of night.
Later on it transpired that the small Boy in question was a domestic help of  some family  travelling in  the  Bus , who was neglected and not given any food  to eat through out the journey .
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My Wanderings - 53. Short Story - 34. Purchasing of a Family Car

                      Anita after completing all the household chores and preparing herself in  her formal dress was ready to leave for office. She was however, depressed to see her husband  Arvind  still in undergarments   near  verandah  cleaning   and oiling his old scooter  , which she despised so much. Many times she had told him to dispose off his old scooter and purchase a new car which would  have  eased their life so much.  But today she did not utter a word as she was not in talking terms with her husband for the last few days. Actually she was married to Arvind for the last twenty years after  courting  him for two and half years. The scooter was purchased by Arvind within the first year of their marriage. Therefore , it was witness to all the randevous and romance in their life which existed between the two for several years. But with the passage of time vagaries of life and circumstances had stolen  all the charm and romance  of the relation. They were living like strangers under the same roof with the common Intrest in their only son , who was studying at Pune. The cracks in the relation began to appear when they became so  critical of each other and reached to culmination after their being indifferent to themselves.
After reaching his office Anita was shocked to learn  that it was a public holiday thatday. Now she could guess that why her  husband was leisurely looking after his scooter. She was furious with anger towards her Husband who did not confide her about the holiday. She decided to visit a cinema  instead of going to her home so  early. As she reached near cinema hall, she witnessed a huge rush as it happened to be a very first day of some  popular cinema being displayed there. In the meantime she saw her Boss in his long chauffer driven car along with  his wife. She was astonished to see the beauty of his wife. She was looking like a model of some  advertising agency selling woman accessories . As her Boss alighted from his car , she greeted  him with folded hands. He requested her  to purchase two tickets from woman's queue  as his wife was not used to stand in queues.  Anita proceeded towards ticket windows to  obey the instructions  of her boss  with out a question. She was jostled and muffled  in the huge crowd.  She could reminsce her earlier visits to the cinema hall with her husband , who would give cover to her in his strong arms and take her  out smoothly  in such huge crowd.  He would never have let her perish like this. She only purchased two tickets with much difficulty and handed over the same to her boss and left the cinema hall on some pretext. Now Anita wanted to reach her home immediately.
After reaching her home she scolded her husband gently,
" you did not stop me when I left for office as I was not aware of Holiday."
" Oh! I thought you are aware of it and you are going to cinema  with your colleague or Boss". retorted back her husband.
" Have I ever visited to cinema or Mall with out you", said Anita  displaying affection in her eyes.
"You are absolutely right, dear", "when you left I was very angry. Then I felt guilty and  also your absence very much. I thought that I am overlooking your contribution to the family. You have been working relentlessly towards the welfare of family in all fronts including  domestic as well as financial. Please forgive me for my ego which  stopped me from recognising your contribution  and offending you for a quite a long time".
A stream of tears overflowed  from the eyes of Anita voluntarily  while stopping her husband from touching her knees. Arvind also promised Anita that tomarrow he will apply for a car loan which added a gleam in the eyes of later.

My Wanderings - 52. Unsung Pioneer of Theatre in Kashmir

My maternal Grandfather Pt. Sham Lal Kak was born  at  the end of nineteenth  century and  year was  eighteen hundred ninety two  in a joint family at Habba kadal Srinagar. He was the eldest child of his parents having three other siblings comprising of two brothers and a sister. He was a brilliant student of Mission school , Fateh Kadal , the motto of which was 'In all things be men'. He was good in studies as well as other extra curricular activities of school like boating, swimming and hiking  etc. But unfortunately he was married at very young age, when he was only a student of 6th class as early marriage of children was most common in Kashmiri Pandit families  those days. In order to discourage child marriage Mr Tyndale Biscoe , Principal of Mission school had levied extra fee for those students who were married earlier. Therefore, my Grandfather had also to bear the brunt and to remit the extra fee. But such schools helped in changing the outlook of young students coming mostly from much orthodax families of Kashmir who could  shun to play volleyball with their naked hands as it was made of leather. They mostly covered their hands by lifting the long sleeves of their' firan' and then only touch the leather ball. It was due  to some progressive ideas inculcated in the young mind  at school level and brilliant scholarship somewhere inherent in his genes that my Grandfather completed Graduation with top grades, which was a rare achievement those days. In the  the meantime his father died and he was left with no other alternative but to look out  for a job to support his large family. He first joined state excise Deptt. and later on  Accountant Generals office. His wife Rajrani belonged to  Natipora area, who was very sagacious lady and  gave birth to three sons and one daughter. My Grandfather was interested in reading world class literature particularly English , American and Russian right  from his early youth. He was also interested in Art and drama. Chekhov and Pushkin were his favourite playwrights . Theatre was his dream. He wanted to start Drama theatre in Kashmir, when it was still  in inception   level at big cities like  Delhi, Calcutta and Baroda. Only village level theatre like Band pather in Kashmir was known. He was influenced by the Modern Indian theatre , the pioneer of which was Rabindra Nath Tagore, who himself wrote plays in Bengali noted for their exploration and questioning of nationalism , identity, spiritualism and material greed . His plays included Chitragada 1892, The King of Dark Chamber Raja 1910 , The Post office Dhakghar 1913 and Red oleander Raktakabri 1924. My Grand father wanted to bring modern theatre to Kashmir also. But it was an uphill task and required a huge financial investment.  He along with his  close friends contributed few thousand rupees towards the venture. Thousand rupees was a huge amount those days. He had to  apply for withdrawing his Provident fund to arrange his contribution. His father in law,  a patwari of  Natipora advised him to invest the amount in question in  purchasing land at Natipora which will make him a big landlord of Natipora. But his passion for theatre was much beyond the materialistic gains as he was influenced by the revolutionary ideas and artistic flavour.
They rented a big hall along with few rooms in the periphery of Srinagar city, The drama artists were called from Delhi and Calcutta on salary basis and the great venture was started. Many dramas were played on the stage including 'Bilwa Mangal' Raja Harish Chandra etc. on ticket basis. Late  Sh. Jagar Nath Saqi ,  who became a veteran artist of Radio Kashmir later on,  was just working as  apprentice there. The venture was successful for sometime but proved to be a great financial disaster later on. The reasons thereof were that audaince  was ignorant about modern theatre and poverty viz a viz  hand to mouth living was rampant throughout . Drama and theatre was considered luxury and few condemned  it for immorality . The founders of this venture had perhaps overlooked these factors. The venture started incurring losses and how far the promotors could sustain losses. The venture was closed and promoters incurred huge losses. These happenings made  my grand father much desperate and distraught. It was only after few years  after this incident , he  died very young at the age of thirty nine only in year nineteen thirty two.
To those who  tried failed and died, I give my great honour , glory and tears.

My Wanderings - 51. Short Story No. 33. Benefit of Doubt

              My father while serving as a country Doctor had various experiences in remote areas of Kashmir  and that too a very  long ago when specialisation in the field was unknown in city  Hospitals also. Doctor with whatever little knowledge had to be ready to deal with any exigency which ever may  arise  in the area. Those days pathological and diagnostic tests were not available and even if available in a rudimentary   form and  were sparsely in vouge  even in city Hospitals . The disease had to be diagnosed on  its symptoms only . The Doctor had to rack his brains and use his intelligence in order to track the disease . This  exercise however used to sharpen  the  faculties of Doctor towards  better diagnosis. The only silver lining  in this  occupation was that it was purely professional and was not commercial  like these days. The Doctor would get satisfaction from his profession by correct diagnosis and treatment of the patient rather than deriving pecuniary benefits out of it. Moreover, Doctor had to be all-rounder those days. He had to be a physician, surgeon, Gynocologist, child specialist and bone specialist all in one as he had to deal any type of patient any time.  
Once  a gujjar woman bleeding profusely from  her head    was brought in to  the Hospital by few persons.  When my father with the help of his attendant looked into the wound, the case appeared prima facie  hopeless​. The sclap and skull bone  were broken into  two pieces and brain was protruding out of it . The two hair plaits of woman had spread apart making a way for  internal mass  . It  later on transpired that woman in  question had gone for collecting fuel wood from Jungle and some male  gujjar had caught hold of her to satisfy his biological need.  The woman had managed to frisk away from his grip  and ran away. But the  Gujjar had chased her frantically and in a fit of rage hurled  his axe on her sclap and left her wounded and bleeding.  Then few good persons after hearing  her frantic calls had brought her to hospital.
My father  and whatever little staff available with him  had no other option but to attend the exigency. They simply tried to stuff the portion of  brain  hanging outside back into her head after cutting some mass of flesh. Then they manually arranged to join the two pieces of   her skull bone, which were spread apart. After few stitches on his sclap she was discharged as there was no indoor facility available  in the Hospital. After few days she recovered to the surprise of one and all. Mostly villagers bitten by bears or leapords in the jungle  were usual cases attended by my  father in the Hospital. Whole of the village would assemble outside the Hospital gates , whenever there was such type of operation going on inside.
After  duty  hours  at the Hospital , my father would attend patients who were bed ridden in far flung areas on horseback or Tonga as per schedule. This was also a part of the duty of my father as no other Doctor was available in the whole area. My father never charged anyone for extra services provided by him as the patients were mostly poor peasants living around. The medicine was also available to them free of cost from Govt. Hospital.
One day my father received a call  to attend an emergency case  in another village about 5 Kms away from the village where Hospital was located.     In the mean time a person was stabbed by another  in  the abdomen and victim was brought to Hospital for treatment. As my father had already left for another village, assistant present in the Hospital attended to  the patient and after stitching his wound discharged him. But patient died in the way  while going to his  home.
Then after apprehending the culprit by police a murder  case was lodged against him in the District court. After many hearings which were attended by my father and his colleagues also, the judge gave decision in favour of culprit by giving  benefit of doubt to him. The Judge opined that victim was treated  at the Hospital by an attendant only as House Doctor was absent from duty. Had the victim  been attended by a qualified Doctor, he might  have survived and therefore culprit can not be punished for murder charges. The culprit was  however, charged for attempt to murder only, which subsequently lessened the punishment of culprit substantially. Moreover, Doctor was held  responsible for  neglect of duty  despite of his pleadings that he was liable to attend the patients of surrounding area also. Taking cognizance  of the circumstances  on account of  exigency  of service which kept my father out of Hospital  at the material time and viewing the case leniently, increment of my father was stopped for two  years only.

My Wanderings - 50 Short Story No. 32. Brothers Karihaloo

The present story revolves  round  my memory lane reflecting  back the early years of Nineteen sixty , when I was a little child and my father was transferred to small hemlet of Khrew , nineteen Kms away  from Srinagar city as In- charge of allopathic dispensary. Actually my father was the first incumbent of Allopathic Dispensary which was earlier an  Ayurvedic one. It was a beautiful village of springs and brooks spread all over the area. The small brooks flowed in the compounds and even through the ground  floors of inhabitants. The water of springs  was relatively warm in winter season as  white cloud like  vapours hovering over the streams were most conspicuous  in cold climate . The nature had bestowed the village with all natural resources which were sufficient to live a  luxurious life for all living beings around  but man's greed had devised ways  to divide it unequally so as to marginalise few.                   The Dispensary was located in a nice two storey building , the upper storey of which was Doctors residence ,where we lived. Adjacent  to Dispensary  compound there was a big chunk of land in the shape of farm  along with a  three storey house constructed beyond the other end of it belonging to one sh. Prakash Ram Karihaloo and on its opposite   periphery, which was just besides  hospital building, there was a kucha one room hutment surrounded by a small piece of land just enough for kitchen garden. The inhabitant of the hutment was Raghav Ram Karihaloo who was  younger brother  of  Prakash Ram. Although both the brothers were having  amazing   similarity in their physical  appearances but were  miraculously apart as per their temperanment was concerned. Prakash Ram was  introvert type of person and appeared to be most cunning while as Raghav Ram was extrovert and an honest person. Both the brothers were at daggers  drawn , living in their seperate houses and no body had seen them talking or meeting ever. Prakash Ram had married once but his wife  died much earlier with out delivering a baby while as Raghav Ram was a chronic bachelor. After the death of their parents Prakash Ram had taken no pains to marry or settle his younger sibling .                                                                       Actually they had some dispute over the ancestral land, major chunk of  which Prakash Ram had usurped while Raghav Ram was young boy and had confined the later to a  small portion of it on the periphery. The land case was lying pending in the High court at  Srinagar which would come up for hearing after a lapse of six months or a year and was always  postponed for next dates.
Prakash Ram was like a selfish giant and never allowed anyone  to trespass his fortress. He would watch from the window of  top floor  of his house and  shriek like a wild cat whenever children tried to enter his orchard for fun. He would become mad and hurl all the lofty abuses on the children who even by chance happen to cross over  his orchard. Once I entered his garden for plucking  flowers. He sprang like a leopard from somewhere , caught hold of  me and started beating me voilently.    Luckily my father came out from Dispensary and gave him a bit of mind.
Raghav Ram on the other hand was a very social person. He used to visit us occasionally for a courtesy call. He played with us sometimes and used to take care of all the children living near by.
Once during our stay Prakash Ram fell seriously ill. There was no body to look after him. My father was the only Doctor available  in the whole area. Therefore, he attended him and even advised  his younger Brother Raghav Ram to look after him. Raghav Ram most meticulously followed the instructions of my father and helped his brother in the time of distress. Prakash Ram was pleased to see his brother Raghav Ram serving him day and night.  One day he confided to Raghav Ram  that he wanted to  leave  all this hatred and dispute and live a peaceful life henceforth , to which his younger brother most readily agreed. They even agreed to compromise mutually and abandon court case .
But only after Prakash Ram regained his health fully, he began to show his true colours and started behaving cunningly again. They  started living  in their seperate houses and left talking to each other once more.
In the mean time my father was transferred from the village  and we left the place for good.
It was after a long time, when I was a little grown up ,  I had a chance to visit the same village  again in connection with paying obiscance   to Mata Jwala Devi,  whose temple was located on a hillock thereat. It was a yearly Mela of Ashad chaturdashi. After paying my obiscance at  Mata,s shrine,  I thought of paying a visit to my old abode where I had spent few years of my childhood.
The hospital was shifted to some spacious building and some one had purchased it's old building . The hutment of Raghav Ram was in dilapidated condition and closed. I then ventured to peep through the orchard of Prakash Ram. There was hustle and bustle both  in the building and orchard. The people from far off places who had visited the shrine were preparing meals and resting all over the place. I could also see Raghav Ram helping the visitors most sincerely.
It took Raghav Ram a long time to recognise me because I was grown up now. Replying to my enquiry regarding Prakash Ram he said, "Prakash Ram  passed away few years back.
Actually when court decided the case in my favour, my brother felt very desperate and aghast and died the same night due to heart attack. Now being the lone surviving hear of  whole property  l am looking after it
After my death it will go to shrine board as per my registered will."
He further told me that men may come and men may  go but properties remain to dispute the relations for ever. I feel very sorry for my brother who guarded this property throughout his life and never compromised to part with inch of it and left the whole within a wink of eye.