(Recap– How a man felt when found himself transformed into a piece of stone in his next birth. In all previous episodes, the mental state of a stone piece, that still reminisced its previous life’s experiences and emotions were narrated in first person….)
A major part of agonies of my life I have narrated. This fact that still I can recall the incidences, experiences and emotions of my past life as a human being still haunts me. May be, with the lapse of time, it gradually diminished to a level of deletion. This may in future turn me into a stone in sooth, who is ever considered like a hard surfaced, lifeless, empty of all kinds of emotions type object by the rest of the world. But till the time, I don’t attain that state, I am doomed to live the life in this way.
Now a days again dense clouds begin to float up in the sky. My experiences of past tells me that this winter season is going to witness the heavy rain pour. It’s a common yearly seasonal phenomenon in my this Himalayan tracts. When it rains in torrents, this check-dam fills up like a bowl brimmed with water. But at the same time, in advance the sluice gate at the side of the front wall is often put open to make continuous release of surplus water. Otherwise also, when entire territory is wet by the natural showering , no irrigation is needed for crops in the fields. The shower of rains fulfills the requirements. Yes, no sooner, rain is off, then this sluice gate is shut down instantly.
Now I am hearing the faint shrills of approaching urchins of the village towards this check-dam. Still that sounds in light notes but with their approaching closer the check-dam site, it becomes clearer. It seems, today their school is off. This holiday type occasion seldom prompts children to visit this site for gamboling. From their modulation of voice, I am able to judge what kind of sport they are planning to play here. When I feel them close to me, It reminisced me of my past life when I was a child like them and happened to visit this site with my fellow urchins to gambol here.
Now children are busy discussing about the kind of sport they should start with. One of them suggesting, ” we should throw flat stones across the surface of the water so it could skip the surface by touching it. The stone that falls across on the other side be declared as a winner!” Now they have begun with their plan. All they are searching flat stones around and trying their hands to make it cross the surface. Though I can’t watch them clearly but can feel their enthusiasm from the joyous shrills. Suddenly I feel, I have been picked by a child. I look at his face, he is a tiny boy by his looks and I am assured, he doesn’t possess the required physical strength to throw me across the water surface.
I am certain about my ill- destiny in his hand. I am doomed to drown in the deep water. Lo! Child stretched his hand fully backward and tried his attempt. As it was obvious, his throwing angle too was wrong. It was oblique in acute angle. This made me drown down into the deep water. For two or three seconds, I heard the sound of their shrilling voices, but with my reaching down no voice was reachable to me in deep water. In oblique fashion I floated inside the mass of water and then rested just on the mouth of the sluice gate. Here is deep silent, no any sound from outside reaches here. I feel a cold sensation of water on my exterior.
Know not I, for how many days I remained stick to the mouth of the slice gate. But prior to the winter rain, when clouds got collided up in the sky and lightening and thunderstorm generated, I clearly heard those menacing sounds at the bottom. Then the standing water of the reservoir too began to tremble with heavy pour and other flooding water that came down collectively from the surrounding hillock into the mini valley of the check-dam. The next morning, when rain took a temporary halt, I heard the sound of shutter of sluice gate being pulled up wards. It was a great pressure of back water that pushed violently me out with releasing streak of stream into the aqua-duct.
Since, continuous rain was here hence aqua-duct now a days was directly connected to the river bank down in the terrain. In this situation I was destined to merge onto the dry bank of the river down side. It rarely occurs that river collects enough water in wintry rain to inundate across its basin. Just its old streams gets added with some more streaks of water. Now I am part of the pile of innumerable stones on the river bank. The aqua-duct’s flow that seemed so mighty to me in the beginning inside its confines now seems like a tiny streak on the bank of river and being absorbed in stones and sand in vague.
I know not, for how long I will remain lay here on this side of the river. May be, in coming Monsoon season when tongue of inundated river lap this bank and I be destined to drift along with that. But in life, hardly it occurs when your wish gets fulfilled. Perhaps in rare chance your dreams come true. Further, had I been so lucky then why would I be transformed into a stone. It often happens with winter rain here that it continues for a few days and then again dry season overlaps it. But this short duration of rain helps high peak to experience heavy snow fall and peaks of those mountains get capped with snow.
This cycle may repeat many times in winter season and winds blowing down from those snow capped peaks bring a long duration cold-waves currents down into this entire region as well as onto the plain sides afar. The same phenomenon I am experiencing now. But the life of people of this banal world keeps on going as usual. Laying here on the bank of river I can hear the throttling of heavy engines of trucks and other loaders which are collecting pile of small stones to quench the appetite of giant stone crusher plant a few km away from here. The faint rumbling sound of its crunching jaws is reaching to my ears.
On one day, a tractor trolley halted on the spot where I laid intermingled with other fellow stone pieces. Some laborer jumped down from the trolley and begun to dig up on our side to collect the pile of stones with intent to fetch it to the stone crushing plant. They pushed with might inside our pile the shovel and I felt loaded in the scoop. The next moment, I was thrown inside the trolley and then again one after another, other loads of shovels made me cover with the heap of my fellow companions. I was panic stricken. Just a few days ago. I was dreaming to drift along the inundated water of river in Monsoon season and now I was loaded in a tractor trolley to get crushed into innumerable tiny pieces in the jaws of stone crusher. ( End of the Part – 4th. Cont’d. ) Penned by– Vinay Pharasi —–
