It was just another day.Amina had gone begging for alms with Fakir, her lame husband,in local train compartments.Suddenly they saw a crowd near the dead end of the platform.They immediately rushed there, feeling inquisitive.Oh,shocks!There lay an abandoned new born,no not a girl child as usual, but a male,five days old at the most.On close scrutiny it revealed that the baby was devoid of his eyes.While the commotion was still on Amina and Fakir decided to own the forsaken,as that would satisfy their own hankering for a child,as also a deformed child was a boon in disguise for a beggar family.
Life rolled on for a couple of years as smoothly as it could be,while they lived in the deserted ruins of the health centre of the village.The village priest Naran Thakur often showed special sympathy for Bhikhu, the babe.He also offered them a share of the prasad off and on.He was a bachelor with a number of disciples in and around the village, and was respected for his progressive mind and knowledge.
But the child was destined to be mother less again.One night,Amina slipped and fell from a running train,was crushed under its wheels,and Fakir could hardly help her being a polio victim himself.Bhikhu understood little of what had happened, but only drops of tear ran down his cheeks.
He however learnt fast to cope with the adversities.He even helped his foster-father in cooking meals.He was always eager to listen to stories and myths from Naran Thakur.He could feel that he was growing up,liked to have a shave as and when the barber would have pity.He used to go with Fakir every where he went,and had developed a strange habit of making out people from there smell.He could distinguish between the urban-bred and his own people.
Again there was another turning point in his life.Fakir had grown old and week,and all of a sudden he did not wake up one fine morning.This was definitely a totally new experience for the forsaken fellow,who knew not what to do next.Naran Thakur came to his rescue and took him to the temple.But the think-tank of the village opposed vehemently,and pushed him back to his old dwelling.Within a fortnight the area witnessed the heaviest rainfall of the century.The entire village was submerged in water, apart from the abandoned health centre where Bhikhu lived, the temple and the school building.
By this time Bhikhu knew what exactly the words like death and destruction meant.In the evening , while it was still raining cats and dogs,Thakur came with Banku,a local farmer-who had become unhinged after losing his own farmland-and his wife,Kali.Naran Thakur told Bhikhu to allow them some space as they were not welcome to join others in the school building due to Banku's eccentricities.
This was again a new chapter in Bhikhu's life.While the weather remained inclement outside, the inner atmosphere was also glum,as for the first day they hardly communicated with each other.However on the second day he felt the closeness of the feminine softness,who served him food,which was till then totally unknown to the person who had no mother.
Kali used to talk to him and share thoughts as Banku waded in the marooned area aimlessly.Bhikhu was feeling the warmth of a woman who herself had no one to turn to.Bhikhu had heard about hills, valleys, streams,jungles and volcano eruptions from the priest.Now it seemed he under stood exactly what it meant.He erupted day after day or night after night,that mattered little to a person who never saw light,but was enlightened by his own realisations.
At long last the water started subsiding.Yet his guests stay put as they lived in the low-lying area.Suddenly,Banku went missing.After three days it was learnt that he was found hanging by the neck from the oldest banyan tree.Kali ,then, went to her mother's place.Bhikhu was alone yet again.
After nine months or so Naran Thakur informed Bhikhu that Kali had given birth to a healthy male child.Bhikhu only asked if the child had eyes.The somber priest said that his eyes took after his mother's eyes.
Tears had rolled down the cheeks of young Bhikhu when Amina died,and he had the wide world to explore,tears rolled down the cheeks of an adult Bhikhu when Kali's son was born.
