The Village in Flames

30/05/2014

The Village in Flames

Chintu and Mintu cried 'Run!', 'Run!', 'Rush to the roof!', 'The chillies are burning!' 'The carpets are burning.'  'Bring the water and pour it.' The cries were heard on that summer day in the afternoon. Everybody was bemused. The villagers came out of their houses, some with lungi around the waist, some with underwear, some with the marks of mash of bhakaris on their hands and mouth and some with a cloth wound around their head. They all ran to the place where the cries came from. It was Vikas aaba's home. Chillies were burning and the smoke coming out of them made villagers cough. The carpets were burning and the clouds of thick black smoke were coming out of them. Nobody was able to understand how the chillies and carpets caught fire. The carpets and the chillies turned to ashes but gave birth to the gossips and speculations. There were many gossips for the hour.

'Run!', 'Run!', 'Rush to the cowshed of Bhima appa'. People listening to the cries again ran to the place, unaware of what made people scream like this. This time almost all the men were half-naked with only a towel over underwear around the waist. Almost everybody was sweating. The drops of sweat on their chest hair sparkled in the afternoon sun. It looked like dew over the grass. But the grass was black and white, some of it had both the shades, black and white. This time it was a big shock for them. The leftover of the dry grass eaten by the cows and bullocks was burning. The bullocks and the cows jerked the rope they were tied with. This incident drove the villagers crazy. They took the incidents as an omen and feared the impending doom. They went back thinking to come back again

This time a single cry 'Run!' was enough for the villagers to come out of their houses. The people came and thronged at Chiman Bapus's bathroom. All the men were properly dressed.

The story has it, Chiman Bapu was bathing in the Gunnysack bathroom, often outside the house, after his hefty work of grazing buffaloes. He was busy bathing. Just then the the gunnysacks caught fire. Chiman Bapu ran outside the bathroom, half-bathed and half-naked and started crying for help. The third fire was enough to create tension among the villagers. This ,now, demanded serious attention.

All the people gathered on 'Chavadi', a place in village where people came together and brooded over the important and trifle matters of the village, most often they were trifle ones. The speculations were presented. Some said 'It is due to heat of the sun chillies caught fire and then the carpets.' Some conjectured 'It is because of the smokers. They smoke carelessly and throw the unfinished and burning cigar and bidi anywhere.' The smokers must be going to the roofs so that nobody notices them' Bhausaheb added. All the people laughed at this and the boys who just had started smoking withdrew themselves from the throng and vanished. Viju Kaka, the man gifted with incredible humour was pretty serious about the issue. According to him, the prophet, who visited the village today, was a culprit.

It was decided upon to catch the prophet and teach him a lesson. In fact, there was neither any reason nor any evidence against him, but as usual the villagers did not want to sit idle and directionless. The extensive search started. Teams were formed and sent in every direction. Meanwhile, the cries of the other people and women were heard since there was fire at many places; Krishna Bapus cowshed, Munna's thorn compond, Vilas Aba's newspapers on the roof and at other nine places. The prophet was lucky enough not to be catched. He must be aware of his own future.

The tension had seized every mind in the village. Nobody knew when, where and what would set on fire. The women were more afraid. They did not let their children come outside the house.

Now, almost two hours passed, there was no fire. People were happy. The series of fires had stopped. People were busy with their usual kind of work. As usual I went to play cricket. It was 5 o' clock. We had a little discussion about the fires. Soon we started playing. We batted first and now had fielding. I was running on the ground to deliver the fifth bowl of the over. I reached the stumps and was about to bowl, I heard 'Run!', 'Run!', 'Rush to the Vinay's home!'. The moment I heard this, I missed my line and length and the bowl was hit to the boundary. I started running to my house. Other followed me. I saw the adjoining room to my study room was in flames. The dried dung and the firewood was burning. Thanks to Chintu and Mintu! They noticed first and made people aware of fire and my house was saved from burning. We then all went to ground.

I was fielding in the gully and my friend Kiran was in the third man. The batsman hit the ball in the third man. Kiran ran after the ball. Let me introduce with Kiran. It was Kiran whose chillies and carpets were burnt. He was after the ball and was about to stop it. He noticed something and stopped chasing the ball. The ball went to the boundary and he went behind the wall of the school, hid himself and looked towards the dugheap. I went to him and looked at the dugheap and to my surprise what I saw was shocking. Chintu had an injection in his hand filled with kerosene and Mintu had a matchbox in one hand and the matchstick in the other. Chintu injected the dungheap like an experienced doctor, of course this was the seventeenth time he was injecting, and Chintu was lighting a matchstick by rubbing it on the black panel of the matchstick. Mintu was about to set it on fire, Kiran and me rushed to them, caught them and brought them to the Chavadi.

All the people were very angry to see the culprits, but were helpless to do anything since there were hardly 10.

Since then Chintu is known as "Laden' now and Mintu as 'Saddaq'.