‘Who the heck is that? Billu, you have been our trusted
help for almost ten years now. We treated you like family. Tell me have we ever
given you reason to complain?’
‘Who the heck is that! Is that all you have to say? You
can loosen my wrists, it is very uncomfortable. I am not a violent person, you
should know that. I take pride in doing things with some degree of finesse. I
am a cerebral person.’
‘You are a cerebral person? No, you are the most uncouth,
vengeful waster. I can’t imagine anything in the world that could goad a person
to embark on such a macabre endeavor that would be revolting to even a criminal’s
sensibility.’
‘You don’t know anything about things that revolt a man’s
sensibility. There was a time when we were Badolas, the original inhabitants of
this village, driven away be marauding Caullas. ’
‘So what happened?’
‘What happened? You are one insolent rascal who deserves
to die. We lost our identity had to live like 'duums' all because some hot shot tantric was engrossed in his own ego.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Well, I had intended to reveal the purpose of my searing
hatred of Caullas once I had you trapped in the snare I had left in the gadan.
I expected you to follow a leisurely gait, a zombie like drift through the gadan
once your last hope was also dashed. I suppose one has to pay for excess
confidence.’
‘I would have, but it occurred to me that only you
could have killed Bhai Madan since the corpse had not stiffened. You think
Mnayawar Diwakar and Chacha Reba would survive?’
‘You doubt my ability?’
‘I can’t believe a fellow who regards himself a cerebral
can embark on such a vicious project all because some generations ago his
ancestors were driven out of their homes!’
‘You ignorant sloth, that wasn’t the reason I carried out
my vendetta. It was K D, kahaan ka sahib, who is responsible for our wretchedness. Many in our family could have been successful
individuals but for the smugness of K D. He treated us as expendables.‘
‘How so; K D Sahib
has a reputation for being the most benign, selfless and sacrificing person, a
‘maha-purush’ in the region.’
‘He may be a ‘maha-purush’
for you but for us the villain of highest order. It was he who picked Badri
Badolaji, a man of enormous daring, to be the medium in his quest for acquiring
‘siddhi’. In October 1923 he cajoled Badri to be the man to help him consummate
Siddhi karm-kand
in a grotesque ritual at the marghat. Nobody from your clan or from
the villages nearby would volunteer to act as the medium to perform tantric ritual
at the marghat. When the ritual began
at the middle of a dark moon night, he drew a circle around him and said, ‘Stay
within the circle and nothing will happen to you.’ In his smugness forgot to
tell him that terrifying visuals will manifest at the site. When the ritual
gathered momentum K D immersed himself completely in the act not once bothering
to reassure him. Soon terrifying images of ‘pisaachs’ dancing around him manifested;
which he successfully endured. But when a ferocious ‘baagh’ apparently raced
from the far dark space and jumped at him, he pissed in horror. At that moment his amiable
uncle who only helped everybody died instantly. Realizing ‘vighn’ in ‘puja’, the extremely egocentric K D cursed
Badri, “your entire clan will not live in peace.”
To this day his curse hangs over our head and our misfortune
persists. Badriji was mocked in his village, we were ostracized by our own
people, our Badola title was stripped and finally we had to deal with the
ignominy of branded ‘duums’. From then
on we were called Vaders. The only job our men folks could manage was menial
help. Two years back I had a dream, I
saw Shri Badri Badola Sahib in my dream telling “kill those rascals and the
curse will go”. I ignored the dream but the dream would keep coming. I am not
criminal but a Bakki in Paukhal, word for word, endorsed the dream. Left with
no option I had to take this recourse. Initially the idea was repugnant to me
but when I applied my cerebral faculties to it, I realized how justified it
is and began to like it. E Babu you all deserve to die.’
Next the Epilogue
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