‘Ku chai?’ asked an inpatient Budhi Caulla (Who was that?)
‘Ku jaaNR, eh!’ sighed Chahca Reba ( Who knows!)
‘laataa chai’, concluded Budhi
Caulla(a retard). Others shook their heads in
concurrence. But curiously they began to exchange cards, trying to find out who
had what. The sketches were simple line drawings of common objects of daily use
such as a chair, a bucket, cup, TV etc with just enough details to give clear
and unambiguous indication the item. At last E Babu, a rebel in that group with disdain for conventions, an unorthodox thinker in the midst of them, said,“That bloke was no ‘laataa’.”
Everyone looked at him briefly in astonishment.
“He is either deaf and dumb or
acting like one, but he is no retard. Notice his last gesture suggesting a mulling.
I suspect deep meaning in the symbolism. Something bizarre gonna happen here”,
he said cryptically.
Bhai Hari, who was always at
logger heads with E Babu, dismissed the suggestion with wave of hand, ‘This is
Badolgaon, nothing happens here. Funny acts are witnessed a dime a dozen here’.
Just then they heard a sharp sound of crash; the chair on which Budhi Caulla
was sitting on the edge of terrace crashed, its one rear leg came out, the
chair tumbled backwards, being on the edge went down the gorge taking along
Budhi Caulla. All hell broke, they all rushed down the ravine at the base on
which they found body of Budhi Caulla, dismembered and very inert. The debris
of chair, broken to pieces lying there scattered all over. E Babu began to collect
the pieces of chair. Manyawar Diwakar asked, what was he doing?
He said, ‘Budhi
Caulla was dealt a card which had sketch of a chair!’
To be contd.............
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