NOBODY LIGHTS A CANDLE
Anjali Deshpande
35
“And you say Udairaj came here? When?”
“They had just got out of the gate when he arrived. I was going in and the bitch came out. She was screaming loudly. That is when Udairaj came. He caught hold of her pupate and pulled her. I ran away.”
“Which car did you go back in? In the one you had parked near the chaukhamba or the one that Udairaj had come in?”
“He did not come in a car. I had gone to shut the gate and he was standing there. He said that he had guessed that I had got a copy of the keys made and had come to confirm his suspicion. I left on foot. Went up to the car and sat there under the tree for a long time. I don’t know what happened here. Truly, I swear.” Sitting on the floor Parduman hid his face in his hands and burst out crying.
“Now you listen to me carefully,” Adhirath said to him bringing his face close to his. “You know why we have not taken you to the police station to interrogate you? We have to get money from you. Understand?” Parduman nodded. “We know everything. We know that you were the one who cut her up. If you tell me the truth I can even tell you a way out. We also know that you have been staying here for so long. That day Cheti had also seen you and I had seen you too. I kept quiet. You were here, were you not? Behind those trees? Now tell me how much money you got from Udairaj and why you cut her up? You say Udairaj had throttled her. strangled her. But he did not wield the knife. That much I am sure of. Now tell the whole truth. That is the only way out for you.”
“Sahib, I told you all…you are a policeman…”Parduman began to beg for mercy.
“Will you tell me all or shall we go to the thana?”
“Sahib when the pradhan and sarpanch came I had postponed the plan to kill her. I had two witnesses to place me here. When the two finished with her and were leaving I thought I would take her back. But everything went wrong. First she came out screaming ‘I am not a randi’. At that moment Udairaj arrived. He may have seen the two leave the place. Two villagers had screwed his mistress in his wonderful bungalow on his bed. The very thought made him furious. He said, you bastard, you copied the keys and now you have turned my house into a brothel. On one side Basanti was screaming that she would tell everyone, she would go to the police, she would make sure we would not be able to live in peace and I don’t know what else. To shut her up Udairaj pulled her dupatta around her throat. There was some struggle. But he pulled very hard. Here, near this window. She clawed at him but he tied it round her neck like a noose and pulled very hard. She ran towards the trees trying to wriggle out of it and collapsed there. She may not have died, maybe she had only fainted.”
That is when a corner of the dupatta must have got torn in the struggle. The button too must have got entangled in the threads she had tied around her wrist and come off. She must have struggled very very hard. But the button had been stolen earlier. The driver had said so, Saroj had said so. Had she stolen another button then where did that one go? That was a mystery to him. It was however clear that Udairaj had strangled her and then Parduman had cut her up.
“You slit her?”
Parduman remained silent.
“Tell me where did the knife come from?”
“That knife. It was lying around outside near the other implements like the khurpis. You see that bay window? The one with the seat? Under it outside is some space and khurpis and spades are kept there. A long knife is also kept there. It is used to cut and clean game,” Parduman said. “Sahib was so angry he was saying, ‘cut out the cur, that filthy puppy she is carrying and throw it away.’ He was standing here watching everything.”
Adhirath fell silent. He could not bring himself to ask anything. If his wife carried a foetus it was his son, and the one this woman carried was a puppy for him. A cur. Even if the seed is comes from the same source only respect for the womb can get respect for the child, he thought. How contempt for the womb can turn to contempt for one’s own seed. A man’s lust and lecherousness are legitimate but in a woman the same appetite turns illegitimate, it turns into sin. Even his child was illegitimate because he had contempt for her existence.
Parduman began speaking again. He told him that Udairaj had taken off the sheet of the bed, spread a fresh sheet on it and thrown the used one at his face and left. Parduman too had some clothes he kept on the farm. He changed his clothes. Picked up the knife and tied the clothes he had taken off in the sheet along with the knife and carried the bundle with him. He had also searched Basanti’s purse but he did not find the diamond button in it.
“Diamond button?” asked Adhirath almost on auto drive.
“It belonged to sahib. She used to keep it in her purse. But I swear sahib, I did not find it.”
He emptied the purse of money and tied that to in the bundle. By that time the rush of adrenalin may have been over for he said he began to get the shivers and was very frightened. He simply could not remember to throw something belonging to Udairaj near the body and he left the place. It was after midnight. Then he sat around under the trees near the car and left once he had controlled his fear. It must have been over two hours later that he started the car, at least that is what it felt like. It was dark. Everything was still even the dogs had gone to sleep.
“There is that nullah after crossing Jhandapur, where you turn towards Chatarpur, it has a bridge too, that is where I threw the bundle.”
“And the shoes?”
“Shoes?”
“Saale did you come here barefoot? Were there no blood stains on them?”
“I had taken them off. when I got into bed…when the pradhan came I ran out barefoot. You get it? I did not have the time to even pull up my pants, I ran out somehow…got out and then wore them properly.”
Adhirath felt cold sweat forming on his forehead. Did the villagers have so much power? They could enter the house of such a rich man and do whatever they wanted with impunity? Even rape his mistress! Where could the poor woman have gone to escape such men? All she had to fall back on was her cleverness, and all she could earn was from the sweat of her labour, the services her body provided. And this man? He wanted to make millions having stamped on her body. That Udairaj, for him she was only a piece of flesh he came to bite when he was randy. He did say he would serve her to his friends. Serve, like a dish! To save some lacs. He could not give the woman a few lacs but he would pay a lawyer any amount o save his own skin. He could not buy her a small flat to provide for her but he would spend on expensive cars. Their greed was not greed. Their misconduct was concealed behind the curtain of wealth, behind the thick walls of their bungalows, behind the customs and traditions they had so carefully nurtured. She had no curtains she had live in the open. And this man, this Parduman. He did not stand by her side to fight the pradhan and the sarpanch. He abandoned her to them. Such a well built man, only one of his slaps would have been enough to drive them out but he was showing her how much strength he had, that is what he has said, using his brute strength on her, not for her. Had he fought them back what would they have done? Got more people to assault them? Is that what he thought? Is that why he left her to their mercy? Perhaps he had shown sense in acting the way he did. The car was far away. They could not have escaped in a hurry. Yet, Adhirath found not an iota of sympathy for his predicament in him. What was she for this man? Only a piece of flesh.
If anyone protested it was only that lone woman. She scratched, dug her teeth in them, got beaten up, screamed, but who was there to listen to her? She had remonstrated, she had to die.
“The blood may have sprayed your feet then.
“I dipped them in the pond here,” said Parduman.
Were there still some drops of her blood in that pond lurking under its broad leaves of the blue lilies? Waiting to be put in a test tube? To nail her murderer? What would another drop of her blood prove?
“When is the water of that pond changed?”
“Everyday,” said Parduman. “It is emptied out to irrigate. If the grape vine has been given its water this year they will be really very luscious. When we hunted hares here we always gave the blood to the grape vines. Blood is very good as manure for them.”
Adhirath drove his fist in his stomach viciously. Parduman doubled up but did not scream. Adhirath felt like laying him flat on the ground on his face and stamping on his spine to break his spine. But Parduman was only telling him the truth, they had been drinking her blood to enrich their lives.
She was a luscious grape for them, who intoxicated them like the wine of grapes. You got addicted, that is what he had said, both of them. He felt a strange feeling of revulsion in him. Suddenly he realized just how alone that woman was. He felt a strong desire to tie Parduman to his bike and race it, dragging him through the mud. The rising violence in him surprised him. He began to pace up and down the room. When the restlessness went down a bit, he sat down. Parduman was staring at him, alert and cautious like the mouse who knows the cat has not done playing with it, it will return to grab it.
“Tell me what you were eating her for so many days? You were here, were you not?”
Parduman admitted that he had been hiding here. it was easy. The first time he came here that night, before they went hunting. Cheti was away. He had just entered when Cheti returned and saw him. Scared he ran away and Adhirath came in after a while and when Cheti left with him he had the place all to himself and it became easier for him to plan his stay.
email: anjalides@gmail.com
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