‘Au revoir, Madan’
A word was not uttered out of his mouth, when I visited him after two years of our last acquaintance. He seemed to be at daggers with his own fate. He was pulled down from his loin, because of his loin. He was a good, poised man of taciturnity, but wisdom was there when he spoke to me.
Two years ago, our family went Siju, a place where he stayed with his brother, a local doctor there. He was indeed a helpful one, who arranged for us a rented cab to visit the picnic place, the reason for which we were there. He also gave us a sumptuous lunch at that point of time, when we returned visiting the spot feeling fatigued of hunger. During our visit, he went along with instructions and pinpointing all the major to-be-seen places there. His brother was at that time busy in his hospital works, with patients thronging him from the native village. He had been an important person in the locality, being the doctor and the only man of that stature there. People came to him not only to get cured of their illnesses, but also to ask him about their family problems, decisions regarding their sons and daughters’ jobs and marriages, to get signed off their government forms and legal things, et al. His brother, the man we are talking about now, Mr. Madan was staying with his brother, helping him in his works and was then planning to set up his own chemist shop near the hospital. He had a B. Sc degree, a Physics graduate. He was well-versed in Science and Mathematics. He could easily solve algebraic and trigonometrical problems, which I took to him at my formative years. I recognized his brilliance and accredited it, even at that time, when I was still a school boy.
His brother, being a doctor, also came to teach me when occasionally he visited our home. But, I insisted upon Madan’s teaching, which could indelibly incorporate in my mind the intricate formulas, theorems and corollaries of all branches of mathematics. Even when I was studying science at my intermediate stage, I took to him problems and I saw the eager in him to solve the problems, even then. I was taken by his brilliant charm. He was a man whom I adored until a few days. I idolized him for science and mathematics, as a person of integrity and wisdom.
For some reasons, he had to return back from Siju. His brother was transferred to a larger hospital in the city, and he thought of opening up a chamber of his own in the city. So, they came for good. And, Madan was instilled at his village. He was addled with his new life, after having made strategies there, which did not proceed with the required fruition. He was not able to manage with any new plans for his future. His brother got settled in the city, by leaps and bounds and was thereafter, married to a suitable girl belonging to the city. They now live happily with a son, studying in the kindergarten.
To trace their pristine life, I have to say that their family belonged to a hamlet near the city. The sons had grown up and settled in the cities. Madan was the youngest son of the family, the doctor being the eldest. The other two were overseers with some construction companies. The family had a smooth going-on life, as their sons were all settled with their lives, except Madan. They had no sire, he was long dead. The mother survived with her sons’ sent-off money. Now that Madan had come to the village to stay with his mother, he had been pestered for long to do something of his own instead of living by his brothers’ earnings, as he was too a qualified person. Upon counsels given by village people, he decided to take coaching classes on Mathematics for students from the eighth standard to the intermediate. With two students, he started and his room gradually filled with students from far-off places hearing about his acumen in teaching. Boys and girls came in exodus and his room seemed to be small enough for them. Therefore, he constructed another room nearby. He had also made a lot of money from his new profession. The students were enjoyed his classes, as they were able to get hold of all Mathematical terms easily under his tutelage. He had that charisma, which I discovered even earlier, when I studied in school. I knew, the others would also be mesmerized if he started teaching. That was what happened really. The students endeared him and respected a lot. He soon became the celebrity teacher of the locality. The last time I have also heard of students coming from the city to get their coaching under him.
But, Madan was susceptible to his ill fate. His destiny warped like the crooked and coarse bends of streams likely to get merged into the river. As the water in the stream collided with the stones, tree and wood logs and other rough stuffs lying in its surface without its conscious knowledge; Madan wasn’t conscious of what really happened all of a sudden. How his life sank into oblivion from the centre of the surface. How it was pulled down from the ladder which he had climbed with his flair and merit. How the future made blarney in convincing him to commit…
As Madan grew popular amongst people, his relatives and kinfolks began to approach him for their own sons and daughters, for their tuitions which they strongly thought should be under him. A related family of his approached with their daughter to him. The girl was an ass in studies, as her parents believed. So they persuaded him in making the best of the girl by teaching her alone, far from the madding crowd of all students. Perhaps, they thought she would not be able to cope up to his lectures amid everyone. So, they stressed upon her exclusive coaching.
Madan fixed a time and called upon the girl at his home, when all students leave at the later part of the evening, usually. He was alone and his mother stayed at the far away room of the house. She was not even aware of who came and who went. Only did they meet over at the dinner table and talked for some time. Then, out of tiredness, Madan typically goes to his bed for a sound sleep. The breakfast was generally done in a hurry and lunch was in intervals, when students were still present at his place. So, the old mother could not fathom in which part of the world Madan lived with his students. She was also unaware about the girl, whom Madan decided to teach exclusively amongst all. The beginning was a modest start. Moreover, Madan was insisted by her parents to teach her alone.
Madan was by then 31 years of age. He was not married. His mother kept on pestering upon him to get married soon, now that he has got his steady source of economy. But, he just gave it a damn telling he didn’t have the time to think about marriage now. He was already weighed down by his students to think about his own life.
The girl Ranjni came in alternate days. She was dull in Mathematics. But, gradually that bluntness faded and took a sharp shape. She had all the theorems and corollaries in her mind, like I used to have when he taught me. And, she was able to perform and solve problems instantly, at its very sight. That was the brilliance of Madan. What Madan realized days after when he sat obsessed with his mother’s pestering for marriage was the girl Ranjni, whom he felt much later to be a beauty of the alluring kind. He now sat with Ranjni looking only at the tender visage, admiring it within, worshipping it from within. He began to await her now. He felt waspish of the moment, which did not pass off to the clock when she would reach. She became the apple among all things, and Madan…
His admiration of the beauty of the apple soon transformed into the energy of desire, starvation and hunger. He was striving for something which he could not express and share with anyone else. He felt that within him, he had domesticated a hunger for which he was searching the food and he was still feeling the hunger as he could not fetch that food, which could suffice. He became lunatic, his nights went unslept, his days were not like the previous days when he only concentrated upon the theorems. He was far from this world. The only thing which could give him a little satisfaction was Ranjni. It was little because until then, he was not able to eat the food or the apple, the beauty of which, he had been admiring for long. He was not able to feel, the tender, soft, apple red visage; the slender legs, the nubile waist, the buxom breasts, the shapely curved, molded bum, the imaginary and unseen orifice. He felt like a fish that wanted to slither deep inside the depth of the river and reach the ocean and live with the hyacinths and trees inside the water for long, long and long; until he is replete with the hedonistic pleasure of that heaven.
A demon was born. And, the demon was initially frightened because of the relation with the girl. But, who could forbid a hungry man from stealing and robbing to pay off his bills? He became a robber. One evening when his mother- who although lived in the far part of the house, he remained awed over her presence-went off to visit someone’s place, he took the leap. He came near her and spoke out all the praises and eulogies, which he seemed to have preserved within himself since a long time. And, following it, came his proposal of making love with her. He was so intoxicated in his longings that he could not make out what he was speaking to the girl at that time. The girl was puzzled at the sudden outburst of her teacher. She could not really find out what she should answer.
And, before allowing her to speak a word, she snatched her plait and kissed her in the forehead touching the fringe of her hair. She tried to find a distance, but how could she escape after entering into a hungry lion’s den. Later on, she surrendered herself and began reluctantly to retrieve pleasure out of the beast, allowed him to devour her from zenith to nadir. Meanwhile, she was worried of someone’s presence and asked him, what would happen if someone notices or someone knows. The man could only assure her then of keeping everything under veil and allowing the tuition fees free for her. He also told her she would often get precious gifts from him, and whatever she should desire from him. And then accomplished with the task, he came to his senses. He felt his senses working properly, as soon as the orgasm was done with. Now, he stood as if he regretted something, he regretted a vile act, he regretted the irrevocability of his commitment. He was pulled, pulled down from his loin; the loin for which he was out of the senses, out of the wit and mind.
That night his mother arrived home to see her son sitting at the verandah pondering over like
Early in the morning, people gathered at their place shouting and yelling. After a few while, the police arrived in the gypsy and asked for Madan. They brought the warrant against the complaint filed by the girl’s family. The mother asked if that was true. Madan could only answer in sobs over his mother’s shoulders. She answered nothing. The police took him off, tethered in cuffs over the wrist. In the police station, he was served with thrashings with luncheons all over the body. Then, an order came from the Superintendent of police, asking him to leave. But, the case was registered and the court was awaiting him now, as he awaited that girl earlier. His brothers were informed and they came, but no one talked with him. His face was not even seen by them. He cried inside his room and no one heard.
The hamlet people closed their doors for him and whenever they saw him, discussed him to be a vile spirit of the village, a blur on the society and a black sheep of the community. Intriguing fact, before receiving the thrashes of the police, he was subjected to pelting of stones and serving of the sticks by the people of the village. He entered the police station already injured. The police managed to escape the wrath of the people by driving their car rapidly away from the people.
Now, his brothers went away and decided that they would enter that home where the beast lived. As per the petition registered in the court, he was called. Two days went and there was no decision. The judge delayed it for further evidence. The third day was the D-day. He was asked whether he would marry the girl and solve the case or ask for penalty. That was a Hobson’s choice and he had to marry the girl. The decision was made lenient on account of the girl, who was willing to marry him, else that would had been a severe one. The village people calmed down. His marriage was arranged in public with the consents of the brothers and the mother. The girl was welcomed at home and became the youngest daughter and sister-in-law of the family. Madan again started with his coaching business, but students are scanty now. He is hopeful of the early exodus. Girls are not permitted now, only a few boys come. They also feel somehow the beast within the man. They were not so cordial, as they had been earlier. People of the hamlet although has accepted him, still has something running into their minds when they get his sight. And, that would remind them forever in the future of his one time evil deeds. The village people now speak of him and the family in harsh words within their homes, if not in front of him. The relationships and acquaintances became meager. And, the family was not in their early terms of sociality with folks.
When I visited him, now after two years of the Siju visit, he was calm and talked little to me. He was ashamed of exchanging glances and squinted his eyes when my collided with him. He said, “How are you?” I reciprocated and he asked me to sit. He went inside and returned only when I was about to leave their house. His mother talked to me and begged pardon of Madan’s business. He made pretexts of his students and a few sums which he was not able to solve and that required much brainstorming. I understood. I left his place. Au revoir Madan. I will pray for you. I thought.
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