THE CALLING OF HALF SKY- Short Story By Anupam J.

THE CALLING OF HALF SKY

(Written For TOI WRITE INDIA)

 © Anupam Jaiswal

Close to the city of Paithan, in a small village called Sauviragram, which lay along the banks of the great river Godavari, lived a woman named Ilaa. Being cotton farmers, her family was well to do, but not among the richest in their area. It was the harvest season, and cotton had to be picked from the plants. The wholesalers and traders from Paithan would be arriving in just a few weeks, carrying gold and goods for barter. They would exchange what they carried for the cotton that the farmers grew. The bales of cotton had to be ready in time! Work was at its peak!

But Ilaa was not to be found in the fields. She wasn't working. Instead, she was sitting by the banks of the great river Godavari.

'I am sick of this!' she grunted loudly. ‘This is not the purpose for which I am here; I have to find the purpose of my life.’

She started throwing stones in the river, though she looked conscious, but she was not actually. She was so busy with her thinking that she could not sense the herd of bullock carts surrounding her.

The first caravan of traders from Paithan was about to enter Sauviragram.

The sound of ringing bells, coming from the bullock-carts, Interrupted her thoughts & she looked around, she saw that a big caravan of traders are coming, and a person was signaling them to stop. The caravan stopped there, that person was saying to them that they will rest there at the banks of river Godavari. She budged into the bushes, to look who they actually were.

The bumper crop of the cotton this year could easily be guessed, seeing the large number of traders of Paithan coming towards Sauviragram.

Though she was not on the fields but guessed, definitely, this time her father will get rid of his debts, and would be collecting enough gold for her sister’s re- marriage. She had an elder sister Idaa, who was a widow.

She never saw that big caravan, so she stayed there.

Traders were carrying with them, all they could bring to barter to get the maximum cotton, but they were not in hurry. She noticed that, there were some women & children also in the caravan.

She saw an old but a very graceful lady coming out of a bullock cart, she was somewhere in her fifties, but her face was glittering. Some person from the caravan indulged into some sort of preparation, some went to the river to catch fish, some went to the jungle to arrange woods, and some indulged into preparation of food.

She decided to stay there a bit longer, she was interested in knowing their culture, she was keen to know more about them and observing was the best mode at that moment. She crept near their tents.

Some of them were resting, some of them preparing food, children were playing there. After some time, food was prepared and all were instructed to join for lunch. She noticed, they all started sitting in row, a dais was placed in front of the rows, for the head of the caravan.

Almost all were sitting, but the dais for the head of the caravan was not occupied, yet.

She was curious to know, who lead that caravan.

Suddenly Ilaa saw something strange, that she could not believe. She saw that lady with the glittering face, reaching the dais & standing up there with a water pot in her hands. She started sprinkling water with some tree leaves on the persons sitting over there and chanting some shlokas. Ilaa could not hear clearly but, one thing clearly understood, that woman holds a very respectable place in that caravan of traders of Paithan.

After completing the ritual, the woman sat on the dais maintained for the head of the caravan & started the lunch proceedings, followed by the other members of that group.

She left that place & headed towards Sauviragram territory. She was thinking that, ‘why those traders came so early? As per the crop prospects, they had to come after a week or two.’

And who was that woman, who led the group of men?

She reached Sauviragram by the evening but told nothing to anybody except this fact that traders are coming.

She went to meet Idaa. Idaa looked tired after working whole day in the fields, picking cotton from the plants; she was sitting there on a rock.

Ilaa reached her and narrated the whole story.

Idaa’s husband was a priest, and she learned a lot from him. She learned some rituals, studied Veda under his supervision. He used to believe that woman’s position was very much deplorable that time, he taught her the position of woman in Vedic age; he used to say that the position of woman shall be restored to the Vedic age where every woman gets respected and was treated equivalent to men.

So he gave respect to Idaa, but Idaa enjoyed that position & respect while he was living. And she was compelled to leave her husband’s house in just one month of his death and came back to her father’s house, where she was given a room, at the backyard of the house. She had to work hard in the fields to earn the livelihood for her daughter & herself.

 It’s amazing to know that a woman leading a group of traders which is dominated by male members. She must be belonging to the richest, Idaa said.

They both were discussing this whole night and slept.

Ilaa was a kind of woman, who, like many others, was unhappy with the condition of the woman in the society. Moreover, she didn’t like the way the woman was treated in the society.

The woman had a very subordinate role to the men, the woman supposed to obey the directions and order given by their husbands. They have nothing to do with the education.

The custom of Sati, prohibition of widow marriage, bigamy, polygamy were prevailing in the society, even divorce was in practice.

Ilaa grew up, listening the stories of the woman in the Vedic age, but in realty found nothing in her age. She wants to restore the grace of the woman again. She was very mush impressed with the ideology of Chatrapati Shivaji. Ilaa & Idaa both used to teach the girls & boys of the Sauviragram all they learned. But it was a secret among participants only.

Ilaa was very much impressed with the woman, she saw at the banks of the river Godavari.

Next morning rays of sun brought the traders of Paithan inside the Sauviragram with them.

Everybody was aware that traders have come, Ilaa & Idaa were very keen to meet that woman and looking for her in the group.

Traders were given a place in the Sauviragram, to fix their tent and establish their temporary accommodation, very next to the place allotted to balutedars, who already have reached Sauviragram, to get their return for the tools, equipments & assistance provided for the agriculture operations to the farmers.

Patil of Sauviragram reached there to welcome the traders and invited them to have lunch with him.

After lunch, Matrimaya, the head of the traders, apologized to Patil for not informing him about their early visit. She told that as it’s war time and traders safety is always at risk, as they can be looted any time in journey, So we decided not to travel to Sauviragram on the pre-scheduled time to keep our traders safe from attacks. She requested Patil to take her to the fields to see the crop.

Patil accepted her request and made arrangement for the same. Matrimaya told him that, yesterday she saw a girl there at the banks of the Godavari; she wished to go to the field with her.

Ilaa went to them and soon they left for the fields.

Patil arranged horses, but Matrimaya preferred to go through bullock cart.

So both Matrimaya & Ilaa sat into the bullock cart and left for the field.

I saw you when you were hiding behind the bushes, said Matrimaya.

‘Oh! I thought nobody saw me; I stayed there to know more about you people & your culture.’

‘I am amazed by seeing that you lead the group of men? How it’s possible? By which name I can call you? My sister Idaa is a widow and she had to leave her husband’s place within a month of his death, and I came to know that you are also a widow.’

‘When I saw you, I thought that I have reached in to the Vedic age.’ Women were respected and treated equally to the men in all spheres of life.

“Since my child hood I have seen the misery been suffered by woman in the society, it seems that their freedom is not possible now.”

“Both, my sister & I started teaching secretly at nights to the next generation of our village. I have learned from my sister Idaa, I started telling them that their liberty is in their own hand, I teach them about shivaji’s Philosophy.”

“Shivaji”, said Matrimaya, “yes he was the real hero, my father was in his troop, he was among one of his strategist. My Father used to make strategies for him.” I saw him once, I was in my childhood, he visited Paithan in 1679 with my father, and he was on the way to Jalna.

“Oh! Great.”

“You can call me Aai, my people call me by this name.”  

“You are right, liberty of women is in the hands of woman only, they will have to understand it, they will have to acquire all the skills which a man acquires, all the skills and have to lift the veil, act confident, work in co-ordination with the half of the society.”

“They have to show that they are not the slaves of men. They have their intellect too.”

‘When my husband died, I immediately took the charge of his estate & business, in his life time he taught me all the skills & business acumen.’

‘I used to sit with him in the meetings with the traders & businessmen. He always asked for my advice & appreciated my views. This gave me a lot of confidence and I succeeded & administered all his estate.’

“Nobody opposed you Aai? After all it’s a male dominated society.”

“Yes voice raised but had to be mum, because nobody had the skills as I had acquired about the business & trades, so no other could give any better option to run the estate as I had.”

“Oh! Aai, how did you manage all this?”

‘You also can Ilaa’. The only thing you have to do is that you will have to believe & take your actions forward. Work for your sisters, mothers who have been deprived of their basic rights from centuries. They need someone to help them; they need someone who can restore their glorious past of ancient Vedic age. I believe Ilaa, you can do this.

Take it as a mission & dedicate your life to this mission only.

Ilaa listened to her but said nothing. In the meanwhile, they reached the fields.

Bales of cotton looked like clouds on the earth. It seemed that the women had reached the mountains covered with snow.

Matrimaya inspected the whole area and thanked God for that bumper crop of cotton which she saw and found the crop exactly as described by her husband. “I am here for the first time” she said, “My husband used to say “I will take you along-with me to the cotton fields in Sauviragram. You will see that the fields are covered with the snow”. Now I can clearly see what he wanted to show me. Unfortunately he is not here with me.”

They both returned to the Village.

The traders stayed there for a week and completed the transaction. Ilaa’s father got enough gold this time and the traders got their cotton.

Bullock carts were loaded with the bales of cotton and the Caravan left Sauviragram; the evening was dusky red.

Ilaa couldn’t sleep that night; she was thinking of the words of Matrimaya.

Matrimaya casted an impact on her conscience, her words fired up Ilaa’s thoughts. Ilaa knew that she will have to go far with the activities she was carrying secretly and she clearly sensed that Matrimaya casted an impression on other villagers as well.

She noticed that the whole village was talking about Matrimaya.

She got up, and went to her father.

“Father I am not able to sleep today.”

“Oh! Come Ilaa, what happened? Is everything all right?” asked her father.

“Yes father”, Ilaa replied.

“Father I have to say something to you. Due to the blessings of goddess, we have got a bagful of gold and other goods we needed. We have got best we could have bartered in exchange of our cotton. But father, I want to say that please free Idaa & me. You have got enough gold, so please use that to free our land first. Idaa doesn’t want to marry again. Idaa and I decided to dedicate our lives educating others in the village and beyond.

 Father you know that a woman’s position in our society is lowly, they are kept separated from education which is their basic right. They have been facing discrimination by this male dominates society. So we want to help them stand on their own feet and secure a respectable position in the society.

We want our ancient glory back. You must have noticed that a woman like Matrimaya has single handedly established that it’s quite possible; what we just need is education and self dependence. I know the villagers are talking about her. They are really inspired by her and are appreciating her achievement.

I believe they will support our mission. The only thing left is your permission.

That moment, Idaa, who was standing outside, entered the room and said to her father, “Father please remember mother’s last word, what she said to you before dying” Idaa said.

“Father we have found the purpose of our life and are now waiting for your permission.”

He kept sitting for a sometime and spoke nothing. Then he stood up and came to his daughters.

I am proud of you and my blessings will always be with you in this great endeavor of providing the women a bright future, a new dawn, a new life.

The half sky is calling..

Written by Anupam Jaiswal

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