Catastrophe

By Sanjay Verma

Catastropheis purely a piece of fiction inspired by real incidents in the life of a soldier who faces tremendous hardships in fighting terrorists and enemies. Narendra who is capable of protecting his motherland is unable to protect his own family. He gets disillusioned by his inability to overcome the societal injustice where even his own blood becomes a tormentor.
The intelligible expression, supported by heart-piercing and emotional description aligns the readers with the realities of life where the sharks are out on a prowl for their prey. The catastrophic event of his life forces him to quit his loved profession and settle for a compromise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Nov 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9789388573252

Sanjay Verma

Dr. Sanjay Verma is an alumnus of RIMC, Dehradun. A military enthusiast, he underwent the military training at NDA, IMA and was commissioned into The Central India Horse, an Armoured Regiment of Indian Army, in June 1983.He is a graduate of the prestigious Defence Services Staff College and has served on three operational assignments including an active tenure in Gurez Sector of J&K on line of control in a high altitude area. He did his PhD in Sustainable Human Development from Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi.He took premature release as a Colonel and joined the corporate fraternity for a second career. He has worked with organizations such as NDPL (Tata Power JV), HCL Technology and Larsen &Toubro. He is currently the Vice President and Head Petrochemical Academy of Reliance Industries.Sanjay enjoys reading, writing and travelling. He is passionate about training,coaching and has a creative approach.Corporate Cocktailpublished in Aug 2017 was his first work. Catastrophe is his second book and first novel.He can be contacted at [e-mail]

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Prologue

Early in the morning, the tractor engine roared and the middle-aged farmer seated on the driver’s seat started moving the motionless beast in the forward direction against the grain. The tilling for the ten-acre plot had to be done on priority so that the rice crop could be planted in time. The hot sun, the rough inhospitable weather and the age could not deter him from his work. He continued relentlessly towards his target, following the cavalry bash on regardless dictate. The transmogrified lifestyle also could not reduce his zeal and enthusiasm and the ever-energetic soldier continued with his activities. Having been a tank man, he enjoyed driving the machine, which gave him the feeling of being its master. The sweat was dripping from his face in the canicular heat. His body gave him a cooling sensation whenever the wind blew towards him. He frequently used his towel to wipe the face especially eyes and continued the ride. Narendra’s body gleamed in sweat and the muscles contracted beautifully with each movement. The passers-by could make out that he was of a different breed.

Narendra stopped his work towards noon and decided to take an hour’s break for his meal. He sat under the mango tree and took out his food from the steel tiffin carrier, which he got from home when he left for the fields early in the morning. His folks had to get up early to cook and pack lunch for him. Narendra slowly opened his lunch box. He smelled the aroma of love and affection before taking a bite. He hammered the onion with his fist for the sake of convenience and started eating his favourite ‘bajre ki roti’, ’saag’ along with green chili, garlic chutney and the onion. He had always loved desi ghee being added to his meal. He knew that his family cared a lot for him. He too was liberal with his love and affection for them. After eating, he drank buttered milk from a huge metal glass, which was followed by a loud burp signifying his satisfaction. He religiously followed the afternoon siesta as a matter of principle. After finishing his food, he stretched out on the ‘chatai’ under the mango tree. He scanned his eyes on the mango bunches and admired the bumper crop. He knew that he would make good money that season. He started estimating the total income from the crop and also considered the prospective utilization of the money. He thought, maybe he could add some more land to his empire or perhaps he should save the money for his daughter’s marriage or may be buy some gold ornaments for her. The last one appealed to him the most.

He closed his eyes slowly and listened to the sweet melodious sound the anklet bells made while she would walk around in the house. He could feel her grace and groove. Her dainty steps tinkling her ankle bracelets. He could imagine the reverberated energy getting back to her body and insulating her from the negative environment. The gold anklets glistened on her fair feet and she never took them out. Oh that was such a nice feeling as if the music was taking him somewhere in the bygone era, where everything appeared so familiar.

Chapter 1

Reflection on memories

Narendra, a good looking handsome boy, who happened to be the eldest child of his uneducated parents, always faced the herculean task of disciplining his younger sibling, who often went on a tangent, like a misguided missile. He recollected the incident, when he caught Surendra flicking money from their father’s shirt pocket. He remembered having given Surendra a good dressing down apart from admonishing him. He recalled, how he even threatened him with dire consequences in case of a repeat of the act. He however decided not to report the matter to the parents as he did not want them to be worried unnecessarily. He was confident that he would be able to get his brother on the right track. The companions of Surendra were the spoiled brats of the village, with no academic interests. Whether it was cutting the slippers of the devotees kept outside the mandir during the puja or freeing the tied cattle of the villagers or even punching holes in water pitchers or troubling the stray dogs or bursting crackers under the charpoy of senior citizens, the notorious ‘BAAL mandli’ invariably had a role to play. The army of monkeys displayed very quick reflexes by quickly melting away in the surrounding areas and were smart enough not to get caught.

Narendra recollected the day, when there had been some ruckus outside the temple during Navratri arti puja. The Sarpanch of the village had to walk home from the mandir barefooted as he could not find his footwear. It was found a few days later in the nearby garbage dump in a dilapidated state. The BAAL mandli as usual displayed their ignorance. Surendra and his friends even swore on their mothers, which convinced the village elders. Although Narendra could guess the culprits and wanted to teach them a lesson, he had to hold his horses for lack of evidence.

He recalled the hot and perspiring afternoon, when he was resting at home, after a hearty breakfast. His mother suddenly woke him up and seeing her worried face he was wide-awake in a jiffy. The younger brother, Surrender had left for the fields early in the morning, had not returned home till noon and had not eaten anything till then. She was worried for her younger child, who would be hungry and thirsty. The obedient Narendra quickly washed his face and rushed in search of his sibling. He had caught his younger brother earlier, spending afternoons in the mango orchards in spite of the hot weather. Surendra, a naughty child, loved plucking mangoes in the summer season, something which was definitely not appreciated by the orchard owners. Narendra thus decided to head towards the stretch of the mango orchards of his small village Lalit Khera and teach his brother a lesson.

Their village, which was an integral part of Jind district, had been a rather unknown locality of Haryana, being neither on the industrial nor on the tourist map. The village did not have any political significance and as such rarely the politicians or the government officials visited. In fact the village elders felt isolated and alienated from the mainstream. That day, for a change, Narendra was surprised to see a convoy of vehicles loaded with people with flags of a political party mounted on them. The convoy was accompanied by large number of youth riding motorcycles and they were moving on the damaged tracks. The vehicular movement created a dust storm engulfing the entire village. The immediate thought that came to his mind was that perhaps a political rally was planned close by and the party workers and supporters were gathering in the village to express their solidarity. Narendra drenched in the pool of dust, headed towards the convoy. Before he could get a glimpse, he found them to be speeding away from the village like a boat moving away from a marooned island. May be there was a change in the venue or some communication gap. Nobody could clarify. In any case, among the people standing near the road and waving their hands to the convoy, he was not able to locate his younger brother.

Surendra had been a difficult child and unlike other brighter kids, did not like the idea of spending time in the boring classrooms of the village school. In fact, he hated the sight of Masterjee, who happened to rough him up on a couple of occasions for his pranks. The persuasive teacher failed to influence Surendra and his buddies for taking academics seriously. The boys once a while absented themselves from the classes for fun and frolic. They did face the music on a couple of occasions, the punishments included the famous ‘murga’ position, which Surendra hated. However, they could not be dissuaded and they often came out with lame excuses. The thick-skinned lot had got used to other punishments like beating with a ruler and standing in hot sun for hours. The parents were informed but no one took any cognizance as they wanted their children to enjoy the childhood too and in any case not everyone valued education as a need. Some of the illiterate parents considered studying as a mere wastage of time.

It took some time for Narendra to locate his brother Surendra and his friends in the grove. Surendra had plucked approximately a kilo of mangoes with the active support of his classmates Sagarmal, Satendra and other rascals. They used improvised pluckers made from bamboo sticks and ropes. The group was sitting under the shade of the tree and feasting on the raw mangoes sprinkled with salt along with soft drink made from vinegar, water, sugar and salt. The children were enjoying the absence of their villain Masterjee, who had gone on leave to his village Jaunpur in Barabanki district of UP. The children never appreciated the treatment meted out to them by him. He had been liberal with punishment but was a miser in giving marks during the examination. The Guru-Shishya relationship as far as they were concerned could be said to be at Nadir.

The thought process of the siblings had been poles apart perhaps like the railway track, which was not destined to meet. While Surendra never appreciated the contribution of masterjee, Narendra on the other hand, had tremendous admiration for Mani Shankar who as per him was doing yeoman service in the village, despite the major challenges associated with the acculturation. Narendra always wanted his brother to pay due respect to the teachers and learn good things from them. The younger lad however was allergic to such an advice and often-displayed arrogance, annoyance and indiscipline as a mark of disagreement. Perhaps he inherited those qualities from their father. Whenever he got a beating from Narendra, in his heart of heart, he vowed to take revenge on growing up. Narendra, quite oblivious of his younger brother’s intent, had always played the role of a good Samaritan and his guardian. Surendra had meant a lot to him as he was not only his younger sibling in fact he had seen him growing as a toddler. As a child, Surendra played in his lap. He never competed against his brother and always wanted to shower him with love and affection. Surendra, on the other hand, ensured with his deeds that his elder brother had no choice but to scold him very often and even beat him once a while.

Having spotted his younger sibling, Narendra moved fast and without telling him anything, he caught him by the left ear much against his resentment. Everyone was surprised at the sudden appearance of Narendra, who intruded into their celebrations. Seeing his anger, the group of boys took off from the venue leaving their booty as if the herd of deer had spotted the cheetah at close quarter. Surendra had tears in his eyes, some due to the pain and some out of the helplessness and anger. In his perception, he and his friends did nothing wrong. The children were hungry and as such plucked a few mangoes. He could not understand, where he and his friends had gone wrong as the orchard owners neither knew about the activity nor there was any complain by them. He never appreciated interference of others when he and his friends were out for some fun and frolic. He thus planned to complain about his elder brother’s behaviour to his parents. When the duo reached home, they found their worried mother waiting for them outside the house. Surendra immediately ran into the lap of his protective mother, continuing his sobbing and complained to her about the pain in his ears that had become red by then. Saraswati like other mothers had always been soft, caring and protective towards the children. She was a soft spoken and soft natured person who rarely got angry. Surendra hit the nail with his sobbing and the mother took cognizance of the rough treatment meted out to him.

She not only reprimanded Narendra, in fact took Surendra inside the house and applied hot mustard oil in the reddened area to reduce the pain. She comforted him with her love and affection. She had been the angel in Surendra’s life, who ensured that such pranks were not taken seriously. She also decided not to take any note of the childlike behavior of Surendra and closed the issue then and there. Although, she wanted her younger son to enjoy his life, she was concerned by the regular absence of Surendra from the school. She did not want him to grow as an in-disciplined adolescent and later on become an illiterate farmer like his father. Having met Masterjee a couple of times, she did realize the importance of education. While her elder son was on the right path, she wanted the younger one also to follow his footsteps. Both brothers were poles apart and she did realize that bringing in the right motivation in Surendra to pursue studies seriously would be a herculean task.

Narendra took his mother’s admonishment with a pinch of salt and made a promise to her that he would not catch Surendra’s ears again. The three of them then sat down to eat food together and Narendra thereafter went to rest leaving Saraswati and Surendra in the living room and the duo continued their chatting. Surendra having found his mother accommodating towards him, had started trusting and sharing the information of the village with her. He enjoyed communicating with his mother to gain her favour. Since Poonia was allergic to sharing information with his wife, Saraswati looked forward to knowing about others through her younger son, who kept her amused with all kinds of news and gossips.

Manishankar Upadhyay, the Masterjee who was teaching in the school for the past few years also flashed in his mind. He was instrumental in shaping up Narendra’s life and influencing his career and destiny. Mani not only acted as his guide and friend, in fact had helped him in facing the realities of life. He extended him unconditional support on many occasions. Narendra also cared a lot for him as he found Mani to be very helpful, supportive and inspiring. Mani had a ready solution for almost all of the problems and was rarely stressed. Mani could motivate and cajole him to inch closure to his dream. He perhaps functioned as an influencer and enabler for him.

He was always grateful for Mani’s support in his career and also personal life. The archived memories appeared and rushed through his mind. He had been able to reflect and recollect Masterjee’s acumen in getting his father agree to his request of joining defence forces and confirming all support to him in front of the villagers, which turned out to be the game changer. Narendra always appreciated the Chanakya Niti of Manishankar, which could find comprehensive solutions. Even the support extended by him and his wife to Kalindi during the difficult times was commendable and Narendra was ever thankful to them. He could recollect those long conversations he had with Kalindi and her opinion on everyone including the masterjee. The couple had truly been a gem for the village.

While his mind had been racing from pillar to post, mining the stored data, recollecting thoughts and pleasant memories, someone threw a pebble in the water of his memory and the small circles which had appeared, started distorting the image and gradually disconnected his association with his pleasant thoughts. A sudden loud musical ring tone of the mobile woke him up and brought him back to the reality. He realized that he had slightly over slept. His daughter was on the line at the other side. She called to check if he had finished his lunch and if the food was tasty. Narendra praised her for the tasty food, which made him lick his fingers. Before she could say anything further, the phone line got disconnected, a typical communication problem in remote areas. She too hung up and got involved in her daily chores.

Narendra having got up, decided to say a hello to his beast and take charge of the battleground, where he and the machine had to play a decisive role. He sat in the driver’s seat, had his firm grip on the steering, cranked the engine, the engine roared in a few moments and the robust beast moved forward. He was reminded of the battle runs in which he had participated as a gunner as well as a tank commander and had charged on the target position following the cavalry prophecy ‘bash on’ meaning continue despite difficulties. He knew that being the handler of the machine, he needed to be skillful for productivity. He had maintained his focus so that he could derive optimum output. He was a hands-on person and he knew how to maintain and repair the machine. The strenuous duty, long journey hours, the hard work, humility and dedication picked up from the military, coupled with his ownership mindset, had transformed him into a better human being and that was how, he had so much respect in the village. He never demanded respect; in fact he commanded respect and a large number of village youth considered him as a role model. Even after his retirement, he was able to persuade and influence the youth, which accrued into a couple of them joining the armed forces and bringing good name to the village. In his spare time, he also became a promoter of education and endeavoured to sell the concept of adult education to the uneducated village folks, who finally did understand his viewpoint and realized its importance. That helped the farmers in aligning with the green revolution in a better way. The usage of good and appropriate fertilizers, pesticides and scientific methods helped the farmers in getting better yield. With the higher crop output, the income generation for the farmers improved drastically. The good marketing and accounting further helped them in achieving financial independency. They could get out of the clutches of the moneylenders. The so called suicides by the farmers in the village and the adjoining areas gradually became a subject of history.

Chapter 2

Masterjee, the influencer

Mani gained a fair degree of experience and expertise in dealing with the rogue students of the village and he slowly gained popularity. Majority of the uneducated farmers treated him like a demigod. People sought his advice even on personal issues owing to his friendly and helpful attitude, although there was a segment of uneducated farmers who did not like his sight as they considered education a waste of time. Mani in turn respected everyone and helped the people with writing applications pertaining to their work in the various departments of the government, loan applications to the banks, document checks etc and even solved disputes minor in nature as a neutral person. The village Sarpanch also grew fond of Mani, who as per him was shaping up the lives of the young lads of the village reasonably well. The recognition in due course did bring in a slight arrogance and high headedness in Masterjee, thereby making him an egocentric person with reduced humility.

Although, he was very strict with the students and the children were scared of him, Mani often displayed a softer side of his personality. He was very nice and helpful to some of the well-behaved and intelligent children. He walked an extra mile to shape them well and went out of way to help them with tuition and guidance without charging a penny. Mani was very sympathetic and nice to one more person and that was Kalindi, a girl from a poor family, who worked in his house and took good care of him. She cooked meals for him and Mani made sure that she ate at least one meal in his house. At times, he even supported her with the cleaning and arranging of the house. Kalindi was a school drop out with little interest in studies and although Mani always encouraged her to get back to the school, the advice cut no ice with her. He even offered to teach her separately after school hours if she did not want to go to school and sit with younger children. Kalindi on the other hand did not display any interest in studies and turned a deaf ear to his proposal. She was happy the way she was. She loved getting dressed up and doing makeup like the typical girls of the village of her age group. She enjoyed being in her world of dreams waiting for a prince charming to come some day and shower all his love and affection on her. That was the only way which she believed, she would get rid of her poverty. She hoped to move to a faraway place, where she and her prince charming could spend their life together. The long wait did make her impatient as the prince of her dreams was nowhere in sight. However, she kept her hope alive having a panglossian temperament, waiting for sunshine.

Days, weeks and months passed by. Kalindi’s regular interaction with Masterjee continued. Over a period of few months, she grew very fond of Masterjee. She appreciated his personality, his behavior, his education level, his honesty and his respect for the people especially the womenfolk. Though she found him attractive enough to develop and harbour feelings for him, she could never muster up enough courage to give any indication to him. Mani on the other hand, treated her just like a house help and beyond this, never showed any other interest in her. He in fact, carried out very limited conversation with her, which was mostly related to work. When Mani went home to meet his parents during the school vacation, he left the keys with her for the upkeep of the house. Kalindi took care of his house in his absence by cleaning and maintaining it regularly.

The term surprise found a way in her dictionary, when she learnt that Mani would be returning on completion of his leave with his newly wedded wife Rukmani. Everyone was happy in Lalit Khera except Kalindi, who had started dreaming of a life with Masterjee and could not imagine him with someone else. The freedom, which she was enjoying in handling his house, made her feel an integral part of Masterjee’s life. At a very nominal salary, she used to do the entire household chores including cooking. She felt terrible and hated Masterjee for keeping her in the dark. She thought ‘he could have at least mentioned to her about his plans of settling down in life and that he was going home to get married’. She cursed the Gods, her destiny and her luck. She felt that life was not fair to her and love was a terrible thing to happen.

Mani could open up only with few and had very limited friends with whom he felt comfortable. He wanted to take education to doorsteps and build a culture of empowerment. Having noticed the glitches in the agreements between the farmers and the blood-sucking moneylenders, he had undertaken a vow to be with the farmers and help them in saving themselves from sealing their fate. Those societal monsters could not stand him and did make many attempts to defame him and that was the reason, his efforts to help the farmers did not fructify the way it should have been. Mani had his share of problems and challenges and did not know with whom to share and in whom he should confide. Mani felt the need for an intelligent and sharp minded partner in his life. Rukmani in due course played the role of the pivot and turned out to be the apt person, who functioned as an anchor in his life.

Chapter 3

Kalindi, the village damsel

Kalindi was from a poor family of lower caste and her father worked as a labourer in fields of farmers. Her parents had migrated to the village from a remote area of Barmer district in Rajasthan, when she was hardly six years old. That year, there were no rains and the villagers had to bear the brunt of nature’s injustice. With no food and water, it was difficult for people to sustain especially the poor. Slowly the cattle started dying. Some farmers, heavily into the clutches of money lenders did not know how to make ends meet and even resorted to the extreme by ending their lives, thinking that they would be able to end the miseries of their families. The limited support of the government machinery also could not be sustained and people started leaving en masse. Families migrated in groups as survival was at stake. Kalindi’s parents too moved out with bare essentials and were lucky enough to get shelter with a distant relative in Lalit Khera. They bought a small piece of land in Lalit Khera, little away from the center of the village from their savings and constructed a small house with thatched roof. Since then the village became their home. They managed a place of their own with great difficulty, as they did not want to sell the ancestral property back in Barmer. They continued to be poor and started working in fields of others for sustenance. The poverty stuck with them like a leech and in spite of the hard work and effort, nothing changed in their life.

Their daughter Kalindi was growing up into a beautiful young lady and she often questioned her mother on the stark difference she had in looks from her parents. Her parents were dark skinned with average looks, whereas she was fair and charming. She had sharp and feminine face having a smaller jaw bone and fuller cheeks. Her mother always conveyed to her that God, the creator of universe listened to their sincere prayers and gave them blessings in the form of a beautiful daughter as an act of kindness, something akin to what Yashoda ma had told Krishna. They never shared the fact with her that she was an abandoned child, left to die and the poor childless couple, who had found her, went on to accept and adopt her as a gift of nature. They brought her up like their own child and she in reality, brought a lot of happiness in their life. Kalindi was convinced with their response and practically led a reasonably happy life with her parents. Like her parents, even she was full of pleasant memories of her childhood days of Barmer.

She often recollected the winter season with a lot of army people moving in the fields and those tanks and vehicles moving around like uncontrolled cattle, churning the area and creating a dust storm. Her father and the villagers often helped and supported the soldiers, as they knew that they were there to keep