Char Adhyay

The twilights...

The twilights...

twilight...

golden red

The twilight, golden red...

Spring ablaze... The twilights of Spring ablaze;

That day...

it was dawn, golden red.

A day of Spring.

A blaze in your eyes...

Motherland beckons.

The motherland summons her children. Heed the call!

There's a lesson left to learn,

A tale of valour yet untold.

Who can stop this tide of youth!

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

I hope you'll be happy in your new home.

You must be thirsty!

No.

Hush!

Sir, will you get aside.

What are you doing with a revolver?

I don't understand.

Have you signed up with them?

Can you show me how to use it?

Have you fired it? -No.

So you don't know?

See...open it.

Put in six bullets here, shut it and extend your right hand

arm...straight.

Earth's colours sink into a blank page.

Birds fly home. Rivers too.

The giving and taking in life is done.

Ela!

Why have you put a stop to our meetings?

To throw them off your trail.

I've sent an article to the papers in your name.

You can't disguise your writing.

It's a sleight of hand.

What?

You've written, 'these boys are a danger to the country.'

To the women of Bengal, you've said,

'you are their mothers.'

'If you take the punishment on yourself,

you will not die in vain.'

'Readers will be moved to tears.'

If you were a man, Ela.

It'd not have been diffiicult to get knighthood.

We were students together, these boys and I.

They used to make rude remarks when I passed by.

I knew I was newcomer to them.

That was not their nature.

But with time, I gained their respect, even their love.

Someone crooned a sweet nectar.

And then, there they were, courting death...

Our goals are turning into an obsession.

It's breaking my heart.

It's not that everyone would find his???

At medical school,

I would almost faint while dissecting a corpse.

I despise such weakness!

You women think of yourselves as mothers.

You're mistaken.

You are Shakti incarnate.

You are leading us astray. We can't go on like this.

You will become what we will you to become.

There's something I wished to say to you. Not here.

Here too they follow me. Those beloved voices so familiar!

You have done a great wrong.

You've asked Uma to get married, although she doesn't want to.

She may not know what she wants.

She may not be aware.

Or perhaps, she won't admit to it.

She took an oath in front of you, never to marry.

It was true for the time.

Uma's in love with Sukumar.

And so they must be separated.

The price of love?

What does that mean!

Why won't you let her marry Sukumar?

We have so few like him.

What if he too desires her?

It's possible.

The young man to whom you are marrying Uma off,

has he a point of view?

To him any Bengali woman is a godsend.

Why bring men and women together at all?

To spread the fire we have started across this land.

It won't die down easily.

We need men and women who can play with it

without getting burnt.

Then throw me out.

What a loss that would be.

But don't you see!

One day I came upon

a drop of colour in your homespun cloth.

You have awaited for someone earnestly.

I came to you, but you were waiting for someone else.

Don't be ashamed, it's not unnatural.

Your heart isn't of stone.

You had said, 'to work was our mission.'

The burden of desire hasn't dragged you down.

But...

You will remain part of the group.

I've been of no use to you.

When will you understand that your touch.

sets the boys' hearts on fire.

Everything's slipping away.

Those who keep crying out to their mother

will always remain children.

This country is not the mother of these forever infants.

It is a god who is half man and half woman.

But then...Uma?

I heard that a thief broke into your house.

Was your jujitsu training of any use?

I think I broke his wrist.

My honour was at stake.

He was Anadi.

Our Anadi? Poor boy!

I sent him. He was put to test, as were you.

I waited below, to set his bone.

When duty calls we must be ruthless.

Understood? -Understood.

The little one sleeps. As silence falls.

The raiders come. They want the tax!

How shall we pay? Our crops are gone.

Dear mother, at last I see. How much you mean to me!

Do you love Ateen?

Could you kill him, if it came to that?

It could never come to that. So I say yes.

But what if?

I do not know myself well enough...

Please let him be.

But he is bound by his own vow.

Sir, Ela has defeated you in the game of silences.

She holds her tongue, letting others talk.

You say Ela doesn't speak! Yet I eavesdrop on her often!

I would also say something.

I have told the boys that one day

you will have to be removed.

For you are weakening Ateen's resolve.

Why make it a fact by repeating it?

It is said you have no detractors.

Yet three-fourths of our boys

are inclined to agree with me.

I note down their names. They are born enemies.

Forgive me if I've had a hand in ruining your tea party.

In any case, I've been served notice to shut shop.

The time may come to remove me.

Then I shall disappear without a word.

Poor thing, she couldn't take it anymore.

Every morning she would walk by,

her slippers flip-flopping...

Sweet Mary!

An offering of the Mother...

Three men were here boasting of heroic deeds.

I gave their names to the police.

What if you were mistaken?

It's better to err on the side of caution.

A dishevelled-looking boy came to me one day

demanding some money to get him to Dinajpur.

Asking for 25 Rupees.

'You scoundrel,' I shouted.

'I'll hand you over to the police!'

Your boys were at the teashop collecting money.

Collectively they couldn't collect more few coins.

There are too many flies buzzing about your rubbish bin.

Your boys should be spread out.

Did you have a plan?

I've been making preparations.

Your proud platoon of grenadiers

needs to lie low for a bit.

Why not have them peddle malaria pills door to door?

I too should go into business.

In your line, sooner or later, bankruptcy is inevitable.

Ela is such a beauty!

Why have you dragged her into our midst?

This young man, Ateen, who came to us,

attracted by Ela... he's dynamite.

In this frightening laboratory of yours,

we're no more than janitors.

Why don't you quit?

We hope to see results, even if you don't.

So you mustn't disappoint us.

Every gain of it is sealed with blood.

In this war the losses are as important as the victories.

They wished to show me that I was nothing.

But I will prove my greatness to them.

To illuminate your ordinary lives.

With my extraordinary brilliance,

that is my mission amongst men.

How did you get ignorant workaday souls like me

to take part in this mad dance of destruction?

I called for the impossible.

Dispassionately, as a scientist,

I saw that he who has to die, must die.

And aftre that?

No matter how bad the situation gets.

Nothing will break me.

What becomes of us?