A Forgotten hero!!!

Anu was roaming around through the estate. She reached the hill slope. She was planning to climb the hill half way that will give her the view of valley. The green lush valley, as her dad told her always. She climbed up, and what she saw was not as imagined. The valley was partly covered with rubber trees. A river flows through the valley, or can be said used to flow through. River is almost dry, except some patches of water. It has changed a lot. She has come to this place some 10 years back, with her father. She sat by the shade of the rock.

As Anu looked the up hill, she could see a man sitting there. A man who was in his 40s. He wore a turban and a black coat. He looked like a Sikh. What’s Sikh man doing here, and that wearing a coat in this hot season? May be he will be mad. Anyway Anu felt curios. He was looking neat and contained. Anu walked towards him. He didn’t react.

She went near him and said,

‘Hi’.

The man looked up at her. He looked startled. He asked,

‘Are you talking to me?’

Anu , a little surprised.

‘Yes, there is no one else around to talk to.’

The man more confused and surprised,

‘So you can see me?’

Anu, now she was more surprised. She though this guy is really mad.

‘Yes, for sure. I don’t have a problem with my eyes.’

‘Usually people can’t see me. Its been a long time, since I had talked.’

‘Why can’t others see you? Are you a ghost or what?’

‘Hmm. A kind of. I had died some 70 years ago.’

Anu now a little surprised, rather afraid by the answer.

‘What…? You.. a.. gh.. ghost?’

‘Hey, don’t be afraid. I won’t harm you. Be comfortable.’

Anu was feeling a thrill. Also was doubtful, whether this guy was fooling her.

‘Are you fooling me?’

‘Try touching my hand’

Anu extended her hand to touch the man’s hand. But she couldn’t. It was like she was passing hand through a cold air. She could pass her hand through his hand..

‘Wow!! You really are a ghost!! Wow!! I cant believe…’

After a pause, that she used to digest the truth, she asked.

‘Who are you? I mean before your death. Where are you from? What are you doing here? Why are you sitting alone?’

‘Oh oh oh.. Ask one by one.’

He continued,

‘I was a freedom fighter. I was hanged by British government for killing a General. "

"And about why I'm here, after my death I was offered heaven, but I decided to stay here at India. I considered this as my heaven. And so I’m roaming around for last 69 years.’

‘What, you mean you choose to stay here instead of going to heaven?’

‘Yes, I love this country that much. And so I chose to stay here.’

‘You mean you love this country that much that, you choose to stay here instead of going to heaven. Unbelievable!!’

‘Yes. Why, don’t you love this country?’

‘No, I mean yes, I mean I like this country, but not willing to stay here. I would like to see some places, tour around. But staying here, that’s impossible.’

‘What? You don’t love this country? Its your mother, right?’

‘These sentimental dialogues may suit you at your times, but not now. Have you seen the current situation of the country? How can one stay here? So much of corruption, Terrorism. No security for life. No sanitation. Un-employment’

Anu looked at him. He was calm and listening to what Anu was saying. She continued,

‘I was born here, and was here till I was 5. Then I was taken to US, by my Dad. I studied there and grew up there. At those times, I loved to come here, spent some time. So when I completed my studies, came here to work. I worked at Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi. I worked for 3-4 years. Those where the bad phase of my life. I hated this country as never before. The whole system was corrupt. You had to bribe for everything. And more over, this dirty politics. Making fuss over small issues, destroying public and private properties. Fighting over religion. No security for your life or property. This country is going nowhere. The whole system has to change, and that’s not going to happen. Our politicians won’t allow that to happen. "

She was gasping for breathe.. "Hey leave it. No use of talking about this. Tell me why you were hanged and you didn’t tell me your name’, she said..

There was no change of expression in the face of the sikh man. He calmly asked.

‘Is it that bad? Hmm. I thought it has changed a lot. I thought our time was worst.' she felt, as if he told it to himself.

'My name is Udham Singh and I was hanged for killing Sir Michael O'Dwyer. He was the person who gave shooting order at Jallianvala Bagh. Killing 1300 of people including women and children’.

‘What? 1000s were killed and no action was taken against him? Why he gave orders to shoot?’

‘It was a peaceful meeting to protest against the brutal killings of British government. They had banned public meetings. So, for violating that, they open fired at us without even issuing a warning.’

‘What? 1000s were killed just for holding a public meeting? What the hell? You were there?’

'Yes, I was there. I lost my brother, my only blood relation in the firing. General Dyre was not given any punishment. Moreover at England he was given a hero’s welcome and also was given the knight hood.'

'I went there and killed him and avenged the killings of 1300+ of my countrymen.’

He paused for a moment and continued,

‘You told about the condition of this country is bad, right? Think about this, a person was given knight hood and given a hero’s welcome for murdering 1000s of innocent people. And I was hanged for killing a murderer. This was done by one of your so called developed country. How about that? ‘

‘What? I can’t believe.’

‘You know what my last wish was? I wished to be buried at England.’

‘Why? You loved India, right? Then why you wanted to be buried there?’

‘Exactly the same question asked by the judge. They tortured us. They made us their slaves. They took our property, took away our land, killed us for protesting. By burying my body in England, I will own their 6X2 feet of land. I will own that and they can’t do anything about it. Ha ha ha ha.... The last laugh was mine.’

Now a sense of pride was seen over Udham Singh’s face. He continued,

‘You complained about the situation of this country, right? Then why don’t you do something about it. Why don’t you try to change the system? If, Gandhiji, Nehru, Baghat Singh, Subash Chandra Bose and those others who gave their life for this country, had thought like you and did nothing except complaining, you wouldn’t have got the freedom that you are enjoying now.’

Anu felt shame. She never thought about it that way. She had never known such horrible incidents have happened and there were people who gave their life just for us to be free.

Udham Singh had got up.

‘I never knew that a person like you existed. I don’t think many will know you and your love for this country. How do you feel about that?’

He smiled,

‘I didn’t kill Dyre to gain respect or to be considered as a hero. Nor it was done to show my bravery. I just did that for the love of my country. I can’t sit idle, looking at people ripping of my country. If possible, I would die for this country a thousand times.What a greater honor could be bestowed on me than death for the sake of my motherland?’

Saying this he walked up hill and he disappeared into the mist.

PS:Hope you all liked this attempt. I am not sure about the request of Udham singh to be buried at England. Its purely my imagination.

For Refrence:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udham_Singh

http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/personalities/udhams.html

http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/events/jbagh.html

A Weekend Trip...

Chitra calls me on Friday and says, lets go for a tour this Sunday to Athirapally-Vazhachal. I said OK. Who all will come was not finalized. When I called her on Saturday, things were not yet clear. And finally by 10 PM things where finalized. Anu I, Anu II, Cibi, Chitra, Merin, Resmi, Krishnan, Libish, Maneesh, Rishin, Rohan & Myself were there. Going by a Tempo traveler, leaving Ernakulam by 8 and will return by 6. That was the plan.

Libish called me in the morning and said will pick me. We were to board the Van from Edapally toll junction by 8:15. As we no timeline was not to be followed, we didn’t follow that. Anyway I couldn’t talk my breakfast. We reached Toll junction by 9:00. Maneesh was waiting there from 8:15. Van reached after 2-3 mins. We left and picked Rohan from kalamaserry who was waiting there from 8:15. From Company Padi we picked Resmi, Merin n Cibi. Cibi had reached there by 7:45. After lot of waiting we set towards Athirapalli.

After taking some wrong turns and all we reached Athirapally by 10:30. Took tickets and entered the gate. Seeing the up-hill climb, Maneesh and Rishin was little reluctant to come. And when we started to ascend the would take rest at every point. And finally we reached Athirapally falls. We took some photos. The guard called us showed us two elephants at the bottom of the falls. It seemed like to black/brown dots.

Initially I was not interested in taking dip in the river but decided to get in later. We climbed up the river and found a good place at the center of the river. Except Cibi all others came. The deepest point was up to hip of mine. While we were having blast, we heard a scream from the forest side of the river. Not many heard that. It was of some wild animal, but couldn’t see any. After sometime we saw some movements at the bank and there appeared two elephants. Fully soaked in dirt they were to Female elephants, large in size with long tails and trunks that touched earth.

We were the nearest people. Some were afraid and wanted to go back. But we decided to stay. The elephants came, drank water and went. What an astonishing sight it was. We were so close to the wild elephants. To our disappointment, we didn’t had any camera with us at that time. Damn.

After having some more blast we came out from the river, dressed up. We went to the bottom of the falls. A brilliant sight. Water scorching from the top. Water drops all over the place as if it was covered with mist.





We climbed back. All were exhausted by then. So decided to leave without going to Vazhacal and to have lunch from chalakudi. It was 3:30 when we had our lunch. We still had time and as we all had food, we were feeling little energetic and decided to go to Cehari beach. After a lot of wrong turns we finally reached the beach. All these time we were having blast inside the vehicle. Teasing both Anu, Resmi and Chitra.

We made a sand castle at Cherai beach. Some foreigners who came by liked the castle and took some pictures. A lady asked, who made the castle to Libish, and he said, he did it. Liar. We took dip in the sea and left all wet and sticky. Anu I[Anu Fransis] was feeling little dizzy. When we were to enter the van, show pointed to a tree branch lying near by and screemed snake. When we reached paravoor, there were some procession going on. I said, ‘Pooram Pooram’. Anu I, looked at it and asked, innocently, ‘Is it Thrissur Pooram?’.

And so that was over. All was over, leaving us with lot of memories that will cherish for a long-long time…