Chapter 13

Sonu came quite early and blew his horn. Parvati was up already. After serving breakfast, she packed almonds, biscuits, and a few apples and gave them to Shevak. Shevak shaved and trimmed his drooping, overgrown moustache. He changed from his regular pajamas to trousers and put on a woolen waistcoat. He packed all the food in Diwakar’s school bag and hung it on his shoulder. Both the brothers were also ready. They would help him load the apples along with the laborers. Shevak closed his eyes for a moment and prayed. And then all of them left. Parvati stood at the gate with folded hands. She prayed for their safety and success.

The laborers were waiting on the road. The brothers got down and all of them loaded the apples while Sonu stood on top of the vehicle arranging the boxes. He then put a plastic cover over them and tied all sides with a rope. It was a two-seater Jeep and there was no place for a third passenger unless someone was flexible enough to fit between the two seats with legs placed around the gearshift at difficult angles. Shevak checked everything one last time and got into the Jeep. Sonu started the player and inserted a CD with religious songs. He lit two incense sticks and placed them on the dashboard in front of a small photo of Devta. He folded his hands, murmured something inaudible, and started the engine. Shevak also folded his hands in prayer. Sonu waved at the two brothers and changed gears. Both brothers stood and watched until the car turned a far bend and disappeared.

***

Parvati had a mild fever. She shifted near the bukhari and sat next to the fire.

“I will make you a thupka,” Nisha said.

Ria ran out and got a packet of maggi. In the village, a thupka and a thung were the best remedy for a fever, flu, and cold. While thupka was made with noodles in excess water, thung was a concoction of wild tea (herbs), butter, salt, and hot water prepared in a hollow bamboo canister.

Nisha served the thupka and sat next to her. After Parvati was done, she placed a woolen shawl on her and folded the sides. Then she went outside and brought in more logs, which she set near her along with a flask of hot water.

Parvati watched her. She was touched by her sincerity. She felt fortunate to have a nemsha like her. Then she wondered about the other bride who would come once Diwa got married. What kind of girl would she be; would there be peace in the house; where would they stay; how would the farm be divided? She pondered these questions until she felt exhausted. She closed her eyes and started chanting hymns.

“Aama, I will go for the grass.”

“Okay, take Diwa with you.” She assumed that Chotu must be busy with his friends since he would only be there for a few days.

“I have kept pancakes for you also. Please rest today and don’t do anything strenuous.”

“I won’t,” Parvati said and smiled at her. She watched her as she left with sickle and ropes.

***

Sonu knew Shevak was a serious kind of man and spoke little. He remained busy with the music and over a period of time, he changed from religious songs to popular numbers. It was a long journey of approximately twelve hours and it always helped if someone chatted. He tried thinking of something to say to strike up a conversation.

“Your elder son is doing fine now. I heard he is working in Solan.”

“Yes, he is working there but I don’t know if he is doing good or bad.”

“It’s always good to have an earning son. There are not many boys in the village who have the guts to go outside and make a living.”

Shevak nodded but did not show any reaction to his statement.

“And what about Diwa? When do you plan to get him married?”

“Maybe soon,” Shevak said and then added, “Do you have a girl in mind?” He regretted his question immediately as he knew that Sonu was not the right person for such an inquiry.

“I know many but you need to tell me what kind of girl you are looking for.”

Shevak remained silent for a while and then said, “We will discuss that later.”

He once again thought about his younger son’s marriage and the problem it posed. He lit a bidi and looked ahead. The Jeep had already crossed familiar terrain and was now passing Karcham. He felt thirsty for tea and decided to ask Sonu to stop briefly at Tapri.

***

Nisha was in a cheerful mood. Last night he had come to her. It was not that he said he was sorry. He just came and forced himself on her. She tried resisting but he overpowered her. At first she kept still but soon responded to his fierce lovemaking. She enjoyed every moment of it but pretended otherwise. She did not feel like it was a routine duty. It seemed like a kind of embrace, his way of reconciliation. Maybe a bit primal but she relished it. Only later, when he held her close, did she kiss him. She also massaged his back for a while. She hoped he would join them in the field, as it would be much fun with the two of them.

The brothers were on the road chatting with a few men. Nisha waved at Diwakar and handed him a sickle and the ropes.

“Ask your Aaté to come with us.”

Diwakar ran and soon came back.

“He said he would be going to the village to meet the chief. He has some important matters to discuss with him.”

“Let’s move on then. He will always be busy,” Nisha said.

Both went across the road toward the river. The river lost much of its splendor except for the exposed banks, which now invited the wagtails for a feast. They hopped on the flat white sand banks and created patterns with their tiny feet. The bushes that filled the nooks and corners with colorful flowers now stood bare with barbs. In the absence of leaves, the wind sang a different song among the trees. Diwakar saw Nisha in a jovial mood, swinging the sickle and humming a song. She wore a scarf tying her hair in a knot and moved elegantly among the trees. He wondered if there could be another girl like Nisha.

They walked the far length of the field and reached the meadows. Both started cutting grass and made small bundles. The sun was bright and it bathed the peaks. A few eagles flew high above gliding across the valley and riding the wind. The leaves whispered with each gust of wind and the river ran with an angry rumble as it hit the bend below the meadows.

“Why don’t you want to marry?” Nisha asked him.

He glanced at Nisha and realized she was simply teasing him.

“I am happy as I am.” He pretended to be serious.

“But who will look after you?”

“You are there.” He did not look at her and continued with his work.

“But I will have children and there is aama and aau to look after. How will I find time for you? And what if your aaté takes me to Rampur?”

“Did he say he would?” Diwakar was serious now.

Nisha looked at him and broke into laughter. “No, he didn’t,” she said, assuring him.

“Please don’t go. Aaté has already gone and if you leave also…” He did not finish.

Nisha could see his genuine concern. She felt sorry for him. “I won’t. I will stay here in this village,” she said with a smile.

Diwakar smiled too and got back to work. His demands were not much. He just wanted her to be at his side.

From the road Pravin watched his baya and Nisha moving along the pathway. From a distance they looked like a happy couple devoted to farming. He smiled to himself. He noticed that his aama was absent today. He assumed she must be at home. But first he had to meet the village chief. The village was wasting money in solar lights when they could spend the same amount or maybe a bit more and install a hydro-plant. This could provide free electricity for the entire village and also generate employment for a couple of men. He left his friends and went to the chief’s house.

***

The Jeep reached Selaroo. Both Sonu and Shevak were hungry. Sonu stopped the car at a roadside dhaba. It was much warmer and Shevak washed his face by splashing cold water on it from a hand pump. Both had dal, rice, and vegetables and then rested a while. Sonu stretched out on a cot lying outside, and Shevak lit a bidi and looked around. He had rarely traveled this far from his village.

“It will be late when we reach Shimla,” Sonu said.

“We will find a place to stay. And we need to park the car in a safe place.”

“No problem, Uncle. I know a small hotel which will allow us to park in the compound.”

“That’s great, but how much is the charge for a night?”

“Not much, around three hundred for both of us, and tea is free.”

Shevak thought for a while and nodded. He got up and bought a packet of cigarettes. He rarely smoked cigarettes but this was a special occasion.

***

Pravin came back home feeling dejected. The village chief listened to him half-heartedly and said he would look into the hydroelectric plant idea. Pravin knew it was a diplomatic answer. He expected more questions. At home he found Parvati seated by the fire, knitting.

“Are you unwell?”

“I had a fever but now I am feeling better. Do you want tea?”

“Yes, but I will make it.”

Pravin made tea and then sat down with her. Parvati wondered what happened to her son that he preferred spending time with her instead of his friends. She knew something was different because he would rarely make his own tea.

“You could have joined Nisha and Diwa.”

“No, I have something to discuss with you.” It was good that she was alone. It would be easier to convince her first and then the others. “Our farmland is small and the house has only two rooms.”

Parvati nodded. She knew this and tried to figure out what he was trying to say. “Soon we will have to get ready for Diwa’s marriage but then…” he paused and looked at her. He could see she also shared the same concern.

“I know, and that’s what keeps me awake all night. We need money for the marriage, then to add rooms, and then again for Ria’s marriage. Your aau’s savings are almost nothing.”

He had been thinking about this for the past few days. Like his father, Pravin was a man of few words and thought he should come straight to the point.

“What if we brothers share Nisha?”

Parvati was startled. It came as a big surprise to her. For a moment, she could not comprehend the depth of the statement. And then it sank in. True, this was a custom and had been followed for thousands of years but it was not a widespread practice. In some families, three to four brothers shared one wife to keep the farmland undivided under a single name. Even Shevak’s two brothers were married to one wife and they had the highest portion of the land among all of them.

Some said it started from the Pandavas as mentioned in mythology. Though one brother, Arjun, got the bride—Draupadi as a prize displaying his skills with a bow and arrow—all five brothers married her and shared her among them. They decided the days of a week between them when one brother would be with her and others stayed away. The custom was old in this region and over the years, it proved to have an economic benefit. The family remained together, offspring were limited, and land remained undivided. And without land they were nothing; they had no means to survive.

But it called for trust, responsibility, and great understanding between the brothers, and also the bride. Parvati realized where he was coming from.

Pravin saw her startled face and her thoughtful eyes. He knew it would not be easy. “Do you think Diwa would agree? He might have other plans.”

“I will ask him and tell him what is best for the family. If I am willing to share her then he should not have a problem. Also, he doesn’t have any plan as yet. I only want to know if you are with me.”

Parvati hesitated to speak her mind. She knew that it was between the brothers and if they decided it was to be, she could not stop them. And once Diwa agreed, he would be bound to it and the land would remain intact. A brother who broke the common marriage in order to marry another woman not only had to forfeit his share of land but also ran the risk of being convicted for rape. That was the agreement and custom in these villages.

“Did you talk with Nisha?”

Parvati knew that her opinion was not important and did not count. If the brothers agreed, that was enough. The only duty Nisha had was to take care of both the brothers equally. And bear children for both. The brothers would decide how to share her and generally it was alternate months. But still she needed to be informed.

“I will inform her when the time comes. And it’s only two of us, not three, four, or five. I don’t think it will be a problem for her. But don’t say or discuss anything with anyone; I want your word on that.”

“I won’t, but what about your father?”

“He is a practical man. He will realize that we are doing this for the family. And if we all are in agreement, he will be with us.”

“I am not sure about him and the way he thinks. As for me, I will wait for Diwa’s opinion and listen to it myself.”

She had a special place for Diwa in her heart and she would not like him to be deprived of his choice if he had one.

They heard Ria coming back from school and stopped the discussion.

“You must promise me not to discuss this with anyone, especially Nisha,” Pravin said.

Parvati nodded and Pravin left for the other room.

In the field, Nisha and Diwakar twined the grass in bundles using vines. Some of the bundles would be kept on the trees while the others would be carried back and kept at the Dongri and used as food for the cow. The cow was important, not for the milk but for its manure, which was free and was used to maintain the fertility of the soil year after year. During winter the livestock stayed with them at the Dongri and fed on dried grass, buckwheat hay, and dried leaves for the period when snow covered the valley.

***

Shevak and Sonu reached Shimla at night. They had a light dinner of black dal and chapatti and slept. In the morning they drove down to the dealer. Shevak had a little over two hundred crates of apples. Although the sizes were medium and small, the quality was good. There was some negotiation with the rate but finally they settled on four hundred rupees per crate and Shevak was happy. It was a hundred rupees more per crate than he expected and that meant a great deal to him.

“You are going to give me a treat today,” Sonu said.

“Why not? We will have dinner at a good restaurant.”

“Not only dinner, I want some good English drinks.”

“Okay, but you know I don’t drink.”

“That’s okay, you just keep me company.”

Shevak nodded and they went to the main market. Shevak deposited most of the money at the bank and kept a few thousand rupees with him. They roamed around the market and Shevak browsed the hardware stores for tools and gadgets. He also bought medicines and pesticides for the orchard and seeds for farming. Later they had dinner and Sonu took him to a dance place. Sonu drank while Shevak smoked cigarettes and watched the bar girls dance to the beat of popular songs. He even gave a few ten-rupee notes to the girls on Sonu’s advice. He soon pulled Sonu up from the table, as they needed to leave early the next morning.

***

It was a sunny morning and the brothers decided to get firewood from the higher reaches, where there were many dead trees and branches. Dried wood burned better and gave off fewer fumes. Diwakar was excited; it had been a long time since he had gone anywhere with his aaté. He remembered his childhood trips when aaté showed him how to trek, what to look for to avoid danger, how to find hidden herbs and much more. He took nuts and apples in his pocket and also his mobile. The brothers picked up axes and ropes and made for the door.

“Don’t carry too heavy a load, or else you will have back pain,” Parvati said.

“We won’t,” Pravin said.

“And be careful about the bears.”

“They will be scared of us, Aama,” Diwakar said and smiled.

“Be back early,” Nisha said and waved at them.

She watched the two of them leave and went back inside. Parvati was much better today but still weak. She sat near the fire and watched Nisha. A thousand thoughts crossed her mind.

“Aama, do you want to say something to me?”

“No, just make some rice and rajma dal today,” Parvati said and went back to her knitting.

The brothers walked through the village and climbed up the path parallel to the stream. Then they went diagonally right and up toward the ridge. This was a route the shepherds used. The shepherds operated in groups of three or four. Each group took care of four herds, totaling about forty to forty-five sheep. They took the sheep to plateaus in the higher altitudes for grazing and stayed with them all summer. The owners gave them money, food, and liquor. Before winter they came down with the sheep and the owner accompanied them for a short while before they migrated to warmer pastures toward Dehradun. Diwakar had a great respect for these shepherds as they endured all kinds of weather and lived in tents year round. Pravin walked in steady steps a bit ahead of his brother. Diwakar remembered his first trip when aaté often had to hold his hand to cross the boulders and climb up. He felt scared at that time but aaté was always by his side. He looked over at Pravin, who seemed to be lost in thought.

They reached the forest and found a clearing. The bhujpatra outnumbered the oaks and deodars and stood with their golden barks shining in the shafts of sunlight. Like papyrus in Egypt, saints in India wrote hymns and made drawings in astrology and astronomy on the bhujpatra bark. The bark formed in layers in golden yellow and was smooth to the touch. It was considered sacred and used in rituals. The villagers believed this tree protected them from lightning strikes and many of them carried a small piece with them. Pravin found a huge dead branch and started cutting pieces out of it. Diwakar started off with another large branch. They collected the pieces and piled them in one place. By late afternoon they had accumulated enough for two bundles. Pravin felt tired. He sat down on a rock and Diwakar took out the apples.

“I want to discuss something with you,” Pravin said.

Diwakar looked at his aaté and saw him gazing toward the ground. He seemed serious.

“I don’t want our land to be divided. I want the family to stay together.” He paused.

“That is my wish too.”

“But if you marry, things will change.”

“Then I won’t marry, Aaté,” Diwakar said promptly.

“That’s not a solution. I would never be at peace that way. And a man is never complete unless he marries and has children.”

Diwakar looked at his aaté. He had known him all his life and was sure he would come up with a solution.

“Nisha will be our common wife. It is okay with me to share her with you. You will take care of the farming and I will earn from outside. We will always remain together.” He looked at his baya.

It was too much for Diwakar. He was unable to think or speak; he could scarcely breathe. The forest moved in front of him, changing colors from fall to autumn to spring. The birds sang; his dreams moved in front of his eyes, the horse, the house, and the river. He could listen to distant drums and his heart thumped loudly.

“Of course it depends on you. I don’t want you to agree just because I told you. I know you love me but you might have your own dreams.”

Diwakar half opened his mouth to say that this was his dream. Instead, he hid his excitement and simply asked, “Is Nisha aware of this idea?”

“Not yet. If this arrangement is acceptable to you, only then will I tell Nisha. But are you okay?”

He wanted to shout “yes” at the top of his voice and make it echo across the peaks that surrounded them. He felt grateful and looked at his aaté. Nobody understood him better. He nodded in both respect and affirmation.

“I am okay and I also think this is best for the family.”

Pravin felt relieved and hugged him. “If we stand together there will be no harm or trouble for the family. I will come back next month again. If you change your mind let me know, but until then don’t discuss this with anyone, especially Nisha.”

Diwakar nodded and then both went off to pick up their loads. It would take more time to go down, as they had to be careful with every step.

In the valley a strong wind blew from the southeast and gathered speed. A storm built up and blew across the peaks threatening the trees and chasing the pigeons. The wind carried dust and whirled it across the tin roofs. The dark clouds put an accent on the mighty peaks that stood in solemn isolation braving the winds as they had stood over the past million years. The dead leaves rolled and circled with the wild swirling wind until the storm picked them up and carried them far away.

***

Pravin left for Rampur early the next morning. He went with Balbir to Sangla and from there took a bus. He had mixed feelings as the bus left the town behind. On the one hand, he felt happy and content with his decision to share his wife with his brother; on the other hand, he had a feeling that Nisha might not like the idea. He truly loved Nisha but his sense of possession of her was never strong enough to cloud his sense of responsibility for the family. After all, he thought, if he and his baya could sacrifice so much then she should not stand against them. She was very much part of the family. And since both he and his baya were in agreement, she had no other choice but to agree. He assumed that even if she did not like the arrangement initially, she would adjust with time.

He let his thoughts about the matter drop and started making plans for the upcoming Dewali festival (festival of lights) when sales were expected to be high.