The Oraon And The Divine Tree

  Chapter 7

  I

  Puza started with all its fanfare and gorgeousness. Dhanesh used to sit alone in his house after work at the shop and in the quiet evening at the tree shaded place, his mind drifted back to the past. A large puza was held in the house of a rich Rajbonshi farmer near the tea garden and Dhanesh along with Sita frequented the house during the festival. While Sita did household works in the house, Dhanesh with a Rajbonshi friend Sisir master, teacher of a primary school, used to go out and sit close to the giant mango tree. The field near the mango tree had become white with kash flower and there were plenty of pink

  sthal-padmas dangling from the projected branches of the large tree at an adjacent house. Dhanesh occasionally picked up some flowers for Sita who liked to wear them on her chignon.

  One day Sisir killed a large stork by his catapult and they had a good feast at night.

  When Dhanesh was amazed to see the image of the goddess and her family with two sons and two daughters, all on their carrier animals – devi Durga on the lion, Ganesh (the elephant god) on the mouse, Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) on the owl, Kartik (the military chief of the gods) on the peacock and Saraswati (the goddess of learning and knowledge) on the swan – and the mighty demon Mahisasur fighting with the family of the goddess. He asked about the meaning of the images and Sisir told him a long mythical story how Mahisasur had captured the heaven and to protect the gods of heaven goddess Durga had emerged and killed the horrible demon.

  Kali puza was held a few days after the Durga puza and all the houses were adorned with earthen lamps. To escape the earsplitting sounds of the crackers displayed by the jubilant puza goers, Dhanesh and Sisir used to seat in the calm and quiet atmosphere under the mango tree and sitting in darkness under the star studded new moon sky they told each other stories of various ghosts – mamdo, jamdo, kal singh, lakchera, beuderang, skandhakata, petni, shakchunni, nishidak and others. Many people in this locality used to fabricate stories of their fearful encounters with the ghosts but Dhanesh and Sisir had never come upon any of them.

  Most of the stories were, however, sheer fabrications and lies. Some of the stories, however, had some truth in them but what the victims had been terrified by were later discovered to be the shadows of trees, forest animals or pieces of cloth carried by air to the spot.

  Streams of incidents and stories started flashing across the mind of Dhanesh. In course of long association the mango tree had become an integral part of his life. Most of the people associated with his past were no longer in existence, but the mango tree as the evidence of his past was still there. The mango tree had been associated with so many golden moments of his life. It would soon perish along with the nostalgic past of Dhanesh. He felt morose.