Tikkipala (16 page)

‘No. Get up. Do as I say.'

‘I am your king. You have to carry me,' shouted Maw.

‘You are a bad boy.'

‘You are disobeying your king and I will have you punished,' yelled Maw.

As Pala made his way unsteadily back to the tribe, the child perched astride the body of the dead doe, Pala felt afraid for Maw. ‘Be careful, Maw,' he told the child. ‘When you get back to the tribe you must not behave like this.'

When Pala told the elders that during the hunt the child had become of age, for he had learnt to transfer his mind, the elders said, ‘We feel great joy to hear this. Bring him before us for examination.' But when they saw Maw, they felt shocked and dismayed.

‘This child is behaving like a baby still. Stretching his mouth in that Coarseones' grimace and breaking all the social rules of our tribe. You have allowed him to speak aloud with his voice, even when there is no great tribal matter to be discussed and he is letting out laughter sounds that anyone can hear.'

‘Out there in the jungle, I permitted it when we had no need for silence,' explained Maw. ‘For he is only a little child and little creatures like sometimes to be noisy.'

‘Not our little creatures,' reprimanded the elders sternly. ‘Our people are quiet always, unless they are making jungle music or taking part in a tribal meeting.'

‘The Maw cannot make those sounds,' said Pala. ‘Because he has no throat insertion.'

‘Of course he has none. He is the Maw, so his body must not be blemished.'

‘Also what is the harm of the child making mouth sounds in the jungle when none of our people are there to hear him,' said Pala.

‘It is a matter of dignity,' said the elders sternly. ‘You, who are our great hunter should know that well. Our sounds should be pure at all times and in all places otherwise we will be no better than the Coarseones.' A shudder went through the assembly when they thought of the Coarseones. ‘Do you not remember how your mother taught you how to make yourself like the centre of the place where the stone falls in the water. Do you not remember how she explained to you that you must be as still as a held breath and only your actions must cause a movement around you? Any one would think this was the child of a Coarseone from the way he twists the features of his face.' Then they too shuddered and fell silent for a while as their minds went
back to the thing the tribe had done long ago, when they had conceived Maw's father. Perhaps, they thought, they had made a mistake in keeping this child alive. Perhaps even now it was not too late to do away with it, and start again with a fresh new foetus.

‘I remember now,' said Pala quickly, as he heard their minds. ‘I apologise that I forgot. I took too much pleasure in the child. That was the trouble. From this day on I will be more stern with him.' And to himself he thought, I will protect this child with my own body and my very life if the elders and subtle ones of my tribe try to hurt him. Even though it means breaking the law of my people, I will run away into the jungle with Maw and live with him there, with only the wild pigs and the monkeys for company. I will separate from my people forever if it is a choice between them and this child, Maw, for I love him more than I love my people, my tribe, my honour or my tradition.' When this thought came into the mind of Pala, he felt surprised because this great love had come upon him so gently and so subtly that, till the elders thought of killing Maw, he had not known that it was there.

‘This is heresy, Oh Pala,' reprimanded the elders, who had heard his thinking.

‘But all the same you must believe it,' Pala said.

Pala lingered round the home trees for a while, smoking paka, drinking soma, trying out new arrangements of the stones in his body piercings, but at last the meat was gone. Even the surplus meat that had been cured with acid juices from the teak tree, then protected with webs of hair from flies and vultures, had been eaten. In spite of the boy's protest, Pala was determined to leave Maw behind for this hunt, although the boy was a little better in keeping his mind quiet.

But when Pala told the people of the tribe, they said, ‘We cannot have this noisy restless creature in our midst. You must train him properly before we can have him back to live with us. You agreed to keep him with you. He will be a bad influence on our own children.'

‘I will be quiet, I promise you, Pala,' said Maw. ‘I will keep my mind clear for Animals all the time we are hunting. Listen to my mind now, see how good I am getting at it?'

Pala closed his eyes and let his mind hear.

‘When Animals capture it, I want to be the one who pushes the blade into its neck,' said Maw's mind.

Pala chuckled. ‘I heard you,' he said aloud. ‘But you cannot do it. You are too small.'

‘I can. I can,' cried Maw. ‘I want to. You must let me try.'

Pala felt worried again and feared that this pleading was a manifestation of Coarseones' behaviour. As he set off, Maw sitting on his shoulder, he vowed that this time he would treat the boy very strictly.

Pala and Maw brought back a mother sambhar and her male calf, swathed in nets of tree ligament and hair. ‘And it was me who put the ligament on,' cried Maw joyfully. ‘Even though she was stamping her feet and coming at me with her horns, I did not run away, but captured her.'

‘He was indeed brave,' said Pala. ‘He is a worthy hunter.'

In the years that followed, Maw grew tall and swift, and learnt all the ways of the tribe. At the tribe's celebrations, Pala painted glittering patterns onto the boy's naked skin with his own fingers as though he was the Maw's mother. When Maw was ill
Pala fed him with buck milk from his mouth. When Maw was twelve and the time had come for him to wear a penis sheath, Pala wove it himself, taking stones from his own body to decorate the sheath and putting it onto Maw with his own hands. The mothers stood round, feeling laughter rise inside them at the sight of a man doing all these woman things with his great hunter's hands. But, at last, all the people saw their Maw standing there, his body now sheathed like a man's. And they thought to themselves, ‘Our people will thrive now, and go on into another great future, because we have a beautiful and clever Maw who will breed great future Maws and Mawas for us.'

But there came a day, when Maw was thirteen, when he refused to obey Pala. He banged his feet defiantly when Pala told him, ‘Hush, Maw, walk softly. Do you want to drive every animal out of the jungle?'

And instead of being apologetic, Maw tossed his head and retorted, ‘I heard a stick crack under your foot five minutes ago. It was you who scared the game away, not me.'

At first Pala did not feel too anxious. This was a passing phase. But there came a day when things became serious.

Pala reprimanded Maw for some fault and Maw shouted back, ‘You are not my father, so you can't tell me what to do.'

‘I am better than your father,' said Pala. ‘Because I love you and do you remember anyone else in the whole world loving you like I do?'

‘Of course you love me. It is your duty to because I am the Maw,' said Maw grandly.

‘Don't speak to me like that,' Pala said.

Maw replied in an even sterner voice, ‘I will talk how I like because, remember, I am your Maw. Please give me some respect,' then burst out laughing.

Pala, remembering the threats made by the elders, and how he had promised to be more strict, said, anxiously. ‘You must never make that haha sound again. I shall be very angry and punish you if I hear it.'

‘Haha haha haha,' shouted Maw.

And for the first time in their relationship, Pala hit him. Hard. With a clenched fist. So that Maw gasped and reeled, winded. ‘Why did you do that?' he spluttered, still doubled up from the blow. ‘You hurt me, Pala.'

‘I did it to save your life, Maw,' said Pala gravely.

When Maw was fifteen, he began to run faster than Pala. Ever since he was tiny, Maw had loved to run races with the hunter. Maw would say, ‘Come on Pala. I'll race you. I'm sure to beat you this time,' and then go dashing off, Pala coming on after him, shouting, ‘You cheated. You didn't wait till I was ready.' He would pretend to run as fast as he could, pretend to gasp and struggle, allow the boy to beat him, then feel delighted at Maw's joy. ‘I beat you. I beat you. I'm faster than you.' But there came a day when he ran as fast as he could and could not catch Maw.

‘You have beaten me, Maw,' said Pala.

‘But I always beat you,' said Maw.

‘Yes, well, so you do,' said Pala quickly and felt a little sad because things would never be the same again.

When they got back to the tribe, the elders told Pala, ‘We have been discussing the Maw, and we think he is now too old to be with you all the time, Pala'

‘Who are they to tell me where I should live and who I should live with?' cried Maw angrily when Pala told him.

‘They are the elders, and their word is law,' said Pala. He felt sad because he would have to separate from Maw.

‘Well, since I am the Maw, I shall change the law,' said the boy. ‘I intend to go on living with you, Pala. And if they want something different they will have to carry me away by force.'

Pala's heart filled with love and joy as he put his arms round Maw and embraced him. But then he said, ‘They also say you have reached the age when you must take a woman.'

‘A woman?' cried Maw, as though he had never heard of such a thing.

‘The tribe will need your male child in due course. But when you get her, you will not love me so much, because you will love this woman more.'

‘I will never love a woman more than you,' said Maw, shocked. ‘Never. I will love you more than anyone else in the world. I will love you for the rest of my life.'

‘You are just saying that,' smiled Pala.

‘Listen inside my mind,' said Maw.

Pala listened, heard all the enormous love Maw had for him, then looked down to the ground a hundred feet below and could not say anything because his own heart was so full.

‘You and I will go on living with each other forever,' Maw went on. ‘And if there is any question of a woman for producing my children…' He paused. ‘Well, she will just have to come and live with the two of us.'

‘Devi is going to the hill palace,' Anoo, Raja of Bidwar, told his mother.

Sangita peered at him with the sharp movement of an alert bird. ‘Good. I am glad. I would have gone myself long ago if it had not been for my work here.' She added suddenly, ‘Why are you wearing a moustache?'

Taken aback, Anoo said, ‘I always do. You know that, Ma?'

Sangita gave a short laugh. ‘You have no need now that your father cannot see it,' and clapped her hands to drive away a pigeon. It rushed away with a roar of wings, setting up clouds of dust on the furniture as it passed.

Anoo sat down cautiously. The last time he had sat on one of his mother's chairs, it had fallen to pieces, depositing him painfully on the floor. ‘Ma, I think you should come and live in the main palace. This place is no longer suitable.'

‘Huh!' The sound was that of a cracked whip. ‘You have been got at by the two silly sisters-in-law, I can see. Mala and Srila are continually coming to me and telling me that, for the sake of the family's dignity, I should not stay here any longer. And you know what I say to that, Anoo. Huh.' She let out another verbal whip crack.

Anoo smiled. She knew everything. It was quite true. His sisters-in-law were always going on at him about Sangita. ‘Anoo, you must do something about her or people will be saying you are neglecting her. What must they think when they see you living in luxury and your mother in a place like a cowshed?'

‘Then why not at least let me have the place done up for you. Look at it.' He waved a hand round the room. Sangita followed the hand's direction calmly then said, ‘So? I can see nothing wrong here at all.'

Anoo sighed. He had tried again and again to persuade his mother to even allow the walls to be painted, let alone have plasterwork repaired or woodwork renewed and she had always refused to allow it.

‘Also,' Sangita continued, ‘people come for their cures here. What will they think if they suddenly find I have moved to another place?'

‘It is only across the courtyard,' said Anoo. He knew he was fighting a losing battle but felt it his duty to persevere. ‘We will tell them to come there for their medicines.' For more than forty years the sick and the sad of Bidwar had queued each morning at the door of Tahkuma Sangita's laboratory for their cures. By now there could hardly be a person in the whole of the town who had not at some time or another received treatment from her. The local doctors had long ago given up trying to persuade the citizens of Bidwar that the Ranee's crystal cures had no medicinal value and that the people should rely on conventional medicine instead.

‘We have noticed that even these doctor fellows go to the Ranee after they have tried their own poisonous stuff a few times and had no relief from them,' people would tell each other. ‘And also why should we go to a doctor who is charging us money and often does not heal us at all when Thakuma Ranee charges nothing and her pills and droplets always work?'

‘Do you have enough money for paint and plaster and such things?' asked Sangita now.

The Raja felt hopeful. ‘Of course. I am always telling you I will spend whatever you need.'

‘In that case,' said Sangita serenely. ‘I would like the money for another roofed corridor. At present sometimes some people still have to stand out in the rain.'

‘But Ma, all your halls and passages are packed with people each day and we have already built two waiting rooms for them.' At this rate, thought Anoo, the place is going to resemble a refugee camp. Her jaw went tight. ‘Alright, alright. I'll see what I can do,' he said hastily.