English Literature – Juvenile Fiction ☆ The Tide of will – Part-4 ☆ Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury ☆

Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury

Brief Introduction

• Birth – January 18, 1955
• Education – MBBS (IMS/BHU)
• Publications – 4 books (2 in Hindi, 1 each in English and Bengali) and two are yet to come.
• Translations – Books and articles are translated in English, Odiya, Marathi and Gujarati.
• Awards – CBT awarded stories and novel, “Kamaleshwar Smriti Katha Award (2013, 2017 and 2019)” by Kathabimb.
• Honour – “Hindi Sevi Samman” by Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Wardha (December 2016). 

☆ Juvenile Fiction ☆ The Tide of will – Part-4 ☆ Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury ☆

Welcome Onam!

Our little bird was out of her nest. The vast blue sky was beckoning her, ‘Come, try to fly. Just spread your wings.’

Frankly speaking Narayanan didn’t make an elaborate plan. At first it was his idea simply to make Gayatri interested in sports. After all how far a man can think? But Gayatri was now crazy. Before the roosters crowed early in the morning, she would become ready and come to her grandfather, ‘Appupan, are you not ready yet? When will we go?’

Past three years or so now she was swimming pretty well. Itukettu, while sewing his broken net or transferring the catch of fish to the baskets, had been watching them all these years. One morning he said, ‘Sir, now she is quite a good swimmer.’

Naryanan was pleased to hear this.         

Every household was getting ready for the Onam festival. The farmers harvested the paddy. Ananthi had so much to do. She would decorate the front of their house and the courtyard with ‘pukkalam’ or the designs made with grains and pulses of different colours. Next, various preparations of rice and coconut, ‘kalan’ prepared from curd and banana, ‘olan’ made of vegetables and curd and ‘kallappam’ made of toddy juice and ‘elayappam’ sweet – so many things to be cooked and prepared.

A long time ago in the past, people would celebrate Onam for ten days in a row. But nowadays it ends in just four days. Around this time the harvest is safely gathered in by the peasants. Therefore Onam is the beginning of life anew. In cities like Kochi and Kottayam boat races are organized during this.

In general, particularly Lord Vishnu is worshipped in Kearala. Padmanabhaswamy at Thiruvananthapuram is one of His incarnations. The family of the king of Travancore worshipped Him as His priest. As an appointed representative of the god they used to look after the kingdom.    

In our mythology, it is said that the Lord Vishnu had appeared on earth in many incarnations. Right from The Fish, The Tortoise, The Boar and The Lion Man Narasimha to Ram and all. The story of Kerala says it was the sage Parasuram, one of the incarnations, who had dug the shore near the sea with his axe. Thus the land of Kerala was dug out and gifted to the people to start living on it. The sage had established five temples, dedicated to lord Vishnu, around Kerala Tamil Nadu border.                           

It is said that the great king Mahavali, who once ruled over this land, come here to pay his yearly visit, on the eve of Oman, to meet his people. Even today the Malayali people praise his rule of justice. By defeating the gods of heaven he established his kingdom over the heaven, the earth and the undersea world of ‘Patala’.

Now, as had always happened, the gods went to Lord Vishnu and prayed with folded hands, ‘O’ the power supreme, please save us. Do something so that we can regain our lost kingdom.’

The king of the gods, Indra, bowed his head respectfully and said, ‘We don’t have any place to live in. Where should we go?’

Mahavali had a great reputation for his munificence. So Vishnu decided to take advantage of his generosity. He appeared before the king in the incarnation of Vamana, The Dwarf, with a little umbrella overhead.

‘What do you want, sir?’ asked the king.

The Dwarf said, ‘Give me just as much of land as will be covered by my three steps.’

‘Alright O’ venerable. Your wish is granted.’ the king assured him.

Vishnu was waiting for this opportunity. Craftily. The Dwarf made his body so big that his head touched the sky. He put forward his right foot and occupied the heaven. By his second step whole of the earth was under it. Now he roared, ‘Tell me king, where I can tread my third step?’

Mahavali knew everything. He bowed his head in reverence and said, ‘God, it is here on my head, please put your foot.’

‘Then go away and remember your kingdom is limited only to Patala, under the sea.’

Such is the story how Indra and other gods could get back their lost kingdom.

Next Mahavali too, made a request to Vishnu, ‘Grant me permission please, so that I might come to visit my people every year on the day of Onam.’

‘So be it.’ smilingly said Vishnu.

Since then Mahavali would visit his people every year to enquire their wellbeing. So all these decorations and festivities are just to welcome their king.

Haripadam, the name of the village, has its origin in this mythological story. The old folks of the village would say that it’s here, on this land, the dwarf incarnation of Vishnu had set his foot to acquire the right of the earth.

A shrill sound drifted all over from every house in the village. It was ‘kuruwava’, the whistling of the women folks. ‘Come, O’ King and accept our offerings. We have spread the petals all along the road. So your feet won’t get hurt.’

At Gayatri’s house, they had finished their lunch. Ananthi had served them food on the banana leaves. Narayan was very much fond of ‘kalappam’. He asked Manishankaran to distribute the home-made foods to everyone, ‘Let them enjoy today.’

After a little nap he got up and called for Gayatri, ‘Let’s go to Pompa. They have organized different competitions and sports. Must not we see them?’

Gayatri clapped her hands in delight, ‘Sure, appupan. We must.’ And she put her new dress on. A new cute frock. She peeped into the room where Ananthi was sleeping with little Rajan, ‘Amma, I’m going to Pampa with achchan.’

Both of them walked away from the home. By then the sun had come down on the top of the trees. But dusk was still far away.

Contd…      

© Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury

C0ntact: Care Dr. Alok Kumar Mukherjee, 104/93, Vijay Path, Mansarovar, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302020