Enemy

It was early morning. Suraj was thinking about the incidents of last a few days. He already bathed from the small mountain river and cleaned himself. He wore an old dhoti. Its colour wasn't white, rather yellowish. May be once upon a time it was white when the landlord of the nearby village wore it. He was a banya in caste. Suraj himself was a banya when he left home. He might not be as evil as the owner of this dhoti, but his father, uncles and grandfathers were.

Those were like dreams, bad dreams indeed. He was sitting alone beside the cremation ground. His mother's body was prepared to be cremated. Suraj knew it wasn't a natural death. It was a murder. But he didn't know who killed his mother. May be each person of his family, his own khandaan killed her.

Suraj looked at his weapon once and then threw it into the river. He knew stream of this small river had no power to wash out all the bloodstains of this AK-56, and even somebody will discover it easily in the daylight. "Let it be", Suraj told himself.

He was looking at the sunrise. Every morning he looked at it. Every time he expected the same thing will happen, but nowadays he found every sunrise was different. Maybe the different chirping of a little bird, maybe the shape of different clouds in the sky, maybe Bhulu, his favourite street dog, made every sunrise little different.

Suraj learned Calculus once when he used to go to the district college. There were two types of Calculus - Differential and Integral. For Differential Calculus, anything, say time, was made smaller infinitely and then calculation was done on it. Integral Calculus was just the opposite of it. When time tended to zero, it was called Differential Calculus and when time tended to infinity, it was called Integral Calculus.

Every day, every moment was different like Differential Calculus, compared with the infinite timespan. When we looked at the larger part it seemed uniform but every small part has its separate existence. Just like yesterday's sunrise was different than today's.

"Dada, what are you thinking?", a shrill voice of little Dukhu took him to reality. He didn't know when Dukhu came to him. Dukhu was an orphan with two little sisters and one toddler brother. He was a buffalo boy. When Suraj saw him for the first time, he was astonished, how could a little boy with a small stick manage ten large buffalos! Later, Dukhu told him many things. That evil landlord shot both of his parents two years ago. Since then Dukhu worked as a buffalo boy to feed his little siblings. Dukhu didn't know the reason, why the landlord killed both of his parents. But, Suraj knew the reason. He heard Dukhu's mother was a beautiful lady. Maybe, that was the reason.

His five friends left him for a month ago. At that time he called them comrades. Most of them were tribal people, except Jigesh. His father was a postmaster of a small town near Patna. They came to this remote part of Chota Nagpur plateau to meet him. They heard about his intellect, his passion, his knowledge on communism.

Dukhu was still standing speechless. Suraj asked, "What happened, little friend?". "Nothing!" said Dukhu, "Rinki didi wanted to meet you." "But, who is your Rinki didi?", asked Suraj. 

"Because she wanted to offer some foods to a monk to fulfil her wish. And I told her about you".

"You said about me! A monk! I am not a monk. I don't worship any God. I don't wear monk's robe and I even don't know any mantra."

"But you read books. I saw you reading books. You are also kind. You touched me, an untouchable orphan and you even shared your food with me on the same pot and even drunk water from my pot. You must be a monk".

Suraj became embraced and wanted to overcome it by a serious tone, "Look Dukhu, you have no communicable disease, so why couldn't I share with your water and food, especially if you gave me with love."

"Then, you have love", Dukhu stuck to his point, "I don't respect any god or goddess. They took my parents. They are cruel like a wild tiger. But you are a monk. I want to be a monk, like you when I shall be adult."

Suraj laughed, "OK, OK, my friend, actually I am nothing. But, if you like to call me a monk, let that be. And, your Rinki didi also may come here with you."

"But she was afraid, villagers say, your disciples are guiding you with guns"

"My disciples! Oh no! They are my friends just like you my little boy. We have no master, we have no disciples. We can only teach ourselves."

They weren't happy. After killing the evil landlord, when they were looting his money and ornaments, Suraj told them in a strong voice, "Don't touch them. If poor villagers want to take them, they may. Truly speaking it's their own properties and that bastard stole from them."

"Then, why did we killed him? It's my first homicide. Couldn't we avoid this incidence?"

"No, we couldn't avoid it. It's the justice of Dukhu's parents' murders. If our government would have done them justice, we didn't have to do it", said Suraj.

Since that night, they found Suraj was changing slowly. He wasn't talking about revolution any more. He seemed to be happier, while teaching Science to Dukhu, than discussing the way of revolution with them. 

One night Jigesh told others, "Be careful about Suraj. He may be a police mole. I didn't find any proof but nowadays, he is leaving his own idealism. Nowadays, he isn't interested any more for planning encounter on the enemy of peoples, the evil riches."

Jaggu asked, "Then why don't we kill him? We are five and he is only one."

"Because he is more intelligent. We can't harm him while he is awake and when he sleeps, that stray dog Bhulu is at his guard whole night."

Suddenly, a deep voice heard over the nearby bush, "Dear friends, if you don't believe me, you may leave now. I am telling this for your good." It was Suraj. Everybody was stunned, Jigesh searched for his 9mm pistol, but it wasn't there. They, left that place at night, without any weapon. Jigesh looked back after moving about one kilometre. He saw the silhouette of Suraj, still standing firmly on the bank of the river during mystic light of full-moon.

Rinki came along with Dukhu in the late afternoon. She had a full pot of kheer as offering to the monk. Suraj welcomed them with a gentle smile, "Hello my little friends. Come here. But it's already late you should go back soon after we all enjoy this beautiful kheer."

Suraj said, "Have you looked at this kheer? Do you what is it actually?"

"Condensed mink with sugar", said Rinki.

"Yes, of course, but what are milk and sugar?", said Suraj.

Dukhu and Rinki looked at each other's face by hearing this strange question. 

"OK, don't worry. One day you will learn, they are all from the Sun, the solar energy. Now, let's enjoy this beautiful food mindfully, without talking much."