Bhaupanthi
It is not known at what time at night the incident took place, but a mouse fell into a bucket full of water and died. No splashing sound was heard. The water turned out to be a silent killer. The bucket filled with water should have been covered to keep it hygienic. It would also be advertised. It is easy to say that water should be covered. However, a question is raised: how was water supposed to fall from a tap in which there was no water and why the pot that had no water supposed to be covered. There was a tap, connected with water pipe as well but there was no water. Water into tap would appear once or twice a week but it had been long since there was no water in his tap. Long ago, there would be water but it had been like a myth. Water from the tap had disappeared as did the king’s photo from currency notes. Therefore, they filled their empty vessels in the public taps, waiting for their turn in a queue.
It was not only a problem of water; there also was power cut. Beyond these problems, drinking water would be a myth for the future generation. This was a matter of future. Even the past was not so good. In the past, the dream of Melamchi (a river near Kathmandu) water was supposed to wash out the whole city. This would also be like the disappearance of the king’s photo in a currency note if politics couldn’t have shared dreams. They were habituated to be satisfied with hopes and dreams.
This country is said to be quite rich in terms of water resources and even richer in drinking water sources. We proudly say that in future, there will be war not for women, land and the extension of power but for drinking water. Pride in this sense, we have countless resources of drinking water. Whether there is war or peace we are rich in drinking water sources. Others will be involved in war for drinking water but we will be onlooker taking bottles of water in our hands, posing like watching Olympic Games. But now there is a play of empty jars and buckets.
But this mouse has been floating on the bucket water raising a question mark. This bucketful of water is what they filled with struggle day before yesterday. All the family members filled it queuing turn by turn. It is very difficult to have turned in an infinite queue and if water appears there in the tap, it may disappear before one’s turn comes or before the water fills up the bucket. The vessels placed under the tap spout are like black eagle’s mouth, thirsty and dry. It is a matter of bravery as to much water one fills up, and this achievement is counted in their groups. Those, who are unable to fill water, look coward in the neighbours’ eyes. Nobody wants to offer a bowl of water; the tradition of earning divine blessing by distributing water has faded away.
He shakes his head. Three-quarters of the earth is water and one quarter is land. Our country is full of Himalayan Mountains, which provide drinking water profusely. However, should we drink recycling human urine in the future? How can dehydrated people urinate?
He dismisses all these logics rising in his mind and thinks that all these will happen yet, his arguments continue to poke his mind like troops of landless people. One of his arguments reminds him of the present problem that is how the mouse sunk into the water bucket and died. If it died at other places than at the bucket, it would be alright and there would not be any problem whether the water should be kept or thrown. Now, he was in dilemma about whether he should drink or throw the water into which the mouse had fallen and died.
There was another argument: they could substitute it with mineral water. It was impossible to drink mineral water every day. Again there was no guarantee how pure mineral water would be; even the government could not guarantee. How to control? Everywhere there was impunity. There was freedom for anyone to do anything. It was meaningless to pronounce mineral water to be pure but to buy it required money. Only for drinking water, one couldn’t go to America. America! The word has entered his consciousness in such a way that everything was pure there. There was security as well. Ten policemen in an average were deputed for a single citizen in America. How wonderful in our context! The policeman spent whole day in putting dressed and they became late to reach the spot. The day before yesterday, someone was carrying a pistol hiding it around pelvic cavity. The policemen could not check it being embarrassed. As a result, somebody was nearly murdered in a jail.
Did this mouse come into this house like the pistol bearer, hiding itself from the secret path? Nowadays, there is anarchy of mouse. Perhaps, the mouse might have come out in search of water. To quench its thirst, it might have dived into the full bucket water to drink it all. However, it did not know how important this bucketful water for our family was. Even this mouse may have its own family, which may be in its search because it is like a kidnapped person, who may be disappeared without any information. This mouse could not return to its family. Mice are said to have high reproductive power. So are human beings. “We are two and ours two” has been a slogan but population of Kathmandu is increasing as the increment of vehicles and a litre of drinking water has been rare.
Let the mouse die! Didn’t it get another place and it died making a bucketful of water impure? However it was not enough to think about it fictitiously because this mouse had polluted twenty litres of bucket water.
This story can be imaginary and the imaginative power may make it thrilling but now the mouse is in reality and it has disturbed his mood. Not his mood but the water. He has been addressed by himself. There is overwhelming hatred inside him. What time had it died? In the bucket water, the mouse was floating in such a way that he once thinks to throw it out of the water catching by its tail and wish forever peace for its departed soul. Ultimately, death is true; why he should uproot dead tiger’s moustaches! However, he loathes the dead mouse, which hadn’t swollen yet.
Once he had almost decided to throw the water out, with which the mouse and flowed and got its obsequies. Other members of the family were still sleeping. He had a habit of drinking a glass of pure water early in the morning, when his stomach was empty. Pure? A big question was within him. “Is there anything that is pure in the city?” The family protested his habit of drinking pure water. It was usual to drink a glass of water after meal and he had to lessen the amount of drinking pure water. Like the slogan of saving power, to save electricity is to produce it. However, the whole country is suffering of power cut as it is suffering of underdevelopment and poverty forever. There is no electricity; nobody is using it but it hasn’t been saved, nor has its production increased. However, there is a slogan, “save electricity.”
Early in the morning, he drinks a glass of water satisfactorily. He silently fills a big steel glass with pure water and drinks it without producing any sound. Drinking a glass of water makes him romantic, thrilled and extremely satisfied, because he has the capacity to drink brimful of a glass of water. There is fashion of public rebellion but the family does not threaten him of public rebellion for a glass of water.
The problem was the same, however. The mouse was small but it was drowned in the bucketful water and its gender (male/female) could not be found out. Now, the water no more remained useful. He paused for a while. He had read in the newspapers, which tried to dig out filthy things with concentration of mind. They would keep filthy account of whom and how the political leaders eat everything. They walk in tip-top dresses, clean and fair roads; they drive Pajero cars and fill their fuel tanks with petrol granted by the government; they move in security circle, and are safe from dust and dirt. However, the newspapers try their best to defame them. Why is this happening? News was like this, “There is a heap of human stool at the source of drinking water.” Is drain mixed somewhere? It was not written in the newspapers. Even the newspapermen drink water. They should not wash their dirty linen in public. Because of drain, the holy Bagmati River in Kathmandu has become Dhalmati (drain + Bagmati). This is a great wonder. Isn’t Tukucha’s water used to prepare delicious food in restaurants? Nowadays, people are in search of tasty readymade foods. The metropolis life becomes stale and to refresh it, one should eat spicy, pungent, sour, fried and mixed food.
How can drinking water be pure when its source is filthy?
He has been entangled in self-arguments about the mouse in vain. It is either mouse or a dog; it would be rotten in the water source. If so, what’s difference in drinking the bucket water although millions of mice drown and die into it? The people of this metropolis have been Aghoris, filth eaters. In that case, why to abhor them?
“This logic is useful!” Thinking this, he has caught the dead mouse’s tail slightly. He picked it up, did not squeeze, but hanged it by its tail to drop water attached onto the mouse’s body. He had a tyrannous feeling towards the mouse that it had polluted the hard-earned water. It is natural that hanging the dead mouse by its tail results in dropping its body’s water into the bucket. He thought he should squeeze the mouse to drop water attached to it. He remembered the proverb of a fly which falls into the pail of milk. If the fly is squeezed into the milk pot, why should he not squeeze the mouse, which would drop into half a glass of water? Nowadays, the metropolis has become a base of the Aghoris. The Aghoris!
Silently, he opened the door and he was at the verge of throwing the mouse out of his room. It was a good thing for him that the door did not produce any sound while opening it. Otherwise, someone would wake up and ask a number of questions. Since the mouse’s tail was damp, he was feeling the pleasure of touching water. It was like the opportunity of keeping hand on the catchy breast.
Before he went to throw the mouse out, he slowly lifted the covering of the bucket from one side and covered the bucket with it. He was aware of doing it so cautiously that nobody would notice that the mouse had been dead in the bucket water. He once more thought that in the great scarcity if water what would happen to it only by drowning the mouse into it; it was not the case of large animal like a dog!
After covering the bucket filled with water, he assured himself that the water got its purity even if the mouse had drowned there. However, water-bucket should have been covered because it was a good thing for maintaining health. He did so right then. Despite this all, the date for filling up bucketful water was not guaranteed.
[Translation of “Aghori” by Nabaraj Neupane]
[Bhaupanthi is a senior storywriter of Nepal. Former member of the Academic Council of Nepal Academy, Mr. Bhaupanthi is famous for his sharp and thought-provoking prose. Some of his seminal publications include Sanakhat ra Aru Kathaharu, Paatraheen, while there are many works he has compiled and edited.]