Shahmub Jewel
Water hyacinth floats towards the main stream over the Dead River. Although the water does not feel cold, it stays quite cold for a month under the water hyacinth.
Kalachan spends the night in the water looking for fish. While fishing, he stands with his nets and spears. When he sees a fish moving, he can’t sleep; he throws the net over the water with the rake.
Kalachan is a young boy. His parents are quite old. Father Lalon Mia makes love seven times in a day. Once in a week he puts his foot out of his wife’s cell. He has no earning. Instead, he spends seven days caressing his wife. His senior-most wife is Dahlia Banu. Her eldest son is Kalachan. The burden of the world is on his mother’s shoulders.
When mother Dahlia Banu came to that village, she broke her rising on the boat and kicked her feet out. That day, she got into the boat limping. Shivering in pain all night, when she looked in the morning, the legs were swollen like a banana stalk. She treated her broken leg with herbs but it didn’t work. Many days went by. She does not know how long it will take.
Kalachan sits in the boat with the responsibility of taking care of his family. Dahlia Banu is sleeping with her two little girls inside. Fishing all night, Kalachan has no sleep. What is the reason for not sleeping? Fishes are being caught. He happily toggles his mind. Time is of the essence. Like watering season, the fishing season matters too. In the rainy season, the soil in the yard becomes loose and there is a canal dipping into the river. Kalachan glistens in the fertile ground near the distant tower.
Babusabad’s rest house stands there. Kalachan supplies them meat. The torso moves into the knot of water. If you have to work on time, what happens if you spend the day in neglect? Kalachan has the skill he requires. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. He knows this. So he sails the boat ashore.
Row upon row of boats! Large houses stand, house after house. Onc can see an array of rows from east to west. They appear living in harmony.
Kalachan is the son of a family from their neighborhood. He does not waste time in vain; his work is quite focused. The responsibility of the family is still on his shoulders; so his mind does not drift away from work. In the past, he used to go out with his mother. Now she spends the night in the river. This is how he earns money for food: rice and pulses.
His boat is in the middle of the river. The net flows through the gaps between the water hyacinth. No consignment goes empty.
There is no much fishing today. Yet, his mind is very lively. His eyes have turned red from fishing all night. But he feels happy. If there is happiness in the mind, songs rise. He sings happily in the boat: After making love with me for 250 years, will you marry me in?
He raises his throat. The sand trawler is running away. Waves, the nuisance of trawlers, is increasing.
Kalachan is returning to the neighborhood. Seeing a few trawlers coming from behind, it looks like someone is chasing them from behind. Kalachan’s boat jerks up. The boat next to him also jerks due to the push of his boat.
A mature girl come out from inside a house, rubbing her eyes. The young woman shouts: “Ella doesn’t have a body.”
Kalachan eats Emazed and says, “I didn’t notice Ella Boin. You are getting intoxicated; you don’t have a body, Mia!”
Kalachan tries to turn his eyes away from her but cannot. The mind is really intoxicated, but deliberately he begins to push his boat. The girl’s body trembls every time she is pushed. She sits on the boat near Kalachan and says, “What is your name?”
“What business you have with my name? Sardar Dahum, hurry up. Tell your name instead, then I will leave you,” he says!
“Chandni… Chandni,” she says and gets into the boat. Kalachan peeks forward.
Chandni is a restless girl. Two or four boys from water area want to talk. They want to know her name but she doesn’t respond. Her mother takes care of the family. From her earning from the boat she handles her younger siblings.
Her mother’s sleep is also shattered by Kalachan’s push. Chandni’s voice rises again. But when Chandni does not say anything, her mother looks down again and starts humming. Chandni sets rice to cook on the oven.
The river flows east-west. The sun rises in the east and the light falls in the west.
Chandni sits down to light a fire in the earthen stove. The sun shines in the east. Her body is tingling. The hair is golden. The color of her hair has changed from the color of the parlor to the heat of the sun. The green face is covered with a beautiful smile. Theirs are the first boat to return to the neighborhood from the river. So anyone’s eyes can fall on their boat.
Khokon is returning also with the boat.
“Let’s go ashore.”
When Chandni threatens the Sardar, he stops and says, “Please, there is a banana drawn by the Sardar in the middle.”
“Sardar does not lose his marriage,” Chandni says, while lifting the fish bowl.
“Geli, if you close your eyes again, you will allow this,” she said.
Since that day he keeps looking at her but says nothing. Crowds gather on the banks the river. Leaving his clothes behind, Kalachan sets his feet into the city with a fish bowl. Everyone’s eyes fall when they see different species of fish.
Kalachan comes to the gown to sell his fish, crying while he walks. Someone calls for him. He raises the price to one thousand rupees. The actually price is eight hundred rupees.
Kalachan is returning to the neighborhood smiling, after selling fish. If they want to return to their neighborhood, another neighborhood follows.
Kalachan loves Rupali very much. He even proposed her for marriage, but destiny was cruel. There was no cell; so Rupali’s mother returned the offer down. She did not like Kalachan. He was unemployed then; he was quite young too. The condition of the world is also dilapidated. So the grief is wrapped in the mind.
Kalachand knows that if you want to get married, you need a wife. He cannot get married without a cell. The main condition of marriage is cell.
When Rupali’s wedding was arranged, Kalachan rushed to her wedding. She has been well since marriage. She has a happy family.
On his way back to his cell, Kanchan met Rupali at a tea shop, but Rupali pretended not to talk. Kalachan could not handle himself. He stepped forward and said, “What happened to Rupali? I don’t know. La, I’m your friend Kalachan.”
Kalachan is back on the boat area. Rupali and Chandni starts blinking in their eyes. But how does that matter? What is the benefit!
Rupali forgot, fine. But, will Chandni pay attention to Kalachan?
Kalachan sits at the base of the Erythrina fusca tree holding his breath. Suddenly it seems that Chandni would not return to him. Why would she return? She now earns a good income. Getting married entails money. It takes a few days to raise money to buy a cell.
Kalachan says, to myself, ‘I will work at the river day and night and buy a cell. How long will it take him to work like this?’
Kalachan rises from the base of the Erythrina fusca. His eyes go to the east. Chandni’s red dress is seen from a distance. Another boat looms in front of them but he does not see this boat even in the morning.
Whose boat is that? Kalachan comes running. Khokon sees Chandni in the boat. Chandni is repeatedly attacking him.
Kalachan jumps into Khokon’s boat and calls him a bastard and pushes him into the river. Chandni stares. Kalachan shouts at Khokon and says, “Leave the boat for good! Otherwise I will eat you.”
Khokon goes floating in the water. Khokon gasps and gets into the boat and leaves. Kalachan says, “Chandni, do it carefully.”
Chandni calls for Kalachan and says, “You can do that for me! Kalachan laughs and leaves.”
Only teeth in the middle of his tender body begin to shine.
Under the afternoon sun, the young men and women of the city are crowded on the banks of the river. Chandni looks at them as she scrubs the dishes. Seeing their snarls, Kalachan begisn to remember olden things. There was a time when he could put his head on her shoulder. How nice of her! What opportunities do girls have in the Vedas?
Thinking so, he feels the south wind.
Aldhi is missing. The stove dies out. Her mother used to shout when she saw her. Luckily she went to the village.
The oven begins to blow with a bang. The fire blazes, and her mother sets foot in the boat.
“What are you doing?” said the mother and jumped into the boat. Chandni’s mind begins to run over Kalachan’s boat.
The evening time approaches Gradually the riverbanks begin to appear empty. The red glow of the west is shifting and the sky is turning white. The sun is rising and the moon is shining. The small lamp inside the boat is lighted. The moonlight in the river starts playing with the water hyacinth. There are cities is on both sides of the river. The city lights are flashing from the middle. The river that flows through the heart of the two cities is stepping on the life and youth of Kalachan. Kalachan is working day and night.
Today is the night of the full moon. While going fishing he knocks on Chandni’s boat. He comes forward. Chandni sees Kalachan and says, “Go to La, la to catch fish!”
Chandni smiles sweetly and says, “Can you give me fish? Pray for me. What else can you give when you get fish!?
Chandni further says, “Go like this, let’s talk later.” Kalachan looks at the canopy and pushes the boat upwards.
Even though the river is dead, it is the season of high water. The water of the village ditch is flowing down. At such a time, many fishes are found coming down. So many people spend the night in the river, most of them being people from the neighborhood. Kalachan is one of them.
Kalachan steps forward in the canopy and throws the net over the water. When the boat turns, fishes starts jumping. Seeing the jump of the fish, it seems that the wheel has broken off. Kalachan begins to toggle happily. He cannot lift the net with the weight of the fish, but he grits his teeth.
He never got so many fishes in the past. Fish get into his nest as soon as he throws it into the water. So how can he handle so many fishs back to shore? He calls out, “Chandni, Chandni Chandni,” as he walks away.
Chandni’s mother stands up as soon as she is called for. Kalachan greets her and says, “Auntie, let’s take some fish in your boat.
“Hold. What will happen in that boat?”
Chandni is surprised and says, “Is she a mother? I didn’t know that he is the son of Lalon Mia.”
A leader’s son!
Kalachan is fast getting on the boat and loading his fish. Chandni helps him. Kalachan whispers, “Chandni, I will place you in my heart.”
Chandni smiles. He get up and says to Chandni’s mother, “Aunty, I will go out. Fair fishes are being lost in the river Doa Hair Eyes.”
“Oh Kalchan, there is prayer, go … go, hurry up and eat fish.”
When Kalachan turnsaround, Pubali rubs her arm like a branch in the wind against Chandni’s arm.
Kalachan is getting on his boat and moving forward. Chandni and Kalachan stare at each other. The distance between the boats begins to increase. The moonlight also begins to gain intensity.
Kalachan’s boat capsizes due to the push of the trawler. A porter is seen sitting on the sand in the trawler. He says to the master, “Saab seems to have sunken.”
The master looks and says, “Gypsy … Gypsy.” The porter understands nothing but sees the color of water like the morning sun. Kalachan thinks that the life-value of the poor is like that of water. Chandni starts shouting “Kalachan Kalachan,” from the oar of the boat.
The gypsies wake up. Chandni goes to the belly of the river in search of Kalachan. Seeing the pressure of water on the hyacinths increase, she begins to pull her boat. The place inside the kachuri becomes empty. Kalachan sees a head with red water all around.
Chandni stands with a scarf around her waist and jumps out of the boat saying, “Kalachan, Kalachan…”
[Shahmub Jewel is a writer and journalist from Dhaka, Bangladesh.]