Lalé and Kalimaya

Bijaya Kumar Ranabhat

Lalé, whose full name is Lal Bahadur Kumal is a representative of a slum area. His house is not far from the Prithvi Highway (one of the important highways of the country) but his life is not worthy as the very highway is. Lalé exactly cannot remember the year of his marriage but he says that he was just nine years old and his wife, Kalimaya was eleven years old, two years older than him. He and his wife didn’t know even what marriage is and what it is meant for. Their parents also got married during the same age range and they also made their children marry in their childhood.

The reason behind the early marriage was the tradition that was prevalent throughout the country during that time. Before that period, Sati tradition was prevalent in Nepal when the wife had to immolate her life into the funeral pyre after the death of her husband; no matter how young the wife is and how many wives a person has. The then prime minister Chandra Samsher declared the end of Sati tradition and Nepalese married women got freedom from that evil tradition.

However, the domination of women could not be stopped in one way or another. They were compelled to marry during the period of their late childhood. However, the age of males also used to be similar to their spouses these days. In the case of Lalé, his wife was older than him.

The surprising tradition during that time was that husband and wife used to live separately in their own house. Kalimaya stayed in her own parents’ home and so did Lalé. The logic behind that tradition was that wives would learn the household works from their parents and after they learn to work, they will come to their husband’s house.

Kalimaya came to Lalé’s house after seven years of marriage again. Earlier, she had not stayed more than one day in his house. They were having happy conjugal life despite their poverty. Their parents used to work hard and they also used to do the same. Within five years, Kalimaya gave birth to three children; Bhakta, Ramchandra, and Rita respectively. They could not send their children to school because they could not afford the education.

They had already lost their parents when Bhakta was fifteen years old. They were having their miserable life because of poverty. Lalé thought of sending his elder son, Bhakta to India to earn his living. His family was worried about having bread and butter. The quality education, proper health service, and well-off family were out of imagination for him. People could not go to other foreign countries as they had to prepare a passport, pay for visas, and other processes. So, most of the people used to go to India as Nepal has an open border with India and they need not pay such a large amount of money to go to India. Bhakta, along with his ten friends set off India for earning. Lalé and Kalimaya thought that their miserable days would go away very soon after he earns and sends money to them.

Neither Bhakta could read, nor could write. He was losing himself in a foreign land and his family could not get any message for two years. Later on, one of his friends who had been to India with him came to the village and said he is working hard and earning well though he didn’t send money this time. Lalé, Kalimaya, and other children had no bound of happiness listening to Bhakta’s wellbeing in India from his friend.

However, poverty locked their happiness and released the sufferings and hardships on the part. Bhakta, their single hope of income, also could not send any money to the family. As a result, the family had hand to mouth problem.

The family was facing the problem as such, a large catastrophe approached the family as Lalé died unfortunately and untimely. The rest of the family members thought that their titanic ship sank into the ocean and this condition is almost the end of their whole life. However, Kalimaya was a very courageous woman and believed that good people see way on the mountain and bad people see the mountain on the way.  She also thought that what I do today is directly proportional to what my children will do tomorrow. So, she woke up from the pain, smiled even in sufferings, and struggled a lot for her children.

Kalimaya was innocent during her husband’s death. She used to mourn time and again even if she tried a lot to forget that catastrophe. However, most of the people in the village started backbiting charging her as a witch. Furthermore, she was accused of killing her husband herself as she was charged as a witch. She was in agony as such, villagers added oil to the burning fire.

It had already been ten years since Bhakta left for India. Much more water had already flown down from the Marshyangdi river since he left home. But he did not return home. The days passed. The hope of his family about his arrival at home was lessened. Later on, it came to know that Bhakta could not earn money and had had not even a train and bus fare to return to Nepal. By mortgaging the land, Kalimaya sent the fare to Bhaka and Bhakta came to Nepal in eleven years.

Although he did not bring money, the family was happy to see him alive. Some of the villagers had spread the rumor of Bhakta’s death in India. After one year of his arrival in Nepal, Bhakta got married to Bhagawati. Bhagawati was cunning in nature and she did not want to stay with her mother-in-law after the marriage. So, she quarreled with Kalimaya and their couple started living separately in one room of the same house and they insisted on not paying any loan of the family. The old Kalimaya with other unemployed children were hapless and speechless after such mean behavior from her son and daughter-in-law. Her eyes were filled with tears recalling the hardships and sufferings she had at the time of rearing the children. Now, people in the village charge her not only the witch but also the lunatic.

[Bijaya Kumar Ranabhat is an English teacher by profession. He is from Ghring-4, Tanahun. His areas of interest include literature, travel, and teaching. Although he composes poems, short stories, ghazals too, his keen interest lies in quatrain (muktak).]