TIRUS AND HOODOO
Tirus was
taking his afternoon nap when his red and black mobile phone with the red
blinker beeped consistently waking him up from his reverie. It sounded like a
distress signal, he thought. Someone was desperately trying to contact him. He
swung himself off his little yellow bed and picked up his phone. At first, he
thought it was some sort of argument over the phone and then suddenly he heard
an old woman say, “Give the phone to me… let me explain what is happening.”
“Tirus, please
come soon…we are in deep trouble.” And then the phone went blank.
And as usual,
Tirus got dressed in his red tee-shirt, a pair of jeans and a khaki coloured
half jacket, put his air-guns into the holster in his belt and his sword in an
opening at the back of his tee, which his mother had specially stitched for him,
put on his red helmet with a dark full mask visor and off he went.
It was a warm
day and his red bike kicked off quite a lot of dust on the way. Tirus so wished
there would be some rain. Little beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as he
raced through the path leading into a small patch of thick forest.
At the end of the
woods, the path opened to a clearing which overlooked a village. The little
village with several thatched houses was actually in a valley surrounded by a
low range of hills. Tirus raced down the hilly pathway trimmed with wild shrubs,
leaving a trail of smoke behind him.
He was greeted
by the flailing hands of an old woman in a mekhela-sador
by the side of the road. She looked pretty breathless!
Tirus braked
and got down from his bike. He put a hand around the old lady’s shoulder and
asked, “Aita, what is wrong?”
“Tirus, we are
being troubled by a huge winged monster. It just comes and swoops up everything
it can get hold of. Its roar creates a lot of fear amongst the villagers. What
do we do now? Please help us.” Aita
spoke in one breath.
“Wait. Wait. Aita, you will have to tell me a lot of
things. Where does this monster come from? When does it come? What does it look
like? Please tell me everything.”
Aita looked quite stricken. “It is going
to appear any moment now! It is grey in colour, with patches of brown. And some
people from the village say it flies in from the hills, there!” She pointed a
finger towards the undulating ranges to the west of the village. Tirus squinted
and put up his left hand to shade his eyes from the hazy glare of the setting
sun.
“Alright, I
will take care now that I am here. You don’t worry, Aita. Where is Koka?”
Asking this, he led her by the shoulder into her clean little compound which
was surrounded by tall betel nut trees, coconut, banana and fruit trees of
different varieties.
Koka is a lean short old man with chubby
cheeks, wrinkled forehead, wearing a dhoti with mud marks on it and a fading
vest with patches of ‘blue’ cloth whitener. Seeing Tirus, he got up from where
he was cutting firewood, smiled from ear to ear and ran to him with open arms. “We
are so happy to see you! Come, come, sit here!” He pushed a murra towards Tirus.
Koka started telling Tirus about how the
winged thing has been scaring everyone in the village. He is now scared that
one day it will be the turn of his family. He rested his chin in the crook of
his right palm and looked at Tirus in despair. Tirus kept assuring Koka that he will take care of
everything while Aita got him some narikol laru, til pitha and a steaming cup of tea.
The sun was
slowly setting over the horizon and the sky was turning golden yellow. Suddenly,
a breeze slightly stronger than usual blew from the west. Tirus noticed that the
birds had stopped twittering and there was not a single person on the village streets.
The sky loomed with dark clouds and Tirus could feel drops of rain on his
forehead.
All of a
sudden, with a loud clap of wings and a spine-chilling howl, a huge ‘thing’
appeared in the western sky. Tirus looked up and saw something greyish brown in
colour. It flew over his head and disappeared over the trees near the hills.
The village
became totally empty and there was a pall of gloom all around. Tirus took out
his sword, which suddenly lit up a golden yellow and blinked red at the base of
the handle. One look at the signal and Tirus knew the position of the ‘thing’
in the trees. He crouched and slowly moved to where he had last seen the ‘grey
thing’ disappear. He tried to look through the foliage and was taken aback seeing
a pair of round eyes looking back at him.
Suddenly, this
huge ‘thing’ came right through the bushes, made a sweep at Tirus and toppled him.
Tirus fell on his back. But he sprung back to his feet, steadied himself and
picked up his sword once again.
All of a
sudden, a loud wail came from one of the village compounds. Tirus rushed to
where this sound was coming from. A woman was flailing her hands upwards,
pointing frantically towards the sky.
“What’s the
matter?” Tirus asked.
The woman, in
between her wails told Tirus that one of her goats has been taken away by the hoodoo.
In the
meantime, Tirus heard the beating of drums and saw a huge crowd of people
approaching him. They had fire brands in their hands and some of them were
clapping their hands, while shouting incoherently at the top of their voices. They
stopped near Tirus.
Kokai, a lean man in his early 40s was
leading the group of villagers. “This hoodoo
is creating havoc for all of us, day in and day out! We have to do something
about it.”
“Are you sure
it is a hoodoo? Are they this large? Hmmm!
Anyway, what are your plans Kokai?”
Tirus asked.
“This hoodoo is different. It is large enough
to carry away small babies as well,” Kokai
replied. “We will have to tackle it in a different way.”
“Well, let me
handle this, Kokai. We shouldn’t
create unrest in the village. The women and children will get scared.” Tirus
said.
Soon after a
bit of haggling with the other villagers, Kokai
managed to finally persuade them to return to their homes so that Tirus could
come up with a plan in peace.
There was an
uneasy calm as darkness descended on the village. Tirus, Kokai and two other village elders decided to sit down and sketch
out a plan as to how to deal with this hoodoo.
So, all four of them sat down on the small wooden bench near the chowk and talked at length. Kokai suggested that they should all go
up to the mountain recess and attack the hoodoo’s resting place. But that would
mean that some of the villagers might get injured, one of the elders said. It
wouldn’t be good to put anyone’s life in danger.
“I suggest
that I go up there on my own and have a tete-a-tete with this Mr. Hoodoo. Let me ask why exactly he is
creating all this menace.” Tirus said.
“But you
shouldn’t go alone. It might try to harm you,” Kokai said, looking very concerned.
“Let me see
how I do this. I am sure it’ll not attack me straightaway,” Tirus said and got
up from where he was sitting.
Tirus started
his red bike and bade Kokai and the
village elders to go back to their homes while he took a ride into the hills. The
three men watched as Tirus sped into the west in a cloud of dust. Deep within
their hearts each of them prayed for his safe return.
In the meantime,
Tirus had reached the bottom of the hill which led up to the hoodoo’s dwelling. He parked his bike
and slowly went up the hill, crouching while holding his sword with him. The
red light at the base of the sword glowed indicating that he was very close to
where the hoodoo was now resting. He
was careful not to make any noise lest he disturbs the huge bird.
However, as
soon as he reached a tree a couple of yards away from the mouth of the cave, he
heard a low spine-chilling ‘howl’. He slid behind a rock, peered at where the hoodoo was now picking into a piece of
flesh with his sharp beak.
Tirus took out
his sword and the hoodoo as if
sensing the presence of an intruder, looked up sharply. It was at this moment
that Tirus jumped in front of the huge bird and held on to his sword
defensively.
The hoodoo’s eyes gleamed and it stepped
back, flapping its wings wildly.
Tirus put up
his left hand to gesture to the bird that he came in peace and not to kill it.
The
hoodoo too seemed to understand that
Tirus didn’t intend any harm. It seemed to calm down for a while. Tirus too put
his sword down and slowly sat down on a small bald grey stone. Tirus still had
his left hand raised as he slowly lowered himself.
The
hoodoo’s eyes again gleamed and it
shot a furtive look at Tirus. In the meantime, Tirus put his sword on the
ground and had folded his hands.
“Why are
you creating so much mayhem in the village?” Tirus asked.
“I
have nothing to eat. When I am hungry, I need to eat something, don’t I?” the hoodoo shot back, its eyes hard now.
“Yes, I
know that, but I am sure that you have enough in the forest to take care of
your hunger pangs?”
“Enough?”
“Yes,
enough. There are moles, birds, snakes and the like. So, why do you need to
pick up goats from the village? The villagers are facing a lot of problems for
that.”
“Really? So
who will take care of my problem?”
“What
seems to be your problem? You are the one who is creating a lot of confusion
amongst those...those poor hapless people down there. Every day, you pick up
some domestic animal or the other and simply fly away!”
All
this while, the hoodoo listened
patiently, looking up at Tirus once in a while. All of a sudden, it got up and
flapped his wings once again. Tirus stepped backed, anticipating an attack by the
hoodoo.
Day
was just breaking and the eastern sky faintly lighted up. The stars started
disappearing one by one. The moon still hung low over the hills and small
specks of clouds dissipated as quickly as they appeared. A light breeze moved the
trees and made them dance in the half light, half dark ambience. The moment was
just magical, Tirus thought, as he skimmed the horizon.
“Come
with me,” the hoodoo said. The hoodoo hopped a few steps down hill so
that Tirus could climb onto his back.
A
few hops down the hill and the hoodoo took
flight into the valley below. Tirus held on tight to the nape of the hoodoo, as it made diving sweeps,
turning once to the right and once to the left. Tirus had never had such an
experience. The wind whistled in his ears and swept his hair back. Though his glasses
were clamped tight to his eyes with a rubber-band going round his head, he felt
as if it would come off in the gush.
Hoodoo flew over the village and Tirus
could see that the villagers were asleep, peacefully for a change. They were
confident that Tirus would come up with a solution to this whole problem. He
could hear the distant barking of dogs in the village down below.
Hoodoo slowly circled down to the forest
nearby and perched on a tall tree. From where they hovered above the green
foliage, they could see the entire valley right up to the river.
“Oh,
this is beautiful!” Tirus admired as the wind played with his hair while he
held on the nape of the hoodoo.
“Beautiful
yes....but you cannot see the damage that has been done to the trees and the
hills.”
“How
so?”
“Look
to the hills on the right and your left.”
Tirus
turned to look at the undulating hills in the distance, cradling the village,
which was still in deep slumber, save for a few early risers. The sun was
slowly melting the remnants of clouds from the night before. The loud chirping
of birds as What Tirus saw surprised him! Instead of the lush green hills, all
he could see were barren slopes with no vegetation! Part of the slopes were cut
in huge chunks and
“What
happened to the trees?” he asked.
“Why
don’t you ask the villagers? I am sure they’ll be able to answer all your
questions. Anyway, let’s get back now.”
Tirus
was confused. Where have the trees gone? Who’s made the hills bare of all those
tall trees, shrubs, vegetation which he was so used to seeing whenever he
visited Aita’s place? When hoodoo took
flight again, Tirus was pondering; thinking who would be the right person in
the village to help him get the answers. All the while, the one thing that
crossed his mind was how people could become so cruel as to cut down such
beautiful trees and make the hills barren, not to speak of the depleting hill
area!
Hoodoo flew back to its crevice in the
hill, while Tirus kept quiet all the time.
“What
are you thinking?”
“I
am just wondering how easy it is to blame someone else when the problem
actually lies closer to home. The entire village including I was thinking that
you were creating havoc all the while. Whereas, sadly in fact, we ourselves are
slowly creating the imbalance in the environment.”
“Well,
I think that you Tirus should go back to the village and talk to them about a
solution. It is not only for us but for this entire village that we need to
find an answer. Or else, soon enough there will no survivors- both man and
animal.”
“Yes.
You are right. Thank you so much for showing what otherwise I would have never
known.”
“You
are welcome and let me know if I can be of any help.”
Hoodoo wrapped its wings around Tirus and
gave him a hug.
As
Tirus sped back to the village, the sun was slowly spreading its warm glow over
the village. The villagers were already halfway through working in their paddy
fields, while some were returning.
Seeing
Tirus, the villagers led by Kokai came rushing to the crossing, where the
people usually gather for their morning and evening adda.
Tirus
seated himself under a tree on a small patch of grass near the wooden bench.
“What
happened?”
“Did
you manage to kill the hoodoo?”
“Tell
us, tell us...what happened!”
The
villagers spoke all at once. Tirus hung his head and rested his arms on his
knees.
Kokai came close and sat down next to
him.
“What
happened, Tirus? Are u alright?”
Someone
gave Tirus a glass of water and he gulped it down in a single breath. He
crossed his legs and slowly looked up.
“It’s
our fault!”
“What
do you mean it’s our fault?”
The
villagers were gaping at Tirus, wide-eyed.
“We
are destroying the forests. The birds and animals in the forest no longer have
any food to eat. We are destroying their natural habitat.”
There
was a deep thoughtful silence. Then Kokai
broke the silence with a deep-throated cough.
“So
is that why the hoodoo is creating problems
for us?”
“Yes,
that is the reason. We are insensitively cutting down trees and the hill sides
for our own selfish purpose. Have we ever thought about the animals that live
there? Have we wondered why the monkeys come down to the village and raid the
kitchens? Why has the hoodoo time and
again taken away the helpless goats? That’s because there is nothing left for
it to eat in the forest. All the animals of prey for these birds are either
gone or have become extinct because of their lack of food.”
Tirus
shook his head in despair. The villagers looked on at him. A few whispered
amongst themselves. Some feigned desperation. They looked helpless; they had no
answers to the situation. Tirus looked at each one of them and finally got up,
hit the back of his trousers to get the grass off and put up his right hand to
silence the murmur of the small gathering of villagers.
“Look
Kokai. If you want to save your
village from becoming extinct, then you have got to help yourself at any cost.
Or else, you and the rest of the villagers will have to pay a heavy price for
this.”
“What
do you want us to do?”
“Just
stop people from cutting down the hills. They are cutting down valuable trees
in the process and destroying the forest. Trees which prevent soil erosion,
help in the cycle of the monsoons. Unknowingly, we are disturbing the
ecological balance. If we don’t think now, then in due course of time a
store-house of medicinal plants and herbs and more importantly, food for the
wild animals and birds, like the eagle, kite and also the hoodoo, will all be gone. The fig, a favourite fruit of the
hornbill is also gone as most of the fig trees have been cut down. So, now can
you see why the hoodoo has been
taking away our domestic animals? It is because it has nothing left for it to
eat in the hills and forests!”
Everyone
looked at Tirus with deep concern. All the people were soaked deep in thought.
“It’s
okay. We can still turn the picture around and hope for the best. Let’s think
of planting trees in place of all the trees that have been felled. Ofcourse,
nothing can be done about the earth, which has been cut and taken away. But we
have to stop further earth-cutting.”
The
faces of the villagers lit up and they all looked at Tirus with a sense of
mixed emotions. They all shook their heads in disdain, thinking of all the
wrongs they have been seeing and doing all this while.
Tirus
got up and rubbed the back of his trousers. He went up to Kokai, who had a pretty helpless look on his face.
“It’s
ok Kokai. Don’t worry. If there’s a
problem, then there has to be a solution.”
That
very same day, the village panchayat held a meeting and discussed at length
about the impending problem. They decided that they will meet the forest
department and ask them to give them saplings of big trees; so that for every
tree felled, at least three can be planted in its place.
Soon,
the village became a hub of activity. People from the forest department came
and helped the villagers to identify the spots for tree plantation. The local
MLA too decided to make good of the opportune moment and called for a meeting
at the village. The villagers were only too happy because of the attention they
were getting after such a long time. Local NGOs also came in and sensitized the
people on keeping their village clean, so that the people fall less sick.
In next to no
time, the people from this small yet very significantly located village
transformed from a sleepy, insensitive community to one who decided that enough
was enough. They put up human barricades for anyone coming to cut the hills in
their area and if the need arose, then they would fight them back with their
sticks, not stopping to shout at them to ‘go back and never come back, or else
face the consequences.’
Tirus was more
than happy with the transformation. It was time for him to go back home. He
touched the feet of his Koka and Aita in
respect and folded his hands in a nomoskar,
while smiling at the people from the village, who had come to see him off. Kokai as usual had tears in his eyes as
he bade Tirus goodbye.
Tirus had a
heavy heart too as he started his bike. He waved his hands as he sped off. A
whole bunch of children ran after him as he sped through the lane leading into
the small forest through which he had come on the first day and disappeared
amongst the trees.
The hoodoo circled over the forest and flew
a small distance to accompany Tirus on his journey. It was its way of saying
“Thankyou Tirus.”
