THE STORY OF THE GUY FROM KATHIAWAD: Part 3

In the previous part we had heard Fajuba mentioning losing a son.

That son was delivered at Fithad. Remember that the time was in the early 1950s. There were no doctors in Indian villages then. There was even no metalled road to Fithad then.

The baby boy was quite healthy looking, dark and plumpish. Everyone was happy. Firubha used to play with his daughter's new born son all day.

But after five days the baby stopped breast-feeding. As there were even no traditional medicine doctors in the village, the village astrologer was called in.

The astrologer solemnly said that if the baby boy lived for another three days, he would live. Otherwise....

It did not survive. It died at the hands of its grandmother, Teshar Sinh's mother, Fakatba. The lady had come from Fangpar to see the new born.

The grandmother took the baby in her lap. She asked for some butter. She dipped her finger into the bowl of butter and fed the baby with it.

The baby hiccoughed once and died. Fajuba was hurried away from the room. Firubha wrapped up the baby's corpse in a piece of cloth and took it to 'Limbda na fariyu' (Neem compound). He dug a hole and buried the baby.

The neem compound had a history of its own. Fajuba used to tell the story to Karan many a time.

It is said that one of Firubha's ancestors was buried here. That too in a secretive gruesome manner.

The ancestor had no children and he used to lie in bed sick most of the time. One day he died. but his wife concealed the fact. She cut up the body into small pieces and used to burn it piece by piece every night.

In the mean time she travelled to the nearby town and sold off her dead husband's land and kept the money for herself. According to the law in those days since the dead man had no children, the land would otherwise pass on to his brother. The wife would get nothing.

One day when the woman was burning a piece of the corpse, the wife of the dead man's brother smelt the stench and told her husband about it.

The husband went to the woman's house accompanied by other villagers and confronted the greedy woman.

They found the remaining pieces of the body and cremated it properly according to Hindu rites.

The scheming wife of the dead man was sent away from the village.