Dr Fixit (241 - 250)

241

in the new setting was the female gender.

Their freedom was robustly hampered 

with what it strapped on its back like a new mother.

The girls tried everything this to scupper.

There was a prominent case in our neighbourhood.

After the boyfriend's parents became rude

the teenage girl had gone to abort

as the boyfriend said he was not

the only one responsible for the pregnancy.

Fate too failed to show any leniency. 

242

She died and was dumped by the roadside 

by her friends who didn't want to be on the side 

of the law quite wrong for trying to help out.

It remained an eternal model throughout 

the clans as who wanted to rebel

would be told the tale for her father did level,

out of rage, the boy's family house 

to the ground and if not that the boy like a louse

sneaked into the thicket to hide,

the witnesses said, with the tide

243

of the fury of the girl's father he would,

just like their home, have been swept off too.

What did boys do to make girls pregnant,

I'd thought, for Moonit and a young tenant 

during hide-and-seek entangled near his door

though he wasn't one of us. The civil war,

meanwhile, a host of army ants 

blamed for eroding the values of the clans.

It broke down the extended family system.

In the absence of my brothers, I could assist them 

244

maintained discipline in their homes.

The women now in the working zones

had lost the ample and quality time

to inspect their kids' thinking to be in line

with the norm. Then greatly overlooked 

was the ill effects of dumping in the same booth

the adults who missed their education 

and children to have together their tuition.

The harm certainly was insidious.

The combination was cantankerous.

245

Not only pregnancy, drugs were abused.

To be tempted, only a few refused.

Our parents were fearful of the future

that awaited us where it was the feature

to see, not in secret but in public,

girls wrap their arms around boys and lick

their lips (the oldies would scream hearing 

about it: 'Did my mother tell me such a thing!'

The more the oldies were repulsed, the rebelling 

became pronounced as in more revelling 

246

the youngsters were indulged. With the way

the oldies talked, the world seemed to stray

onto the path of damnation and quite soon

every rebel would meet his or her doom.

Our parents did their best to see us

kitted up for service no matter how penurious 

they were for the hardship here, we were told,

was temporary but the wrath of God, since time old,

would be hot and burn for ever

and so would be evil and every lover

247

of it. And liable for punishment too,

according to the preachers, were those who knew

a trap was buried for innocent passers-by 

and they carelessly let it in wait to lie

and trip these poor fellows. There were times

I thought maybe before I'd be twenty-nine,

the old world would pass away.

To escape the damnation, hard we'd pray.

The moon appeared, we gathered to play.

During hide-and-seek, Moonit did stray

248

into the young tenant's room, an apprentice 

to the welder. I knew she did this 

and they knew that I knew but what 

they did inside the room I knew not.

But I remembered the little tale

about the skull which grandma would relate 

(it was the main reason she did allow me

to sit and listen when she chatted with any 

of the oldies visiting her kiosk). She'd confidence 

in my restraining my tongue because she sensed 

249

that I'd long ago imbibed the moral

in the tale. 'A young man quite vocal 

was on a trek through the countryside.

He got to a spot a head was put aside 

by the owner or others - the real fact

no one knew. Others before him would depart

the point, put their eyes away as nothing 

they'd heard and definitely would say nothing.

But this young man came, stood, mouth gaping,

eyes peering at all the sides. Seeing nothing 

250

but yet he fumed and was prepared something 

to say. He kicked the skull and was mouthing:

'How stupid were you to come here to stay?

Didn't you have eyes and legs to run away 

when danger loomed?' But all he got as reply 

was this: 'Go and as much as you can, try

and shut that your mouth. Same careless talk

did this to me.' The young man didn't walk

far enough from the spot when the bugbear 

from the side of the path did appear