SS: Anthapura - Part 18 Upd - Apr 19th - Page 28

There were many things that I was ignorant of then.

Of a world that had collapsed on itself a long time ago.

The rain that had fallen and the mire the earth was. The clouds that had grayed and hung heavy on the horizon with a silent storm buried in its womb.

If the day had ended for those who saw through the light, the night had begun for the others who were familiar with it like it was their day.

In the depths of the dessert a man stood without standing as he remained bound to a barren tree, his arms extended far above his head and tied to the opposite branches. From a distance, he appeared like a carcass on display to lure the preying vultures that circled above.

Another man dressed in a prim white shirt and khaki trousers stood leaning on his jeep, tapping a unlit cigarette in his palm, his motions gaining a frenzy as if he was counting down to a finish.

Suddenly, like everything clicked in place for the man in restraints, he let out a maniacal laugh. His voice laden with a hint of malice and challenge, he spoke to get his captor's attention. "I pity you," he said wiping off the last traces of laughter in his voice. "It must be a nightmare living a double life. I wonder if that lets you sleep at night. All this guilt must burden you."

The man in the khakis watched him without expression till an unsteady smile cobbled onto his face. "You want to know a secret? It doesn't."

"Sure enough, the thorns on the road manage to dig into your heels," he said moving closer to his prisoner with a disinterested step, "But, you certainly don't think about it once you have them removed and cast off."

"It's just necessary," he said with a shrug and lit his cigarette.

"These village folk live and die to abide by their principles," the man coughed up with a feeble warning. "Taking another man's life being the greatest sin known to them and you think they will approve killing me just to get an ambitious water project kicked off? They will shun you and your descendants from stepping within 50 kms of this village."

"Do you see Chu***a tattooed on my forehead?" he ran the tip of his thumb across his crunched forehead while he continued to hold his cigarette between his fingers, a leery smile curving his mouth.

"You seem to be thinking too much about my reputation, saala," he slapped the man lightly with a mock fondness. "And why worry if you are not going to be dead? Just insane or disabled. Be assured, bhen***d," he spit out with such harshness that the man tied up in ropes flipped his head away with the slow creep of fear in his eyes, "they will find you in mysterious circumstances - you will be deluded beyond their beliefs - that they will never trust you with another decision regarding the village."

"And you are no less a villain than I..." the prisoner managed to speak when he saw his captor amble back to the Jeep.

"Only yours," he eyed him squarely before he left the man to rot through the rest of the right.

If the scorching sun was worthy of any trust, then he had another three days to have his brains scrambled without food and only a meager ration of water that the man in khakis came to feed at intervals. If hunger wasn't any motivation to give up on being mulish, the bed of nails on which he stood had already deprived him of two nights of sleep and every minute he was awake took him closer to the edge of losing himself inside a limbo of no-return.

Until he would be let go the man tied to the tree was lost to the people of Jaitsar. Lost on his way to town and recant his vote for the Nalanda water project.

Though the torture was yet to wield a man out of the prisoner, it had already spoken much of the man - of the wiles in him to meander into the extremities of punishment to buy the prisoner's oppressed vote.

This and other things I would be unaware of until a few more days and with such not-so-blessed ignorance about the goings on in my village - of a man who couldn't speak two sentences without muttering expletives straight as if they were part of his sentence construct - I walked into the hall where Prithvi was supposedly painting that evening.

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This sure feels like a scene from a bollywood movie.

Originally posted by: had2bu

This sure feels like a scene from a bollywood movie.