Decomposition

It was the end of the month of Agrahayan. The Damodar river was unrecognisable now. It looked like a dead irrigation canal with its bed full of cracks. Or more precisely, let’s say the river now looked like an irrigation canal after the water had been drawn out using a pump, leaving behind a jelly of soft pond scum, slime and turbid water at the bottom. Small mounds of sand rose up here and there on the riverbed like suppurating boils. Some farmers had planted pumpkin on a nearby sandbank. A few machans made of bamboo for guarding that crop field would also have been visible had the morning mist been thin.

The people of the fisherfolk hamlet were in a festive mood now. Everyone, right from children to doddering old fogeys, had descended to the river to catch fish. Some had circular nets, while some made a weir in a small part and scooped out the water to the other side. They picked up honey-gourami and swamp-barb as well as fresh climbing-gourami, Bombay duck, and tyangra. Youths were going around with the basket-like polo, fish-traps made of bamboo.

Bashir had not brought a polo. He was going to cast his net in the waist-deep pool in the low-lying part of the river course. Mature mudfish, walking-catfish, and wallago hid in the waters of the pool. Bashir had been stalking the place for the last few days in that venture. He had netted a mudfish yesterday weighing a kilo and a half. It was the same lure that had made him set out with a net today as well.

‘Aare O Bashirey! Don’t go that way. Something’s dead there. Didn’t you get the foul smell?’

Bashir turned around at Salem’s call. He had got the smell alright. He had got it yesterday too when he went to catch fish in the pool. It came from the grassy clump across the pool; however, the wind was blowing in the other direction, so it hadn’t bothered him. But it was severe today as it wafted in with the northerly breeze. It was the horrible smell of something dead decomposing.

Bashir asked, ‘What’s dead, my friend?’

‘Who knows? It could be a dog or a cat or a cow or a goat. So many people throw those into some thicket. It smells for a few days, and then it decomposes and the smell blows away.’

Lalchand raised his head from nearby and said, ‘Is the air ever pure, my dear! There’s pollution in the river, and pollution in the soil. When I used to take the cattle out to graze earlier and felt thirsty, I used to put my face to the Damodar and gulp the water down. Have you seen the colour of the water now? You feel itchy even if you wash your hands and feet. There’s always some kind of bad smell in the air. You can’t get away from that!’

Rising to the bank from the slime, Bashir unfastened his small dinghy. When he was a fisherman by profession, how would he fill his family’s bellies if he folded his arms and sat idly because of bad smells and suchlike! As it is, the river did not yield as many fish as before. Abstaining from work now meant losing an entire day of the few days for which something was available while there was water in the pool. Bashir certainly had a chance today. No one had gone to the pool owing to the smell. If he could spend some time there with a gamchha over his nose, the day might turn out very well.

Disregarding the foul stench, Bashir began to cast his net. He had rested the steering pole in the opening between the floor planks. Its top-side was pointed skywards. A fish hawk had been circling over Bashir’s head for a long while.

‘Damn, can’t bear the fucking smell!’

The smell didn’t spare Bashir, notwithstanding his efforts at winding a gamchha around his face. Rather, it became even more severe. When he inhaled, it seemed his very intestines would spring out in recoil. What on earth had died mid-river? That question was all that occupied his mind. Even if it was a dead cow or goat, he didn’t think anyone would walk so far through the slime to dispose of it. And there was no current in the river now, to bring something from elsewhere. The water level had dropped back in the autumn. Forget it! There was no point thinking about all that! After all, lots of people were catching fish. No one seemed to be bothered by it. Was there a smell? So don’t go there, that’s all. But shouldn’t he go and take a peek, now that he was so close?

A saucer-like chawr, a sandbar, extending to about a bigha and a half, had come up grazing the western side of the pool. It was fringed by clumps of kans and vetiver grass, reeds, and other wild shrubs. That was where the smell was coming from. Bashir took the dinghy to the edge of the sandbar and then lifted up the hem of his lungi, passed it through his legs and knotted it at the back. He had a sleeveless vest on. He parted the vetiver grass with his hands and entered. The stench was so overpowering that the gamchha around his face was of no use. He heard the sound of flies buzzing somewhere. Bashir advanced towards the source of the sound. And then he stopped with a start. What was this? A dead body! A girl of the age of Rajina was lying on the sand with her hair all dishevelled. There wasn’t a stitch of clothing on her. The dead body had started decomposing. Bashir could not stand there for very long. He raced back through the shrubbery to the dinghy boat. Once he sat on the plank, he leaned out towards the water. It seemed his very intestines would spring out through his gullet!

Meanwhile, people were rapt in joy as they caught fish. Hearing the sound of retching, some of them turned to look. Bashir somehow managed to sit up, worked the pole and advanced towards the bank at arrow speed.

Salem remarked, ‘Bashir just went there, so why is he returning like that? Did he get a snakebite or what?’

‘Might be. There are plenty of snakes there.’

‘Come, let’s go and see.’ And some men at once began advancing towards the riverbed. Bashir was still breathless from his labour. He was unable to speak properly.

‘Hey Bashir! What happened, my dear?’

‘A body! A dead body!’ Bashir said as he gasped for breath.

‘A body? Whose body? Where’s the body?’

Bashir pointed towards the sandbar. ‘A young woman’s body is lying among the bushes there.’

A woman! There was an uproar at once. The people standing in the shin-deep muddy slime of the riverbed started moving. They stopped catching fish, and rushed home with whatever they had managed to catch. The news didn’t remain confined to the riverbed; it went beyond and reached the ears of people on the shore.

#

It wasn’t a dead jackal, or a dog, or a cat, but the corpse of a person of flesh and blood that had been lying and decomposing in the clump of vetiver, unbeknown to everyone. The very thought of that made people tremble. Perhaps no one would have come to know if Bashir hadn’t spotted it. He could simply have pressed his nose and sped past the spot. But now that the mystery of the stench had been solved, some people felt a prick of conscience at letting the body of a fellow human being simply rot there.

Dhananjoy said, ‘Hey, someone should inform the police.’

Dhananjoy had a phone in his pocket. But he did not want to make the call. Where was the need for that? He might then get hauled up to provide witness testimony!

Many of those who had a phone in their hands so long put it into their pockets at the mention of the police being informed. All of them put on an air of not having brought their phones.

There were some elderly folk as well in the crowd. One of them argued against Dhananjoy’s suggestion. ‘Will it be right to involve the police, Dhana? After all, the body is mid-river. It wasn’t found in our village. So why should we invite any trouble?’

A few more people agreed with the elderly man. ‘You’re right, old man. There’ll be a lot of trouble once the police arrive. We should forget about them and think of something else. If required, let some people from the village go and get the body cremated. That will put an end to all the worry.’

One of the young men said, ‘We don’t know which village the girl is from, or whose daughter she is. Will it be right for us to cremate her? Do you know how serious it can get if she is identified subsequently? It’ll be very difficult to get off the hook then. It’s better to inform the police now, and they’ll surely be able to identify the person. If nothing else, the family will at least be able to cremate their loved one.’

Bashir, Lalchand, and Osman were standing quietly and listening to the villagers’ discussion. Lalchand said, ‘The body could be that of a Muslim’s too!’

Lalchand’s remark put an end to the discussion.

Some people said, ‘We need to go and see the body first. Come, let’s go and have a proper look.’

Most of the people did not respond to the suggestion. Finally, it was only a few people from the fisherfolks’ hamlet who came forward, those who had a year-round relationship with water and muddy slime. A few more people followed them. They crossed the muddy slime and went and stood at the edge of the pool.

When the Damodar took on its dying form right in the beginning of Kartick, the river with the boats on its bosom seemed to weep inconsolably, like a father who was unable to get his daughter married off for not having the required dowry. You could hear it in the wind that blew. If you asked any fishermen about it, they would say, ‘That’s the Damodar crying, dear. The river is weeping at the lack of water, son.’

A few people got into Bashir’s dinghy boat. Tilakchand’s boat had run aground in the sand. Some people pushed it upright.

After getting off at the sandbar, everyone followed Bashir. They stood afar and gazed at the corpse. There was no sindoor on her head, nor any white conch-shell or red coral bangles on her wrists. It was a young woman of sixteen or seventeen. Bashir too had a daughter of that age. The moment he thought of Rajina, his chest heaved. Bashir could not bear to look at the body any longer. He rushed towards the girl’s body and covered it with the gamchha on his shoulder. Many people had moved away by then after taking a look at the dead body. Some people had boarded the boats as well. They called Bashir. ‘Come quickly, my dear. There’s nothing more to see.’

‘Alas! I wonder which family the girl belonged to! Which parents have been left bereft!’ Tilakchand lamented with a click of his tongue.

Karam Ali said, ‘This girl is not from our locality, my dear. Did you see her hair? It was cut in the style of city girls. Must be from around Durgapur. I think she must have gone to bathe and drowned. And then the body floated along and got caught at the sandbar.’

‘Don’t talk like a monkey, Karam!’ Dhananjoy interrupted him admonishingly. He said, ‘Didn’t you see she had scratches all over her body? Someone has ravaged the girl like an animal. And is any water flowing in the river that the body would come floating?’

‘So, you want to say she was raped?’ Everyone was stunned. Those who hadn’t boarded the boats as yet rushed to do so now.

‘Come my dear, let’s flee from here. Who knows what might happen! Someone or the other has done this, but eventually one of us will unnecessarily get blamed.’

#

Dhananjoy had phoned the local police station and informed them. The police vehicle arrived within an hour-and-a-half.

Although there was no one near the body, a crowd of some curious folk had gathered at the riverbank. People were saying various kinds of things about the girl. Maybe she had fallen into the clutches of some nasty chap, and this was the final outcome. Maybe the girl was returning home after attending tuitions along some desolate road, and once darkness descended, someone seized the opportunity and pounced upon her. And then dragged her to the riverbank, sated his long-standing lust, killed her so that there would be no proof, and then threw her in a desolate place that no one went to. After all, such things happen somewhere or the other every day. Several women of the village strained their ears to listen to the men’s conversation.

Once the police arrived, all conversation ceased and the crowd suddenly thinned as if by magic. Some people were standing and watching from far away, without venturing out. A father called out to his son, ‘Boy, come home!’

The Officer-in-Charge asked, ‘Where exactly is the body?’

Someone pointed to the sandbar.

‘Oh! Strange! It’s difficult to get there. Can’t we go by boat?’

Bashir and Tilakchand informed him, ‘No Sir. The boat will get stuck in the muddy slime. You have to walk across that first.’

The Second Officer said, ‘You wait here, Sir. We’ll arrange to fetch the body.’

The Officer-in-Charge expostulated, ‘When will you ever acquire some intelligence, Bhowmick! Can one simply bring the body?’ He then paused, with an air of having remembered something. And then he looked at the village folk and asked, ‘Tell me, does that sandbar fall under our jurisdiction?’

The river divided two districts as it meandered. In some parts it flowed entirely in Bardhaman, and in Bankura in others. In a few places, the border between the two districts lay mid-river. And in some places, the district of Bankura included a few villages beyond the river. With the police station, panchayat, and post office of the villages lying on this side. The common folk did not know exactly which district the new sandbar came under. Observing everyone standing in silence as if they were mute, the elderly villager Dharani Roy finally said, ‘We don’t know that, Babu. People occupied whatever they could. I never saw any measurements being taken either. That other sandbar you can see, pumpkins have been planted there. That belongs to farmers on this side.’

Someone said, ‘The sandbar is in the middle of the river. It could be under Bardhaman as well.’

The Officer-in-Charge looked worried. He said, ‘Please come to the spot with me. Let me have a look at the body.’

Bashir, Tilakchand, and Dhananjoy walked ahead of everyone else. The policemen took off their boots at the bank, rolled up their trousers, and walked behind them. As soon as the police personnel descended into the muddy slime, the band of people waiting far away sensed an opportunity; they emerged from concealment and crowded at the riverbank.

After getting off the dinghy at the sandbar, Bashir advanced towards the dead body. The Officer-in-Charge followed him, parting the shrubbery with his cane. A few more junior police officers walked behind him.

‘Who placed this gamchha?’ The Officer-in-Charge shouted out at the villagers.

Frightened, Bashir mumbled, ‘I covered it Sir. The girl was lying naked. People were coming to see the body. That’s why I thought …’

‘Rascal! Who instructed you to cover it with a gamchha?’ The Officer-in-Charge glared at him with annoyance writ large on his face.

Bashir stood silently in embarrassment. He could think of nothing to say.

#

It was twelve noon. Having risen directly overhead, the sun now gazed down at the corpse like a curious spectator. The Officer-in-Charge had not yet made a decision. Soon after he phoned the police station on the other bank and informed them, their policemen arrived. The police personnel from the two police stations were discussing the matter now.

The Officer-in-Charge from the other side walked around the spot. And after that, he said, ‘I don’t think the area falls under the jurisdiction of our police station. You people should take it up. Send the body for post-mortem. If we find out anything subsequently, we will let you know.’

The police officers from this bank moved aside and huddled together. They began discussing the matter among themselves. The Second Officer took his face to the ear of the Officer-in-Charge and whispered, ‘Sir, did you see what kind of a scoundrel he is? He wants to shift the burden entirely on our shoulders. Don’t agree, Sir! What’s the proof that the area does not come under their jurisdiction? Do something, Sir!’

Another officer too spoke in the same vein. ‘All the pressure will be on us, Sir, once we pick up the body. The body has not yet been identified. The girl may be from the other side. Or if it is found out subsequently that she had a connection to the opposition party, then you know very well what will play out.’

The Officer-in-Charge paced up and down for a while. He also spoke to someone over the phone. And then he walked up to the Officer-in-Charge from the other side, ‘Look, we too can’t touch the body right now. Let us first ascertain which police station this spot falls under, and the body can be removed after that.’

While the police personnel from the other side were proceeding towards the sandbar after leaving their vehicles at the riverbank, some people had followed them out of curiosity. So, there was quite a crowd around the spot now.

A man from the crowd asked, ‘The body will decompose by the time you find out about the jurisdiction. Will it just lie here until then?’

A constable retorted sharply, ‘No one should obstruct our work. Let us proceed according to the law. Don’t crowd around here, go back home, all of you.’

Bashir had been standing so long beside the police personnel from this side. The discussion wasn’t at all to his liking. He quietly moved aside. Who was the girl actually? What was her identity? Where did she live? How did she die? All these unanswered questions kept agitating his mind. He would not know peace until he had the answers.

Bashir once again remembered his daughter. Was Rajina safe on her various peregrinations? After all, she too returned home at dusk every day after finishing her school and then her tuitions. Like this girl, if one day she … Bashir could not think any further. His eyes were moist with tears. He glanced at the corpse out of the corner of his eye; he imagined it was his daughter Rajina on the spot where the corpse lay.

The afternoon turned to evening. No police personnel from either police station had removed the dead body as yet. People from the media had arrived. Perhaps something would happen now. So many people had visited the sandbar on the river in the course of the day! And so many departed. Everyone took a peek at the body. Some people took pictures on their phones. As the body decomposed, its stench spread through the air. But no one seemed to be really bothered by the smell any more. In exactly the same way as when people pressed their noses for a few days if there was a dead cow or goat on their way, and then got used to it, the foul stench of the corpse too gradually seemed to become tolerable to people.