~ Translation of Lila Majumder's Bengali short story 'Shorboneshe Maduli'
When school reopened after the summer vacation, we were all flabbergasted to see Gupe, our friend, come to school with a talisman tied to his right arm. It was tied a little over the elbow, the shining spotless talisman, with the help of a dirty red thread. At first I thought it was made of gold, it was so shiny, but later Gupe informed me that it was made of lead. It had turned all shiny due to sweat, he said.
During lunch break I asked him, “What is it for, Gupe?”. In reply he told the most absurd story ever.
Apparently, when his grandfather was his age, one morning he woke up and found a bright, shining, pure black feather of a crow under his pillow. At first, he was tremendously happy. He felt that it will be great to make a quill out of the crow feather and write long letters to his friends. Then he got frightened. What a calamity! You should never touch a crow, it eats all sorts of rubbish, how did its feather turn up under his pillow? Before anybody saw anything he threw it away through the window.
But of all things that could have happened, again tomorrow morning he woke up and found a crow’s feather under his pillow. Now there is no suspicion at all, there’s even an obvious dirty crow-crow smell.
From then afterwards, Gupe’s grandfather became a pure vegetarian, shaved off his hair, returned the neighbour’s tree-shaving scissors after six whole months, and bathed in the Ganges.
After he finished his bath, he got out and noticed a sage standing at the bank of the river, smiling at him. He was clad in orange robes from head to toe, with a religious mark in his forehead and a great black knot on his head. Gupe’s grandfather bowed towards him. Immediately, the sage tied a talisman with the help of a red thread around the part over Gupe’s grandfather’s right elbow. Then he stroked his shoulder fondly, saying kindly, “From now onwards, you no longer have anything to be afraid of, my son. All the beasts and thieves will pass aside.”
The stroking was rather tickling Gupe’s grandfather, but he ignored it and said doubtfully, “Are you quite sure, sir?”
The sage became somewhat startled by the tone of Gupe’s grandfather’s voice. He brought out a thread-tied glasses from his bag, wore it, and peered at Gupe’s grandfather. He jumped with shock.
“Aeee, what is this! Who are you?! I thought you were Poltu Zamindar! It was him I had to give the talisman to! Give it back, son, it’s not for you.”
But who listens. Who will lose this lifetime opportunity? Has anyone ever given Gupe’s grandfather something this special? He lifted his dhoti and ran away as fast as he could.
When he came home he looked in surprise at the mango tree in the neighbourhood; the tree whose ripe mangoes all with their branches had reached completely over their house’s terrace. Since it was their neighbour, Nepal, who had planted that tree, they hadn’t had the courage to pluck out the fruits from the branches, even though it was tantalizingly in reach. But now all the mangoes had strewn themselves across the floor of the terrace. It was also noticed that since dawn, cold fresh water was coming from the new well. The net which Felada had submerged in the pond at night was granted with a huge fish. One of Gupe’s grandfather’s friends had borrowed five rupees from him last year, today he returned it. Over that, there was a feast thrown in Sunday afternoon. Everybody’s smiling in the house, even his grim grandmother.
Grandfather was astounded at the power of the talisman. He silently payed his respects towards the sage a thousand times over.
From then onwards, the house started having all the good luck in the world. There was money, there was a huge amount of cattle, the boys got big important jobs, the girls were married off to important, rich, respectful families. Once Gupe was telling this story of all these magical turn of events at his uncle’s house, and getting all excited while narrating, he ended up tearing six pages of the twentieth book of the Goosebumps Series.
Gupe ended the anecdote by saying seriously, “This is the very same talisman. For forty years and a month it was tied to my grandfather’s arm, he had never once opened it. There’s a white mark on his arm now that he has opened it, he told me that he had been wearing the talisman for so long that it almost become part of his skin, the talisman itself sometimes tickled and had to be scratched!”
According to Gupe, when he had ardently nagged to his grandfather that he will neither apply oil, neither bathe, neither eat, if he wouldn’t give him the talisman, Gupe’s grandfather had immediately tied the talisman around his grandson’s arm. Gupe had also added that even if he ate something, he will eat so less that after some days he will become very hungry, and his arms and legs will start shaking, froth will come out of his mouth, his eyes will turn over—Gupe had said this much, when his grandfather tweaked his own ears and immediately tied the talisman to Gupe’s arm.
Gupe found out that the talisman was as powerful as ever. In half an hour, his uncle’s fountain pen’s nib had broken, and Gupe was given it. Even though later Gupe’s uncle had asked him for the pen; that was the very reason Gupe had left his uncle’s house even with still two days left for the vacation.
As soon as he came home, he was told that his tuition teacher has mumps, his cheeks now resemble a pumpkin, even if he gets cured, it will take at least a month.
Now I felt that Gupe was talking bluff. He is saying that if he wears the talisman and say something will happen, that thing is bound to happen. We all created a hullabaloo over this – Can something like this ever happen?
Naga said, “Only Jesus Christ can do something like this-,”
Gupe turned red like a beetroot in anger, and pointing a sharp and long nail at Naga, he said, “You will get a punishment and stand throughout in today’s Science class.”
And that was exactly what happened. Not only did he stand throughout the class, he also had his ear tweaked. After this, nobody had the courage to tell Gupe anything again. Gupe just had to look at his talisman and say something, and all the other students will take that as true. In fear of getting cursed, everyone gives Gupe whatever he asks for.
In three weeks the class is quaking under Gupe’s new power. He started doing whatever he liked. Even forcing Kalipod to shave off his hair because Gupe didn’t like his new haircut.
Everybody started getting thin as days went past by. Naga’s shirt got so loose, that his elder brother accused Naga of taking his shirt. He scolded, “Don’t you see it’s got all loose and flabby? It’s either father’s or mine.”
Gupe also started taking over everybody’s things. Pencils, rubbers, sharpeners, colour pencils; the weight of all these threaten to tear apart his pockets nowadays. To prevent that from happening, he took my tiffin box to keep them securely. I got furious. I started stuttering. Shaking my head, I said, “L-Look Gupe, you are getting worse nowadays. This is getting too much now. I solved all your sums yesterday. You ate more than half of my tiffin. I ended up having a scolding in English class because you were blabbering away. Don’t cross the limits, I am telling you!”
With an angry mind I said all these in one breath, unable to stop once that I have started. Gupe started getting ready to curse me. As his eyes became small like two tiny pinpricks, he gulped, cleared his throat, pointed towards me, and said in a ringing voice, “Today is the last day of your life. Even if the day passes by, the night will not.”
The whole class was in pin-drop silence. Then the teacher entered the class, and nothing more was said.
After a while, my throat felt somewhat dry, my breath started coming out louder, the roots of my hair started shaking, my stomach felt empty. I realized that the curse of the talisman was upon me. I heard nothing of the teaching today, I didn’t bother to take down my homework, I didn’t listen to anyone’s rebukes in the drawing class. The one whose it was the last day in Earth, what else does he have to think about? I pushed my tiffin box into Naga’s hand in class, like I was letting Gupe feast on it, whatever happens. When the bell rung I determinedly decided to destroy that talisman before I go.
I saw Gupe’s old servant, Bhoddu, tidying Gupe’s books, while Gupe stood by and watched. Suddenly I got all heated, and rushed towards Gupe, pushing him against the wall, snatching away that talisman and breaking it into pieces. I should also have given him a beating, but I didn’t do anything. Gupe simply stared at me.
Then the servant came running and started bawling, “Aee, what did you do! That was my infallible stomach-ache cure talisman. I brought it from Kalighat for two paise. I knew earlier that whatever is given to Gupe is bound to get destroyed!”
We all stared open-mouthed at Gupe. He should have said something, but he simply casually took out two paise from his pocket, threw it towards Bhoddu, and went home smiling serenely.
