Rebirth
Chayathu Kesavan Nair passed away in the morning. His family was known to all who live in that area.
" pathetic ".
"It is the maximum, in his life a man could suffer." Nanu Pillai said, giving pan masala to Pachu Pillai at his shop.
Cackling away his cough, Pachu pillai smeared lime slowly on the betal leaves and nodded his head agreeing with Nanu Pillai.
"His elder one was a daughter who recently committed suicide just one year after her marriage." Pachu Pillai gave a long sigh.
"The only son he had was mad and left the house years before. Nobody knows where he is! Poor man! " He sighed again.
" Do you have a different opinion if I say that his is the only one family around here, that the excess land has been taken from by the Government? " Nanu Pillai raised his voice as if disseminating new information to Pachu Pillai.
" Umm, I know, I know. Pachu Pillai reacted indignantly as if not a new knowledge to him.
" You know, his ancestral dilapidated house, where he lived, pledged for helping his son before he being mad, was attached last week by the bank. " Pachu Pillai added to it as something new.
An unexpected and large crowd was there. Body of Kesavan Nair had been taken out and laid on a long plantain leaf at the front courtyard. Two wicks on the brass lamp were blazing gloomily like the the face of a householder of the ancestral tharavad. The white smoke of cycle Agarbathies put at the head side of the dead man, was being collied with one another and found new forked ways to go upside.
Dozens of luxurious cars have come by the dead man's relatives, were parked here and there on the roadsides. The Crowd thronged around the dead body turned their head suddenly on seeing the car of the MLA.
The door of the car was thrown open and the retinue of the MLA jumped out first and made way for him. His was a bulky body struggled more to walk through the crowd in front of his disciples taking care of his white shirt from unwanted folding.
He took some flowers and prayed for a while, closing his eyes and threw them upon the dead body with respect. His followers imitated their leader throwing flowers upon the dead after prayers. when the MLA turned to walk back, the people stood near the dead man noticed his right leg jerking quickly one more time.
The people could not believe their eyes and they looked with one another to ensure whether they had witnessed there was true. At last, they came to the conclusion that it was a mere illusion.
Nanu Pillai chuckled inaudibly and commended, " Kesavan Nair has jerked his right leg to kick the MLA in his angry reaction to him for denying him money for buying medicine. " Last week, on the way back from the official house of MLA in his constituent assembly a furlong away, he told me that he was driven away by the MLA parting without a single coin ", Nanu Pillai muffled in a way.
Soon the ritual of bowing before the torso by the relatives was over, Karayogam president Karthikayen rendered some good words praising upon the Atman.
"See, here lies a great man. Once he was a rich man, a righteous man, and a philanthropist. Some of us are still living on his property. However, in his last time of adversity, nobody was there to help him. As a Karayogam president, I bow my head ashamed before him as I hadn't answered to his earnest begging sometimes.
His only possession, this ancestral house in five cents is now under attachment. He was left with his wife and she could not even think of redeeming this house. So I have an earnest request towards you -the natives and his rich relatives - to fund money to help his wife. Why I should insist on this before his funeral is that I know that you would leave here soon after the completion of the ritual "
No sooner did the President speak these words, than the people forwarded like a surge from the back pushing others standing in the front. Rupees of two thousand and five hundred were heaped upon the small sheet, spread on there near the head of the dead man. It seemed almost fifty thousand was collected in the sheet !!
" ohh...ohh..." suddenly a loud cry came out.
All the people who gathered there could not help wondering when the dead man quickly stood up pushing away all the sheets and flowers spread upon him with a loud cry like in a horror movie. His cry not only caused the people tumbling aside upon one another but also caused others to stand in the back row running away in fear. At the moment of wonder and fear, the dead man leaped towards the sheet full of money, folded quickly and receded with his wife from the scene before the time the people would take to erect themselves.
