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    1098
    1098
    1098
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    1098

    By Subrabharathi Manian

    ()

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    About this ebook

    CHILDLINE 1098 is a phone number that spells hope for millions of children across India. It is a 24-hour a day, 365 days a year, free, emergency phone service for children in need of aid and assistance. We not only respond to the emergency needs of children but also link them to relevant services for their long-term care and rehabilitation. We have, till date, connected to three million children across the nation offering them care and protection.

    CHILDLINE India Foundation (CIF) is the nodal agency of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development for setting up, managing and monitoring the CHILDLINE 1098 service all over the country. CIF is the sole agency/body responsible for establishing the CHILDLINE service across the country, monitoring of service delivery and finance, training, research and documentation, creating awareness, advocacy as well as resource generation for the service.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPustaka Digital Media
    Release dateMay 13, 2023
    ISBN6580515109844
    1098

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      Book preview

      1098 - Subrabharathi Manian

      C:\Users\INTEL\Desktop\Logo New\pustaka_logo-blue_3x.png

      https://www.pustaka.co.in

      1098

      Author:

      Subrabharathi Manian

      Translated by

      S. Vincent

      For more books

      https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/subrabharathi-manian

      Digital/Electronic Copyright © by Pustaka Digital Media Pvt. Ltd.

      All other copyright © by Author.

      All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

      Table Of Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Chapter 20

      Chapter 21

      Chapter 22

      Chapter 23

      Dedication

      Dedicated to Boopathi Periyasamy

      1

      For a long time Janci Rani was staring at the doorway, sitting on her broken wooden chair with difficulty. If she sat on the floor the wetness would creep through her body and reach her head, making it shudder. She had wrapped an old towel around her ears so that the cold entering through her ears should not harm her. She had bought a sweater only after coming there. But it was not thick enough. It was thin like stitching together two or three blouses. Even when Janci bought it she had a doubt whether it would protect her from the cold. But she thought it would be something that could drive away the cold and wetness. It was the first time that she had bought a sweater.

      She had come to a cold place and she must protect her body to suit that, her uncle had told her. The chair she was sitting on was shaking as if it had weakened. Perhaps it was tottering as if it could not sustain the cold wind. She thought it was enough if she could have something to lean on the wall. Janci had never thought that she would have to come to a cold place like this.

      She was sitting in this cold place to avoid familiar faces and the usual questions.

      In the dim light she sat staring at the window which was exposing its skeleton. She could feel the wetness oozing through the window embrace her. But nothing was visible in the darkness outside. When she saw in the morning dew, the tea plants would appear to be pigs painted green. When the mist slowly left, the shape of the pigs also would disappear. They would appear at a distance to be short trees with their green udders. For a number of days she was searching for the word bonsai in her mind and finally she got it. She even murmured that the tea plants were bonsai trees. Now in the sky seen through the window at a distance were the stars scattered like garbage. They were scattered all over as if there was none to arrange them. She went to the doorway and looked at the tea plants covered in dew. She had not yet taken training in plucking the tea leaves and filling them in baskets. It was a matter of great surprise for her to pluck the leaves fast and put them in baskets on the back with the same speed. They promised to give her a cutting machine. But if she got some training in plucking the leaves with hand it would be easier. But she had her own fear that if she started with the cutting machine, some bigger leaves along with the tender ones would be cut off. But she should learn this work also. She must endure the cold also. She did not know how long. But it was only temporary, however she had a fear that this temporary period should not prolong.

      The wetness on the yard at the doorway was little bit heavier than that inside the house. Some people were moving about. Their figures appeared to be dark shadows. Gathering her voice, she asked someone moving as a black shadow a little bit louder:

      Is that black panther somewhere here?

      Yes, people said it was roaming about in this area. Nobody knows who saw it face to face. But nobody knows whether it is true or not. Whether God or devil, it will be like this…it is…that is what is being said. Like that they have been saying that this black panther also has been here for the past two days.

      So you say it is not there?

      May be or may not be.

      The shadow man said aloud and moved off. It might take some more days for her to identify their voices and the people. She might have known them.

      Even yesterday Subbaye was talking about the black Panther wandering about in the area.

      Nowadays the number of elephants moving about has increased, hasn’t it?

      Yes, yes. Now and then it would come and go. We have to sit quietly locking the door and switching off the lights. If we keep salt and other grocery items safely, it would go away on its own. It would devour everything its only hand could grasp.

      For us even two hands are not enough. Is it enough for it to have one hand?

      Enough, enough, if you have courage.

      Subbaye also had come from the plains to the hills.

      It’s a wonder you have come from the plains up here!

      Why, haven’t you come? I have also come.

      There is no other go to save one’s life. I have come here to live with respect and honour.

      We are also like that.

      You have come without a husband. My husband died and there was nobody there. There was no reason to remain there. So I have come.

      She was also staying in a small house like this and doing some work in the tea estate. She had her uncle’s house. Did she not have any paternal uncle? – the question rose in her mind. Janci thought she should one day ask her about it.

      Would the black panther be hiding somewhere among the tea plants? But why should it hide? It wouldn’t be afraid of man. It could wander anywhere; it need not peep at things hiding itself. Man need not live in fear. One day the panther would come within her sight, she had been thinking.

      When she was coming up the mountain, people in the bus would point out the movements of animals now and then. Suddenly a boy shouted, elephant, elephant! When Janci stretched her head out, she could not see anything. Occasionally she would spot monkeys. And she could hear the twittering of the birds when she was in the bus. She was telling herself it was difficult to identify them.

      As she was looking at the dark, she became afraid that the coldness of the dew slowly creeping in would make her shiver. Closing the gate she checked the lock with its iron chain. The light that was passing through the small hole in the gate was making the darkness still darker. The fear that darkness gave her was itself a big fence around her.

      2

      Janci felt that two women and a man had surrounded her as a fence. She also felt they were nearing her, tightening the fence. She was suffocating as if she had been thrown into garbage bin.

      When she stood under the tamarind tree some people were stirring the garbage in the north of the tree. The stench from the garbage made her keep herself a foot away. The woman who was stirring garbage was having a gunny bag on her shoulder. She rummaged the garbage overflowing the bin. She thrust away the empty wet tea packets with a twig. She took used milk packets and counting five or six put them in the bag as if taking possession of them.

      With a long stick she stirred up the garbage that had scattered outside the bin. As she did not get anything, her eyes once again focused on the bin. There was a mixture of waste like crushed banana leaves. The sanitary napkin with its blood stain was pushed away. From polythene bag flowed the sauce, a mixture of vegetable and meat preparation. She moved as though there was nothing more to pick up. Janci also remembered that she herself had become garbage. When she thought if she strayed a little bit she would be like, this she

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