The untold heroics of Kantha in the hinterland of Kashmir

- Prithvi's daughter.

 He felt a sense of relief and at the same time pride that he was able to safeguard his family single handedly. Little did he realize that this shifting had taken a heavy toll on his energy and it had been almost 4 hours of a military drill that had ensured his family safety.

 Now that all his kith and kin were safe in the backyard house, he wanted to ensure that he had enough food supply to last them a couple of days till they could shift back to the front house near the stream. Although bereft of any energy, he pulled up himself like a devout father and started his way back to the front house.

The level of water had bulged up considerably, in spite of this he stepped in the front house. He took hold of a couple old jute bags and tried to stuff as much rice and other eatery in these bags.

 Half an hour later, armed with two full jute bags of eatery he stepped out of the front house but to his dismay the water level had risen almost to the staircase and the windows in the front of the house. He tried to step out; however, he couldn’t hold onto himself as the gushes of water were thumping down his body.  He made several attempts to wade through the turbulent water, however couldn’t succeed.  

He realized that he had been trapped and surrendered to his fate. The level of the water was rising constantly, it caved into the ground floor of the front house, Prithvi was fortunate enough to have moved onto the second floor of the house by the time water was all over the ground floor and was moving on to first floor also.

Hours passed by, the family was quite anxious and tense not to have seen Prithvi. Laxmi was silently sobbing, realizing that her husband was trapped and anything untoward could have happened. Children cuddled up in fear and started crying loudly as they heard the sobs of their mother. 

However, there was one child who seemed unfazed and gave and at the same seemed to planning something and that was Kantha. 

Kantha took a very long rope, winded it several times across her body, and tied a knot. She came out of the backyard house, the whole family was in a state of shock, they tried calling her back, but she didn’t turn back as if she was deaf. 

She waded through the water which had started touching her knees, soon the water touched her shoulders and then all of sudden she was neck deep in gushing water from the stream. 

She started to swim towards the front house. The first floor of the house was completely submerged. Holding the window pane of the first floor, she climbed up to the second floor, broke open the glass pane, unbolted the window and entered like a trained fireman, who had spent years in rescue. 

She called her father “Bhai Kak, Bhai Kak”. Her father was surprised to see her daughter on second floor of the front house; he couldn’t imagine the sight of the brave young lady in front of her. Prithvi, being a spiritualistic thought that it was the divine intervention of Goddess Durga, who had taken the form of Kantha to help him out. 

Now the biggest problem in front of Kantha was to take her father to safe custody of backyard house. Prithvi didn’t know how to swim. For a while Kantha was running out of ideas on how to help her father. 

Suddenly, something struck her, she jumped out of the second floor window, straight into the water, and she swam till the apricot tree, which was in the lawn of the backyard house. 

She climbed up the tree, started untying the long rope and tied one end of the rope tightly to one of the strongest branches of the apricot tree. The moment she thought that the knot was tight enough, she plunged back in the water and swam towards the front house, the trail of the rope followed her, the other end of which was still tied to her waist. 

She entered the front house again, tied the other end of the rope to one of the pillars in the room. She called her father and like an ace instructor starting telling Prithvi, how he needs to hold onto rope and buoyancy of the water would do the rest and he could make his way through the water.  She would follow her and would take care in case the rope gives in or Prithvi is not able to hold any longer. 

With these instructions Prithvi was ready for rescue operation planned by the brave lady and started his way very carefully, holding tightly onto the rope and using the buoyancy of the water to help him drift towards the apricot tree in the backyard house. 

It took almost 20 minutes for them to cover 20 odd meters. The moment Prithvi reached apricot tree, Kantha helped him descend down the tree using her old tree climbing/descending skills.  Prithvi walked his way to safety of the backyard house. He looked back but couldn’t find Kantha. He was shell shocked and stunned, for a moment he thought he had lost his daughter, and then he saw a trail swimming towards the front house. 

Kantha had already decided, now that her father was safe, she would have to get the food supply for the family in case they had to survive for next few days. 

She entered the flooded house back, and saw the two jute bags full of eatery, which her father had filled. She unpacked them and filled the eatery in a single big gunny bag. Now the challenge was how to take them to the backyard house. She took out an old trampoline, tore it with a knife and covered the gunny very skillfully. Then she tied two ropes onto the big gunny bag in a manner to make it appear like a rucksack, she used her creative skills to utmost ability. 

Now she lifted her indigenous rucksack onto her shoulders, she knew it would be difficult to swim, however she used all her stamina and strength to swim and reach the backyard house. She was almost drained out; she dragged herself onto the door and then fainted. 

The entire family was flabbergasted; they pulled Kantha in the house along with the eatery she was carrying. 

After a while she regained her consciousness, she was surprised to see the whole family standing up and clapping. The children were so excited as if welcoming a hero. 

Yes, indeed Kantha was a hero; she had used her tree climbing, swimming, and creative skills for saving the life of his father and his family. 

Lakshmi and Prithvi were full of admiration for Kantha and were all praise for her skills, which they detested at some point of time. Kantha was very happy to see her parents taking pride in her. Kantha thought, now she had the license to do what she cherished the most and had a naughty smile on her face. 

However, Prithvi and Lakshmi had other plans; they wanted her 15 year old daughter to be married. She was married to a long nosed teacher in a village called ‘Vanpoh’. His name was Thaploo. Kantha became a house wife, she would get up early in the morning and prepare food for her 5 children, which she had borne in a span of just 8 years, her husband and her in-laws.  She would spend whole day in bringing up children and cooking. 

 The story of ‘heroics’ remained under wraps till she was 70 and everyone thought her to be docile housewife with mild manners always complaining about her health, who would do household chores and bring her children up, till one day her nephew “sabha” , decided to write this story.