Pinching the Soul

The Hunger-Slum

       During the hush of the night, the whole settlement was in a trance of a melodious folk song, playing on a radio by Mai Bhagaan, "Standing under the Neem tree, alone!"
       In a cockle-bur hut, miles away from electricity poles, a women with labour pain was emitting heartrending screams. The hut showed the clear traces of poverty and hunger. Outside the hut, there were continous thunderbolts. It seemed that the whole scene was being captured by the nature's cameraman and he will show them, later, to disclose the ruler's Cock-and-Bull stories of prosperity. Meanwhile, it began to rain heavily. It seemed that the sky is also weeping on the hut-woman's sufferings. But that weeping didn't yield any effect on others in and around the slum. All of them are rejoicing on that dropping of water on a barren land, which was the biggest source of happiness for them.
         The light coming from the lantern began to faint. Wasa's mother-in-law was continously tapping Wasa's shoulders and asking her to keep patience. As they were waiting for Rakesh (Wasa's husband) who left for nearby village to hire a car to take her wife to the city hospital. But due to intense rain, he hadn't reached even over an hour had passed.
         It was Rakesh's second child. When for the first time Wasa was pregnant, she gave birth to a handful of bones wrapped in a thin layer of skin. He could had been called a human's child but that was not enough to give her life. He died after seeking admission in a hospital for two months.
Wasa was in pain, less physical but more psychological, due to their poverty and sadistic circumstances. Her head was, still, in her mother-in-law's lap who was caressing it.

"Mother" Wasa addressed her mother-in-law in a painful voice.

"Yes, my dear. What ails you? " asked Wasa's mother-in-law affectionately.

"Please, don't get trouble. Let me die. And my kid also. What would he do after coming to this world? To this deep pit of hunger and thrust! It's better for him to go back to Heaven before he enters this hell."  Wasa completed the words with muitful eyes and trembling voice.
"Have you gone mad? What are you talking about? Keep silence and seek forgiveness to Bhagwan*." She kept Wasa's head on a pillow and went to pray before Bhagwan's statue, kept in an old wooden cabinet.

        A sudden wave of thunderbolt hit the Slum and burnt several huts. Light coming from the lantern became much dimmer. The shadows of fear became more monotonous. In Rakesh's hut, the soul left the body with labour pain spread on the cot. And an innocent soul returned to the Heaven, before entering the hell.

*Bhagwan: Hindi word for god

Urdu version: Samreen Iftikhar  (Donga Bonga)
English Translation: M.K.Aassi  (Bhabra)