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Epedimic (standard:romance, 389884 words) | |||
Author: Shamoil Ahmad | Added: Jul 22 2020 | Views/Reads: 1393/2099 | Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes) |
The Epidemic is a novel weaved in a political milieu. Politics of the eighties and nineties was not the politics we have grown with. We are in a new realm of politics. We have all seen it from close quarters and have faced the consequences. It is too cont | |||
EPIDEMIC BY SHAMOIL AHMAD One It often occurred to Fahimuddin Shirwani that the age in which he lived was the age where every man had collar band tied across his neck while the leash was in the hands of someone else. This feeling became all the more galling whenever he happened to be part of meetings which were attended, in addition to the officers, by the elected representatives of the people as well. Each one of them tightening the leash...MLAs...MPs...Mukhiyas (village heads)....and Kamalnath Mandal, of all of them, would tighten it a little harder than others... Kamalnath Mandal was the local member of the legislative assembly and he maintained long nails. His face was like an upturned triangle. Forehead was flat and cheek bones seemed to have protruded out that abruptly sloped down on his chin. His hands were hairy and the fingers, like the twigs of cactus, were pointedly sharp. His tongue would keep licking back and forth like sword and his eyes seemed to disgorge fire and brimstone sparkling like diamond...he would piercingly stare at each officer one by one as he sought their explanations on works done, ending it with the diktat of meeting him in his chamber. Such meetings had their own hierarchical importance and there was no way one could avoid them. Kamalnath Mandal himself had to regularly call on the CM and pay his obeisance. Collar band of the slavery age had been replaced by the acts of paying obeisance in this age of leash. This time when the 20-Point programme meeting was held, orders were issued for Fahimuddin Sherwani for that meeting and he felt the leash tightening around his neck. Shirwani was the executive engineer in the state's Water Resources Department and was posted at Jahannagari. It was barely two ago that he had been posted to Jahannagari. But no sooner he took the charge than this hammer fell on him. He had to face this meeting of 20-point programme immediately on joining the department. His department was placed at point 5...supplying water in the far flung areas... Shirwani always tried to keep away from such meetings. It always made him feel as though he was made to stand like an accused. It was at Jahannagari that he for the first time came to understand the significance of the caste equations as to who is BHURA Bal (grey hair)....what meant MY...? Who are on the side of the social justice? Head Clerk was Brahmin...Despatch Clerk Rajput...Storekeeper Bhumihar and the Accounts Clerk Lala...they constituted BHURA Bal. The junior engineers of Chainpur and Hasanganj also belonged to BHURA Bal. Accountant was Mallah by caste, Cashier Koeri and the Library Assistant was from the extremely low caste euphemistically referred to as Harijan. They were from the social justice category; Kailash Rai and the junior engineer Ramesh together with Fahimuddin Shirwani belonged to MY category. Those from the Muslim community were happy with the arrival of Fahimuddin Shirwani. But they never made any overt display of their happiness. They communicated with Shirwani through eye contacts. When the 20-point programme meeting schedule was announced, Ramesh Yadav had remarked with a benign smile, “You won't have any difficulty here, Sir...!” “Why?” “There is MY equation operating in the state...M comes first in MY followed by Y...so, you come first and we come only next...” “That's true!” Shirwani gave out a smile. “Most of the legislators here are from MY equation. But Ramchandra Jha is from BJP and Kamlesh Darpan also belongs to the opposition party.” And then he lowered his voice and whispered— “Beware of the Head Clerk...” “Why?” “He's Brahmin.” It did not go down well with Shirwani that a junior engineer should air his views on casteism in this manner. He stayed quiet. “These people have exploited us long enough, Sir.” “Now you people are doing the same thing.” “It is these people who have sowed the seeds of hatred...there was a promising leader from the backward, Click here to read the rest of this story (44134 more lines)
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