ATTJC - Chapter 5

For the first two days the wait was tedious, punishing, extremely hot and unrewarding. The only comfort came from an occasionally cool breeze blowing from west to east. The air was probably cooled down as it made its way over the river. On this, the third day of our vigil the breeze was especially strong and soothing. But more importantly there was no sign of the Cannibal. He hadn’t shown his stripes since the day I had arrived and his last kill had been a couple of days before that. That made it 7 days without a kill. I was getting impatient. I suggested that we get down and look around the jungle. The Cannibal had a habit of not having more than one meal from a kill. And it was 7 days since he had killed a human – a break longer than usual for him, as even Naren observed. He had to have killed an animal for food and I wanted to go and find the kill. As I was about to suggest that we should go down to the river into the wind to start our search I heard a sound. I immediately stopped talking and listened intently to determine the direction of the sound. For a while everything was quiet and I thought maybe I had imagined it. But then I heard it again – closer and more distinct. Somebody was shouting in the distance.

“We have a message.” Naren said as he indicated to me that we should get down. I was out of my position in a flash and quickly climbing down the tree. By the time we got to the ground there was another shout, close enough for Naren to make out what was being shouted.

“Number 17” he said and started making his way eastwards towards village number 17. We were making quick but cautious progress. Within an hour we reached village 17. As soon as people saw us they led us to a house where a woman was crying loudly and beating her chest repeatedly. It was her husband that had been taken by the Cannibal. Other women from the village were there trying to console her. Her brother in law led us to an inner room where the man who had been taken slept with his wife. There was another door in that room that led outside. When the woman woke up in the morning she saw that the door was open and assumed her husband had gone out and was careless in not closing the door properly. But when she got up to close the door properly she saw blood marks in the room and immediately raised the roof. When she was asked who had closed the door in the night she said it was her husband who had done so. This was frightening. Her husband was probably taken when she was lying beside him. And she hadn’t heard a sound. The Cannibal probably killed the man by breaking his neck. Poor soul couldn’t even scream for help, he was probably dead before he knew it was coming. The blood his wife had seen was the only sign of the killing having taken place. Because the man was killed swiftly and without causing any bloody injury, there was no blood trail. The tiger had lifted the body cleanly from the ground and there weren’t any drag marks to follow. We got out of the room and checked for any signs around the house. The sun had been beating down hard for a few weeks and the ground was hard. So, there weren’t any discernible pugmarks. Then we asked some men from the village to spread out in groups and help in searching the ground. But they were very reluctant to do so which was understandable. So, we searched the surrounding grounds ourselves and expectedly turned up nothing. We decided there was no point in hanging around and as we were out of our seats anyway we decided to turn in for lunch.

It was quite by accident then, that we stumbled upon a trail. While returning towards our village we chanced upon some loose dirt where we could distinctly see the drag marks. Quite evidently after carrying the body for so long the Cannibal must have felt tired and shifted his grip on the body. Which meant that he started dragging the legs of the body. The drag marks went across our track so we left it and made to follow the trail. Along the trail there were some fresh pieces of torn cloths in the thorn bushes which only confirmed that we were going in the right direction. After following a trail for some time through an area thick with trees and bushes, we came out into an open field. And at a little distance ahead we could see the grasslands. The trail went right into a thick patch of grass. The grass mainly grew in big square patches just like the crops. It had started encroaching the land between two adjacent patches as well. We decided to traverse the perimeter of the patch where Cannibal was headed to check if we could trace any exit point and continue moving forward. But the good luck which had brought us so far had deserted us now. As despite rounding the grass two times over we weren’t able to find anything which could help us. So we went back where the Cannibal had made his entry into the grass and stood looking in the general direction of the path.

“Where do you think we will end up if we continue going in the straight line?” I asked Naren.

He took a moment before answering, “This is North West, a bit more West than North. I think if we continue in this direction we will end up somewhere near the bend in the river.”

“I think we will pay a visit after we have eaten.” And so we were on our way to the village again. I was disappointed that we had lost the trail but I was also a bit excited that at last there was some action.

After we had eaten, Naren took me around the grasslands on the west side to the river. We followed the river towards North till we came to its bend. From there we turned around and retraced our steps. This time more carefully and thus slowly. On our left we could see grasslands in the distance. We checked the riverbed for a kilometer or so but again turned up nothing. So we moved inland towards the grasslands to check if there were any signs there. Again nothing. Then Naren reminded me that the Sun had already started setting and we had to cover a lot of distance to cover. I nodded my assent and we made our way back.

Once back in the village I said, “We can be pretty sure there won’t be anything to watch over tomorrow and most probably day after tomorrow as well. So, I think we would be better off continuing our search near the river bed rather than waiting and hoping on that tree.”

“I agree” he said, “At least tomorrow we can be doing that. We will head for the river straight away at dawn tomorrow.”

So, on the next day we went to the river straight away. We again scoured through the land between the grasslands and the river. We spent the whole day looking for clues and perhaps, if we got lucky – or unlucky, depended on how things turned out – the Cannibal himself. How convenient it would have been if we had found him resting peacefully in the shallow river water. We didn’t waste even an inch of the ground and also crossed the river to check if anything turned up on the other side. It didn’t. After another futile day we made our way back.

We were not sure what to do the day after. Whether we should stay or continue with our search. I proposed that we should try and look up the land on the northern side of the grasslands. Naren reasoned as it would be 2 days since the kill; we were unlikely to find anything. All the signs, if there were any, would have been gone by now in such a hot weather. And we may just be needed here, he said. So, we agreed that we will take up our watch on the tree again.

And then in the middle of the night Janaki aunty woke me up from a deep slumber. A message had arrived; there was trouble in village 19. I immediately got up and readied myself. Naren duly joined me within moments. We waited impatiently for the first light and kept ourselves awake by consuming large amounts of strong tea. And as soon as the first rays from the sun graced the earth we set off. Again we tried to move as quickly as we could while still exercising caution. And when we finally reached village 19 the sun was well above the horizon. The story was somewhat similar to the previous one. A man had been dragged in his sleep. The difference though was the fact that his wife had heard a sound and had been awakened to actually see the tiger dragging her husband away. She was crying loudly and cursing the men of the village who did not run to her husband’s aid. Upon seeing us she swore at us and shouted in anger that we had come too late.

“Why have you come now? To collect my husband’s mangled remains?” she shouted. She grabbed a little girl who was sitting beside her and roughly shook her, “My daughter will be an orphan because of you. Of what use is that gun if it cannot protect us?” And in a fit of madness she ran at me with her outstretched hands looking to grab hold of me. Everybody was shocked at this sudden outburst from the unfortunate woman. But, they recovered in time to restrain her. The headman hurriedly led us to the room where the man had slept. I was still taken aback by the way that woman had reacted. But, presently I shook it out of my mind and got back to the task at hand. This time the kill hadn’t been so clean and we could see blood scattered around the bed in large quantities. The house was situated near the perimeter of the village and the body had been dragged out to the jungle where – luckily for us – because of the loose dirt around, the drag marks and the pugmarks were easy to follow. We followed these marks and noticed that twice the Cannibal had taken a breather and continued on his way. These marks led us to the eastern part of the grasslands. Here, the Cannibal had cut across the grasslands coming out on the eastern side of them. Upon seeing that he had entered the grasslands, we – like before –skirted around them towards the east to see if we could find any point of exit. That we found because of the pugmarks near a patch of blood – which indicated that there was another halt at that point. I could not understand why the Cannibal wanted to take his kill so far whereas he could have easily devoured it anywhere in the grasslands and it would have been almost impossible to find.

We also took a bit of a rest there. But, as soon as I took my mind off the job that image of the woman accusing me for her husband’s death sprang at me. And I immediately began to feel guilty that a man had been killed while I was waiting for light and sipping hot tea. Hadn’t I come here to kill the Cannibal? I admit that as the headman had rightly observed, I had come more for revenge than to help out, but still the thought of a death that I could have helped to avoid was disturbing. And then there was that little girl. Weren’t both of us in the same boat? Our fathers had been killed by the Cannibal and if I felt so much anger, so much sorrow, wouldn’t she also feel the same? And what was I doing while her father was being dragged away? I was sipping a strong cup of tea – I thought bitterly. And what am I doing now? Resting; while the Cannibal could be only half a kilometer ahead eating his meal. I immediately got up and, taking my cue, so did Naren. We had been up nearly all night. Now we had been walking for almost 2 – 3 hours. Add to it all the exertions of yesterday and yet the old priest was as strong and as fresh as if he had been resting all his life. And as we started on our way my thoughts began to drift again. Despite the fact that initially I hadn’t liked the decision for Naren to accompany me on the hunt, I sure was glad to have someone like him around. He was a wonderful companion to have alongside you anywhere and at all times. He just had a contented aura about him. A man who is at peace with himself and his life. I snapped at my neck to drive away an irritating insect. We never spoke while we were out in the jungle except when we needed to confer on what course to take, for we knew that stealth is everything in gamesmanship. Yet there was a comforting feeling in those silences. Him being with me gave me a lot of confidence; a sense that someone was watching over me. I snapped at my neck again. That someone will take care of everything. Perhaps it also had something to do with the fact that he was capable of physically protecting me – with his strength and his axe. I had seen plenty of both in the week gone by already. When he craftily made way for both of us while following a trail or searching the jungles. I was now very irritated with the persistent insect. I put my hand on my neck and realized what I should have realized a long time back. There was no insect on my neck. After years of exploring the jungles with my father, I had developed a pretty accurate sense of when I was being watched with interest by the parties that didn’t want to reveal themselves. The sense usually took the form of an ugly tingling, crawling sensation on my neck down to my back. And that was what I had been having since long. I put my hand on Naren’s shoulder telling him to stop with my eyes. I cursed myself for losing my focus. We stood perfectly still and silent with all our senses working overtime. He asked what had happened by lifting his eyebrows. Without taking my hand off the rifle, I indicated by waving my left index finger that we were being watched.

I took notice of the surroundings. We had been following the marks parallel to the eastern boundary of the grasslands moving towards north. And a little way ahead I could see the pathway narrowing to only a few feet of width with dense forest on one side – towards the grasslands – and an overhanging rock on the other. The pugmarks went right into the narrow gully. I carefully slipped off the safety catch on my rifle trying to make as less a noise as possible and looked around into the forest on both sides of the path we had taken. We were pretty safe where we were. The path was at least 15 – 20 meters wide at the point where we stood, alert. He couldn’t have attacked us without being seen and we were ready for him – if he came. I silently prayed for him to attack. The tingling sensation increased as my eyes worked furiously. Up, down, right, left I looked everywhere to see where the attack came from. The tension in the air was palpable; I could almost feel it. It was quiet but not quite, the only sound came from the wind that came in from the river on the west. It howled as it passed through innumerable pit holes in the trees and the crevices in the rocks contributing to the eerie atmosphere. A moment passed as we stood tensed, then another and another but the attack didn’t come and the tingling died away. I heaved a sigh and my body broke into a sweat. That was a close escape. Another few moments of ignorance and we would have been under the overhanging rock and at the Cannibal’s mercy. But it was an escape we should never have had to make. I should never have allowed my mind to wander off.

I let Naren know what had happened. We decided to continue following the pugmarks on an off chance that the animal that had been stalking us wasn’t actually the Cannibal. We were extra careful while passing the overhanging rock but nothing untoward happened. A further kilometer or so down the path the loose dirt gave way to the rocky surface and we lost the marks.

As I stood looking in the direction where the marks were heading I asked Naren, “The straight path must lead to the river, doesn’t it?”

“Yes” he answered, “In fact, it shouldn’t be too far from here.”

“So, should we go there right now? Or do you want to eat before we go?”

“Well, you are the boss here. You decide what we have to do and where we have to go. I just make sure that I get you there and watch your back. But, just to give an opinion, if we go back and come here again it will take at least 2 hours. And then we won’t have light available to us for much time before we have to head back again.”

“I know. I just wanted to make sure that you can hold on for a while more.”

“I can. Have no worries about that. You won’t have a fainted old man to put up with.”

So we went on. As he had predicted not much farther on, the river flowed across towards east. We could not conduct an exhaustive search then because we had to retrace our footsteps in 2 hours as we had to be back before the darkness set in.

We took up the search on the next day and again found nothing. This was to become a feature of our adventure through next few weeks. Our vigil on the tree, a kill and a futile chase then back to the tree – the cycle was unending and had become a routine for us. Every trail led us to the river – or at least that was our guess. Invariably it led me to the conclusion that the Cannibal, for some reason, always crossed the river with his kill. So, we decided to inspect the riverbed on both sides very closely. As we had made an inspection on our side of the river, we decided to move to the other side and search. Whenever we suspected that the Cannibal will not be looking for a prey we would take up our search from where we had left it the last time we had been there. In this way it took almost close to 3 weeks to make a thorough inspection of the riverbed on the other side of the river. But as we had feared, we turned up zilch. In the meanwhile we had also tried baiting the Cannibal by having goats and buffaloes tied up at the points where we thought the Cannibal could make an appearance. But every time we checked they stood there alive and well, the Cannibal wouldn’t touch them. This continual lack of progress was really frustrating and more than that, it was exhausting. Day in and day out I and Naren worked tirelessly but we didn’t even manage to get a sight of the Cannibal. My sense of being watched was the closest we had got and I was beginning to doubt it myself. But, what was really getting to my nerves was the rising despair among village folks.

Despite their initial skepticism, the villagers had harbored a hope that I may eventually be able to help them. The hope was heightened when I reported of our brief interlude with the Cannibal. It was expected, that it was only a matter of time before we got the Cannibal. Because after all, only a week after I had arrived, I had nearly made the Cannibal reveal his whereabouts. At the next kill – it was expected – I will get closer. And the kill after that, or perhaps even before that happened, I will surely get him. Since then, there had been more than a few kills and a couple more incidents where we thought we were being stalked by the Cannibal. But every time, the result was as before – we were left alone to wander through the jungle in search of the elusive man eater. And after each kill, the disappointment and the disillusionment only deepened. For the bereaved relatives of the people killed by the Cannibal, the disillusionment sometimes spilled over to the point of hostility – as I had already witnessed. There was a growing feeling that a mistake had been made and it was costing lives. I could feel the accusatory glances every time I walked by.

I, for one, didn’t blame them. I was beginning to lose confidence in my abilities as well. For me, it had become increasingly difficult to visit the site of the kill and the grieving families. My frustration at my own ineptness to counter the threat posed by the Cannibal was rising with every kill – and the kills, there were plenty of. I was now also having trouble sleeping at night. The mere thought that somebody out there could be killed while I slept on peacefully kept me awake all night long. I somehow felt responsible for all the deaths caused by the Cannibal since I had arrived on the scene. I was supposed to take care of the Cannibal and protect these people. And here I was taking all precautions to save my own life while those who depended on me lost theirs. And the worst part of this whole affair was that I was in a way always waiting for somebody to die, to be dragged off to have some way of finding the Cannibal – to get a shot at him. I had never felt so woefully inadequate, so helpless and vulnerable in my life. More than anything I missed the reassuring and calm presence of my father. I said as much to Naren once when we were coming back from a long day. The days had become pretty tiring especially since I had had problem sleeping.

He nodded gravely and said, “Now I hope you can understand the extent of strain that Ram is going through.” And I could see – finally, the reason behind the reluctance to allow me to face up to this dangerous task. Naren was right, I now understood.

“But, now that things are so bad why doesn’t he consider relocating to another place?” I asked Naren.

“Where will we go? This is our land. Where else could we feel the same love and the same belonging? Our ancestors have been living here for 6 centuries now. Around 400 years ago the Gurkhas invaded from the south trying to conquer these highly fertilized lands. Our ancestors fought with all they had to protect it. They thought they had to protect it from the people who wanted to use its fertility to grow Charas in the fields and drain it of all the goodness it had. After all this land was the provider for everything they had. They owed a lot to this land. And even though they were outnumbered 1 to 10, they fought with great valor and great skill. And they emerged victorious. This land is our pride. And each and every man and woman in these parts will choose to die here than live anywhere else. Those are our fields” he swept his hand over the grasslands, “And look what that beast has done! A land once full of lush crops has now become a dead grassland. And we – in our own land – have to live on rationed grains and wild fruits and our own cattle. This cannot go on. This life of helplessness and fear is not acceptable to us. And this is why we must get rid of him.” There was a desperate urgency and earnestness in his voice. “We must not fail.” He sighed, shook his head and then after a moment said, “At least we must do our best.”

I felt even worse – if that was possible – after this little talk. Such proud people, and they depended on a hopeless me to defend their pride or regain it, whichever way you looked at it.

For the next 2 days I was made to rest at home. No doubt, Naren had informed the headman of our little chat and the headman had decided that it was time for some rest. This time around I didn’t complain at his attempts to thwart me from killing the Cannibal. I would have, in fact, appreciated this gesture had it not been for a now familiar guilt I had developed. I was resting while people depended on me to protect them. But, whatever my mind was thinking, my body was surely appreciating the rest it so badly needed.

As always, it was Radha – who had been already looking after me – who made sure I always had what I wanted for those 2 days. She made me have complete rest for those 2 days. My offers to help her out at her daily chores were politely declined. She was a shy and a beautiful girl. But she seemed to enjoy my company. She gasped with wonder when I told her that I had completed my schooling and was now studying in college. She had studied till the 4^th standard herself, she said with pride. And I saw her smile for the first time. It wasn’t a radiant smile as one would expect of a young girl but it made her look beautifully innocent. And I wondered for umpteenth time why did she so neglect herself. I wasn’t about to ask though, for I feared I knew the answer.

After the 2 day break, the usual routine resumed. Another few weeks passed by but the situation didn’t change. Indeed, it had worsened a lot. I came to know from Naren that pressure was being put in the Panchayat meetings to have me removed from the task of killing Cannibal and proceed with the original plan. But so far, the headman had stood firm. I thought it was crazy to hope to kill the Cannibal with axes. But, at the same time, it was perhaps even crazier to hope that I could do anything about him. My mind had sunk to the new lows of hopelessness. Even the usually unflappable and cheerful Naren was feeling it. His periods of silence grew longer and his wit and wisdom became rarer. In such an atmosphere then, the break – when it came – was more shocking than it was pleasing.