Excerpt of BEYOND THE LINE from my book "BEYOND THE LINE-SHORT STORIES(2nd Edition)"

It was Gautam’s first job. After completing his post graduation in Chemistry, he got an opportunity to work with India Firebricks Pvt. Ltd, a company promoted by a Kolkata based business group. The firebricks plant is situated at Chanchpottery in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand. It is a small industrial town on the banks of River Barakar. The nearest railway station is Kumardhubi, which is not very far from the town. Surrounded by hills, Chanchpottery is a fairly picturesque place with forest on either side of the road while approaching the town from Kumardhubi. The area is a little rocky and the soil reddish.

Apart from coal, fireclay is the other most abundant mineral in this particular belt of the state. Fireclay is used as a basic raw material for manufacturing firebricks. For production, a range of refractories are used as lining material in high temperature furnaces, boilers, kilns to maintain temperature. Due to abundance of fireclay, this area has become a hub of manufacturing of firebricks. Steel plants situated around this region are a major consumer of firebricks. Although the area is rich in minerals, economic growth has not been at par due to government apathy and negligence. There are no schools, but plenty of country liquor shops in and around Chanchpottery. On the day the workers working in the factories get their salary, it is common to see people lying on the road drunk. Most of salary of the workers goes to the liquor shops and in the hands of the moneylenders. For the people of this area, poverty, illiteracy and exploitation are a common thing. River Barakar dries up in the summers, and overflows during the monsoon. But it hasn’t much changed the condition of the people staying by its side. People are born here to die in poverty.

Gautam stays in an accommodation provided by the company which is a part of a big bungalow. Before independence, this company was owned by the British. However, the infrastructure built by the British is still around. The well-built bungalow is quite spacious.

Since Gautam was a bachelor, he was allotted a portion of the bungalow, which was fully furnished. Through the help of an office colleague, he managed to hire a domestic help. Her name was Kali. She was a middle aged woman, probably in her late 40s, but poverty had crushed her so much that she looked much older. Apart from cleaning and cooking, she was very nice and affectionate to Gautam. His day-to-day living became very comfortable with her caretaking.One day, out of curiosity, Gautam asked Kali, “Where is your husband? Where is your child?” Hearing this, Kali started crying. Gautam felt awkward and asked the reason for crying to which Kali replied, “It is a long sad story.”

Kali’s husband Badri Prasad Mahato was a colliery worker. He was illiterate. Badri was associated with the labour union headed by Shiv Charan Mahato, who had a clean image and was popular among the colliery workers. Shiv Charan addressed the basic needs of the workers. He motivated people to take up education because it was because of the lack of education in the tribal community, the area was not progressing. India achieved independence long back, but people were still reeling under such crisis like poverty, illiteracy, etc. These issues were rampant throughout the society, and there was hardly any effort and willingness on the part of the authorities to check it. Probably, addiction to liquor was a way out to forget the pain.

Ratnakar Singh was a local mafia. He was very powerful due to his close proximity with the local police and politicians. Basically he was a money lender, but he also owned most of liquor shops of the area. Most of the colliery workers borrowed money from Ratnakar, which he lent at a high rate of interest. Most of the worker’s monthly salary was drained out on liquor and paying interest to Ratnakar. Those who were unable to pay the money were threatened, abused and beaten up by Ratnakar and his musclemen. The poor workers had to sometimes send their wives to satisfy the money lender’s lust to settle their accounts. The administration stood as a silent spectator to the miseries of the workers. In spite of several complaints from the workers no action was taken by the police against Ratnakar and his musclemen.

The politicians only visited the area during election time to distribute money, cloth and liquor to the tribals in lieu of votes. Ratnakar used to organize the whole election circus for the local politician. The entire election process was manipulated. Once the election got over, the politicians vanished forever. The same story prevailed with its routine treachery. From dawn to dusk, there was no hope for the people of Chanchpottery. Joy and woe go hand-in-hand. But here, life means woes and more.

Once Badri argued with Shiv Charan, “Can’t we try to change things here? These people have been fooling us for years. For how long we will be exploited? The British exploited and tortured us, and now Ratnakar is doing the same. Where is the freedom? Are we really free?”

Shiv Charan replied, “Ratnakar is very strong. We cannot fight with him as he has high level of connections. Moreover, we don’t have that kind of money to fight him.”

Badri again questioned Shiv Charan, “Why should one person have so much money? We will stop paying interest to Ratnakar from tomorrow.”

Shiv Charan was hesitant about Badri’s outrageous plans. He very well knew the consequences of revolting against Ratnakar. But sensing Badri’s and his followers’ anger, he agreed to organize a meeting outside the colliery office.

As planned, the workers assembled at the meeting point the next day. Shiv Charan began addressing the workers, “We are free citizens of a liberated country. The workers should not be treated like slaves. Let us make ours a strong society. Our children should go to school. If the government cannot fund our children’s education, then we will collect money and send them to school, but we will not borrow money from Ratnakar. We will stop paying any interest to him. We will unsettle the settled fact.”

The confrontation started.

The workers refused to pay any money to Ratnakar. To counter the rebellion, the goons of Ratnakar struck with a heavy hand. A worker belonging to the local tribal community was beaten to death by Ratnakar’s goons. His body lay near River Barakar. This sparked off an agitation by the colliery workers which spread like wild fire. A couple of Ratnakar’s liquor bars were looted and burned down by the agitating workers. Some of his goons were also thrashed badly. The entire area was tensed and the situation was getting out of control. A strong police contingent was deployed in the area to bring the situation under control. However, the police acted in a partisan manner and started arresting innocent workers. There was absolutely no effort on the part of the police to stop Ratnakar’s men. It was but quite natural as there was a deep nexus between Ratnakar and the police. Ratnakar’s close proximity with the powerful politicians had influenced the local administration to act as per his vested interest.

One evening, Badri was returning home after attending a union meeting with few of his supporters. All of a sudden, a police jeep approached from behind and surrounded him. They started abusing Badri. A police inspector stepped out of the jeep and slapped Badri’s face. The police picked him up and sent to Dhanbad police station to avoid any local trouble. It was a horrible night for Badri as he was beaten black and blue in the lock up. He was not even offered food that night, not even a glass of water. Badri lay there on the floor unconscious. In the meantime, Kali came to know of her husband’s arrest. Along with some neighbours and colliery workers, she reached the local police station at Chanchpottery.

“Where is my husband Badri?” Kali charged the station-in-charge bursting into tears.

“We don’t know, and neither do we have any information about him,” the officer replied.

“You are lying. You have picked and sent him to the custody. In which jail is he now? Release him instantly,” Kali shouted.

“Get out of this place now, or else we know how to handle people like you,” the officer threatened.

“We are not cowards. Badriji is a brave heart. Why did you arrest him? Where have you kept him?” one of the workers shouted back loudly.

“I say, get out of here, or else I will have to shoot you,’ the officer shouted back.

Looking at the workers’ adamant stand, the officer ordered a lathicharge to clear the place immediately.

The mob became violent. In the police lathicharge, Kali was hurt badly and she started bleeding profusely. Finally, the police managed to disperse the crowd. Kali was taken to the hospital. Her 14-year-old younger son Valmiki, was at her bedside. He panicked looking at the turn of events. But Kali was strong enough to withstand the pain.

In protest against police’s lathicharge, Shiv Charan called for a strike the next day. The workers were called for a meeting. But anticipating unruly developments, the local authority did not permit the workers to hold a meeting. Many workers were arrested through the day. The police also arrested Shiv Charan to curtail the violence.

Shiv Charan and other workers were released from jail only after a couple of days when the situation became normal. But Badri was still missing. Initially, the police refused to file an FIR for the missing Badri. However, later with the pressure from worker’s union, a complaint was finally lodged. In the meantime, Kali had recovered from her injuries well. She started the search of her husband all over again. Kali used to visit the police station every single day where she was blasted with abusive language. One day, the officer got so furious that he was about to shoot her from his gun, when the constables intervened and stopped him to take the extreme step.

“You are all anti-socials and anti-national elements. You work for the Naxalite group. These Naxals are criminals. They destroy government properties, loot money and you are a part of them. You should be put behind the bars,” said the officer.

“We are illiterate people and that is our main drawback. People sitting in higher positions fool us every day. We are exploited and cheated. Our children don’t get opportunities to go to school. We are born illiterate and die as one. Our people hardly know about the Naxals. We are not criminals but innocent people who want to live peacefully. Return my husband. My son is waiting for him,” said Kali to the officer. Contd.

Based on this story I wrote a script for feature film.

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