This story was narrated to me by an eye-witness.

I have to give you a background sketch. We have a large quarry of black granite in our village. It is now a difficult terrain with large water bodies and steep high rocksl due to extensive quarrying. There is a ‘colony’ nearby, of houses meted out by the government to the underprivileged of the place. Almost all of the colony dwellers use these large manmade lakes to wash and bathe.

People say it all started when Laxmi came and took the clothes she had spread to dry on the rocks. Some say it started when Paru kept hers to dry next to Laxmi’s. There are some who says it all really started months before, but they wouldnt tell me their reasons. Anyway, the available history states that Paru came from work, collected and clothes, and announced, “my body is missing”.

People heard her; she knew how to be heard.
“My body is missing.”
“Laxmi’s clothes were next to mine.”
“It must be with her.”
“She stole my body.”

The conclusion was fast, and the people followed her as she went to Laxmi’s house and demanded her body back. Laxmi vehemently denied having to do anything with Paru’s body. No , she doesn’t steal like some people.

Alas! Poor girl. You don’t talk back to people like Paru. By then everyone around knew about the body and the theft. Paru has a loud voice, and she doesnt mind using it. My narrator tells me she cannot repeat the words to me, as it would hurt my innocent ears. In the end Paru stomped out, threatening to get her body back, and Laxmi tearful and broken.

Noone guessed how affected Laxmi was. Being called a thief is bad in itself, and to be branded a body thief! We cannot judge her for what she was going to do. Majid heard someone walking in the yard at four in the morning, and the thief he was going to catch turned out to be Laxmi in a bid to throw herself into the neighbor’s well!

The colony was shocked. Noone actually believed Laxmi pinched the body. And she has proved herself innocent for their eyes by her unsuccessful bid on her life. People assembled. They discussed. They cussed. They heated up. They vented. And unanimously decided to ‘talk’ to her. But our heroine was nowhere to be seen. She had gone to Calicut in the early morning to visit a doctor. Well, she will come back.

My source tells me the scoundrel who gave away the plan was Nanu, Paru’s nephew. He has gone to Vatakara in the afternoon, apparently to tip off Paru when she came back. This occured to the people later. At that time they were just badly surprised by Paru coming with a policeman in tow. It is never a good idea to beat someone up when there is the eye of the law present. People began to melt away slowly. But there are always some brave souls left to save the day and the poor maidens! Thank god for them.

“So you are home with a policeman, eh? So you sacred for almost killing that girl”
“She stole my body”
“She didn’t steal anything. Maybe you have hidden it. We know why… ”
“Sir,last month Paru… ” “SHE STOLE MY BODY”
“You &^*..” “She …”
“Sir,….”and so on..

They tell me it was impoosible to discern anything except that somebody stole a body. Even when a dozen people are talking simultaneoulsy, Paru can drill her voice home. It was being continued in this vein for around half an hour when the young cop, with a bewildered expression in his boyish eyes asked a silent group member.

“What is a body?”

She tells me every single person stopped talking for an entire minute, before the explanations began.

* Where I come from, some old women still refer to the piece of clothing now we know as bra or brassiere, bodice, or less ceremonially body*

Tags: edacheri, stories

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