A Border Village
The war ended one and a half years ago. But as yet there was no change in the hardship called life in the village north of Polonnaruwa. Fifteen year old Saradha’s life still revolved around the daily chores assigned to her from the time she could remember.
Hunting for firewood, drawings buckets of water for her old mother from the well, washing dirty clothes and helping her mother to cook.She also swept and cleaned the compound of their small humble hut and burned the pile of rubbish. When the smoke burned her eyes, they soon turned into tears of self pity.
Her father, a farmer, had died hit by gun fire during the war. Her mother and she existed on one meal a day for the crop from the last harvest was almost over.
When her father was alive Saradha had gone to a small school nearby which was destroyed in the war. The only other school was a Central College a fair distance away where she would have had a chance to pass government exams and enter a university where she had had hopes of becoming a teacher one day.
But her mother was old and feeble and there was no money coming in from further crops. One day when she was returning home with a load of firewood balanced heavily on her head, the old mother confronted her.
“Before I die, you must get married!” The firewood crashed to the ground, narrowly missing her mother. “I am only fifteen years old.” “I was only fifteen when I had you,” said her mother.
After some thought and misgiving Saradha agreed to an early marriage. She agreed with the hope of a new life. Maybe her husband and she could leave this place and seek a new life elsewhere. New hope arose in her.
But amma, with the help of the marriage broker, selected a nekath day for the marriage with the neighbours son, Ranuk. He too had had no proper education and was busy helping his father cultivate crops.
Saradha no longer protested against the marriage because amma said the horoscopes matched perfectly and the planets promised a fruitful future. Besides, amma said, you and I need not starve any more.
As she knew no other young man, Saradha agreed to marry Ranuk.
She found no change in her life. Ranuk was a keen farmer. He worked hard alongside his father, turning the soil to plant new crops.
“One day, when we have enough money, we must buy a tractor,” he told his father.
She continued searching for and carrying firewood for the new household, for her old mother too had moved in there. She drew more buckets of water than before and when night fell, she was exhausted.
One night, however, she found courage to speak of her hidden dreams. As she lay naked and obedient on the mat while Ranuk prepared to mount her as a husband, she found courage to speak because he was in the mood to make love to her.
“Ranuk, let’s leave the North and this ancestral home and find a new home in the South and a new way of life. We are so isolated here.
Although the war has been over for a long time, fields still lie fallow under, broken by land mining. It will take a long time to rebuild this part of the country which has been our world.
You and I are still young and we need to grow in a new world. We need to make new friends and open new doors to life for our children. . . ”
Ranuk looked down at the girl who was his new wife and to whom he was about to make love, in amazement. He came down on her forcefully, silencing her. His love made her cry out in pain.
“We are doing what we are born to do. Creating a new generation. I must get you with a child every year, so that we will have replaced the hands we lost in war, to till the land our ancestors left us.
A couple of daughters are necessary too, to keep the home fires burning. . . Don’t you realize, woman, this is not the time to follow lost dreams. For this land to be prosperous again, it must regain the number of people it lost to the war.”
| “This powerful story captures in one stroke, the fate of a woman and a country.” Please send in your contributions to the Flash Fiction page at Madhubashini Dissanayake-Ratnayaka, C/o The Sunday Times, No. 8, Hunupitiya Cross Road Colombo , 2 |