Rinu Was Lost
By Manjori Sanyal
Absolutely lost. It was nearing sunset. How could they just lose her? She was the most talkative kid around. No mobile phones back then. It was in the month of November, 1983 in Yankari Game Reserve. Yes, in Nigeria. In the middle of the forest. They had driven down for the long weekend. BBQ, drinks, lots and lots of beer. The Indian community there was thriving. They always planned such getaways. Smoking and drinking wasn't a crime. Drinking and driving was the main thing. Seat belts didn't exist.
And Rinu was lost.
She had wondered away. It was beautiful. The fact that she was able to balance herself on her two feet was the best experience for her. She was a little more than 2. Like a doll, high on life. She had heard all the stories ever written already. Her dad didn't even need to read them out to her. At home, when he got back from office, he would quickly change and sit down with his coffee and she would crawl up his strongest arms to peacefully sit on her thrown. She ruled his heart, his soul, his mind, his each and every breath. All she needed to do was just be! She would lose herself in his voice, his actions and eyes. Her favorite story was of the three little goats and the troll. He would say trip trop trip trop when they walked across the bridge and she couldn't stop laughing, when he did that funny thing with his legs and for her that was the biggest roller coaster ride. She would sit holding on to his shirt from behind with her left hand. He always had his right hand on her back and she loved that roasted coffee smell in his breath. The 555 cigarettes he smoked. Then there were stories of Vikram, Betal, Alif Laila, Ali Baba. They were real people for her. She lived with them surrounding her. They were all constantly around her watching over her, telling her what to do, guiding and reminding her of the consequences and morals, praises and gifts they got for being good.
And he would vividly explain what they looked like. Ali Baba definitely looked like Dharmendra and then later she watched him on TV and oh goodness gracious, the description matched!!! Her dad was never wrong!
But Rinu was lost!
Though, she knew she wasn't. How can a child at 2 know the difference anyway. So she had basically followed a beetle that had walked away from the picnic area to the swamp. There was also a butterfly that apparently flew around her head a few times. It had the most astonishing colors and she was only curious to know if it was just a fairy with magical powers or was it really a butterfly that was actually stuck inside an egg just a few days ago. Her dad had told her that story too. Of how surprisingly an egg can become a caterpillar, eat up all the green parts of the leaf and cook itself into a small samosa like thing called pupa and after that become a butterfly with real legs and eyes and there was just a few rules. No one ever, should touch them! He had told her that fairies were too easy to find. They were in cartoons and storybooks anytime she needed them but butterflies in action was the point. She had to walk into places to find them, be quiet and pay attention when they visited her. And there was a beetle too. Those shiny winged insects that could have any color. Some were huge and rolled around when they wanted to. Some were black with huge teeth like stuff so she definitely needed to watch them only from a distance. They were scared of her as she was much bigger than them and it's not nice to scare tiny insects. And there were these amazing moments when ladybird books had so many ladybirds drawn on them, and sometimes they even flew in through the window. She knew her dad was right again because her sister showed her school books which spoke about how eggs went on to grow wings and feet with two huge eyes. He was her hero! An absolute fine find she thought.
She was still lost. And everyone searched, screaming out her name. But, she couldn't just leave Mr. Beetle and Mrs. Butterfly to listen to new stories yet. It wasn't completely dark. And she wasn't tired too hungry and didn't need to use the loo yet. Those were the only real reason for her to go back, wasn't it?
Thankfully, everyone had torches. Those awesome huge torches with massive batteries. She knew about them too, but we won't get into more science just yet. Let's find her first!
The tall tress seemed to be closing in. Mrs. Sanyal, her mum was panic-struck. She was sure an elephant had got her or she was being chewed by a leopard. She couldn't stop grumbling to Ashok about being absolutely immature in deciding to visit a national park with a 3 year old baby. They should have just stayed at home. She knew, just was confident that her daughter was in the tummy of a python. Or a hippocampus could have taken her child away. Oh the possibilities were unlimited and Rinu's mother was the source of creativity. The word creativity and getting worried sick through imagination was what she excelled at. She then discussed malaria or maybe tribal people in the area who could have abducted her. Maybe make her a voodoo doll, maybe cook her and eat her. Or maybe eat her raw. She was so pretty. So tiny and she had the toughest pregnancy!!! How could they do something like that. Ashok reassured her with his pet dialog, "Arre, kichu hobe na. Tumi eto chinta keno Koro?"
And the moment he would say that, there would be fireworks of a different kind. She would dig into the past of all those numerous incidents when he tried to calm her down and it resulted in some bigger disaster. Like that one time when she said she felt a growth in her tummy when she was pregnant with Rinu. He laughed and said it was the baby! She obviously meant something other than the baby. He laughed and said he would be thrilled if there were twins. She said it wasn't moving but only growing next to the baby. Eventually she was bedridden and he had to carry her around, day in and day out. He was an anatomist. He said, he knew something didn't seem right but he was only trying to calm her down. On the day of delivery, they realized that she had a fibroid tumor double the size of Rinu and well, nothing could have been done to make it better but, she was right and he wasn't. And that was the bigger point! Even bigger than the fact that there was a tumor or the fact that Rinu was lost!
Rinu had reached the swamp.
The beetle said goodbye and the frog jumped out of the water. The butterfly too disappeared somewhere. Rinu wasn't allowed to touch frogs either. Because they have very long tongues and they love mosquitoes. Not love to marry but love to eat. Her parents were very careful with explaining what love meant to their daughter as she found Ma Kali a little too interesting.
So after a few short conversations with the frog it disappeared too. It was pretty dark so she thought of returning.
Mrs. Sanyal had got new anklets for the little princess. It made a sweet chime sound when she walked. Rinu walked back and simply said hello to all those grown-ups who were getting geared up to pull her out of the python's midriff or from a carnivore's jaws.
Her sister had collected some fireflies for her in a plastic bag. They hugged and started talking about all the awesome things they had to catch up on.
Yes, that's it. Life was back to normal. Rinu probably understood a little about their ordeal when she was much older, when that day too became just another story.
By Manjori Sanyal
Comments