A city dweller would have been out of memory card space by now - it was that kind of an evening in the small village of Gharyaar in Haryana. The scene was perfect, the sun was going down in the paddy fields, the cattle sitting exhausted after a long day of work, and so were the farmers. But then , there was some work which definitely needed to be attended to - and the panchayat was the most qualified set of people who could take these decisions for the entire community.
There were two important cases which were coming in today. The Sarpanch started with the triparty case of Ramshankar, Dhiru and Pakhlu.
“We have all collected here for some important things to do. And we have to take quick decisions but first things first. Next time onwards we would not assemble below this banyan tree. We are six panchs in the panchayat and it has been almost three years since we were elected. All of us used to be fit and lean - but we have been eating so much in the past three years that our bellies have grown up -and so has our appetite. It is very tough for all of us to sit under one tree. You see you can not pack too many panchs in such a small place.”
“Okay we will take up the case of Dhiru’s cow Shanti first. We all know, that she is of the finest quality Kankrej breed and gives upto 3000 litres of milk in a year. She eats less food and is one of the best cows in the whole village. The time has come that she is given a partner to breed. Dhiru , as we all know is not like us panchs and is poor. He can not afford to buy a bull to have his cow breed. Hence we need someone from the village to hand over his bull to Dhiru for Shanti’ breeding. The arrangement as usual would be a two child arrangement. The first calf would be Dhiru’s and the second one would belong to the donor of the bull.”
“Now we as panchs have to take the decision. We have Ramshankar and Pakhlu who have volunteered to extend their bulls for this holy purpose. We will first let Ramshankar present his proposal”
“Thank you Sarpanch ji”, started Ramshankar. “My bull Dharma is of Amritmahal breed. He can take all the panchs and their spouses on a single cart to Rohtak in 2 hours. His horns are more powerful than the ones found in the trucks of Rajasthan. His hump is bigger than the ones put by government officers working in the road department of Haryana. When he snorts he can put Himesh Reshammiya and Mika to shame. He is the ideal candidate for Shanti.”
“Your turn Pakhlu.”
“Sarpanch ji my bull Veeru is a Khillar and is stronger than the bond between Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik. If he joins BJP , he can even bring down the majority UPA government by just snorting once in the Parliament. His horns are sharper than Mallika Sherwat’s curves . Everybody knows that using planes to bring down the World Trade Center was plan B for Al Qaida. They first wanted to use Veeru for that. I being a good man turned down the offer. My Veeru’s offspring, if it is a male, would protect the whole village from the Tatas who want to make a Nano factory here. If female, India would be saved - because all politicians would want to milk her, instead of the country.”
The panchs broke into a private conversation. 10 minutes went by , all the villagers waited for the decision in anticipation. This was going to be historic decision - important for the whole village. Finally the sarpanch spoke.
“The decision is made in favor of Pakhlu - because he has made an offer of ten thousand rupees per panch, whereas Ramshankar has offered only eight.”
“The next case is of Sundari and Parveen. Sundari a brahman’s daughter has married Parveen who is the son of a Gujjar. This against the honor of the village and the decision here is simple - both of them would be hanged from this tree for three days. Panchayat dismissed”. The villagers got up and walked out as the second decision was neither surprising nor unexpected. Three days later Sundari and Parveen were hanged from the tree. One year later Shanti gave birth to a baby bull and the entire village immersed into celebrations.
……
I have a kid. I also have a sister who loves me a lot. I have brothers, who would travel twenty five hundred kilometers if they come to know I want their help. I have nephews and nieces who look up to me as their idol - even though I am not much of it.
And I can not kill any one of them.
But some people can-
The sub inspector from Meerut is ready to throw his daughter from the roof top of his house because she married her class mate.
The educated mother in Jharkhand forced her daughter to commit suicide, because she was pregnant with a child from a lower cast boy friend.
All in the name of family honor.
And if that is not enough, the khaap panchayats are sitting on top of families for protecting the honor of a village.
How can killing someone you love protect your honor ? How ?
