STRAIGHT FROM THE HEARTLAND OF DANTEWADA (31st Dec 2009, 1520 Hrs) – Continues…
By Priyanka Borpujari
On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:47:58 +0530 wrote:
It is not easy to see a pale Himanshu Kumar, for whom, even smiling on the fourth day of his fast – December 29 – seems to be an effort. I avoid making new conversations with him – because I know we would not cease to talk; perhaps also because I shudder when I preempt the result of his silent ways. Are we really aiming for a definite result here? Are we here to win and lose? Are we here only to separate the black from the white? How long will this game of snakes and ladders go on? For how long will our side of the snakes continue to be pythons, and the ladders stunted ones? It is only a matter of time.
It is also only a matter of time that will heal the wounds and dissipate the anxiety of Rita Kunjam, Ramo Kunjam and Saroj Kunjam. They are, in that particular order, the wives of Kopa Kunjam, who was one of the pillars of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA). He was picked up by the cops on December 10th this year, on false charges of murder. Javed Iqbal, a reporter with New Indian Express, who arrived in Dantewada in the morning, had been working in Bastar region through 2009, and had known Kopa quite well. Along with Iqbal, we went to meet Kopa’s family in their residence in Alnar village near Farspal village, which is also where Mahendra Karma, whose brainchild was Salwa Judum, lives. No wonder that as we approached the village, the road on each side was decorated with brick fences for small saplings. Now, the saplings may have grown to about a foot, and most likely, they too were dead in this district of death. But the fences were elaborate, about four feet tall and three feet in circumference, they had been painted white. Luxury for the saplings, axe for the trees.
Further beyond, were houses which were green or blue in colours, typical of the rural landscape of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. And each of them had that enviable dusty dish of a cable connection by Dish TV. Like SRK, Mahendra Karma wished for it, and got his people the dishes.
Finally we reached the road leading to Kopa’s house. It was a five-minute walk amid the fields from the main road, and the location of his large blue house seemed a perfect site for a mad writer, who would want to escape from an even madder society. Only, within the walls of that house reigns anxiousness and a feeling of helplessness. Kopa’s three wives, who live happily as a huge family, have met their husband only twice since he has been arrested. But they are unsure when he would be released.
“Our husband never told us what he had been doing. We knew that he was quite a popular figure among villagers, but he was not one to bring his worries home. On August 3rd this year, about 100 policemen came to our house, took Kopa to the Shankani river, and beat him up there. They asked him to cross the river. Had he done so, we realized, they would have shot him dead and called him a naxal. He survived that day only to be arrested later. When will he get released? What is the point of such work which will tear you from your family?” questions a visibly nervous Rita, while she treats us to some tasty red-ant chutney.
Each of the wives has borne Kopa a school-going child, and the youngest wife, Saroj, is carrying her second child. She is visibly mal-nutritioned – in the fourth month of her pregnancy, such Kafkaesque separation from her husband is not doing the coy and petite woman any good.
“When we reached the Dantewada jail last time – all three of us and our three children, along with Kopa’s brother – we could not speak anything. Firstly, we had to bribe one of the female police officers with Rs 100 to let us meet him. We met him only for 10 minutes; none of us could speak. We were crying and Kopa did not make any eye contact with us either. He hung his head down. Kopa has stopped smiling,” said a vocal Ramo, while trying hard to hold back the tears welling up in her big brown eyes.
ALSO SEE:
Himanshu Kumar enters fifth day of fast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22fCjOswDfM
Priyanka Borpujari
9820741992
www.priyanka-borpujari.blogspot.com
To be continued…
By Priyanka Borpujari
On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:47:58 +0530 wrote:
It is not easy to see a pale Himanshu Kumar, for whom, even smiling on the fourth day of his fast – December 29 – seems to be an effort. I avoid making new conversations with him – because I know we would not cease to talk; perhaps also because I shudder when I preempt the result of his silent ways. Are we really aiming for a definite result here? Are we here to win and lose? Are we here only to separate the black from the white? How long will this game of snakes and ladders go on? For how long will our side of the snakes continue to be pythons, and the ladders stunted ones? It is only a matter of time.
It is also only a matter of time that will heal the wounds and dissipate the anxiety of Rita Kunjam, Ramo Kunjam and Saroj Kunjam. They are, in that particular order, the wives of Kopa Kunjam, who was one of the pillars of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA). He was picked up by the cops on December 10th this year, on false charges of murder. Javed Iqbal, a reporter with New Indian Express, who arrived in Dantewada in the morning, had been working in Bastar region through 2009, and had known Kopa quite well. Along with Iqbal, we went to meet Kopa’s family in their residence in Alnar village near Farspal village, which is also where Mahendra Karma, whose brainchild was Salwa Judum, lives. No wonder that as we approached the village, the road on each side was decorated with brick fences for small saplings. Now, the saplings may have grown to about a foot, and most likely, they too were dead in this district of death. But the fences were elaborate, about four feet tall and three feet in circumference, they had been painted white. Luxury for the saplings, axe for the trees.
Further beyond, were houses which were green or blue in colours, typical of the rural landscape of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. And each of them had that enviable dusty dish of a cable connection by Dish TV. Like SRK, Mahendra Karma wished for it, and got his people the dishes.
Finally we reached the road leading to Kopa’s house. It was a five-minute walk amid the fields from the main road, and the location of his large blue house seemed a perfect site for a mad writer, who would want to escape from an even madder society. Only, within the walls of that house reigns anxiousness and a feeling of helplessness. Kopa’s three wives, who live happily as a huge family, have met their husband only twice since he has been arrested. But they are unsure when he would be released.
“Our husband never told us what he had been doing. We knew that he was quite a popular figure among villagers, but he was not one to bring his worries home. On August 3rd this year, about 100 policemen came to our house, took Kopa to the Shankani river, and beat him up there. They asked him to cross the river. Had he done so, we realized, they would have shot him dead and called him a naxal. He survived that day only to be arrested later. When will he get released? What is the point of such work which will tear you from your family?” questions a visibly nervous Rita, while she treats us to some tasty red-ant chutney.
Each of the wives has borne Kopa a school-going child, and the youngest wife, Saroj, is carrying her second child. She is visibly mal-nutritioned – in the fourth month of her pregnancy, such Kafkaesque separation from her husband is not doing the coy and petite woman any good.
“When we reached the Dantewada jail last time – all three of us and our three children, along with Kopa’s brother – we could not speak anything. Firstly, we had to bribe one of the female police officers with Rs 100 to let us meet him. We met him only for 10 minutes; none of us could speak. We were crying and Kopa did not make any eye contact with us either. He hung his head down. Kopa has stopped smiling,” said a vocal Ramo, while trying hard to hold back the tears welling up in her big brown eyes.
ALSO SEE:
Himanshu Kumar enters fifth day of fast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22fCjOswDfM
Priyanka Borpujari
9820741992
www.priyanka-borpujari.blogspot.com
To be continued…
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