Making of my stories and Novel( Part 2)

                   The Making of my Stories and Novel  (Part 2)

This story “Feathers of Jungle Fowls”was another stenography from a person Budhia and others. The story in summary goes like this. If you are interested in reading the detail please click the following link

 http://pradipwritenow.blogspot.in/2012/03/feathers-of-jungle-fowl.html

Budhia loves the nature and moves in the forest.. Massod, the guest house keeper, negotiates with him and takes the whole lot of Jungle fowls. That night Massod earned a lot from a guest by providing him roasted jungle fowls in the dinner and arranged Somebari to entertain the guest in his room. Somebari was the proposed bride of Budhia but due to a trick pulled by Masood, the marriage could not take place. In that chilly night, Budhia’s father, an asthma patient, became very sick. Budhia needed firewood to keep his father warm. He ran to guesthouse where Masood stockpiled firewood. He was about to stumble on a red sari near the Sofa just opposite the closed bedroom of a guest and heard the moans of Somebari from the room of a guest. He recognized this red sari which he gifted Somebari just before the marriage. In the back yard of the guesthouse, he found out the firewood and heaps of the peeled feathers of the killed Jungle fowls. He took the firewood and the feathers also. He thought that firewood and the feathers burnt together might keep his father warmer.(Read more for the full story)  

I was working for a multi-national company for location of iron ore in Chhatisgarh along with one Australian colleague. One afternoon almost at the end of our work we saw a man down the valley. He was doing something to pull a chord for bird trap. Very soon, he vanished in the forest cover.

We were staying in the forest guest house on a hilltop after crossing the valley. As we were approaching the spiral way towards hilltop, we saw our guesthouse keeper, Masood was making a hard bargain with a person having two basketsful of live Jungle fowls,(Bon-Morag). Seeing our Jeep, Masood slid away.

We easily recognized the seller. He  was that man  busy with the bird trap.  He is Budhia, the local “Vaidji”, who sells medicinal herbs in the local weekly market. Few days before, we met him in the forest and he gladly guided us

Masood is a money lender also. He  cheats the local tribes by  lending money with very high interest in a never ending EMI and  also compel to agree them to his terms of complicated barter exchange. 

But this man, Budhia was talking so much about nature and now he was doing something illegal. He caught the Jungle fowls by laying a trap and he was bargaining  with Masood to sell them.   We were surprised.

On that night, we heard Masood yelling loudly. He caught a thief. We came out from our rooms and found Masood caught Budhia for stealing firewood from the guesthouse and each calling each a thief.

We settled this matter and told Masood to leave him along with firewood. Budhia went away without taking the heap of firewood.

Next day we heard Budhia’s father, an asthma patient expired. It was a chilly night in December. Possibly Budhia was stealing firewood to save his father from the cold. We could not trace Budhia after this incident but one night he came in my dream and narrated this story.