Smile

It was all over. Their beloved leader Subhash Bose has died while on a plane to Tokyo, which crashed down unexpectedly. The British Sun – however – had come down due to him. But now, the idea of ‘independence’ was looking very bleak all of a sudden…

Rakesh looked at the calendar pasted on the wall. It was the 21st of August, 1945 – three days after the terrible news had come. The INA had been disbanded, and perhaps thousands of the men and women had already been imprisoned, on the grounds of ‘betrayal’. Many of them were already executed – he could hear the sound of the rifles and occasionally, ‘Jai Hind!’

Rakhi was sitting at the far end of the cell. They were brother and sister by relation. Their family had always been ‘Swadeshi’ – full of revolutionary sparks. Their grandfather had been a ‘sepoy’ in the mutiny of 1857. However, after the fall of Lucknow, he disappeared into the woods of Terai, where – as supposed – died.

Their parents were also instrumental in the 1920 Non-Cooperation Movement in Bengal. They are now exiled to Nepal, and were supposed to return after…Rakesh couldn’t recall.

But that didn’t matter anymore.

‘Bhaiya?’ Rakhi asked her brother. Her face had suddenly lightened up. ‘Tomorrow is Rakhibandhan, right?’

Rakesh turned towards her. A smile lit up.

‘Yes indeed. Did you…’

‘It’s all there, bhaiya, it’s all there.’ Rakhi answered back.

It was all planned. Rakesh-Rakhi Singh had already made up their mind that they would rather die than surrendering to the devils. Their execution was to be held the next day. But that would not happen. They had fought bravely till the last minute with the Japanese in the forests of Burma: A warrior never knew defeat.

Rakhi saw a church clock in the distance. Though it was at a far distance, she could easily read the time: 11.50 p.m. in the night. Less than five hours were left for their…

She looked up at her brother, and smiled. He gave her a smile as well. After all, he can tie the ‘bond’…there was still time…

The other prisoners had already fallen fast asleep. They were the only ones awake.

Rakhi checked the time. It was 11.55.

‘Bhaiya, it is time.’

Rakesh moved closely towards her. He took out from his pocket a ‘rakhi’ – the universal symbol of the Indian festival ‘Raksha Bandhan’ – and tied it firmly on her right-hand wrist. ‘Happy Raksha Bandhan, Rakhi.’

‘You too, bhaiya.’ replied Rakhi, as she tied her pink-flowered ‘rakhi’ on his brother’s wrist. ‘Now, the…’

‘Wait, wait. Why are you so anxious? We are not rushing as it is.’ said Rakesh. He still had the macabre smile up his face.

He took out from his pocket a small box. It contained two ‘laddoos’ – the ones which were filled with ghee, cashews, and kesar. He gave one to Rakhi, and the other one he held in his hand..

‘So, we’ll meet again then.’

‘Yes. Goodbye…’

The two then shouted out in a low voice:

‘भारत माता की जय!’

And then, they popped the laddoo in their mouths. At the first bite, there was a very low sound – like a glass was broken. With the same smile on both of their faces, they slumped down to the prison floor, their eyes turning a slight red.

Somewhere, a church clock rang out twelve times. It was midnight…

***

The next day, Gen. Carter was suddenly woken up by the loud voice of someone. Opening his eyes, he saw sub-inspector Ghulam, panting. Sweat was pouring out profusely.

‘Oh, what’s the matter?’

‘Sahib, the ones which had to be shot…’

‘Yeah, so? They would be shot at..’

‘Sahib, they are dead!’

‘What?! Have you been taking opium…’

‘Sir, they have died! It’s true, sir!’

Wearing his hat, he rushed out from the office and went into the prisoner’s quarters. He went about, until his eyes fell upon Cell No.23, and there he stopped.

Two persons – a man and a woman – were lying over there, with a macabre smile playing on their faces. There was an oily scent coming from their mouths.

Then suddenly, he noticed a piece of paper lying beside the man’s body. He picked it up. Its contents were as follows:

‘Independence is a matter of time now. The country may or may not remember the sacrifice of this brother-sister couple, but it might know that how they have sacrificed everything to save our – yes, our brothers and sisters from the cruel hands of the foreigners, so that they may rise, to a new country – India.

Happy Raksha Bandhan!

जय हिन्द!

Rakesh Singh, 21.08.1945’

Carter just stood there, motionless…unable to speak. He put his head down – even the staunch British officer, couldn’t hold back his tears…

***

M.Macabre

03.08.2020