Jungu, the Baiga Princess Read online

  ringed the kitchen garden, he started to scrape the tubers for he didn’t like the skin of the sweet potatoes even when they were well cooked.

  ‘What do you think you are doing here?’ asked the girl irritably, her eyes glowing sternly. The vision was gone in a flash and Sunil remembered with a start that she had said that and much more in the dream the previous night. The rest of it was also quite important but he couldn’t remember another word.

  He finished a thoughtful lunch, answering Motu in monosyllables till the cook got tired and went off for his siesta. The afternoon was hot like the previous day, however Sunil decided he would take a walk down the road right up to that distant curve where they had glimpsed the little figure with a head-load of firewood hurrying off into the gloaming the night before. He hooked the strap of a water-bottle into his belt and set off .

  As he walked down the long road towards the lonely spot he went slower and slower. It wasn’t that he was scared of anything there. The trees had all been cut down on either side, the short grass was devoid of any form of life and he had only seen a few deer and the occasional langur last evening, not even a sign of pesky rhesus macaques, so no, he was not afraid but he felt just a little silly. Why was he walking down the road in the first place? Because he dreamt of a girl? Gosh! If he ever told the guys back at school, they would never let him hear the last of it. And that small figure they saw last evening carrying firewood was most probably a man, a small man. They all seemed to be small people around there, anyway. Sure enough, when he reached the spot, there was nobody around. He was a little tired and the afternoon was hot so he sat on a big black boulder and took a thoughtful sip of water. Two squirrels chirped as they sped past down a winding footpath leading to the valley below where, right at the bottom, he glimpsed a silvery stream making its lazy way towards the dark and distant jungle. On an impulse, he started down the path just to have more of a real adventure than simply walking up and down that dusty road.

  Within a few minutes he was very glad he had taken the steep path to the valley for it was a lot cooler than the road and bushes sprang up on all sides. Soon he was in a little clearing with wild ber and mango trees in scented flower, with long-tailed flycatchers and bulbuls weaving in and out of their branches. The path after the clearing dropped quite steeply but he clambered down happily on his hands and knees, getting his shorts dirty. He didn’t care. He wanted to reach the stream in which he could see egrets flapping about looking for insects to catch. When he got there, he took off his shoes and socks and paddled in the cool water before sitting down on a fallen tree to look around and take another drink of water. It was a quiet, beautiful spot and he decided to rest there a bit before turning back up the steep path to the road and the dak bungalow.

  ‘Ey! Nimme vagatal vati?’ said a voice behind his ear and turning, he saw with a leap of his heart that it was the girl. That girl! She looked exactly as he had dreamt, short and dark, wearing a faded red sari high above her knees with a sickle tucked in at her waist. She carried a huge head-load of all kinds of plants, roots, and leaves. She was not pretty, he could see that right away. She had wide nostrils, not a sharp high nose like Miss Dhar, but surprisingly for a jungly girl, she wore no studs on her nose.

  ‘Hello! You startled me, you know,’ said Sunil unthinkingly in English.

  ‘Nak kare maymaki,’ said the girl looking straight at him with her big black eyes. ‘Na sanga gondi vadka.’

  ‘I cannot understand what you are saying,’ said Sunil carefully in Hindustani.

  The girl sighed, set her load down and sat on the tree trunk beside him. ‘I didn’t understand you either,’ she said casually, also in Hindustani. ‘Mi babal sarkari – I mean is your father in the government?’

  Sunil shook his head and then added rather proudly, ‘My uncle is a very important officer in Delhi. I have come here to the dak bungalow with him.’

  ‘Why?’ asked the girl.

  ‘To protect the jungle for tigers,’ said Sunil spreading his arms out a little grandly.

  The girl looked at her feet. When she looked up, there was a wealth of sorrow behind her eyes. ‘We are being chased away from our homes. I will never see my mother again!’

  ‘Your mother! What are they doing to your mother?’ asked Sunil aghast.

  ‘Everything – tearing her breast open,’ said the girl with grave composure.

  ‘Tearing – tearing what – what do you mean?’ Sunil cried out.

  ‘Dharti Mata – my mother earth, look at her, they have cut off the trees, now they will plough her.’ Her voice quavered with tears, though none came to her black eyes .

  ‘Oh, that!’ Sunil gave a self-confident little laugh. ‘That’s called “development,”‘ he said in English. ‘Your people will be better off later, you will see.’

  The girl shook her head with sad finality. ‘You don’t understand. Cokot sille.’

  ‘Don’t keep talking to me in a language I don’t understand,’ said Sunil shortly.

  ‘It’s Gondi.’

  ‘All right. What’s your name?’ Sunil felt very much in command.

  ‘Jungu,’ said the girl softly.

  ‘Jungu! Jungly Jungu!’ Sunil couldn’t help slipping that one out.

  ‘Jungu bai – it is a very great name – a name of power, but everyone still calls me Jungu,’ said the girl with asperity. ‘You would know all that if you lived anywhere here, but you don’t, do you?’

  ‘I live in Delhi, well, no, Dehra Dun most of the time,’ began Sunil.

  ‘So, you don’t even know where you live,’ said the girl sharply. ‘But you must know your own name at least. What is it?’

  Sunil drew himself up. ‘Sunil Kalra,’ he said with some pride.

  The girl got up suddenly and backed away a little, staring at him with a mixture of fear and wonder.

  ‘You are Her son?’ she whispered looking at him intently. Th en, she recovered her composure. ‘No, you are not! You are only a sahib’s boy, that’s all.’ She turned her face away dismissively.

  Sunil felt hurt. “What do you mean? I am not – who?’

  ‘You said you were the son of Cholera, the Goddess, but that is a lie,’ said the girl.

  ‘Cholera? I said Kalra! You are a fool! And cholera is not a goddess, it is a disease but you jungly people know nothing, do you?’ Sunil was cross because he didn’t like the girl putting on superior airs.

  The girl looked at him without anger and shook her head. ‘It is you who know nothing. Want to come to our village? You will learn something if you come. Ad bay lange sille – it’s not far.’

  Sunil looked undecided. ‘No, I cannot come, certainly not today. I better get back now.’

  The girl shrugged, and quietly picking up her bundle, turned to go.

  ‘Jungu – Jungu, you are very strong to be able to carry that load,’ said Sunil not wanting to part with her on a sour note. ‘What are all those leaves and where did you get them?’

  The girl turned to him with a big smile that lit up her face.

  ‘From the jungle, where else?’ she said pointing towards the distant dark gloom of trees.

  ‘From all that far away?’ he asked wonderingly. ‘It could be dangerous for a little girl.’

  The girl laughed, a low tinkly laugh. ‘What do I have to fear? No animal will harm me, I am protected by Gansam Dev. I have to go to the jungle. I have to get chirota leaves. My father’s tummy is not well and these roots are needed for my aunt who has given birth.’ The girl was moving her head this way and that, pointing out all that she was carrying.

  The girl went a few steps and then stopped. ‘I go there again in the morning so that we may have some greens and roots to eat. You can come too, if you are not afraid.’

  Sunil’s chest swelled at the challenge. ‘Of course I am not afraid,’ he said shortly. ‘I am not afraid of anything, little girl. I will meet you here tomor
row morning at – at 9.30, all right?’

  The girl pointed to a spot in the sky above the trees. ‘I will be here when the sun is there.’

  Sunil nodded. The girl walked away without another word and Sunil watched her disappear round a bend in the streambed. Then, he himself turned round and slowly walked up the steep path he had come.

  The Bear Attack!

  The next morning dawned bright and clear without any haze. Only a few sketchy cirrus clouds hovered over the trees and Sunil knew it would be a hot day. He had slept well, safely tucked under his blue silk coverlet. He jumped out of bed, feeling the day was just right for a great adventure.

  As soon as he had seen off the sahibs, he turned to Motu and said he was going to take a stroll himself, and would he cut him some sandwiches with chutney and tomatoes. Motu’s eyes grew round and he said hastily that it was not safe for boys to go wandering off into the jungle all by themselves. Sunil told him with a straight face that he wouldn’t dream of wandering far off but would just sit under the shade of some jamun trees within sight of the dak bungalow, and could he please have his sandwiches. Motu didn’t like the idea but Sunil was a chota sahib in any case, and Motu had obeyed sahibs of all descriptions all his life, so he cut him plenty of sandwiches, packed them into a flat tiffin box, and put that and a water bottle into an old backpack lying around, which he had carefully cleaned and dusted.

  Sunil waved reassuringly to Motu till he had turned a corner in the road and then, increasing his pace, he set off down the road trying to hum rather tunelessly a Bollywood song, which he imagined would suit the adventure. He found Jungu waiting for him by the little stream. She wasn’t impatient and she didn’t yell at him for keeping her waiting, as his own sister Puja would have done. She just nodded to him with a smile and they set off for the distant line of trees.

  Sunil gradually lost his secret trepidations at walking straight into the middle of the thick jungle. Jungu seemed to know her way about quite confidently. She would stop,

  lift a finger to command silence, listen, and then with a nod lead him on the path they were following, or down a side track, after parting some bushes. After a while he stopped questioning her, and just followed lazily, enjoying the coolth of the jungle, the dappled light that made its way down through the tall branches, and the feel of the springy grass under his feet. Once, Jungu stopped short suddenly and put out a restraining arm against his chest. He turned to ask her why, and then saw with his heart tripping fast that a long black snake was crossing their pathat leisure.

  ‘Thank god he didn’t attack us!’ he said, once his heart had stopped pounding quite so hard.

  ‘No, why would the Nag do that?’ said Jungu, simply. ‘But if you had stepped on him, he might have got angry.’

  They went on ahead with Sunil following Jungu carefully, but with regained confidence, he had almost forgotten that incident within half an hour or so. Jungu pointed out the benefits of all the different plants she had gathered: which ones cured fevers, which cleared the stomach, which could be applied as a poultice, and which warded off disease. But Sunil was not all that interested and after hanging about a bit while Jungu was selecting plants to cut with her sickle, he decided he would do some exploring on his own down a broad track between the trees. Jungu turned and told him not to get lost.

  ‘Thank you, Jungu, I can take care of myself – I have gone on walks long before I met you, you know.’

  With those brave words he set off , but tried to keep Jungu in sight all the same. She was a little apprehensive at first but soon got used to seeing him circle round the spot where she was. Soon it was well past high noon, and Jungu gladly agreed that they should sit down for lunch, telling him she had tucked a couple of rotis and batra dal into a fold of her sari at the waist. Sunil smiled rather smugly and brought out his tiffin box with a flourish. Jungu exclaimed wonderingly when she saw the sandwiches but after tentatively biting into one, she readily agreed to have some more. Motu had been generous so they had plenty to eat. Then Sunil suddenly remembered his manners and asked quite humbly whether he could have a bite of her roti. He displayed evident pleasure under her searching eyes, though to tell the truth the millet it was made of was harder to chew than wheat, though quite tasty.

  ‘The kodon roti would be easier to eat with chirota bajji but there was none left ,’ said Jungu regretfully.

  ‘No, no… it’s very… good,’ said Sunil, swallowing hard, but wasn’t sure if she believed him as he drank thirstily from his water bottle.

  He would rather have had a small nap after lunch but Jungu had already jumped up, saying she had a lot more plants to collect. He followed along rather unwillingly and then seeing a clump of short ber trees in a dip well below where they were, he decided that he would surprise her by gathering some tasty fruit in his large handkerchief. He saw a large beehive down there as well so he reckoned that the fruit would be especially tasty. He slid down the tuft s of long grass at the edge towards a ledge in the rock outcropping that seemed to lead towards the fruit trees.

  ‘Yedjal! Yedjal!’ Jungu was screaming somewhere above him and he turned his head to see what had happened to her. Then he saw with terror a huge black bear racing towards him and turning desperately, he ran down the ledge but the bear with terrifying grunts gained upon him with every step. He tried to race faster down the rocky ledge but slipped badly and rolled off down the stony slope till with a sickening thud he fell into a gravelly pit.

  For a moment he didn’t know if he was alive or not. He ached all over and his head hurt badly. When he squeezed his eyes open, he saw that his left knee had a deep cut which was oozing blood all over. In panic he tried to see if the bear was anywhere near but he was alone in the pit. Through his pain he heard the bear grunting far off and then even that noise died away. He tried to get up but pain shot through his leg and he slumped back with a wince.

  Then, Jungu was beside him, bathing his head with water and forcing him to drink some from his water bottle. He looked down and was surprised to see that she had expertly bandaged his knee with a swath of leaves, which seemed to ooze a white ointment. She tore a strip from the ends of her sari and secured the leaves in place.

  ‘The tail-end of my lugra will hold the thuha leaves in place against your wound,’ said Jungu gently. ‘You will be all right. The leaves will seal the wound in no time, you’ll see.’ She held his knee and flexed it carefully. ‘Niva mendol nontaki? Cubba-cubba anta? Sharp pain or dull pain?’

  ‘Dull pain,’ he said with a groan.

  Jungu nodded. ‘Come, nothing is broken. I will take you to my village – it is only a coss from here and we will get there very slowly. I will give you a broth made of mashed tin paniya, haldi and jaggery. And I will heat these leaves and put it on your knee – you will see the swelling will come down by tomorrow.’

  ‘I did nothing to that bear – why did – why did he attack me?’ asked Sunil bewildered as he stood up gingerly.

  ‘She – it was a she, a mother bear, you were between her and her cubs. All you had to do was climb a few feet up the slope and she would have left you alone, but you kept running towards her cubs.’

  Cubs? How was he supposed to know she had cubs? Sunil was in too much pain even to acknowledge that he had been a fool. They walked slowly down a dark narrow path. Jungu made him put an arm round her shoulders while she held him with her left arm. Her other arm balanced the leafy load on her head.

  ‘How far is a coss?’ he asked her after a while.

  ‘Two daab,’ she said.

  He looked an annoyed question. ‘A daab is double of how far your shout can be heard,’ she explained kindly and he let it go at that.

  After half an hour or so, seeing him limping tiredly, she sat him down in the shade and told him to drink some water while she gathered some leaves that would help his swelling.

  ‘Hatte mati? Just sit here and rest. You will be all right here. You
will see me down there beside those bushes. Call if you want anything.’

  Sunil was content to sit and wipe some of the sweat off his face. Jungu ran down the slope into a nullah and started cutting some plants with her sickle. Suddenly two men came round the bend of the nullah and pulled her round to face them. He was about to call out, but some instinct held him back. The men were laughing, and one of them in a khaki shirt had a bottle in his hand. The second fellow twisted her sickle out of her hand.

  A third fellow in dhoti and shirt followed them and stopped short suddenly.

  ‘That’s Jungu! Jungu Bai! Better not have anything to do with that witch!’ he shouted in Hindustani.

  The other two men fell back and the men had a hurried consultation in low tones that he could not catch. Jungu just stood by without moving a muscle.

  Then, the fellow in the dhoti turned and spoke to her. ‘Hey girl, what are you doing here?’

  ‘Cutting medicinal plants, like the one that cured you of high fever, Ramsingh,’ she said clearly.

  ‘All right, but why here?’

  ‘This is where they grow. Can’t you see?’

  ‘Now that you have got them, run off to your village and cut somewhere else or I will shoot your father, all right?’

  The girl said nothing.

  ‘You understand don’t you?’ shouted the man in the dhoti.

  ‘Ho,’ said Jungu quietly. ‘Tell that man to give me back my hassia.’

  She quietly took back her sickle and walked away from the men. They stood watching her go, then turning they went back, laughing and drinking from the bottle. Sunil felt a twinge of panic for he was suddenly all alone but decided he would wait a few minutes to see if Jungu would come back for him. He had just decided that she had run away in fright and that he had better hobble off home as best as he could, if he only could retrace his steps, when he felt her standing quietly behind his shoulder.