Ek Chhoti si Village Love Story

This is the story of almost one  decade back. The story is about love. A village love story. A small love story- ek chhoti si village love story. There are two characters of the story – he and she. Besides that, other characters are whole villagers.

He was 24. She was 18. He was tenth pass. She was sixth fail. He was well built and dark. She was tall, thin and fair. He had some agriculture land; he used to take care of it. She had few goats; she used to look after them. He was from kushwaha caste, the dominant caste in that village. She was from barber caste, just four families in the village, a minority caste in numbers in that village.

He had few acres land and he used to spend time in the field, looking after the crops. She had a small piece of land abutting his field. Her goat used to graze in that field. Sometimes goats would stray and reach to his field. One day he warned her about the undisciplined behavior of goat. During warning, first time he noticed her beauty, her big eyes, guava like breast and slender body. He kept his attitude stern, but deep inside he liked her. That was the first time, he abused her mentioning her private part, and he was happy. He felt, as if he expressed his love to her.

Next day, she was having breakfast in her field, meanwhile few goats entered into his field. He thought, as if it was an acceptance of love from her side. He ran after the goat to drive them away from the field. After driving the goat, he came to her field and pounced on her. She cried, and he abused her. She resisted but he tore her blouse. She was weeping but he made love to her. When the act was over, she was shocked. She was unable to understand, what just happened to her. He kissed her and said- I lubh you. Then she realized- oh! It was love. She too reciprocated – I lubh you.
In metro and big cities, you may call above behavior, eve teasing, molestation, rape and what not but for both of them it was love. She accepted his weird way to express love. They were in love now. Sudhh desi romance.

This story spread in the village like a wild fire. Earlier In few instances, barber family had accused other people for molesting their women. Panchayat never acted against the accused, all time they let off the culprits lightly. This one was an isolated case. The girl was accused of love (?). Panchayat was called and they shamed the girl’s father. Panchayat interrogated the girl and she accepted her love for him. Panchayat fined five thousand rupees to her father and he had to accept it. As both boy and girl were in love and adamant to marry, panchayat had no option to allow the marriage. Then came the issue of dowry. Her father was not willing to give any dowry for this love marriage. It was seen that the girl was more vociferous for giving dowry than anyone else. The only piece of land that was abutting to his field was given to him as dowry. Both were happy. After that, they got married.

I knew the boy, and in my knowledge  this was the first inter- caste marriage in  that area. After two years of the marriage, one day I saw one of boy's relatives in the local market. When I asked about  boy and his wife, he saw me with surprise. “Don’t you know she died after six month of marriage only?”- He said. I was shocked.
“How did she die?”- I asked.
“We finished her”- without any compunction he spoke. Then he added- “What do you think, a barber girl will be able to adjust in our family. She was nothing but headache for us.”
“What about the land, which you received in dowry?”- I asked.
“Have you heard anywhere return of dowry in any circumstances?”- He replied me with a question.

I had no answer of this question. I was shocked and sad to see the tragic end of this love story.

PS :-  I heard this bizarre but racy story from an agricultural laborer . His description of the event made me interested in this story.  Though they were not from my village but the disastrous end of the story  lingered in my mind for long.

~~~ Ramanuj Dubey