Taa Noren – Short Story on Social Issues
Photo credit: chelle from morguefile.com
Not only every villager know our Taa Noren but people from neighbouring villages also have a good account of his bad impressions upon the young and growing minds. His exploits with most of the intoxicants is not unknown to any but many exploited his benevolence while in inebriated conditions and they do not feel the need to show the same when he is desperately in need of it.
Taa Noren is a young man in his early thirties but appear much older than that. He runs a tea-stall in the village but we know that there is no dearth of any of the up-to-date stuffs in his small stall as I have even seen him dealing with the paddlers with my own eyes. He shows no sign of any of his misery filled life as he always look buoyant and lively. I have referred to his life as misery filled because I have had some painful knowledge of his past from my grandmother and it is shuddering, to say the least, to listen about his past days. It is all the more a real spine chiller to know as his ill-fate could have befallen upon anyone of us.
He was a lone child born to a happily married government employed couple and theirs was a nucleus family as his grandparents from both sides were no more and having shifted recently from a remote village, my grandmother was the closest neighbor they had both physically and emotionally. She used to babysit him with great enthusiasm when both his parents are at work as she did not have any grandchildren of her own at that time. She then shared that neighbours used to be much closer in those days than they are now.
She justifies the difference after a short pause by saying that it is the lessening of leisure hour in today’s fast paced world and at the same time an ever increasing educated population with lots of ideas to outwit one another has seemingly forgotten about the benefits of collective efforts and community well-beings. As I was marvelling at my grandmother’s observational abilities of today’s ills in the society she dropped the bomb about Taa Noren’s early life.
His parents who worked together in the same office were returning one evening and stopped at the Khwairamband Bazar to buy some vegetables when all of a sudden, a loud burst was heard and a few moments later, people cried, groaned, moaned, shouted for help and there was blood and scattered pieces of human body everywhere. And when his mother came to sense, she saw the dead body of her husband lying by her side. Seeing this, she gave one loud cry and fainted and opened her eyes afterwards at the hospital.
Taa Noren was only a few years old when this tragedy occurred and many innocent lives along with his father’s were lost while injuring many and which also snatched away his mother’s sanity. He was then brought up under the pity of the villagers and grew up to be a smart, intelligent and a very hard-working boy who worked to earn money mainly for his mother’s expensive medicines during day time and studied during night till the wee hours. Like this, he passed till graduation with high marks putting aside his obstacles. He wished to get a good job as he dearly needed some regular sum to meet his mother’s medicinal needs and also planned to take her outside the state to a place with proper medical facilities.
During those few days of exciting and hopeful thoughts, one of his friends from college requested to stay a night in his house saying that he had quarrelled with his parents. Unwillingly, Taa Noren allowed him to stay for he knew that this particular guy was a person of grey character. Before day broke, he was woken up loud knockings on the front door and also came to realize that his friend had left without informing them through the back door. When he opened the door with suspicion, he was shocked to see many armed security personnel and among them was a person in black mask who asked Taa Noren in fluent Meeteilon where he is hiding the outlaw. To which our Taa Noren honestly replied that he did not know that he was an outlaw but he was just an old college friend and thereby told his friend’s story as told to him and did not know where he had disappeared.
Hearing this, the security personnel forced into his house and he was kicked and beaten mercilessly in his own courtyard when he asked for a search warrant. But, the biggest jolt came when the personnel inside the house informed him that an old lady has been choked to death with her own pillow. They then arrested a totally bewildered Taa Noren for giving shelter to an outlaw and also on suspicion of murdering the old lady whose information could have led to the arrest of the outlaw.
He was ready to face the first charge levelled against him but he went berserk and crazy when he was informed of the second one. It was something he was ready to punish himself to hell when such a thought even comes in his dreams. Thereafter, he was put into trial and showed signs of craziness filled anger resulting to the rise of the suspicion by many that he could have murdered his own mother during one of those fits. But, without proper evidence to support the suspicion he was freed.
After getting freed, he calmly thought about the possibility leading to his mother’s murder, which most probably would have been because his mother would have been awake at the time when his ‘friend’ tried to slip away sensing the presence of the security personnel and, she would have questioned him in her usual loud manner which would have led him to silence her with the pillow to save himself from being caught. With this thought, he felt disgusted with himself for trusting such a guy which led to his mother’s painful death. But, he left the fate of her killer to God while at the same time, the humane in him silently prayed for that animal’s worst possible death.
Some years had passed in darkness when the villagers had almost forgotten about his existence, he returned to sell his land along with his house sparing only a small plot to open his tea-stall cum house from the money he got from the sale. He was now a changed man who urgently felt the need to supply drugs to the addicts thinking that he is in a way serving the society by leading such youths to a swift death and cleansing the society. During this phase of his life, Taa Noren was seen frequenting the village foothill sitting isolated, sometime smiling and the next moment a sudden outrageous brightness could be seen in his eyes which made any onlooker feel that there was something seriously wrong with this guy. But, while serving his customers he shows his best possible look except with those occasional outbursts resulting from an unwanted bargain.
I felt thankful to Grandma for telling me of Taa Noren’s past and his present lifestyle and sincerely felt pity for him unlike many who are even closer to him. So, I resolved to change his misled thoughts and help him to return himself to the old Taa Noren. That simple, fun-loving, righteous, hard working, helpful Taa Noren must return to the present but, of course, he has not lost the first two mentioned qualities till this day. So, I cheered myself up that my goal to change him for the better is not that far away.
But then, some of our revolutionary people whose minds are inclined to quick changes thought otherwise and we were informed that our Taa Noren was found shot dead near the village water-pump at the foothill in the following morning after I resolved to try to change him to his good old ways.
With this sad conclusion to his existence I can only say that in Taa Noren’s desert like life there was ‘no-rain’.
{‘Taa’ is a short form of Taada which is a term for brother in Meeteilon/Manipuri.}
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