Queen of Kulgera
A goddess that lived amongst men.
Start from the Deaths of Kulgera for a better experience. But this story can also be read as a Standalone Short Story.
I request you all to play this audio while reading for the best possible experience.
Karma was the queen to Karmetha. The Goddess they saw as their own. The one they revered and worshipped.
It was not only because she healed them. She belonged to them. She was theirs.
Pali was their leader. But it was Karma that held the last word in any Bethak since she was sixteen. She never spoke in between. Yet, when she spoke at last, her word was final.
Jamini knew when to get her out of the meeting, when she should attend and when she should stay at home.
They didn’t fear her anger. They feared for her.
The mother so wished till her last day that she had stayed back on the day of Maha Pujo with her daughter. Shielded the angel from the world in her embrace.
Karma’s beauty rivaled the first ray of moonlight on lake. Not everyone deserved to see her. If the whole community didn’t see her as a sister and daughter, she wouldn’t have let her leave the house.
And there could be nothing worse than catching the eye of a Rewa man, like many females of the Karmetha did. Jamini never let Karma know about it. Not because she didn’t want Karma to heal them, but because she was afraid of what Karma would do when she found out about this. They always lied about how the males got injured too, lest she go to Rewa in her anger.
Whenever she burnt with it, losing her consciousness came next. One time, she had not woken for two days, worrying the family to no end. After that, they did their best not to trouble her.
Jamini had asked her to stay inside on the day of Maha Pujo till she could return. Just as she had done all the years before. And Karma didn’t listen to her. Just as she had never before. It was the only time she could go bathe in the river when all the men went away.
The worst of the them found her there. Rewa sons. Sent to get the holy water from fresh source.
They found her just as she was getting ready to bathe in the lake. When she called out, thinking it was one of the village children, they laughed loudly, coming out of their hiding.
Jamini heard their scream just as they came back after cleaning all of the Rewa houses. She ran to the forest to see her daughter walking out. They could see smoke tearing through the tree line behind her.
Karma had lost her color. Her white saree covered her body as she walked towards the sound of holy chants. She didn’t feel her mother’s hands trying to stop her. She couldn’t hear her cries or the wails of her women as they beat their chest, following their daughter to the Pandal.
Pali sat on his haunches, his head in between his knees at the sight. Shanu ran forward to cover her with his shirt and steer her back home. His hands burned. His tears fell copiously as he tried to catch his sister’s eyes. Calling out her name didn’t work.
She stepped inside the Pandal as every Karmetha cried for her. Her feet blazed a path through the middle. The Rewa men and women didn’t understand what was happening till she reached the stage where they sat, seeking blessings for a bright future.
No one had seen the woman in their lives, yet she clearly resembled the Goddess they worshipped as the fiercest form of protection. The men sputtered, scrambling to get back as she stepped foot in the holy fire, taking its form. She turned around to face every one of them, her eyes softening as they fell on her people through the gaps.
All Rewa stood up, their hands clutching the beads tightly to the chest as karma threw her head back in laughter. She laughed and laughed and laughed till they all cried. And her laughter echoed around the whole valley. Their ears bled before their bodies.
Karmetha stopped crying when they saw what was happening inside. Hope flared in their chest as she stopped laughing and looked forward. Her lips barely resembled a smile as she let loose.
The chaos started as the Pandal’s temperature rose.
Sweat, blood and tears flooded the ground. Rewa fell in their finery, barely resembling the being they had been.
Only one man saw when Karma smiled at last with trembling lips as a tear fell. The flames licking at her feet till now heeded to her command and embraced her fully.
The sight haunted Jatin more than the death of his family for the rest of his life. He had run inside, intent on saving them, only to lose a hand and his sanity instead.
The Karmetha caste lost the hands keeping them down that day but also the hand that held them together.
They were quick in stepping inside the pandal once Rewa breathed their last to claim their own.
Her delicate body had only lost the life, nor the form neither the glow. Shanu carried her away in his arms to the place where they had been blessed by her. Him and her father buried her along with the wild flowers and the largest pot they could fill with water while the women sang in between sobs. The funeral would last for thirteen days.
Balu didn’t get the chance to see her at last. He knew when he reached with his senior officer that it could only be Karma. He thought his family must have taken her back to rest. He had fainted that night when he went back to tear-streaked faces and an empty home. He had cried on his sister’s grave every night till her soul left the earth.
Yet nobody believed him when he said he saw her there.
Their Karma. Smiling.
The end…or is it?
When I said it took me a long time to write the story of Karma, it was because of this scene. I got teary, I stopped writing and I dreamt only about this scene.
I don’t think I can let go of her even now.
And I know it isn’t fair, but Balu is one of those characters that live inside me. His pain, his anguish, his failures. It hurts. Even when I wish he had achieved his dreams.
Which character did you connect with more?
The song is Ranisa from movie Padmaavat by Mr. Bhansali.
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