On Mahashivaratri day Gadadhar kept fast. He went to Shiva temple and performed worship and pooja. So did his friend Gaya Vishnu.
On that night a Shiva play was to be enacted at the house of Sitanath Pyne. Gadadhar and Gaya decided to watch the act.
Gadadhar had performed afternoon worship and was sitting in meditation of Lord Shiva. Just then some friends walked in who had arranged the Shiva drama. They revealed that the boy who was playing the part of Shiva had taken ill suddenly.
The boys wanted Gadadhar to play the role of Shiva in his place.
“I can’t. It will disrupt my Shivaratri worship,’’ Gadadhar expressed his inability.
The friends reasoned, “Come on, Gadadhar. Playing Shiva’s role is more important than your worship. You can show your devotion by playing a forceful role. What can be more better way of paying obeisance to Shiva? You can’t refuse it. The drama is very important for us. How can we disappoint all those village people?’’
The cajoling worked and Gadadhar agreed to play the part of Shiva. He reached the Pyne houses in time. The boys dressed him in Shiva costumes.
Now it was the time to walk on the stage. Gadadhar looked like a real Shiva as if made for that part.
On the stage his mind got totally projected in Shiva devotion all of a sudden. His dialogue broke off mid way. He swayed and fell flat on his back on the stage.
There was commotion in the spectators. Some worried voices rose above the din. Some boys carried away Gadadhar from the stage to the backside where water was sprinkled on his face. After a long time Gadadhar came back, but too late.
The drama had been disrupted irreparably. The organisers decided to call off the drama with due apology.
It was noticed that whenever Gadadhar prayed with concentration his body stiffened like a wood plank and then he would pass out.
His own explanation was, ‘When I had beamed my mind into god I saw the god appearing. After that I don’t know what happened to me.’
Gadadhar was no more interested in his studies. He rarely opened his school books and had stopped going to the school. He could be seen reading only religious epics like Ramayana or Mahabharata. His recitation was very attractive and his voice would be laced with devotion. The people loved to hear him recite the holy books.
Some times the villagers invited him to read out the epics in folksy gatherings of religious type.
Gadadhar’s elder brother had got married. His wife had given birth to a son in 1849 and then she had died.
Meanwhile, the elder brother, Ramkumar had got the other brother Rameshwara and sister Mangla married off.
At this point of time Gadadhar himself was 12 years old.
The death of Ramkumar’s wife had increased the problems of Chandra. She had to do major part of the household chores. Financial position was getting worse. That multiplied the problems.
The earnings from one and a half bighas of land was meagre. It could hardly feed the family. There always was the shortage of clothes and other things that had to be bought with cash. The orphaned child, Akshay had to be fed milk. Chandra tried to cope with the situation by borrowing money from others.
The debt burden was increasing.
Ramkumar wanted to improve the finances of the family. He tried his best but sadly his efforts failed to succeed. Perhaps the death of his wife had gravely affected him. Some of his friends advised him to leave the village and try his luck elsewhere.
Ramkumar saw sense in the advice. He also wanted to get away from the house where his young wife had died.
Every nook and corner of that house carried the memories of his wife. The story of the marital chapter of their life was written all over the walls, doors and windows of that house. The memories were destroying him. Perhaps that was the reason why he was failing miserably in whatever he did in that village.
He departed from the village leaving the burden of the family on the young shoulders of brother Rameshwara. Ramkumar went to Calcutta where he opened a school. That school became his life support.
Meanwhile, Chandra household was in bad shape. The old lady was burdened with the task of running the home. Domestic chores, taking care of little Akshay and arranging milk for the child were few of the things she had to do.
Sometimes Rameshwara and his wife helped out a bit. Chandra’s daughter-in-law was yet a young girl, married in early age. She was infact a kid herself. She knew little about the domestic chores and was too young to be bothered about. Thus, old Chandra had to do all the domestic work.
Rameshwara adored his younger brother, Gadadhar. It pained him to see that his brother was not paying attention to his studies and was not going to school. He wanted to teach him himself but he was helpless for want by time as he was shouldering the responsibility of the family and outside commitments.
He had little time to spare.
After the departure of Ramkumar Gadadhar was a free boy to do anything he liked. Ramkumar used to take care of his little brother very carefully and always kept an eye on the prankster.
Gadadhar by nature was religious. His pranks also had a touch of religion. He would go wherever his mind wandered away.
The women liked Gadadhar very much. They would gather at his house and listened to his recitation of holy books. He was a good singer too.
The women loved to hear him sing bhajans. He would sing bhajans of various gods and the goddesses of Hindu religion pantheon. His singing of bhajans was melody soaked in devotional sentiment which made the women sway in the spiritual harmony.
It was during such singings that Gadadhar would get hyped to that state of mind where his brain blanked out and he would fall down unconscious. The women would just stare at his collapsed figure with reverence. After a brief blanked out spell he would come back and rise on his feet.
For the simple women it was also a kind of the minor miracle.
The women knew the signs and dreams his parents had seen or experienced before his birth. They considered Gadadhar to be a future great person or incarnation of some divine power.
Sometimes Gadadhar would dress himself as a woman and talk or act just like a real female. It was difficult to detect his real gender.
One day he went to the pond dressed as a girl. On the way he had joined a group of water fetching women. He came back with them with waterful of pitcher without getting found out.
Beyond the village pond there was a street called ‘Goojargali’. Sitanath Pyne had his house in that street. His wife and daughter liked Gadadhar very much for his prayer singing. Sometimes they could bring him to their house to have him sing bhajans for them. The two loved to dress Gadadhar in girls dresses and watch him greatly amused.
Sitaram also liked the boy and he was free to come and go in that household.
Durgadas Pyne also lived in same street and he too liked Gadadhar. But in his household women were segregated. Males were not allowed to trespass into the female section of the household.
Durgadas prided over this gender division.
One day Durgadas was lecturing a person on the virtues of the gender division when Gadadhar arrived there. He disagreed with Durgadas saying, “I want to ask, can this curtaining off women protects their piety? Let me explain my views. Only patriotism and education can safeguard the virtues of women. I know your family has tradition of strictly curtaining off women. But if I choose I can see your women, touch and hear them inspite of the curtain. What do you say?”
“I don’t have to answer to your question,” Durgadas proudly said and challenged, “You can’t ever even see the women of my household. That is a fact. Let us see how you can do it.”
“You will see when the time is right.”
Gadadhar went away. Durgadas didn’t take him seriously.
Several days later the prankster kid came in girl dress. It was evening time. He had covered his face partially with the corner of the saree as the women usually do. He had a basket held by right arm at waist.
He spoke to Durgadas in feminine voice, “I come from a nearby village. I had come here with other women to sell spun thread. I got left behind. All others are gone. I can’t go to my village alone at this darkening hour. I need some place to spend the night. Will your household give me shelter for tonight?”
Durgadas could not recognise the boy.
He asked for her address and being satisfied he motioned him to go inside in women’s wing saying, “Don’t worry, girl. You can go to the women of this household. You will surely be accommodated.”
Gadadhar went into the women’s wing and spoke, “I need a shelter for the night. The brother out there says that you would arrange for my stay.”
The women nodded sportingly.
A woman showed Gadadhar a guest cabin for her to sleep. He sweet talked to the women of the house hold and won them over. They listened to his feminine chatter with great interest and fed him as if he were a dear guest.
Gadadhar noted all the identifying features of the women’s wing of the house to substantiate his claim if required latter.
Meanwhile, Chandra was worried at the absence of her son. She was unaware of his prank.
The thought of his going away with sadhus worried her. She asked Rameshwara to look for his younger brother. Rameshwara looked for Gandgadhar at all the likely places. But he was nowhere to be found. Then, he happened to go by Gujjar street calling out his brother’s name in a blind move.
Gadadhar heard his brother’s voice and called out from the inside, “I am coming, brother.”
It was heard by Durgadas also. He at once realised that Gadadhar had tricked him.
He fumed. But the memory of Gadadhar in feminine dress, his girlish walk and the coy demeanour softened him up. He suddenly began to laugh at the prank of Gadadhar and allowed him to leave the house.
Gadadhar returned home with his brother. Durgadas was so amused at the prank that he gave open pass to the boy to go into the women’s wing of his house. It became talk of the village. Everyone learned how Gadadhar had fooled Durgadas and blown apart the latter’s gender apartheid theory.
Meanwhile, in Calcutta, Ramkumar’s school was making good progress. Gadadhar had become sixteen year old youngman. Ramkumar had got over the grief of the death of his wife. He had put hard work in his school project and now it was paying dividends. The income was reasonably good.
He used to come to the village once a year for a few days without fail.
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