Fire Soul

“Move quickly women, wash the body and drape it in new clothes, the cremation proceedings will begin soon,” commanded the old head mourner. In Madera, the wailers were a group of tribal women whose traditional occupation involved bathing and dressing the mortal remains of the departed soul. They would also wail loudly and beat their chests as the body burned on the pyre. The wailers covered their body in black soot before washing the body as they believed it warded off evil spirits hovering about. Presently, one of the wailers wept silently as she bathed the body and saw the stab wounds that had killed her mother. Sambhu Asan had asked Makaran’s wife to take Kanchi to the wailers and explain her situation and they had wholeheartedly complied with her wishes. It was impossible to recognize her behind all the black soot that covered her entire face and body. “Go bring the new clothes to adorn the body,” said the head mourner to the disguised Kanchi. Kanchi retreated to her m...

Kanchi woke up suddenly, feeling disoriented, lost and scared. She thought she had heard her mother call out her name. There was the distinct pang imagining the abuse her mother would have had to endure for keeping the secret. Her small body ached as did her soul and she now yearned to be with her mother. who would have run her fingers through Kanchi's hair and sang to her in her sweet voice, as she always did when she had fallen ill. It had such a calming and therapeutic effect on her always. Kanchi worried that her mother would have broken out into a frenzy since she had gone missing for a while now and surely her father had also put a lookout for her, latter out of fear of losing his precious five tolas. She instantly felt the blood surge through her veins as she remembered how her ungrateful brother had just walked off leaving her to writhe in pain, stealing her dagger without the slightest care in the world when she had been wounded trying to protect him. She so desper...