The Other Day

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 21; the twenty-first edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

The sun was shining brightly. Bandu was moving ahead calmly but was unable to preclude himself from the scorching heat that was been rubbed vigorously against his body by the hot winds.

He moved his eyeballs around the perimeter only to confirm it was free from any trespassing. Once he did, he was now clear with his intentions to take a few silent strides in the direction he was moving & then turn to left to reach his target who was about 10ft then.

Everything till now went according to his plan & now he didn’t want to ruin it by any of his sappy mistakes, so he was being extra cautious. Bandu was surprised to see himself very calm & kept asking to himself,  why am I not shivering!!

The distance was been cut down with each of his measured footstep. Soon he was standing 2 ft away & all he could see was a shabbily messed up long filthy hair & the puff building wrecked up castles in air. Nonetheless, all these things were not the point of sheer importance.

He put forth his right feet & it missed its halt on a indecorous elliptical small sized stone which accelerated down the slope into the river ahead of him. This ad hoc movement made Virender to look back & before he could process the image of Bandu in his brain, his forehead was terribly hit, better to say smashed by a stone whose tapering end resembled to that of a spearhead. 

Blood started streaming down from his head when he fell down with head hitting the ground hard. Virender tried to reach out his hand with half crippled fist but Bandu was out of his reach. His eyeballs were stick to Bandu’s eyes, anger was surging out heavily. Staring at Virender, Bandu sat on his right knee & with intensity doubled than before banged the spear headed stone oh his forehead….

All the gasping was put to an end. Blood covered up his wounded head from all sides & with eyes left wide open Virender was lying down as a corpse.

Bandu’s eyes were filled with unique happiness, a sense of achievement & these feelings justified his action of turning his back to Virender, grabbing up the Virender’s AK-47   lying a few meters away. Bandu held it proudly in his right hand & raised it high up in the air to celebrate his success.

This moment was unoblivious but it had to be short lived because he had to now run for his life, since his associates may turn up at any time…he took the gun with him for his protection & just ran out of the camp: headquarter of THE NAXALS.

It was Virender Barwya whom he had just killed…he was not less popular than the other most wanted Naxal leaders in India. He was the head of operations taking part in Bhamragarh in the southern part of Gadchiroli district & the regions in Twitola. He dropped out from IIT Kharagpur in 1973 when naxalite movement was flourishing & joined to fight for the tribal people rights. He was the mastermind behind brutal naxal attack at Twitola, Gadchiroli district on sixteen policemen, including an inspector, a sub-inspector and five women constables, were killed. According to reports, a police party was on routine patrolling between Mumumgaon and Dhanora when Naxals opened indiscriminate fire from Hatti Gota hillock, near Dhanora taluka headquarters.

So he knew the gravity of the consequences of his action. He was a police informer. He began to run hard. It was his arena: the Abu Marh forest. He knew every nook & corner of the forest since he had been working here for more than 6 years. He was a quick learner & soon became well versed with many shortcuts in to reach in & out of the forest.

Thus he hopped, crept & took long strides through the Godavari river side because what he learnt was the river always takes you out of the forest soon. After covering up a distance he thought for a minute & smiled to himself because he knew he was the best in eloping out of & that no one could catch him up.

By now he covered up 15km & reached safely to Korchi, about 15 km from Bhamragarh in the southern part of Gadchiroli. He entered the BSF jawans camp & with happiness waiting to burst he yelled in joyful  expression, “Major sahib… Virender la marla me!!! Khannkan dili ekch dokyat” ( Major, I killed Virender . exploded his head).  Major put down his cup of coffee, leaned his hand forward to congratulate him, followed by a manly pat of his back. A jawan at the same time came in with another blistering news & that was, “Sir, the trap worked. Virender’s gang has been shot down & only 2 managed to escape. Rest all are dead in an open fire attack”. Major just felt exhilarating, thrilling & in this aura he picked up the phone & rang straight to Prime Minister to say “ MISSION  THE OTHER DAY: ACCOMPLISHED”

This was the 1^st successful attempt by the BSF to trap the Naxals who were just hurting & wounding them in this area. Every time the local police & the BSF were targeted of their open firing  by coming in a flock of 100. But this time they took 6 years to understand their strategic operation which was hard to figure out in a short span of time.

It included lion’s share of Bandu, the informer’s courage & cleverness to sketch a setup & execute it. He was only 17 then.

The next day media from all parts of India flooded in, interviewing Major & his associates. Bandu was far from this mess, back in his small little hut besides his sick widow mother.

He switched on the small TV set gifted by Major & watched news…. All his ears & mind could perceive were these words, “THE OTHER DAY, BSF achieved success…..” & it continued… six years back when his father Bablya, a veteran police informer was ruthlessly beheaded by Virender & his body was thrown on the outskirts of his village in the midnight, the same media had crowded his hut with the news, “THE OTHER DAY a veteran police informer was brutally killed…” , at age of 11 he didn’t understand the English lines, but discrete words were easily grasped… 6 years back these words, “THE OTHER DAY “, on hearing brought tears of sadness but now , these same words now  bring tears of HAPPINESS………….

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