Jana

After the night prayer session, the sentry guided all the inmates to their cells. They all queued up and bid goodnights to each other, and left to their cells. That was a new culture brought to prison by the new superintendent. He added religious prayers and yoga exercises to the inmates’ everyday routines. Now and then some local religious leaders would visit them and deliver a sermon.

Jana felt very happy when he lied down on his hard bed, after a day’s hard work. Today he was taken to the quarry to work. Earlier he had learned cane furniture making, wooden crafts and electrical wiring etcetera. He never knew what hard work was before he entered the prison. Two days back he turned thirty-five and another one more month for him in the prison. After that he would be a free bird. He had been longing for that day to come.

For a family of high stature, policemen often visited his house to pay respects. Jana was the second son of the ex-village head. He was harsh and he was known for his maverick attitude in the surrounding villages. When his father retired of old age, their family got a setback. His elder brother Guna tried to grab the village headman post, but had the opposition from the other influential family of the village. Guna had to lose when the polls were rigged and voters were bought. That was the new game of politics, which his father would never approve.

‘Rigging the ballot boxes and buying voters out are cheap ways to win people support’ their father always reiterated. Guna always tried to convince his father that times have changed and so did the politics. But he never succeeded in convincing his father, who was an ardent follower of Gandhian philosophy. Jana was too ignorant to debate on such kind of issues. He was always pampered by his elder brother, who treated him like his son because of their age gap of ten years. Jana also never took life seriously, always playing and partying with friends and relatives.

The rivalry between them and the other family in the power did not end with village-headman post. The trifling incidents from the past were brought into debates and often were drawn to courts. Some of the property issues and mishandling of the funds were challenged in the courts with forged documents and wrong evidences. Their father suffered from heart attack with these unexpected developments. For a man of his stature and values, he never expected this kind of mean behavior from his rivals. Guna decided to handle the issues himself, letting his father to rest completely.

Sometimes fate would not listen to you. The ruling came against their family. They had to lose couple of lands and were ordered to clarify on certain expenditures within some due date. Guna kept all those things away from his father and brother. When Jana tried to enquire about those things, Guna warned him not to meddle with family affairs. Jana was not in a position to understand the game of politics. He turned quite restless, and felt that they needed to take revenge on the rival family.

To understand the various issues, Jana decided to participate in the family business. Even though Guna discouraged him initially, later by noticing his real interest, started delegating couple of jobs to Jana as well. That made Jana happy. Within six months time, Jana influenced his brother Guna to file a petition over the rival family on corruption charges. Jana bought the evidence and submitted strong evidences against them.

When the court proceedings were in progress, one night when he was driving home alone from the town, a gang of men attacked Jana. He would have been killed, but for the passing truck. When they noticed a truck, those gang men vanished into darkness. Jana was hospitalized for a month. Guna swore vengeance after seeing his beloved brother in a hospital bed. They waited for the right time, and one day he made his men attack the son of the acting village president, fatally injuring him. A week later, the victim died in the hospital, failing to recuperate.

Situation turned violent after that. Jana was advised not to move alone. They always had couple of men guarding the family. When Guna went to attend a marriage with his wife and son, a bomb hurled in their car killed them all. Jana lamented for his brother’s death for weeks. His uncles advised him to be cool, as that was not right time to react. They insisted him to work for the coming elections, as he would win in the sympathy wave. That was the trick often played in politics.

But the young blood in Jana was not listening to all that. His shortsighted vision was seeking revenge. He was too young for the politics. Without his uncles, he formed a different group among his men. He invested in purchasing ammunition and he planned a perfect attack. On the day of Holi, when everybody was almost drunk, he attacked the rival family with his men.

When they came to know about the attack, they started running away. When his men were fighting with rival gang, Jana chased the son of the president through the village streets. Not even realizing that people were witnessing, Jana shot him dead. It became a strong case against Jana. With compelling evidence, the judge sentenced him to seven years of imprisonment. There were no regrets in the heart of Jana. He believed the whole incident to be a victory over the rival family.

With all these developments, Jana’s father’s health deteriorated very fast and he died within a month after Jana went to prison. His uncles often paid visits to him in the jail, not because they loved him, but mainly because of their share in the combined property. The past deeds were still haunting his family, as the rivals in ambush killed his second uncle. Other family members were not having enough courage to fight back and the family went astray in fear and tension. His other uncles urged him to come out and take care of the family. Jana often spent his nights planning revenge plots, weaving political games and all the ways to bring his family business back.

With all these thoughts he slept very late. It was hard for him to get up when the bell rang in the early hours for the Yoga class. The week went quite uneventful, except for the weekend sermon from the local religious yogi. The very moment Jana saw him; he felt highest regards for him in his heart. He was so beautiful and his face was so serene. That day he delivered a lecture on karma.

‘Karma is not fate. It is every action and reaction you undergo. When you commit an action, there will be a reaction to it in your life. If you do a sin, you need to repent for it. If you do a good deed, you will be inevitably benefited from it. If not in this life, may be in next life, or may be in the life after. There is no way to escape from karma’ he preached. Those were the words of gold. He added ‘Do not expect anything in return for your actions. Only those actions will not give any karma. Repent for your actions and do not indulge any further into actions that cause more grief and pain.’ The words echoed through the walls of the prison.

Many inmates were stricken with guilt that night. They went on introspecting their lives and wondered what went really wrong for them. Jana was no exception. He sat calmly for a long time and pondered over his life. When he went on thinking about losing his brother’s family, he could see his guilt in it. He saw how his father was hurt to death by all the actions and reactions, which he and his brother committed in the name of politics and vengeance. He felt repentance for all his actions and he decided to change his life from that day onwards.

When he was released from jail, he surprised all his uncles by announcing his decision not to go back to the village. The circumstances in the village would not leave him to live alone in peace. To get away with all those, he decided to leave the state and go in search of rightful life somewhere else. His uncles persuaded him not to take that decision. But he was too confident, as if he planned that for years. There was this feeling of victory in his heart, which derived from his decision to pursue altogether, a different life.

-Suresh M

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