Wanderers in Eternity – Chapter 6 (Page 1)
6
VASANTHARAJA
1987
Until the opportune time arrived, Vasantharaja was hiding in the darkness of the jungle. His whole body was bathed in a fine sweat. Constantly, he had to suffer the annoyance of the mosquitoes. He could not slap a single annoying insect. Even a simple noise like that could have given a clue of his presence to the enemy.
This was the forested land adjacent to the village of Bodhipura which was north of the Yan Oya reservoir. Twelve men including Vasantharaja had gathered here this night as previously planned. They all did not arrive here on the same hour. Under an order from Murugan in Velvetithurai they had come here at different intervals, one or two at a time. By then the ammunition and arms they were to use were already hidden in places in the jungle.
Crouching in his original spot, Vasanthajaja was waiting for the attack. The green camouflage outfit he was wearing blended well into the darkness of the jungle. His black face was also a part of the surrounding gloom. He felt the gold plated vial attached to the chain hanging from his neck. This was very different from the charm that his mother put around his neck when he was a little boy. This provided a different kind of protection. It carried a cyanide capsule. It was while in the Velvetithurai camp that Vasantharaja learned about this cyanide which he could swallow anytime to end his life before getting caught by the enemy and tortured.
All the others who came with him were wearing a vial enclosing a cyanide capsule around their necks. But their goal was not committing suicide, but destroying the village of Bodhipura. Their intention was to kill every single person in the village including all the women and children and burning down all the huts.
Twice before this Vasantharaja had taken part in raids putting his life on the line for the sake of his race. Vasantharaja felt that he had become a real man after the first guerrilla attack which he took part in when he was a mere sixteen. At that time the group that went with him attacked a bus on the road to Vavuniya. The first shot, he aimed at the breast of a young woman. After this his hands quickened in a fury. While the death throes were rising all around, the terrorists’ actions also took on an urgency. While the helpless unarmed innocent passengers were shivering with the fear of death, Vasantharaja stabbed several of them with his dagger. As the flesh was cut by that sharp blade, the smell of the blood and the way the dagger cut into the meat, a certain cannibalistic animalistic thrill was born within his heart. He felt a beastly desire that had been hiding within him so far unknown to him coming out of his guts to envelop his heart and shaking and shivering his limbs uncontrollably. When everything was over, there was congealing blood all over his torso and his arms. As he washed it all with the water from a pond, he felt an awakening within himself. Did not he act like God Shiva? He thought perhaps that Shiva burned and destroyed everything the same way. After this destruction everything will be renewed. After being bathed in blood a new world will be born.
After this Vasantharaja took part in the attack of a Buddhist temple near Thanthirimale. He helped in the killing of several Buddhist monks by hacking and cutting them up with a machete. This instance, just like the last time,when the innocent monks were cut up and their yellow robes were soaked in blood, the same cannibalistic sadistic feelings arose within Vasantharaja. That night after completing his viscious act, he got together with the other terrorists and gulped down some palm toddy. But for a long while he could not sleep. In the end he fell asleep under the starlight after satisfying himself by masturbation. That night he felt he had become part of this immense earth.
Vasantharaja was fighting for this same earth. This endless struggle was to gain the part of this earth which he believed should belong to his race.
He thought what a long journey he had come in his short life of sixteen years. Till ten he lived in his father’s house in Niveli. After his father disappeared, he came with his mother to his grandmother Thangamani’s house. Grandmother lived in puttur with grandfather Mahes. The yard surrounded by dried palm leaves became Vasantharaja’s playground. But within his was an indescribable fear towards grandfather Mahes. His voice was deep. His huge black body reminded one of a large shark. Grandmother was a small shriveled, quiet woman who always wore a white sari. There was an eternal wistfulness about her. Though grandmother loved him very much, Vasantharaja felt the remoteness within her.
Mother of course, protected Vasantharaja more then needed. But in the end he turned his back on this love and attachment and ran away to Velvetithurai. Mother blamed Uncle Ranganadan for seducing the boy and taking him away. Uncle Ranga was mother’s younger brother. He had gone to Velvetithurai at the age of sixteen after a big argument with grandmother. Vasantharaja learned in intermittent conversations that Uncle Ranga had run away from home after falling in love with a Catholic girl who belonged to a fishing family.
Ranganadan started coming back to the house in Puttur once in a while at times when Grandpa Mahes was absent. During these visits, Uncle Ranga brought sweets for Vasantharaja. In the beginning he was allowed to taste these sweets, but later on mother threw it all in the trash.
“We don’t know what kind of charms he is putting in those sweets,” Grandma also added. “He is bound to draw this little boy into his snare.”
Already Vasantharaja felt that he was entangled in a net drawn by Uncle Ranga. He wanted to roam free like Uncle Ranga. When terrorist acts and murders were increasing around Jaffna, mother did not allow Vasantharaja to leave the compound.
“Can’t go to Colombo, either,” Grandmother lamented. “It is dangerous to go there too. We’d better stay where we are.” Quite often, Vasantharaja had heard about Tamil people being massacred in Jaffna and in the capital of Colombo.
“Wherever we are, we will have to die when the time comes,” Grandmother said. “All we can do is pray to the gods and ask them to protect us. The rest, the gods will take care of.”
Grandmother resented Uncle Ranga because he had done something against the gods’ will. Though Uncle Ranga went in search of a Catholic girl, her family did not agree to their union.