Twelve-year-old
Tembu lives with his father Baldeo, mother, and young sister in a tribal
village on the outskirts of a jungle forest in India. They rely on the produce
from a small rice field for subsistence, but the land’s paltry yield provides
them with little more than a bare living.
To
supplement their income, Baldeo works as a watchman at a nearby way station for
the railroad. Every night, he stays in a bare hut near a tunnel cut into the
rock; his duty is to keep the signal lamp burning and make sure that the tunnel
is clear of obstruction so that the overland mail can pass through safely.
When he
does not have to help his mother and little sister at home, Tembu accompanies
his father to his job at the railroad, sleeping with him in the hut. On this
particular night, he awakens close to midnight to find his father preparing to
leave to check the signal lamp and the tunnel. Tembu asks if he could go with his father, but his father, Baldeo responds that it is cold outside and that the boy should
stay in the hut.
As Baldeo
stumbles alone through the darkness, he thinks about the wild animals he might
encounter. He has heard tales of a notorious man-eating tiger who is known to be very frequent in this area, but he has neither seen nor heard it so far during his
nightly treks.
Despite the
dangers in the forest, Baldeo walks with confidence. He is used to the ways of
the jungle and carries a weapon, a small axe that is “fragile to look at but
deadly when in use.” The axe, which his father made for him, is an extension of
himself, and he is capable of wielding it with great skill against wild
animals.
When Baldeo
reaches the tunnel, he finds that the signal light is out. Hauling the lamp
down by its rope, he relights it and hoists it back into its position. When this
task is done, he walks quickly down the length of the tunnel to make sure it is
clear, then returns to the entrance. The train is late, but soon the trembling
of the ground gives notice of its imminent approach. Back at the hut, Tembu
also feels the low, distant rumble; wide awake now, he waits for the train to
pass and for his father to return.
In the
moments before the train’s arrival, a tiger suddenly springs into the area
before the tunnel and heads straight towards Baldeo, who sojourns there
unprotected. Knowing that flight is useless, the watchman stands firmly with
his back to the signal-post, and when the tiger attacks, he leaps to the side
and tries to get the tigers neck by his axe but as the tiger ducks away, the
axe strikes his forefoot and remains stuck in it almost severing it. The tiger
groans while Baldeo is horrified as he was left unarmed. Back at the hut Tembu
wonders why his father is taking so much time. Meanwhile, the tiger pounces
upon the puny man and tears his body apart. After killing him the tiger sits
down licking his leg where he was struck by the axe. Meanwhile, the ground
shakes with the approach of the Midnight train. the tiger still is there. With
great noise of the engine it enters the cutting with a shower of sparks. The
tiger, seeing the train, lifts himself up and tries to walk out of the tunnel
but he was not able to and was run over by the train.
While Tembu waits for his father to come back,
there at a stop, the tigers half body was seen still above the cow-catcher of the train.
Tembu comes out to search for his father and as he finds him dead, controls
himself and protects his father’s body from the hyenas with the help of his
father’s axe. Baldeo’s family was in a shock but life had to go on and Tembu
had to take place of Baldeo.
****
No comments:
Post a Comment