************Within the Four Walls***********************
A story of an young woman who had to endure a blackish ritual in the name of goddess and goodness....a horrific real tale converted to a readable story of Paru
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Paru was in early twenties when
she became pregnant with her first child.
Like all young women do, she was excited and very much expecting her
baby. She used to feel her child, enjoy
the small movements of the tiny limbs inside her womb and enjoy watching
herself in the mirror with the growing tummy.
She was little conscious about her weight or any other things that were
bothering her in her marital life. Being
in a joint family dominated by men and an authoritative mother in law who was
like a ring master in circus, life for Paru was not an easy one. She had to do her daily chores of washing
clothes, cleaning the floor and making
food along with other ladies in the household and keep serving the men till
they are done before she takes her morsel of food silently in to her bed room
which was her only place of privacy and solace.
However, she never felt the burden of all this and her focus and
happiness remained on her baby who is going to bring her immense joy and
happiness. Rest of all things became
voidable to her otherwise haphazard life.
As she was preparing for the baby
shower and bangles ceremony as per Hindu rituals in India, Paru’s mother in law
came with another ritual that need to be completed before Paru can leave to her
parents place for delivery. Mother-in-law and other ladies of the house
were making plans and they decided on a Sunday evening to carry on the ritual
that Paru never heard of before. Her
sister-in-law counselled her that doing this ritual which is of worshipping
Goddess Kateri, 10th form of Maa Kali will invoke the goddess in the
house and will chase away evil. They
got Paru black saree, black bangles, and started making food from the morning
of the planned day to appease the goddess of darkness or blood or evil as you may
call her.
Paru was petrified with the
preparations but could hardly utter a word back as she was very scared to
oppose anything in that household. Her
husband also watched at the unfolding events silently without spilling out the
fears of his young wife. Paru was a
vegetarian and the preparation of all kinds of meat and seafood and along with
the pasting of red kumkum all over the doors of the house started to make her tremble
in fear. She could not digest the smell
of the food including dry fish, meat and sea food. She
called her mother and informed but was advised to keep quiet and just follow
her mother-in-law instructions as they believed that if she objects to anything
and then if anything happens to the child, they will not spare her.
On the Sunday evening, the
rituals began around the Rahu Kalam, before the sunset at 6 pm. Paru was dressed in black saree, black
bangles and put heavy kumkum on the forehead.
She feared to look at herself in the mirror. Mother-in-law instructed the whole family to
come near the well in the backyard and she started putting around the copper
lamps and cleaned the space on the floor.
She kept a brick and arranged decorations of flowers and ash along with
turmeric and kumkum – the red paste she applies for everything and
anything.
Paru was alone inside the
five bedroom house and all the others were behind the house waiting for
her. Mother-in-law walked in, closed all
the windows, suddenly came to Paru and held her hand and switched off all the
lights. Paru was frightened to the core;
all she did was just to place her right hand on her womb as a reassurance of
comfort to her growing child. Mother-in-law
gave her a lamp in her hand and asked her to come out of the house through the
front entrance and roam three times around the house before she placed the lamp
near the brick that was then considered as Goddess Kateri and placed all things
in black, tobacco, water filled with ashes and incense sticks. Paru was sweating like hell; her eyes were
full of fear and tears. She did not
muster a word of courage to stop the agonizing ritual in the name of
Goddess.
Then the real trouble began. Paru and her husband were asked to sit, and
mother-in-law placed camphor in front of them and lit them. After which she pulled out a Plantation leave
and spread it in front of them. Then she
started serving all that was cooked that day- chicken, dry fish, mutton fry,
prawn, crab, dry brinjal and rice. Along
with something made out of rice powder that looked like a small lamp filled
with ghee.
Paru felt like running
away. Her husband started to eat as his
mother instructed them to begin. Paru’s
tears were flowing unnoticed. The
darkness of the surroundings did not let anyone else notice. Her blood pressure was running high and she
was not able to sit down in that posture with her baby moving with discomfort
inside her. She was instructed to eat
without leaving anything in the leaf.
Her husband helped her by swallowing the maximum possible and leaving
rice and vegetables for her to quickly finish.
Then mother-in-law continued the prayers and made everyone lie on the
ground and offer prayers to the brick goddess invoked as Kateri. Then she took Paru and her husband inside
the house and took aarthi to them and then asked Paru to go and rest.
Paru ran to her room and closed the
doors. She cried to herself inconsolably
with the ritual that made her shiver.
Mother-in-law behaved like a tantric who performed evil rituals in burial
grounds. Every other member of the
family watched it like watching a tele-serial involving ghosts and cremation
rituals. It took many days for Paru to
get out of this memory.
Even after years of her child’s
birth, Paru goes into a deep silence and pain whenever she remembers this
ritual or the events of the day.
Kateri is said to be the10th form
of Goddess Kali and also called as Katyayani.
She helps to bring both good and evil.
Nowhere in the Hindu mythology there is mention of this ritual and that
too to be performed on a pregnant lady.
After several years of going through this unfortunate family ritual
living in midst of a metropolitan city, Paru wanted to know why and where this
sad ritual came from. She could find
references to the same in some tribal cultures of Africa but there was no
mention of such a habit in the families of Indians especially happening in
cities. Those who suffer from nightmares
and ghosts believe that invoking Kateri into the person will heal the person
from such pains and traumas. Paru
realized that this is an utter disgusting practice depending on the mental
ability of the person who wants to continue this ritual in the family.
It is a blind belief that performing such
odd rituals will bring in good health and happiness to the family and to the
new born. Beating of the person with
branches of neem leaves and asking questions to the one on whom they believe
that goddess Kateri is invoked and blindly following whatever the lady shaking
all though says is all nonsense. NO
Goddess will ask a pregnant lady to be put through such a menace and if this
mother-in-law believed and made vulnerable Paru do this, it is nothing but
unfortunate for Paru and Shame on the Mother-in-law and her family who
participated in this nightmare. It is
time to stop such blind beliefs and horrid rituals to continue in our society.