A Hair-Raising Tale Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

A little away from the abode of Lord Siva
at Kedharnath in Himalayas, the pilgrims
were thronging around a man sitting
with darting looks at the stream
galloping down the hills!
" Go and see the forlorn habitué who has
a usual day out to these hills every year",
someone said. We wended our way to that place.
A haggard, bearded man was appealing to the stream.
I looked at the face which was reminiscing about
something in my past. I lifted his face
and cried in shock, "Sir! " He nodded and showed me
a date carved on the rock nearby, the day of
disaster that shook the Himalayas
and shocked the hearts of worshippers of gods.
The numinous minded man who gave me
pastoral care three decades back in a rural school
was sitting there with a weeping heart like a mad man!
" Shall I find her again? ", he asked me
laying his head on my chest.

He began to give a rundown of that calamity
which swallowed his dear wife without pity.
"We were climbing up near this place
enjoying the salubrious breeze of the hills.
Neither we saw the flash of lightning
Nor we heard the rattling voice of thunder!
The darker clouds hovered over the hills,
descended and poured down on a sudden
in torrents and engulfed in water,
the entire hill tracts around the temple. 30
There was a mayhem and we cried in alarm.
The roar of rushing floods jammed our voice
and calls for help. An overwhelming sea of terror
sallied forth and we were swept down to hell.
In the next dawn, I woke up to find me caught
in the netting by the roots of trees. Woe to me!
Death had nabbed my wife into the deadly trap
of inundation", he was sobbing.

"A slight niggle in our limbs fills our minds with worries.
How this man bears the mortal hurt inflicted
by the violent behavior of Nature in his childish heart? "
I wondered. I patted on his back, consoled him
and took him up to weep out before the God
to find comfort to his broken heart.
" Your wife is in your heart. No quake in earth
or deluge can wipe her out. When she is here,
why should you seek her in hills and dales? "
I brought him down the hills and took him home.
Now and then he speaks to me and tells
of his children's achievements and laurels won.