The Hindi movie Raajneeti rekindled an old tale that I'd put on the back burner, not quite sure how to treat it. I have always wanted to write a story set against the backdrop of dark, roguish Indian politics. Now the old tale, which is actually a folklore from the jungles of Kanha National Park, had nothing to do with Indian politics, but somehow I managed to establish a link and come up with an idea :)
Now I'm not telling you about the story I have in mind, but let me tell the 'Lapsi Kabar' folk tale. In the old times, long before Kanha became a designated national park, a hunter called Lapsi lived with his family along with his tribe deep inside the forest. A man-eating tigress had become a menace in the tribal hamlet. After 3-4 killings on 3-4 consecutive nights, the villagers decided to send Lapsi to hunt down the tiger. For the next few days, the fearless Lapsi and his associates set up camp in the forest and set baits for the tigress, but she did not arrive. Throughout the nights, they would hear the tigress roaring not far from where they camped, but she never made an appearance or came even close.
Frustrated, the hunters and Lapsi decided to use human bait. Of course, that was easier said than done. No sane human being was willing enough to become a bait for such a ferocious tigress. Finally, Lapsi came up with an idea.
On a particularly bright, moonlit night, Lapsi dragged his wife to the spot where he sat waiting for the tigress. The night was filled with the wife's screams as she begged her husband not to do something as ghastly as that, but he would have none of it. Even as she hollered, cried out for help, he tied her to a tree, jumped on to his machan, raised his bow and arrow, and waited for the tigress.
Finally, the tigress did arrive, but not from the direction in which Lapsi was looking. It sneaked up from behind the tree where the wife was tied and, before Lapsi could see it or fire his arrow, whacked the head of the screaming, panicstricken wife. The force was enough to snap the wife's neck and she died instantly, still tied to the tree.
A devastated Lapsi screamed and leapt out of the machan. As the tigress turned towards him, he fired his arrow, which hit the tigress between her eyes. But she was not finished with him as yet. Before he could pull the second arrow out of his quiver, the tigress pounced on him with a deafening roar and pinned him to the ground. Lapsi's head crashed into the rock behind him and he passed out Next, the tigress bit into his face and ripped it out, while her paws gnawed his torso and ripped it to shreds. Despite the bleeding from the arrow sticking out of her face, the tigress managed to rip to shreds the fearless hunter who, for the first time in his life, felt what it was like to be terrified.
The arrow, however, was poisoned, and it began acting on the tigress. As she walked off, slowly, licking the blood that trickled down her nose, the tigress collapsed under a tree not far away from the dead couple. Before the sun came up the next morning, the tigress was dead.
The villagers of the tribal hamlet created a grave for the three fallen mortals and marked the spots with three stones, which were to serve as tombs.
Quite a fantasy tale, eh? As always, I have the characters in my mind (and the Bollywood equivalents who could play these characters!) Now, to make this into a political scandal story. :)
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