The Rat Bitten Girl

Chapter 1 Part 2

The father Ghulam Rasool, went and asked his wife Zulekha, what had been their daughter's name before she became Rat Bitten. The mother didn't like this kind of inquiry after she had hardly forgotten the days when she had cried over her wounded little baby girl every now and then "My poor little Rat Bitten... My Rat Bitten."

Rat Bitten's mother was a city girl and had been married to a village boy, who had a traumatic three days long labor while delivering Rat Bitten and she was so tormented in the process that she didn't feel obliged to follow the regimen which was supposed to be followed for the first forty days of postpartum, which was after the birth of a baby.

The first thing she did not do was that she didn't cover her hair or tie a scarf around her forehead. And due to her acute carelessness, she had been at the verge of madness.

No matter how frequently the elderly women instructed her to walk slowly, she always argued citing the examples from the English movies she had watched:

"I haven't seen any English women covering their heads after the birth of their babies." Zulekha said from her memory of parental home. Here in the house of her inlaws there was no electricity hence no TV. Radio was the only form of media available.

"Oh so you are comparing yourself with the English Women?"

"Yes whats wrong about that? These women don't seem to follow any of these instructions, yet they seem merry. Their stomachs not hanging like a pouch just as ours but stuck to their backs, as if their tummies simply don't exist. "

"But those are white people. They are strong by birth and by the specification of their race. They rule the world and we are subservient. We are fragile by our very nomenclature."

And another old lady who had no tooth left in her mouth, without caring for the colonizing perspective of the conversation dutifully told her. "Ama don't leave your head uncovered. It may harm your sanity."

"What? Sanity? Harm my sanity?" She had said while struggling with inserting her mighty nipple into the tiny mouth of Rat Bitten.

"Please stop counseling me on how should I walk and talk and cover myself." Rat Bitten's mother said.

"Oho you are so rude. These are the problems of marrying urban women. They don't give a damn to what the advise of sages have. Well!! Haven't heard of a new mother with such erratic attitude. And before I leave I will make sure you know this, a woman in our village went crazy because just like you she didn't give a damn to her elder's words or any traditional suggestions. And following her footsteps I won't be surprised if you begot similar consequences."

"No I don't buy that bull shit. I won't cover my hair nor tie a scarf around my forehead. Come what may."

Zulekha kept arguing anytime she was interrupted eating something which, she was told wasn't good for the stomach of little Rat Bitten. At times she felt like following but then she realized each of her action met some form of reaction by someone.

"Hot bread?" This time it was hot bread. Rat Bitten's mother rolled her eyes with wrath.

"Oh you are eating hot bread? Your baby will get colic." She was told by her mom. "I didn't eat hot bread when you were born. I always cooled it down before eating. But Rat Bitten's mother kept her mouth shut for speaking and continued savoring the warmth of bread and fragrance of butter and honey on her tongue.

Then on a fateful day she sprinkled some fresh cilantro on top of her favorite garlic potato curry when her young sister in law, who had been working as a spy since Rat Bitten was born, came running.

"Donttttt...!!! Please don't eat cilantro. Bhajai please don't eat cilantro."

Rat Bitten's mom was fire at this. "Now? Now whats wrong with poor cilantro?"

"Amma says our cousin TajGul ate cilantro while she was nursing and her baby's belly button swoll into a ball and took several years to heal."

"Several years?" And she issued a mighty laughter at the innocent exaggeration. "So how do you know her belly button swoll because your cousin ate cilantro?" And she stubbornly tore a piece from bread and formed a morsel with the curry with cilantro and readied to put into her mouth.

"No."

But she paid no heed to the pain of this no and went on chewing and adoring the crunch of cilantro in her mouth.

The sister in law called her mother to rescue the situation.

"She is eating cilantro under my nose?" The mother in law shouted and came trotting. The three women were merged (gutham gutha) with each other and no one knew what was supposed to be done.

Finally Rat Bitten's mother got so angry that she threw the plate of curry on the face of spy in law- sister in law. "Jachoos!! you have nothing else in the world to do except for reporting on me? What am I eating what I am drinking?"

Meanwhile couple of drops from the hot curry entered her eyes and closing her eyes she cried, "I am dieng mother, the red chillies have entered my eyes. Ama I will go blind. This witch has done this to me.

Zulekha had decided to teach a lesson to her women in law so that they left her alone to enjoy the blessings of motherhood and not see it as a curse.

And this was when Rat Bitten was suffering the eighth day of her entry into the world. She had been so adamant for not coming out of her mother's body that it took three long days for her mother to suffer the labor pains and the midwife told her that the baby had gone up to her heart rather than coming down and this was a sign which assured them that it was a girl. Boys were usually ready to enter the world and their labor and pregnancy wasn't as painful as girl's was.

So while these women were thirsty for each other's blood, little Rat Bitten who till that day had been known as Vazira was sleeping inside the room while a rat came out of his hole and stopping, squinting his eyes, he desperately looked for something to eat and he saw that a white bundle with some flesh and a bunch of black hair on top was readily available to feast upon. The rat was thrilled at this opportunity of a lifetime not only to satiate his hunger but to revenge from the human race by eating their baby. The human race who had killed thousands of rats (as per his humble estimation). Although he feared even larger number of rats had been killed. At this realization out of some patriotic sentiment, he felt a heavy tear wetting his cheek, a tear in the sad memory of his murdered peers and ancestors. This moved the adrenaline in his body and without a second thought he ran to the baby and began eating the tip of the little nose and when the human baby woke up and cried at the highest pitch of her tiny throat. The rat hurried to eat some delicious bites from the cheeks and lips. And long before this fire of revenge had extinguished or his little tummy felt full, he heard the footsteps of mighty humans approaching and he ran back to his hole without stopping or looking behind.

"Rat Bitten, my poor little baby. My Rat Bitten." Rat Bitten's mother had cried on her bleeding face for two days.

This was how Rat Bitten had been called Rat Bitten.