Beyond the stone Border

Chapter 1

By the side of the river Mahanadi (The Great River) there was a small village. A village of which no one ever heard of or no one ever went to. There was a misnomer that from the top the village looked like a vast coconut tree, which was true to some extent due to a lot coconut trees standing their heads up to the sky in the village at one end and the other end was covered with mud bricked tile roofed houses. The village people had never known about outside world, anything starting from cricket to internet. The sole thing they knew was the art of fishing. The vast bay of Mahanadi provided them with enormous fishes, crabs, tortoises and playing with the fishing net all the day and night was their daily routine. Some of them had never gone past their village border. They were mostly the village elders. Grandparents and great grand parents often believed the ferocious story they had heard from their ancestors about any person leaving the village borders.

The story was heard from every native from the village. The saying about "some gigantic force act upon those who leave the premises and makes them suffer from innumerable diseases" had made all the villagers a great believer since they had the proof of its reality. No one had ever returned once after crossing the border. The villagers had taken them dead and performed their final rituals.

Children however used to playfully cross the border line, but they could never go any far, for their parents used to find out and their play ends very bitterly with lots of canes. Grandparents used to repeat the story they had heard for nth times and after a lot of crying the children fall asleep. Some of them dream about losing to the big enemy outside the borders and some dream about conquering it. Very few born it that village ever dreamt of what is outside, and the boy, Bagha was the gifted one.

No one ever told him what to do or what not to, for he was more likely the shepherd guy of the village. People used to call him that, for he would take all the cattle from the village in the morning to the vast grazing land the village had and in the evening he would return them in the evening. He used to have a lot of free time among the cattle and the most effective and efficient work he had ever done in past five years was to learn the alphabets from the torn books from the garbage. The villagers would think of it as unnecessary job to learn more than the basic calculations of math. Sitting by the cattle Bagha used to watch over the river from morning to evening, counting the various birds visiting their village, collecting pebbles from the land and often composing his own words with stones and pebbles through the alphabets. He had also heard about the story of the border but it didn't matter much to him what exactly was the problem outside the borders. He would dream of flying over the river to an unknown land and making magic.

On one full moon night Bagha stopped by the river and sat on the big rocks those adore their river banks. Looking at the glorious moon he thought of his life and the life of village. "It's so much peaceful here" he thought. "But beyond this river there has to be something. Something may not be from my dream but something worth looking at, something worth noticeable. The rumours about the border may bear some cause to some great wealth. If there is something out there, it would be wonderful to give it a try. Whether the village agree with me or not, I shall explore the truth." He looked towards the woods. The leaves fluttered gently with the touch of cold breeze. A white owl flew over him. White owl was thought to be a good omen according to the village elders. "Good luck to me" he said to himself and stood up.

The next morning, villagers found their cattle tied to their respective sheds. They searched for Bagha for he had already become a part of their life. Some threw despicable assumption of Bagha taken away by evil forces during night, some said, he had taken a sabbatical. The village children confirmed that they had seen him nearby the river at night. A boy or two overstated that they had seen a white light engulfing a human figure by the river last night. Bagha had no family or friends in the village, although everyone from the village knew him. First few days they waited for him to return but after that they also reached to the conclusion that he had crossed the border, hence he had gone for ever.

That night Bagha first went near the little cottage he owns by himself. The moon had gone half a way into its path. The sound of the midnight appeared frightening but Bagha was determined. He collected the only possessions he ever had, a long staff and some clothes. He did not have time to collect the monthly wages from the villagers. He did not have the courage to ask the villagers for their blessings, for he knew that they would never let her leave. The only money he had was the money he had saved till now. "This is not much, but I guess I can start with this" He sighed.

By the day break he had crossed his village and already reached the border. The border seemed very common to him. But the beauty was breathtaking A vast stone wall was lying along the ravines of a rivulet of Mahanadi. The finest rays of morning sun was shining against the wall, creating wonderful rainbow illusions. Bagha stood astounded, glaring at the unspoken beauty of the nature. "Towards the world beyond measure" He raised his staff and set foot on the wall.