F I G H T I N G
S H A D O W S
F I G H T I N G
S H A D O W S
Sumanta Ganguli
Srishti
Publishers & Distributors
Srishti Publishers & Distributors
64-A, Adhchini
Sri Aurobindo Marg
New Delhi I I 0 0 I 7
Copyright Sumanta Ganguli 2002
First published in 2002 by
Srishti Publishers &. Distributors
ISBN 8 I -87075-78-3
Rs. I 95.00
Cover Design by Arrt Creations
45 Nehru Apartment, Kalkaji, New Delhi I I 0 0 I 9
Printed and bound in India by
Saurabh Print-O-Pack, Noida
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or other wise,
without the prior written permission of the Publisher.
To Dadamoshai: Im living your dream.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A first novel is like a fledgling; it needs a lot of encouragement and support for its flight of fancy.
I am indebted to my publisher, for his faith and support. Sonali Prakash and Dr Rani Roy were patient and ever helpful editors. I am thankful to Sarah Dunant for her advice and encouragement. The British Council helped me gain insights on creative writing, by allowing me to participate in the Writers Eye Workshop at Kolkata. Dr Basudeb Chattopadhyay and Rimi B Chatterjee offered valuable suggestions. Brigadier S.K. Bhattacharya and Dr (Col.) S.N. Bhattacharya helped me get closer to life in the army. Paramita Saha flagged it off with her first-reader-enthusiasm, joy Bhattacharya and Ashok Malik helped me find my publisher. Annirudha Bhattacharya, Samir and Aditi Talapatra, B. Mukherjee and Somnath Dutta offered a very sensitive reading of the book.
And, this book would have never seen the light of the day without the encouragement and support of my wife and family.
God created man, to live in his garden,
But the intelligent clan soon became a burden.
They chopped the trees, cut the plants,
And ate everything save the ants.
They built dams over the river,
And blasted the rocks, making them shiver
God was patient, understanding and kind,
And hoped man would embrace peace in the mind.
But man defied God and devised religion,
To barter the Lord, in rupee, pound and yen,
Man made swords, guns and the Bomb,
To fret, to fight and carve his own tomb.
CONTENTS
Chapter one
Chapter two
Chapter three
Chapter four
Chapter five
Chapter six
Chapter seven
Chapter eight
Chapter nine
Chapter ten
Chapter eleven
Chapter twelve
Chapter thirteen
Chapter fourteen
Chapter fifteen
Chapter sixteen
Chapter seventeen
C H A P T E R
O ne
T he shell destroyed the silence of the mountains. It was to herald a volley of blasts from both sides. Even God could not predict how long it would continue mankind was beyond salvage. A shell exploded nearby, charring the barren land. Avijit wondered what his artillery was doing at the base. They were yet to respond. Had they fallen asleep? One couldnt blame them if they had. Most had been deprived of that luxury for the past few weeks, throwing up killer powder by the tonne every minute, from those huge monsters, ever since the enemy was spotted within the nations territory.
Well, it had looked like Gods own country. Its beauty had stopped Avijit dead in his tracks, the first time he had set foot on this land. The truck carrying them from their temporary quarters had started in the evening and travelled all night through the hilly terrain. The driver took too many risks for comfort to ensure they reached the base camp before dawn. The enemy occupied the superior positions on the hills and ridges and could target a convoy of trucks easily in the daylight. They heard the thunder of guns echoing from the mountains; saw flashes of orange tearing through the dark sky. Their truck reached the base camp, the operational headquarters, around three in the morning. Not a light could be seen from the outside and it comprised around a hundred tents, along a mountain face. They could see a battery of guns targeting the enemy on the mountain peaks, away to the right. The sound was deafening every time a gun fired, and the ground shivered under its strain. Their company was ordered to rest and be ready by five a.m.
Avijit was tired. He tried to get some sleep, but his mind wandered aimlessly. He wondered what his mother thought a thousand miles away. Was she filled with the dread of another dear one deserting her? He still remembered the fateful day that shaped his life as no other day had.
He was born into a Bengali middle class family in Rajpur, a small industrial town, around a hundred kilometres from Calcutta. His first memory of Rajpur was the vast barrage built over the river Bhairab. His father, who was a blast furnace operator in the local steel plant, would take Avijit on a cycle to the barrage during weekends. He was then so small that his father had to raise him up over the railing so that he could see the water falling down. He would stare at the cascading water with a sense of wonder, as man and nature battled for supremacy; the latter covering Avijits face in a thin wisp of vapour, as it toiled and roared over the man made barrier to freedom. His trance would only be broken, once his father tired of holding him up, would put him down. They would have misti-doi on the way back. That had been the only thrill in his otherwise routine and mundane life. Theirs was not a life of plenty but his parents were determined to give their only son the best. So Avij it went to the best school in town, the only school that had a permanent building and a playground of its own. His father wanted him to be an engineer, having had to work under one all through his career. His mother wanted him to be a doctor, as she was fed up with their local doctor who invariably prescribed medicines for malaria when a patient went to him with a mild fever. Avijit wanted to be a football player.
He remembered an early morning in June. He was only ten and taking a growing interest in sports. They did not have TV at home and his father would take him to his colleague Nalus house, to watch a football or cricket match. It was the football world cup quarterfinals and Argentina was playing England. He was mesmerized by a five foot odd player, who reigned the field like an emperor. The opponents were caught on the wrong foot everytime he had the ball. It was no surprise his team won and advanced to the semifinals. That match was even worse for the opponents. Avijit watched with awe, how a player could dribble the ball from his own half into the opponents net. Argentina became the world champions and the biggest poster of Diego Maradona available in the whole of Rajpur, adorned the walls of Avijits small bedroom within a week. He yearned to emulate his idol and started playing the game. Determination and hard work earned him a place in the best team in Rajpur within three years.
His parents did not stop him, but ensured that studies didnt take a back seat. His father would sit with him every evening, in spite of working a ten hour shift in scorching heat at the plant, and guide him through his daily homework. And the hard work paid off. Though Avijit never topped his class, he was always within the top five. As die school finals approached, his parents persuaded him to concentrate only on studies and forget football for a while.
