A memorable night at Ranchi.

Since the impending trip to Dwaraka has triggered my memories conversely of that of Ranchi ,let me fill in some more gaps ,which i assure ,is only a honest narration of events that took place on a dark and eerie night at Ranchi and not to stir up any emotions or to politicise.

Advaniji's rath yatra was all set to enter Bihar and there was palpable excitement every where.The colony that we stayed in was full of upper middle class and rich traders and merchants --Gujarati's, marwadis and mainly Sikhs.A stone throw away from our quarters was a bridge over river Subraneka which was more or less like a huge drain ,linking this colony to a huge sprawling tenements of 1 lakh or so poor Muslims as well as tribals.They worked as tailors, washer men , scavengers , maids etc.

On that particular evening rumours were rife in our colony of a impending attack by Muslims on us, incensed by the rath yatra .Sardarji's collected in groups on the streets and in houses whispering to each other.
Whilst feeding my primary school going children their evening meal our next door neighbour ,a middle aged Sikh knocked on our door asking us to vacate the premises immediately and spend the night with them ,further down that road fearing an attack any time, in the night!

I have never come across any sort of communal violence in any of those many cities i had lived so far nor did my husband.And why should any one want to harm us?

Seeing our skeptic expressions one of our neighbours a Gujarati ,whose teeth was chattering in fear said 'it requires very little provocation for these desperate men to to stab one with a knife whilst we hesitate and cower in fear.'
Though we didn't feel any fear ,we decided that it was the prudent thing to pay heed to those who seemed to have lived through such ordeals, hence we locked the house and left it and followed the Sikh with our kids.

As we walked towards that Sikh's house i looked up and was totaly taken aback.Every roof top was lined with young men of the respective families ,with guns aimed at the street leading to the bridge!All of them silhouetted clearly and their guns glinting in the moonlight.
I have seen such scenes only on wild west and daku films and in sholay.But this scene was no reel but real! Wasn't it tough to procure a gun license?Presumably not, in our wild wild East!

I was further shocked to see the state of the mistress of the house .A tall and confident and otherwise a fearsome woman shuddering in fear , visiting the toilet often to relieve her bladder,muttering that they were neither safe from Hindus or from Muslims!All the Sikhs had sold their houses located near their shops in the main market place on being surrounded by a howling crowd of labourers and maids hurling abuses at them on the immediate after math of Smt.Indira ghandhi's death and bought and built houses enmasse in this colony and banded together for safety,since no policeman came to their rescue nor was the army called in,unlike in neighbouring West Bengal.It made me squirm when i first heard this.

There was fear every where that night.Yet neither my husband nor i felt any apprehension Having never been exposed to such a situation in our life before we just couldn't understand or comprehend the panic gripping all those around us.That of a violent death.

We had a dinner of phulkas along with the Sikh who was a gracious host ,who however ate poorly and slept in one of their bedrooms whilst their young sons in their 20's kept vigil all through the night on the roof tops with their mother pacing the house nervously and restlessly.

The night passed without any further incident and the next day curfew was imposed and CRPF men started patrolling the streets ,after 2 tribals were set on fire in the sprawl late that memorable night.The curfew was lifted after few days and things were back to normal.