Translated into English by Saravanan Karmegam
***
Chapter 40: Kerk Straat
The yellow lights from the gas lamps were glowing in Hakka Straat. Vehicles were busy moving on both directions of the road. Pandian was walking west along the left edge of the road. He was wearing a blue shirt tucked into a greenish brown lungi. On the top, a Khaki over coat. A pair of slip-on shoes on feet. Jumadi and Iskant in Malay costume were walking behind him, at a distance on both sides of the road. Rashid and Kartaviro were following these two men the way they were walking behind Pandian.
A Dutch lieutenant standing close to a jeep near Roxy Bioscope threw a frowning stare at him. Wearing a rustic look of labourers working in tea estates, Pandian was busy walking steadily with his mouth wide open and eyes squinting. His left hand rose to the back of his neck at intervals and scratched it often.
He went past the railway track. Kerk Straat. Dermulan Restaurant. Crowding army men. Rows of vehicles. He walked along the walls of Mother Mary church. Cars were speeding away. Men were on the move. Occasional appearance of weapon wielding soldiers. Tree branches rustled. A glaring light on the top of Davros bungalow.
“Stop”
A Dutch Corporal yelled at him, parking his motor bike near the pedestrian path. His right hand brandished a pistol while his left hand grasping his waist belt. Pandian stopped. Four Dutch soldiers were coming opposite, chit chatting. Pandian looked into the eyes of the soldier who stopped him. Eyes brimming with suspicion!
Pandian raised his hands skyward. The chit-chat soldiers went past them as if nothing happened. With his intimidated look Pandian looked through Corporal’s eyes. “Is he sure about my identity? Or just a suspicion? Let me try something to get rid of him” Pandian thought.
“Sir…sir…saya kling….Sir…saya didamilayu….sir”
He was pleading with an innocent face, not of a Malay but of a Tamil. His squinting eyes were watching the Dutch Corporal sharply.
The passers-by slowed down their paces, watched them standing at a distance.
“Tathang sam saya”
The Corporal bellowed, asked Pandian to come with him.
“Sir…sir…saya kling….Sir…saya didamilayu….sir”
His hands raised above skyward signaled something with a mild shake. A booming sound- the sound of bullet from behind. The Dutch man tried batting his eyes lids. Pandian, with his raised hand delivered a hard punch in lightning speed, and ran for life in a second. Bullets were showered, brushing his elbows. Pistols spewing out…tum….tum…tum’
Holding a pistol in one hand, Pandian jumped off and ran crisscross. Bodies fell dead. The soldiers appearing from nowhere ran after him, followed him and tried to shoot him down.
“Shoot him…Shoot him…”
The Dutch voices shrieked aloud.
The four men who accompanied him ran separately, fell onto the ground and were delivering bullets. The passers-by took to their feet and ran helter-skelter. Some of them fell flat on ground and closed their ears.
A Military warning bell went off and was continuously giving out a shrill howl. Pandian jumped on his side, shot back at the person chasing him behind and ran again crisscross. ‘If I could manage reaching Davros bungalow, retaliatory fire will be easy as there will be mammoth pillars to take cover’, he thought.
A jeep coming from Kesawan stopped there abruptly. The soldier jumped out of the jeep aligned his Tommy machine gun slinging over his shoulder at his waist level and let loose a burst of fire from its nozzle...trrrrrrrr..trrrrrr.
Pandian fell on the ground in the four-junction, hit by bullets. The rain of rounds again….Storm, flood, earth quake, darkness, darkness, darkness, blood gushing out like flood from hands, legs, waist, chest….again pumping of a burst of fire into him.
Dilton, holding a Tommy gun in his left hand came running to Pandian, bent down, and examined who it was.
“Heavens! Pandaiyaan! Raja Uttang!”
The soldiers standing around him looked astonished, their mouth uttered ‘Raja Uttang’ in a cataleptic reflex.
“Raja Uttang! Raja Uttanag! Raja Uttang!”
Dilton, straightening his body, delivered instructions in sequence.
“Siberling! Get the road blocked. Balstra! Disperse the crowd at Dermulan. Bring him a stretcher, immediately. Nielson, call the ambulance”
He unbuttoned Pandian’s shirt. Blood…blood…blood all over his body, and floor. They lifted him holding each other’s hands under his body, joined the tables together, laid him on bed spreads and administered first aid.
“Pandaiyaan….Pandaiyaan”
Dilton was standing near the cot on which Pandian was laid, watching him.
His body moved a little. ‘Kerk straat, Mother Mary Church, Corporal, bomb sound, sounds of chatters and Dilton’s voice’
““Pandaiyaan….Pandaiyaan”
Pandian opened his eyes, squinted facing the glare, and batted twitchily. Words came out as if they were from the netherworld.
“Good evening Major”
“Good evening Raja Uttang”
He extended his hand to a tumbler on the table near the wall.
“Please drink it. You are out of danger. Doctor is on the way. Doctor Hewber”
Putting his hand under the pillow, Dilton lifted Pandian’s head and held out the tumbler near his mouth. The fire like water went through his throat, made his body burn with fire and offered him strength.
“What happened to my men?”
“Don’t know. Total six men”
“Will I live some more time?”
“No…No…you are absolutely out of danger. Strong body. Sound mind. A very talented doctor is on the way. Miracle medicines coming out. Some sutures. Some days on bed rest. Then we meet again old Pandaiyaan”
“Hopeless”
“Nothing hopeless. It is the truth. What an unfortunate meeting is it anyway!”
“Whatever, we did meet anyway”
“It is the destiny of humans to meet and then part away”
“Parting is the result of meeting. My eyes glare. What building is this?”
“Dermulan restaurant”
He switched off the light in the front and came back.
“How long was it after the shoot out?”
“About twenty minutes”
“How did he identify me?”
“I have given some of my men your photograph”
“Which one?”
“Binling Studio in Singapore”
“Oh! That photo with three men?”
“It’s our plan to get all of you arrested and deported to India by ship. This shoot-out, a totally unexpected, unwarranted side effect”
“Oh!”
“A British counsel, my father’s friend, had promised me for assistance”
“That old Mallison?”
“Yes. He is obdurate in safe guarding the welfare British citizens”
“Yes! I know”
“Have some rest. Doctor will reach shortly. I’ll be back in minutes after making a telephone call”- Dilton paced fast to the adjacent room.
Breath getting choked up. Suffocating. Lumps in chest and throat, falling deeper in nadir, an empty space, space of nothingness, injuries, blood, space of emptiness, Penang, Rajula, Nagapattinam, Madurai, Sinna Mangalam, neem oil in the market, wooden wheeled push carts creaking sounds, a man sized bag full of tobacco, cajoling entreaties to avail it as soon as possible before it getting empty, open ground in front of the Amman Temple, milky moon light, games of Kabadi with rustic songs of challenging others, Madurai Imperial Cinema theatre, South Veli street, traders’ houses, Manjanakara Street, Kuyavar Palayam, Lane Number one, have a look this side- endearing of words in Malayalam, Medan city, Moski Straat, Bilithone Straat, Ayesha, her golden ivory like body, her sweet words “saya pongja sintha saya poogja raja”, wars, plunders, five heads, Arnemia river, Rolce Royce lawyer Dilton, wooden ship, Storm, Penang, Manikkam, Nanyang Hotel, Nee soon camp, Kota Baling, Jarang Camp, Palavesamuthu, Rakbirlal, jails, Kalik usman, Vilasini, Yamasaki, Netaji, ‘you did your duty perfectly’, Penang Natarajan, Chooliya Street, Sundaram, “Anna, please spare me”, Bangkok, Kathiresan, Prophets, Medan, Ayesha, Thangaiya, jungles, battles, Gangsar, my home, my home, my home, medal, Kerk Straat, bombs, Major Dilton, “Ah, what an unfortunate meeting”, now on bed asphyxiating in chest and throat, it’s me, grass, tree, bird, animal, land, water, fire, air, sky, I am everything in this universe, Yessss, it is me…everything…”
“Pandaiyaan….Pandaiyaan” Dilton came running, checked his pulse and felt his body chilled, almost frozen. He pulled the shroud and closed his body.
The ambulance arrived in, stopped at the door way, creaking.
Major Yohan Dilton’s mouth whispered, “You, a fearless man! You, the courageous! Sleep now, Sleep now”
***Chapter 40 “Kerk Straat” ended.
that was a great book, why dont you publish this a novel
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