Witch act saved the day

Nathi Devi was a hardy village girl. Despite an unsupportive family, she somehow managed to pass matriculation from a high school several kilometres away from her home. After a year or so, her hard work bore fruit and she got the job of a health worker. This raised her status, but it could not empower her with the freedom to choose a life partner of matching education in the caste-conscious society of her times.

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Being parentless, her brothers married her to a person of their caste who ran a grocery shop in a nearby village in Mandi. Luckily, her husband proved to be a gentleman. He allowed her to continue with her government job. Life moved on smoothly and in the next few years, Nathi Devi bore three sons. She toiled to give the best education to them. Her routine was so rigorous that she had to do field duty some 20 km away and return home daily to cook dinner for her family. She walked for 5 km from the bus stop after finishing her field duty. The journey by foot on a hilly track was lonesome. Sometimes when she was late, she had to travel in the dusk. She feared for her life as the bushes abounded with wild animals.

A moonlit evening in September proved to be unforgettable for her. Two men were stalking her. She mustered courage and thought of a plan. On the next bend on the path, when the stalkers were out of sight, she opened her braid and spread her hair on her shoulders, back and some on her face too. She took out lipstick from her handbag and smeared it on her lips and cheeks boisterously. Then she picked up pebbles and a stick from a bush. She then shrieked with such force that it could be heard a kilometre away and echoed too. She also threw pebbles on all sides.

The stalkers were stunned. One of them yelped: ‘Oh yeh to dughe naale wali chudail hai… bhago… bhago (this is the witch from that deep gorge, run)’ and both took to their heels. Nathi Devi reached her home safely. Her husband and children were awestruck on seeing her flowing hair and lipstick-smeared face, but when they heard her story, they burst into peals of laughter.

The intrepid Nathi Devi’s hard life paid off. Her two elder sons did PhD in agriculture and went on to occupy high posts; the eldest one was my schoolmate. The youngest son became a banker. Her grandsons and daughter became doctors. Often after dinner, they all used to prod Nathi Devi to narrate her witch act, which had become a legend!