ಗಾನ್ ಫಿಶಿಂಗ್! (ಎರಡು ವಾರ ಮಾತ್ರ)

ನನ್ನ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತ ಲೀ ಮಾವೋ ಅಧಿಕಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ಅನುಭವಿಸಿದ ಬಾಲ್ಯ, ಅವನಜ್ಜಿಯ ಕತೆಗಳ ಆರ್ಕೈವ್ ಟೋಸ್ಟ್ ಆಗಿದೆ. ಅದರೊಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ನನ್ನ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಕೋಡ್ ಬ್ಯಾಕಪ್ ಸಹ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಆ ಕತೆಗಳನ್ನೆಲ್ಲಾ ಮತ್ತೊಮ್ಮೆ ಮೊದಲಿನಿಂದ ಬರೆಯಬೇಕು. ಈ ಟೋಸ್ಟ್ ಆಗಲು ಕಾರಣ ಚೈನಾ ಕಾಂಸ್ಪಿರಸಿ ಇರಬಹುದೇನೋ!

ಇರಲಿ, ಸದ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಈಗ ರಜೆಯ ಸಮಯ.

ಇಲ್ಲಿನ ನದಿ, ಕೆರೆ, ಸರೋವರಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನನ್ನ ಮೀನು ಹಿಡಿಯುವ (ಹಿಡಿ-ಬಿಡು) ತೀಟೆಯನ್ನು ತೀರಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ನಾನು, ಮುಂದಿನ ಇನ್ನೆರಡು ವಾರಕ್ಕೆ ನನ್ನ ಚಟವನ್ನು ಸಮುದ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ವರ್ಗಾಯಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಕನ್ನಡನಾಡಿನ ಬಂಗುಡೆ, ಮತ್ತಿ, ಕಾಣೆ, ಕಟ್ಲ, ಬೂತಾಯಿ, ಮಾತಾಯಿ ಇಷ್ಟವಾದರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಿನ ’ಸ್ವೋರ್ಡ್ ಫಿಶ್’, ನಾನು ಬಹುವಾಗಿ ಇಷ್ಟಪಟ್ಟು ತಿನ್ನುವ ಮೀನು. ಇದು ಸಮುದ್ರ ಮೀನಾದ್ದರಿಂದ ಫ್ಲೋರಿಡಾ ತೀರದ ಸಮುದ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದರ ಫಿಶಿಂಗ್ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಮಜವಾಗಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಇನ್ನು ಎರಡು ವಾರ ಈ ಮೀನು ಶಿಕಾರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ತೊಡಗಿರುತ್ತೇನೆ. ಮೀನು, ಶಿಕಾರಿ ಎಂದೊಡನೆ ಶ್ರೀ ಪೂರ್ಣಚಂದ್ರ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿಯವರು ನೆನಪಾಗುವರಲ್ಲವೇ? ಹೌದು, ಅವರೊಂದು ಕನ್ನಡದ ಅದ್ಭುತ! ನನಗೂ ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಈ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಪರಿಸರ ಸಂಬಂಧೀ ಚಟಗಳು ಅವರ ಅಭಿಮಾನಿಯಾದೊಡನೇ ಬಳುವಳಿಯಾಗಿ ಬಂದಿವೆ. ನನ್ನ ಅದೃಷ್ಟಕ್ಕೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇಟೆ ಲೀಗಲ್! ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಅಲ್ಲ, ಬೇಟೆಯೊಂದು ಪರಿಸರ ಸಂರಕ್ಷಣೆಯ ವಿಧಾನ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಸದ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಜಿಂಕೆ, ಕಾಡುಹಂದಿ, ಟರ್ಕಿ ಬೇಟೆಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿರುವ ನಾನು ಮುಂದೊಮ್ಮೆ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾದರೆ ಕರಡೀ ಬೇಟೆಯನ್ನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂದಿರುವೆನು. ಇರಲಿ, ತೇಜಸ್ವಿಯವರ ಕೆಲವು ಕತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಗೆ ಭಾಷಾಂತರಿಸಿ, ಅಮೇರಿಕಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರ ಒಂದು ಕಥಾ ಸಂಕಲನದ ಪುಸ್ತಕವನ್ನು ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸಬೇಕೆಂದು ಸಿದ್ಧನಾಗುತ್ತಿರುವೆನು. ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕೂಡಿ ಬಂದರೆ ಬರುವ ಸೆಪ್ಟೆಂಬರ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ನೀವು "ಅಮೆಜಾನ್.ಕಾಂ"ನಲ್ಲಿ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿಯವರ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಅನುವಾದದ ಪುಸ್ತಕವೊಂದನ್ನು ಕೊಳ್ಳಬಹುದು. ಸದ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮನ ತಣಿಸಲು ’ಕಾಳಪ್ಪನ ಕೋಬ್ರ’ದ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಅನುವಾದವನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಮೊದಲರ್ಧ ಈ ವಾರ ಮತ್ತು ಕೊನೆಯರ್ಧ ಮುಂದಿನವಾರ. ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ಓದಿ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯವನ್ನು ತಿಳಿಸಿ. Kalappa's Cobra Every summer, we always get snake problems. Couldn’t figure whether they were coming to catch the mice or frogs! Generally, they would appear in sunny afternoons of summer rather than all other seasons. Some people have words of appreciation for snakes, for their shiny body, texture and its hood spread, etc. But these slithering rope like cold blooded dangerous creatures give me chills. Appreciating these camouflaged biting innocents with their killer bites is impossible for me. I would kill any snake that comes close to my house with a stick. During one summer, a snake created a wave of fear among everyone in the farm. Usually I would kill or drive the snakes away and forget about them but this one made me worried too. There were some prior incidents happened are the reason why this snake made everyone concerned and shiver in fear. You wouldn’t understand why it should be so frightening unless you know these. “There is a COBRA that came into Kalappa’s house. They are doing pooja (worship) today. We are all going” said my plantation Labor-Head taking along his sons, daughters-in-law on a half day leave. Kalappa had just returned from Bombay. It was a great deal of news that Kalappa went on a job to Bombay from an unknown rundown village of Malnad. When introduced, Kalappa’s father Byrappa never forgets to make it a point about his son working in Bombay. So I knew all about Kalappa well before his return from Bombay. But I had never seen him. Once while walking to Jannapura, I saw someone riding the bullock cart wearing a chauffer’s hat and all dressed up with a leather jerkin coat, jeans and a pair of sunglasses. I was surprised to see someone riding a bullock cart wearing leathers in this unbearable summer heat. When the cart approached me, he pulled the martingale straps of the bullock cart bringing the cart to stop and jumped out of the bullock cart in a snap, and military saluted me. I couldn’t recognize this lean pale screechy voiced guy. The bullock cart rider told me that he is the one Kalappa that works in Bombay. Determined to well verse the Bombay culture to this remote rundown village folks, he was riding the bullock cart wearing leathers and sunglasses that he brought from Bombay in this hot summer. After he introduced all about himself, out of curiosity I asked him what kind of a work is he doing at Bombay. He said that he is a ballboy in a club there. When I asked what kind of a job is that he said that it is picking the balls that go out of the tennis court and returning them to the players. I was little disappointed by hearing his job description as I expected a little more dignified job description by his proud appearance. I asked why he took up such a mean job of a ballboy instead of taking care of his father’s own paddy fields. Upon hearing that I don’t have a good opinion on his job, Kalappa’s pride might have hurt. May be he is convinced that he can’t have the same effect on me as he had by telling English job title to fellow villagers. So he took some effort to explain me about the greatness about his work. “Don’t look at it as a mean club servant’s job, Sir! All great officers come to play there. I get to know them. Chief Minister, Deputy Commissioners all comes to play there. When I return the ball to them, they have tipped me, Sir! Getting the dirt all over the body is the only reward here for working in the rice fields. An income out of a mere betel leaf vendor’s plate in Bombay worth more than what my father makes in his four acres of rice fields. A whole year’s earnings here won’t come close to what I make in Bombay in a month” he said. Given the fact when I have migrated from a city to country for farming, I did not like him saying farming is meaner than of a ballboy. But still it made me concerned as he was telling me a saddening truth of India. “If we want to eat FRUITS, no FRUITS here, if we want to drink MILK, no MILK here. Why should we be here? I am on a few days of vacation here, that’s all. I will go back to Bombay after that” he said. It was amusing to hear his use of English words in his dialogues. Additionally, to show that he learnt Hindi he was starting all his conversations with ‘Achchaa’ (means Good/Well/Fine in Hindi) without differentiating all of my sayings. “Let’s ask how many saris (dresses) my father has bought for my mom by earning in the rice farming. If I bring a sari (dress) out of my tip money while coming, she gets one otherwise none. Why should we grow this BLOODY rice?” he spitted out at the rice. I thought this lean pale guy will not adjust to the hardships of farming. But it puzzled me that why this FRUITS eating and MILK drinking guy is weaker than the BLOODY rice eating villagers! Kalappa finished his talk, saluted again, jumped on the cart and squeezed the bullock’s tail to move the cart. When I heard about the COBRA’s drop into Kalappa’s house, I assumed it might be the ghost name similar to the ones I used to hear. Once in a while gods or ghosts spirits used to emerge on some people in the village. Later I realized that it’s actually cobra the snake that Kalappa referred! He was told by the priest that he must perform cobra worship since a cobra entered into his house. So they all had come to the ant (snake) hill near my farm fence, applied turmeric, kumkum, placed a snake depicting cotton garland around the ant (snake) hill and poured milk into the ant (snake) hill’s mouth as worship rituals. Humans have strange passion about new peculiar words. Now many of the villagers started calling COBRA instead of snake or other usual local lingo due to Kalappa. Likewise ant (snake) hill became COBRA hill; snake worship became COBRA worship and strange similar words. As stated by him that he will return to Bombay within few days, it never became possible for Kalappa to return. Within few days after performing COBRA worship, Kalappa’s father Byrappa died of a snake bite. He had left the snake without killing that was roaming in his house by considering the advice that the cobra is a Brahmin and one should not kill it. Cobra that was hidden by the firewood, bit Byrappa and he died. It became inevitable for Kalappa to leave to Bombay since there is no one else to take care of the household. While dieing Byrappa mentioned that he harmed a cobra accidentally with his sickle while harvesting the rice and that same snake had come into his house and bitten him out of revenge. Later when everyone searched the house to kill the snake, it was already disappeared. Byrappa’s last statement witnessed by our Labor-Head was the culprit to create fearful situation in our farm. We keep boxes of beehives here and there under the shady cool places around the farm so bees can come in and build the colony. We need to clean them up regularly by driving the bugs, rats and lizards out that are holed in them. One day, I and Teekappa went to clean up a beehive. When I opened the lid of the beehive, there was a big cobra sleeping in got disturbed lifted its head hissing in a spring action. As I was holding the lid with both of my hands, I could not do anything. After seeing Teekappa yelling ‘snake snake’ and searching for a stick, our Labor-Head came running with a stick. Teekappa and the Labor-Head both swung the sticks all around in a hurry fearsome tension. Surrounded coffee plant branches broke for their stick swinging and didn’t harm the snake. May be a swing of them would have touched the snake so the snake lifted its hood and scared us while slithering through the twigs and leaves fallen. By the time I kept the beehive lid and picked the stick, snake had already escaped. There was not enough room in the beehive for such a big snake to get in. I couldn’t understand how and from which side of the box it had got in. This cobra has appeared near our home within few days of Byrappa’s death. Everyone assumed that it’s the same snake that came into the beehive recognizing by its light blackish complexion. Thinking of Byrappa’s last statement that the snake bit him out of revenge, our Labor-Head decided that the snake had come to finish him now. He became worried telling Teekappa “There is no doubt that this time COBRA had come to finish both of us.” The snake visits around the house is common in summer every year. So, “We will beat it to death. Don’t worry” I said consistently encouraging but the fear in our Labor-Head kept multiplying. “Why would Master care? He encouragingly insists, but the death time has come to us. It’s a mistake that we went to kill the COBRA on that day” Labor-Head told Teekappa it seems. It might be the same snake at both the places that we drove out of beehive! It was sharp enough to slither in and disappear somewhere when spotted. Once it was basking in the sun right on our door steps it seems. Teekappa jumped over the steps to skip stepping over it after spotting it by a hair’s difference and hurt his feet. By the time we all got there with sticks after hearing him, the snake had disappeared. To Be Continued...