Devi's short life...

Recently, I was having dinner with my youngest aunt at the local lake restaurant when we got talking about the lake itself. That's when she mentioned about my late maternal grandmother having had an elder sister who drowned in this very lake nearly a century ago at the age of 12. Her name was Devi. I was quite shocked since i always thought that my grandmother was the eldest of only two siblings all this while. I made a mental note to ask my late grandmother's surviving younger sister who is around 70, the only other sibling i thought my late grandmother had.. but, i was in for another surprise.

When my grandmother's sister did visit yesterday evening, i jumped at the chance. According to her, my great maternal grandparents lived in a small hut near where the present post office is now as my great grandad was a postman then. And the lake being just a stone throw's away behind their home and when piped water was not available those days, my great grandmother would everyday take out her small herd of goats, followed by Devi who carried the laundry to be washed at the lake, after which she would normally take her bath.

Now the lake flows out into a river through a short underground channel that runs below a main road. And there is some kind of water catchment at the mouth of the channel where the current takes a sudden surge and it is scary to even stand over it and watch the gushing water rapidly disappear into the channel. It seemed this catchment had been there for a long time and this is where Devi did her washing and she would dry the clothes on the then clean grass by the road while she took her bath.

No one knew what exactly happened that fateful day. But it was late afternoon when my great grandmother came home and realised her daughter was not back from the lake. When my great grandfather came back later from work, they put out a search immediately and it was night by the time they found her body washed away way down the river.

My younger grandmother never knew her as she was not even born then. But she said my late grandmother who was around 4 years old that time had mentioned remembering her and calling her 'akka'. She had long hair that reached below her knees. That's all she remembered. I wished i knew more. But that is not more, apparently, there had been other siblings, nearly 10 of them including the two grandmothers who survived. But all of them died at various ages at childhood, probably due to unavailability of proper medical care those days. My younger grandmother was the last to be born and survive. She is now 70. Wow... that took a while to sink it... what if they had all lived today....

This morning as i was taking my usual morning jog around the lake and when i reached the catchment area, i stopped instead of hurrying past. Somehow I never liked that spot. It was kinda eerie to me. I felt the same shiver i always did since i was a child, standing at that very spot that claimed the young life of a great grandmother I never knew I had till now. I understood the shiver now, somehow. I let it go. A silent prayer for her. May her soul rest in peace.

This line from the old 'O, my darling Clementine' song comes to mind....

"...you were lost and gone forever, dreadful story.. "

And i looked up and around, beyond the hills, where the morning mist was still lingering. The old trees scattered around the lake i knew since a child stood still. I wonder if they had witnessed the tragedy and had a story to tell.

It seemed this lake... this small town had plenty of stories to tell. Stories from the past... of my ancestors.... that probably won't be heard no more....


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