BONFIRE

Bone fire


Aahh…yo…aah…yoo…ah….yyooo…come on..
Hey da role some grass…just baby wait a minute…hey dude do it quick…just baby…hey move a bit…hi Sid how u chap…new glasses oooohhh…mast man…aahh…yo…aah…yoo…ah…yyooo…yupp me back and now say what were you asking?
Sam your documentation is awesome man! How did you do it? I mean it’s just awesome…brilliant…moving. I love you for this bastard. What a charming natural setting. Awesomely beautiful scenery…oh what a…
Samresh was having a really big drag that just kept on going and going and going while all possible compliments candied with most charming words showered over his chest and flowed from Shweta’s mouth and showered over Sam’s face and kept flowing. Bonfire was burning and the flames were leaping into air and coming back to spring again and music was filling every heart with some energy that moved all feet with the rhythms changing with the changing tracks and demands and the whole atmosphere was bathed in the alcoholic aroma that had its sacred resources in those many beautifully moulded bottles bearing various labels and various flavours and tastes and fragrance and everything else.
You know I got this grass from there only. It’s dirt cheap there you know. They have cheelum in which you can stuff larger amount of grass and a single drag is enough to fill you inside and outside both. Look at this guy! Sam stopped the video suddenly and dragged his browser to a particular face. Look this man can make this much big flame rise from his cheelum in the very first drag. Sam waved his palm in air to denote the rising flame. And it is really difficult to do so in the very first you know. It’s not even properly lit and grass takes some time to catch fire. Man he was just awesome with his cheelum…Ohh damn! At least four or five faces were looking at his face and experiencing the same awe as if the person was performing the wonderful feat right in front of them. Video was running again. Samresh was holding his glass of whisky. Shweta had her beer can that she took to her lips and removed again after having a sip and her eyes were fixed upon the video. Music was playing and many bodies were following the rhythm, jerking their body and waving their hands holding glasses or cigarettes or both and bonfire was fed with some fresh wood by that guy who again shifted himself into a distant corner and wrapped his shawl around which was holed by rats and the catering owner had promised to give another one in a few days. Shweta had removed the headphone from her ears and was calling for Sam. He was just busy in rolling another. His friends had got some stuff. In full excitement he came to her and told look this is the stuff I simply love. I had got some with me when I went to shoot this documentary and you know men just fell for it. Hey something funny now. You know those people rub tobacco and the dust that remains they sniff it and sneeze and sniff again. Their nostrils glisten with that sticky stuff…owwwh it was disgusting. I don’t know how they did it. And now my part. I showed them this stuff and asked if they wanted to sniff this. And they started laughing upon me. Said that that tobacco dust was medicine for their nose when it gets stuck with goo and this powder... You know they thought this stuff to be powder and said their women can use it but it is so little. Blockheads…simple blockheads. And then I explained everything to them. And you know once they were in they were in. they were just dying to have another sniff but I had no more. They bought my promise for more when I come again. And look they gifted me this much grass. Sam waved his palm in the air to show the quantity he received for his promise. Hey Sam it’s not fair man. You must give us some. Jaggy was showing all his front teeth as his eyes were almost closed after sipping a bitter drink. Fuck..Fuck…fuck…I think I changed my drink with somebody. He is always a late reactor. Sam and Shweta and Pal and Addy, all were laughing as Jaggy was swaying his body up and down and side and side and uttering the same four-lettered fashionable taboo word with increasing vehemence. And suddenly he ran towards a corner and holding his chest with one hand and another supporting against the wall he was puking once twice and thrice…and …and…
Water! Just one gulp and stop. Sam was holding a glass of water, Pal was stroking his back, and Shweta was saying something and sitting at some distance that shawled boy also murmured something. Music was high and bonfire was high and party was on. All were back. Shweta was watching that video and Sam was sitting, explaining certain things and jaggy was also watching that video. Addy was back into the rocking group and Pal was rolling another one and Sam was sipping from his peg and talking with Shweta and Jaggy and Pal. It’s quite a dismal scene there. I mean it’s just poverty, hunger, starvation and you know it’s just like some hell. Thankfully, I carried that much water and food. Still I had to travel back with my whole group to the nearest town, which was at least hundred kilometers. I cannot believe how one can drink that water or eat that food. Sam took another sip, his peg was finished, and he took another from pal’s hand. Rolled grass was also in his hand. Shweta just shifted a bit closer to him and Jaggy was feeling sleepy so he went to sleep. I think Paul sir will be very happy with your work this time. It is really brilliant and can move any heart. Shweta’s remark drew Sam’s attention to her as he was looking at a girl standing in a corner of that video still. He is a damned bastard. Even this time you know he will begin with oh Sam this is really a brilliant video but dubbing part is not up to level. It does not create the vibes you know. This word doesn’t go with the scene and this doesn’t give the shocking effect what is needed and then just add some more idyllic flavour. Usually this goes with general image of these sorts of rural lives. And blah… blah… blah…blupp.
She was just laughing and laughing and laughing and he was also. Anyway, who is this woman? Shweta had noticed that woman standing in that corner. A real bitch. Sam’s tone was unusual here. And Shweta noted that. She put the video on move and soon both were engrossed in the various aspects of that documentary. It had crooked legs, shrunk chests, ballooned bellies, and bulging eyes. And parallel to it ran the dubbed sound narrating the story of their poverty and diseases and superstitions. A narrative of malnutritioned maternity and irresponsible males and the oral stats of pregnancy deaths followed the hanging breasts of women covered in a strange manner that left them almost showing. How can they do this? It’s brutish I mean they simply fuck their wives into pregnancy and then leave them to rot. Bastards. Sam caressed her back above the jacket and under her jacket and cooled her. They are just like that. Almost savages. Video was running and they sat close to each other and they were so close that when they spoke they felt the warmth. Look this is a ritual that they perform with musical accompaniments. Is this a music? All those naked men howling their lungs out! One minute. Sam how can you appreciate this music that is no music at all? It’s just howling and howling and howling. Just jumping around the fire, swaying the body in such weird ways, and making these howling noise. Shweta had taken off the headphone and rested her head on his shoulder. And what these women are doing there? Standing like zombies.
It is a part of their belief. They believe that these men have got some divine spirit and whatever they are chanting are supposed to be divine sounds. It brings fertility to their land and their cattle and their women. And unmarried get husbands very quick. How dumb! Shweta felt indignant at the wretched condition of her sex and hurled as many stones as possible by the time sam switched off his laptop and put it into his car.
Bonfire was leaping into the sky, the bodies were jerking with the music’s rhythm, and that guy had fed it with some more woods and shweta stood there, waiting for sam to come. He had already taken off his jacket and now shweta also did the same and both joined the dance around that bonfire. It was some Brazilian band’s track, all bodies were swaying this way and that way, and sam and shweta were close again, feeling each other and determined to evade any distance that could creep between their bodies.
I will miss this campus very much. These bonfires, these parties, and these friends. You know journalism was my dream career and I swear this college proved to be my dream college. Just exclude the creepy teachers and it was the best place. I hope this documentary will prove a good project work. His hands were following his instincts and moving through and exploring her body. She was caressing his back and holding his hair and stroking his chest. I believe it is the best portrayal of rural poverty and backwardness and no one can see as closely. Words were flowing this way and that way, music was flowing all around, drinks were still flowing from bottles into glasses and from glasses into all the mouths and lungs, and alchoholic aroma were flowing from every mouth, as there were several aaahh…yyoo… ye…aah…yoo...yae…and whistles and shouts and whistles.
Our last wild time in this college. Both sighed. Do you want to be a bit wilder? Sam looked into her eyes as if trying to read her answer in her eyes. Fire leapt higher and higher and higher. Fire was surrounded by a thick and still growing cover of fog and at some distance from all this…
Don’t worry I have got pills.
Thank god.
The shawled guy rose again as he had to feed the bonfire.
It was leaping again into the sky and music was getting wild and people around were getting wilder and that guy shifted to another corner now. He was just waiting this party to get over. Someone may be waiting for him…probably outside this college campus…at his lodging place…or far away at a place where he might have left his wife when coming to this distant city of hopes and dreams.
I stood there, looking at this wild night and remembering many such wild and wilder nights from the past and thinking about the many that are to come and felt the warmth of leaping bonfire and jerking bodies and intertwined wildness and…and his shawl as he sat against my wall, murmuring something. I heard the music of machine and music of soul, music of flesh and music of love, music of orgasm and music of arousal, music of enlightened despair and music of blind hope. I still stand there witnessing similar nights.