Ghamodri and Khabbali

Ghamodri was a tiny hamlet set amidst the hulu mountain foothills, it sat in the lower part of the hills which faced a narrow stream emerging from the river hamu, the fierce river known to travel across the seven mountains and blessed by the 13 gods was fierce as a devil god, its water engulfed whatever came in its course. It frequently flooded the forest area but always left ghamodri from the wrath of its fury. The villagers believed the village was blessed by all the gods and they bestowed immunity on its inhabitants.  Ghamodri was surrounded by all three sides by the mystical forest of khababli which covered an endless tract of land, no villager had ever been to the other end of the forest and neither did anyone want to venture into that unknown territory. The only side not covered by khababli were the plains which extended even further than our vision. Villagers of ghamodri practiced small scale step farming and hunting to provide subsistence to themselves, they frequently provided tribute to visiting Royal officials in the form of rice, rabbit meat and wood, they also provided fodder to the exhausted horses of traveller. The village had plenty of what the nature provided. The outer fringes of the forest provided wood, fruits, bamboo, honey, chest nuts and meat. Farming provided them with rice and millets, which provided enough to the simple folk. Occasional milk through mountain goats and cows provided them with some extra but the wild tigers and leopards frequently snatched the priced possessions from the people of ghamodri

The summers had set and the people of ghamodri were getting ready for the stream to dry up forcing them to travel across the mountain to fetch water from a lake, the village planning committee decided every day 6 males and 6 females would travel to the lake and fetch the whole village water.  The villagers started to discuss amongst each other and decided that every household would take turns by providing one female and male for one day a week. The batch of water bearers continued for the next whole week travelling to the lake and filling water into leather sachets and large cylindrical copper tanks. The village went about in its normal course. Men woke up early to till their land and nurture their crops, women woke and went about doing their household chores, children were buzzing around the village primary school run by an old blind women named Khuti.  The village was usually quite and calm except during the festivals when all the villagers make merry and stop all work for a days to relish the celebrations, they roast wild dears and boars, drink extracts from intoxicationg flowers which would numb even a giant khababli elephant and dance till sunrise. The village was happy and content till one day the water carrier party was ambushed by a tiger, which had made the patch around the lake as its territory.

 A dozen villagers were carrying back water when they heard rustling in the elephant grasses a few feet away, the man leading them struck his axe through the grasses thinking it was a deer or a small animal. The tiger leaped across several feet and with one blow of his paw severed his face, the man flew a few feet and dropped like a dead chicken. The rest of the villagers shouted and ran, the panicked tiger ran up the other disappearing into the jungles. The traumatised villagers cautiously made their way to the village, frequently clapping and making tribal calling sounds. The village was bustling with the news, all folks had gathered under the centuries old banyan tree that stood in the centre of the ghamodri. The water carriers slowly explained to them what happened and how the tiger wanted to kill them all. The headman decided to gather 20 villagers to go and get the body of the villager back, they carried drums to beat, torches to light and axes to kill. The next morning the village folk decided to travel a distance of 12 hours on foot to the local forest office, which could help them get rid of the menace. The people of ghamodri had only one way of provided them water, which was being cut off, the river hulu was several hours far way and not possible to get water from. The elders sat about discussing what they should do, they knew that only option was to get the forest guards to kill it or kill it themselves with arrows.

The group of villager by the next morning arrived back to ghamodri on small mountain ponies and informed to villagers that the forest department would only by the end of the month be able to arrive with its hunting squad to kill or capture it. People of ghamodri were disappointed, they knew the village would not survive if it was not able to get water for the rest of the month, the situation was desperate, there was no other option other than to kill it themselves.  A village messenger was dispatched to the nearest village to provide them men to capture the beast. Villagers started preparation for the hunt, they gathered weapons, repaired the drums, fixed their bows and asked women to produce sharp arrows. The patrolling around the village at night was also increased. Ghamodri was preparing for a battle, a battle to save their only source of water from the wild beast. 

The village waited a two nights and then group almost 3 dozen villagers left for hunting the tiger, they took rounds of the route to the village but did not encounter it for days, the hunting squad carried back water during this time. A week later when the hunting party was returning from the lake it heard animal warning calls signalling the tiger is nearby, they all quickly took up positions, some sat on tree trunks, some hid in the bushes and others made their way to upper area which gave them a better view.  The animal calls had gone silent and the villager anxiously waited in their positions, a few minutes later with the harpoon the leader of the group signalled to move forward when suddenly the tiger leaped forward from nallah, the tiger pinned the villager down and struck its neck with it paw and suffocated the man, the tiger had dragged to man into the forest before the villagers could react. This episode had created panic and urgent messages of help were dispatched to other villages, within a fortnight more villagers from around started to descend in ghamodri to help hunt the beast which had taken two lives and was to be urgently exterminated.

The man eating tiger was all what people around ghamodri were talking, village were traumatised with the idea of a tiger coming out of khababli and encroaching on human territory. Elders in ghamodri decided to go more prepared, a dozen more men were added and even a two elephants were got to help them hunt the tiger.  The next morning villagers again left to hunt the tiger, they camped a few yards away from the lake. The tiger did not show up for a few days when one day a couple of villagers around the other corner of the lake spotted the tiger sitting under a large pine tree. The villagers alarmed their counterparts at the camp near the lake, they immediately surrounded all sides and began to advance with beating their drums and shouting tribal prayers. The tiger was startled it sprang up and became furious, it jumped onto a group of villagers and pawed them, one of them had managed to axe him cause a lump of flesh to drop. The villagers were surrounding with sticks, sickles and axes and the injured tiger was slowly losing his life. The tiger again tried to leap forward but its digits were cut by a sickle. The villagers slowly kept coming closer to the injured animal and the tiger kept moaning in pain, its majestic body was lying on the ground with several deep cuts and slashes. The brave of the group lost no opportunity and thrust an axe into the tiger, snatching away the life of that creature. The excited villagers gaped at the dead tiger and rejoiced their victory, they carried their priced hunt back to Ghamodri and all people rejoiced and a massive feats was laid. The village folk could now without any worry go and fetch them water. Ghamodri remained blessed for a while when during the rainy month the gigantic hulu engulfed the village and swept all which remained there. The only surviver was the old blind women khuti, who left the village right after she left the village, before leaving she said to the village headman- ‘ curse is bestowed upon ghamodri for killing the king of khababli, the 13 gods would not forgive for killing its most majestic creature’..