Something moves on the pyre. The few chunks of wood that have been laid over the body fall to the ground. As the very air begins to chill, the dead body awakens. Revived and living, it sits up on the pyre, breathing calmly.
They soon build up a pyre and lay the body upon it. The only thing delaying the cremation is the dead boy’s father. He is yet to reach Aryaghat. He had left the Capital for Pokhara the day before.
When the father arrives, he is visibly moved by the loss of his son. The body, which is about to be cremated according to Hindu ritual, had belonged to a boy who’d died the night before.
Something moves on the pyre. The few chunks of wood that have been laid over the body fall to the ground. As the very air begins to chill, the dead body awakens. Revived and living, it sits up on the pyre, breathing calmly. The body wakes up as if the day were its first on earth.
But a vague sadness falls on the boy’s face as he looks at his wrist. “My hand! My hand! Help me, please!” he starts pleading.
His mother falls to the ground unconscious while Amar, who has strangely ‘resumed’ life, continues shouting. “Somebody please take me to the hospital,” he screams.
Nobody has the slightest idea what is going on. All, understandably, have been taken aback. No one has the courage to properly look at, much less say something, to Amar. His brother, Ashok, somehow manages to address him, “Are you really alive?”
“To hell with you stupid! What do you think? That I’m a ghost? Leave everything for the moment and take me to the hospital. I’ll tell you everything later. Oh God, my hand!” Amar screams, terrified.
Ashok, along with a few other people in the group, take Amar to a hospital, where the doctors call for immediate surgery. After the operation, Amar finds his family and a few of his friends waiting for him outside. As soon as he is transferred to the post-operation ward, they come inside to listen to his story.
And Amar’s story goes like this:
I bled so much I thought I would die, and I sort of knew I had died when I could feel that I was floating. I could see my body lying below me and then I saw a serene light at the distance. It was very peaceful. It felt wonderful and soon drew me towards it. The angel spirits would soon be taking me to purgatory.
And there he was, Chitra Gupt, sitting like a king with his spectacles on.
Chitra Gupt says, “Dear boy, let me tell you my decision. You might not have been the most popular of people, but you’ve always been good at heart. You haven’t made any big mistakes in life but one. The greatest one! You never treasured life. It is something everyone on earth must do. But you didn’t respect and understand the value of life. And for that, we’re sending you to hell.”
“I want to go to heaven. Don’t do this to me. I’m a good person.”
“Boys take him away from here,” Chitra Gupt orders the other angels who have been employed as drivers for the route from hell to purgatory.
As they are taking me away, tightly clasping my arm, I say, “Hey fellas, leave my hand. You’re hurting me. I’ve already died once. Do you want to kill me again? Where will I go if I die again?”
“You don’t die here, boy. You only suffer,” says one of the angles as we all travel by a strange, wheels-free vehicle that flies over the vast, dark sky.
“Why is it so dark? I don’t see anything.”
“You’re about to enter hell boy,” says one of the other angels as the vehicle takes a sharp turn and enters through a large, beautifully decorated gateway; the entrance to hell.
“I don’t want to be here! I’m going to talk to Chitra Gupt again. He shall send me to heaven,” I exclaim, after I see Yamaraj. I run away.
You should know that Yamaraj is a dominating, lion-like fellow. Once he sets his eyes on something, he goes after it, pursing it until he owns it.
There is a girl. I should tell you all she is very beautiful, so lovely. Yamaraj looms up to her and says in his hoarse voice, “Would you like to volunteer here?” And she says, calmly, “Oh, it’s so kind of you. It would be my pleasure to serve the king of hell.” The way he was looking at her, his intention was not to employ her, but to make her do his own bidding. He is one the worst beings that could exist in any of the three worlds.
Yamaraj is after me as well, but I manage.
Hell is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to. Don’t listen to what they tell you. The place is as beautiful as the Himalayas. Fluffy ground, starry skies...It’s only the people there, and Yamaraj, and the way they treat you, which are bad. Otherwise I could have spent my whole life out there.
A group of angels have been sent to find me, one endowed with special powers by Yamaraj himself. As I try and escape the angles, I bump into the one who has been given the special powers. Good for me, the powers shift to me and nothing in hell can harm me anymore.
No punishment works on me. When they throw balls with nails on them, my body becomes stone and the nails just get crushed. They put me in a huge pan with boiling hot oil in it but I feel like I’m pampering myself at a spa.
They try their best to torment my body but they cannot. Then I get thirsty. I ask for some water but they say, “You don’t need water up here. A soul doesn’t need to drink anything.”
“But I need water. I’m dehydrated. Please, give me some water,” I say.
Yamaraj orders them to bring some water for me. One angel brings a glass and I say, “Taste it.”
“It’s for you. Drink it,” the angel gets furious and shouts at me.
“What if you’ve mixed poison in it. I can’t trust you. Not here in hell. First you taste it. Make sure it’s pure water. I’ll drink it only then,” I say, and stand there with my hands crossed.
The angel is outraged and hits me with a rod. But then my body becomes like rubber and it springs back to him, hitting him on the shoulders.
Yamaraj is pretty fed up of me by this time. “You’re too miserable up here. More than you were while on earth. We’ll have to send you back. Get lost from here boy.”
And then I woke up there on the shore of they Bagmati. They couldn’t even handle me for a day. I just love hell. I don’t know why they never liked me. I didn’t do anything wrong to anyone. Why did they send me back? But if I die again, I would go to hell once more. I want to say sorry to those poor fellas. It was only that special power that I ‘contracted’ accidentally that kept me from getting hurt. I had just started liking hell when they sent me back, those rascals. But now that I’m back on earth, I’ve got to love it here. Chitra Gupt taught me a lesson. You should treasure life. Respect it, love it, live it to the fullest.
So here I am, with you dear people again.
Everyone looks intently at Amar. Nobody knows what to make of his tale. He turns to his mother and says, “I’m very thirsty mother. Please give me some water.”
- Sabina Dhakal
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