When he jumped in, the water felt very warm. But it was just
on the surface of the dark mass of water that lay confined and choked inside
the small well, a peripheral deception. Hanging on to the concrete ring, where
water flapped violently objecting to his intrusion, he felt the cold nibbling
at his feet. He looked up and saw the landlady’s thick
head protruding above the wall and silhouetted against the blue sky. The tubular
view from inside was too ridiculous.
“Can you do it?” he heard her flat voice, which gained
strength down the well and fell crashing on his ears. It was funny and awkward
and for a moment he couldn’t recollect the very purpose of his plunge into this
water hole. The afternoon nap had left its dizziness in his head and things
were happening as if controlled by an external force. “Don’t’ go deep to find
it. We can buy another bucket,” she spilled her anxiety on him.
Oh…the bucket. “No problem. It won’t be too deep,” words
flew up in haste as if to escape the unnerving enclosure. He turned to look
around and scraped his shoulder on the rough concrete. This was a different well,
with a bore sans plants or creepers, ferns or mosses…but cased with concrete
rings and the diameter was just large enough to float him. The very strangeness of the place could have
send shivers down his spine. But he wasn’t contemplating and even forgot to
take a deep breath before curling himself for the final plunge down to the
bottom.
It was dark and cold, and he thought he could smell water in
his mouth, eyes and ears. But a different smell…from what he had smelt in the
rivers and ponds, an indifferent smell that evoked nothing. Where was the
bottom? The space seemed narrowing and
water thickened. A low buzz which began from a corner of the head grew louder and
moved between the ears. Where is it…the bucket?
His knee hit the bottom first, and it was strangely warm. But
as he spread his body to grope in the dark, his heart fell on his chest with a
thud. The bucket too was warm when he found it, and it felt abnormally heavy. But
something much heavier was above him and he realised it once he tried to move
up…the water. It lay like a pile of concrete slabs on him, pinning him down to
the bottom.
Can water be so heavy?
It was supposed to be odourless and transparent, and may be the indifferent
smell and the sudden opaqueness made it heavier. And may be this has taste too.
Oh yes…something sweet. No…bitter…or salty? Like colours which combine to form the
colourlessness, the tastes here have merged to give this tasteless taste.
But what am I doing here? I am supposed to retrieve this
bucket and the woman is waiting up there. He looked up and saw a thin light
trickling down. He wanted to move towards the light, but then the entire body
was too heavy and was unwilling to ascend. Tightening his grip on the handle of
the metal bucket, he realised his soul was finally confined to his body…and he
felt very lonely.
