Chapter 451 Faith
Hearing the cheers, the ox cart turned the last sharp corner, walked onto the wide street and entered the village of Sander.
It was the only decent street in the village, paved, compacted and swept with golden river sand.
Houses stand on both sides of the street and are staggered so that each household does not face the door across the street.
The round houses are built of light brown mud and have round windows, curved doors, and small dome-shaped thatched roofs.
The news of the city people's arrival spread early. In addition to the two hundred villagers from Sander Village who came to greet them, there were also hundreds of residents from neighboring villages.
Kishan drove Ron and the others into the crowd and stopped outside his house. He smiled happily with his mouth open, and the people watching him laughed too.
Ron and his companions climbed down from the oxcart, their luggage at their feet. Six hundred people surrounded them, staring at them and whispering.
They were so close, so close that Ron could feel their breath.
Six hundred pairs of eyes looked at them with extreme curiosity, and no one spoke.
Anand stood beside Ron. Although he was smiling and proud of receiving such a grand welcome, he was frightened by the surprised and expectant stares and the huge crowd of people and dared not say a word.
Ron, on the other hand, was very relaxed, as he had seen similar scenes in the north.
It would be more accurate to say that the villagers were afraid rather than curious.
When outsiders suddenly intrude upon the idyllic life, it will naturally disturb the indigenous people who live and work in peace and contentment.
Ron rummaged through the luggage at his feet and quickly found the clown hat. This was the one Anand had asked his boss to give him when he was choosing a gift.
He put the clown hat on Anand's round head and then put a red cotton ball on his nose.
A confused Anand stared at Ron blankly. This scene only frightened the people in the front row and made them step back. They gasped in fear.
Ron winked at him and made a face.
Anand, who was in tune with the situation, immediately smiled, then moved his head left and right and shook the bell.
"Hello, fellow villagers, the show is about to begin." He made an exaggerated expression.
People burst into laughter, everyone, young and old, men and women, laughed, joked, and shouted together.
Someone reached out to touch Anand's hat and then touched Ron's shoulder.
A few kids in the front row reached out to touch his hand, and Ron didn't refuse, rubbing their heads.
Then, those who could reach him from behind patted him, stroked him, and grabbed him to express their friendliness.
Ron noticed the look in Anand's eyes, an expression of joy and pride, as if he was praying.
Anil, who was following, wanted to say something, but Ron stopped him with a look.
Given his status, he probably won't have such an opportunity again to get in such close contact with the villagers.
It's good now. They don't know him, and he doesn't mind having fun with these isolated tribesmen.
Anand had been standing by and letting Ron be harassed in a friendly way for several minutes.
Then he pushed the crowd aside to announce that this new and interesting city dweller was under his control.
Finally he managed to make his way and get Ron to his father's house.
As they entered the dark round house, the crowd that had been talking and laughing began to disperse.
Anand's home is simple, with only a few handmade wooden furniture and a bed made from coconut trees, covered with a net mattress made of coconut fiber ropes.
He has two younger sisters who stayed in his hometown and are currently busy preparing tea and snacks for Ron and the others.
Only when they sat down to drink tea and chat did they squat on the ground and open the luggage bags filled with gifts.
The excited chattering made Ron's mouth curl up slightly.
Through chatting, he gradually realized that the person who really gave orders in the family was not Anand, nor his father, but his mother Rukhmabai.
She was a full head taller than her husband, and Kishan came only to her shoulders.
The height difference, coupled with her curvaceous figure, makes her look like an Amazon warrior when she stands with her husband.
Her black hair, never cut, reached her knees and was greased with a glossy coconut oil.
Her skin was tawny, and her eyes were amber, set in rose gold.
Her striking hooked nose gave her an august expression that made people dare not look directly at her. Her forehead was high and broad, exactly like Anand's.
She is literate and well-educated, and quite intelligent. She is the one who makes the final decision on civil disputes in the village, and everyone is convinced.
Anand's family's land and the small fortune under her management gave their family a certain status in the village, and this status was maintained by her personal prestige.
She married Kishan at the age of sixteen, then had Anand, and after giving birth to two younger sisters, she could no longer get pregnant due to injuries to her body.
She was a good housekeeper, and in just a few years she became the richest person in the village, owning five plots of land and growing economic crops.
He also raised three dairy cows, three bulls, two goats, and twelve chickens.
When Anand was a teenager, they sent him to Mumbai to be an apprentice to his uncle, a taxi driver, and live in the slums.
To be honest, Ron had been curious since he entered the village, but he never asked.
As we all know, tribal people are almost synonymous with Dalits, and their status is even lower.
But look at the Sand Village outside and the quiet streets. Where is the deadness and despair of the untouchable settlements?
It's beautiful here, the villagers are kind, and the streets are cleaned.
There is absolutely no scene of upper castes abusing their power and collecting protection fees on the streets.
It was amazing, and it surprised Ron greatly.
Although there is a gap between rural areas in North India and rural areas in South India, it is not to the point of changing drastically.
Anand's mother, Rukhmabai answered his questions.
She said that many years ago, a disaster occurred in Sander Village that endangered the lives and property of the entire village.
A group of armed bandits settled in the area and began demanding protection money.
Some high-caste people from the surrounding villages resisted, but their entire families were killed and the women were raped.
The cowardly policemen didn't dare to meddle at all. They didn't even have guns, so going there would just be asking for trouble.
The bandits also came to Sunder village. Kishan and his men resisted and some were shot dead.
Rukhmabai was familiar with the murdered man, who was Kishan's cousin and married to a girl from Rukhmabai's village.
His funeral was attended by all the men, women and children of Sand village, and at the end of the ceremony, Rukhmabai addressed the gathered villagers.
Her hair was disheveled, her amber eyes burning with anger and determination. She shouted down those who wanted to condone the bandits and encouraged the villagers to rise up in resistance.
It would be best to kill them and save your own life and land.
The villagers' morale was greatly boosted. They were surprised by her passionate speech and also surprised that this woman who had suffered multiple miscarriages still had such a strong spirit of not giving up.
The villagers immediately formulated a plan of action and resistance, and the news that Sander Village was determined to fight back reached the ears of the bandits.
They issued threats, carried out sporadic harassment, and launched sneak attacks to test the waters, ultimately escalating the conflict to the point where it became a single battle.
The bandits warned the villagers fiercely that they must pay a huge amount of protection money one day, otherwise they would suffer a disaster.
The villagers used sickles, axes, sticks and knives as weapons, and women and children were evacuated to neighboring villages.
The men who stayed behind to defend against the enemy were generally filled with fear and regret. A few men insisted that the resistance was too reckless and that paying protection money was better than committing suicide.
The murdered man's brother and Kishan walked among the villagers with their heads held high, encouraging and comforting them, while also scolding those who were timid and deliberately retreating.
The alarm rang out, and the bandits were approaching the village along the path. The villagers hid behind the hastily built shelters between the mud houses, feeling a mixture of excitement and fear.
Just as they were about to take action, the villagers discovered that the person coming was one of their own.
A week ago, when Kishan’s brother heard the news of the upcoming war against bandits, he immediately gathered six friends and cousins from the slum where he lived and set off back to his hometown to help his family.
Kishan's younger brother is also short and his friends don't look big either, but they all made their way through the chaotic streets of Mumbai.
Among them was a tall young man named Raju, with a handsome face and the shaggy hair of a Bombay film star.
He brought two pistols and showed them to the villagers, which boosted the confidence of all the villagers.
Arrogant and overconfident, the bandits swaggered into the village just as the sun was about to set.
Before the bandit leader finished his fierce threats, Raju had already stepped out of the shelter and walked towards the bandits, firing a shot every three steps.
The farmers, willing to risk their lives, threw axes, sickles, knives, sticks and stones from behind their shelters, knocking down many bandits on the spot.
Raju strode forward, and the last bullet hit the bandit leader's chest at close range, taking his life.
The villagers said that the guy fell to the ground after he died.
The other wounded bandits fled in all directions, but were caught and killed by Kishan and others. They were never seen again.
The villagers moved the bodies of the bandit leader and several of his men to the county police station. All the villagers said the same thing: they resisted the bandits, and during the melee, someone picked up a fallen gun and killed the villains.
They said nothing about the fellow who had come back from Bombay to help, or about that noisy Raju.
To make him more convincing, Anand took Ron to the site of the great battle, which was a low wall with a bunker at the entrance of the village.
The onlookers wanted to re-enact the scene for him, and a young man rushed to play the role of Raju.
While watching the villagers' performance with amusement, Ron asked Anand what happened to Raju.
Anand tells him that Raju died the following year in a brawl in a Mumbai bar.
Two other young boys who were fighting bandits at the time also died in similar murders.
Another person committed a crime of passion killing and is currently serving a sentence in jail.
They are heroes who save villagers from crisis in Sunder Village, but they are out-and-out criminals in Mumbai.
But for the village of Sander, the great battle that year made them proud.
The reputation of Sunder Village spread throughout the Jamner region. The nearby high castes did not dare to cause trouble for them, and even the police stayed away from them.
That gang of bandits was extremely vicious and killed countless people. The police were helpless.
Now that it has been resolved by Sander Village, there is no need to explain the former's deterrent power.
Now Ron finally understood why the villagers in this village were different from others.
They are proud and have heroic deeds of which they are proud.
This also explains why Anand, this loser, dared to cheat Ron, a Brahmin, when he first met him.
He grew up in such an environment, and his pride and self-confidence were also passed down.
Yes, Ron was very satisfied with this trip to the Mabon countryside.
(End of this chapter)
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