Cauvery Basin2

Tamil Research Institution (TRI)
Mahendran and I were travelling in silence without talking anything. In 1 hour when we
reached a stop, a man who looked about 30 years old, with a thick moustache, medium
height and closely cropped hair and was not clad in any uniform, boarded the bus and came
near the seat where we were sitting and asked Mahendran to come with
him. Mahendran asked him who he was and the man caught hold of his shirt and said that
he needed to talk with him and took him out of the bus.
I was shocked and agitated. I felt afraid. I did not know who took Mahendran. I was unable to
speak anything and remained silent. Mahendran got down from the bus without saying
anything to me. Ten minutes after the bus left I looked back to see whether Murthy
and Munusamy were still in the bus. They too were not to be seen in the bus. I felt more
afraid. I did not know what to do because I did not have any money with me and the persons
who came with me too were now gone. When the bus reached the next stop I got down
through the steps at the front. I did not have a ticket. I only had Rs.90/- with me which I had
brought with me while leaving from home.
With that I went to the opposite side of the road and when a bus came I ascertained with the
conductor that it would go to Tiruthani and got on to it. I took a ticket for Rs.26/- and
reached at about 9.00 p.m. Since I felt that there wouldn’t be many buses plying via Arcot at
that night time, I took a ticket for Rs.47/- to Vellore in a bus and reached Vellore at
about 11.30 p.m. Then I boarded a bus going to Tiruvannamalai and took a ticket
to Kandamangalam for Rs.10/-. After reaching Kandamangalam I walked all the way from
there to my house, a distance of about 13 kilometers, without food, anxious about the fact
that someone had taken away the person who came with me. I reached home at about 2.00
a.m. I narrated all that had happened to my wife and told her that someone had
taken Mahendran away. My wife served me supper and I slept later.
The next day, i.e. on Tuesday at about 6.00 a.m., I met Chitra, Mahendran’s mother and told
her that both of us were going for work and on the way from Tiruthani to Tirupathi someone
took her son from the bus and so I had returned. She said that it would have been someone
who knew him and she returned calmly saying that she would take care of it. Later at
about 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, Policemen showed Mahendran’s photograph and said that he
had been shot down in the forest region in Tirupathi.
There was a lot of commotion in the village. I did not go there.
When I heard about Mahendran’s death I fainted at my house. Then I took ill. My son took
me to the hospital on a two-wheeler. After getting treatment there, I was made to stay
at Ammapalayam at my mother-in-law’s place situated at a distance of 3 kilometres.
Since Mahendran was my relative I went for his last rites and paid my respects. After that
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