Chapter 9: chapter 9

The Giant PumpkinThere was once a sweet, simple girl called Pallu, who got engaged to Pakya, a hard-working youth living in the neighbouring village.The wedding ceremony was to be hosted by Pallu’s parents, and they wanted everything to be perfect. The function was to be grand, with over a hundred guests attending the feast after the ceremony.A few weeks before the wedding, Pallu’s father, Ganya, went to the local vegetable market to put in an advance order for the feast. A vegetable seller there gifted him a huge, heavy bhopala. Ganya loaded the pumpkin onto his cart.Once home, he hung the bhopala on a hook on the wall. It was a giant pumpkin, and he felt it would take a few months to ripen.Ganya was staring at the bhopala intently wondering if it was dangerous to hang it there. His wife lightly commented, ‘In a few months, I will make a tasty subzi with this big bhopala. This bhopala is so heavy that if it falls on someone’s head, it will instantly kill the person. I better make some tasty subzi with it as soon as it ripens.Suddenly, Ganya’s face scrunched up with worry. ‘Soon, Pallu will be married,’ he thought. ‘A few months later, she will come here to have her first baby. If she has a child, the baby will play on its mat. Suppose one day, Pallu leaves the baby and the mat under the bhopala in this room and goes to the kitchen to prepare dinner. What if the pumpkin suddenly drops on him? It would instantly kill the baby!’Ganya started crying uncontrollably. His wife, who had been making tea in the kitchen, came back to see him holding his head in his hands and sobbing. She kept the cup on a table nearby and hurried to his side.‘What happened? Are you sick? Why are you crying?’ she asked.‘I was just thinking about this pumpkin. If Pallu had a baby, she would put the baby to play in this room right under that hanging bhopala. Suppose the bhopala dropped on him. It would instantly kill him. If the baby died, it would devastate our family. I would die from sorrow,’ he choked out through his tears.His wife was struck with sadness. ‘Oh deva! I didn’t think of that at all. If you died, I would not be able to live.’ She sat down next to Ganya and started bawling loudly.When she heard her parents crying, Pallu rushed into the room. ‘Aai, Baba, why are you crying?’ she asked. Her mother repeated the story to her. ‘Oh God, you are right. The pumpkin is so heavy; it will definitely fall on the baby and kill it. If something were to happen to my baby and my parents, I would die,’ she declared. She sat down next to her mother in floods of tears.Hearing these loud wails, the neighbours came rushing. They saw Pallu and her parents bawling loudly.Pallu wailed, ‘Oh God, my poor baby and my parents!’Her mother sobbed, ‘Oh God, my husband, my daughter, my grandchild!’Her father cried, ‘Oh God, my wife, my daughter, my grandchild!’The neighbours were unable to understand exactly what had happened. But because of the loud sobs, they assumed someone had died. They didn’t want to ask the sobbing family members any questions, so the neighbours sent a messenger to Pallu’s fiancé Pakya’s house to let him know that someone in the family had passed away. Pakya was at work, so his parents sent the messenger to his workplace and rushed to Pallu’s house.They arrived to see everyone in hysterics. They also joined the chorus. Soon there was a large crowd in Pallu’s home, and there was a cacophony of wailing. All were wailing for different reasons but no one knew what had happened.When Pakya finally made it to the house, he was greeted by the sight of Pallu and his prospective in-laws wringing their hands and wailing loudly. His curiosity and concern were at a peak.‘Pallu, what happened? Why are you all crying? Who passed away so suddenly?’ he asked.Ganya started, ‘That pumpkin. It is a killer. It has ruined our family.’‘How did the bhopala ruin your family?’ Pakya probed. ‘Who died? Will you all please explain in detail?’Pallu began, ‘Baba brought the pumpkin and hung it there to ripen. After our wedding, we will have a baby. Imagine if I came home with the baby to meet my parents and placed it under that pumpkin. If the pumpkin fell from its hook, it would crush my baby. If my baby were killed, I would not want to live.’Ganya joined, ‘I would simply die of grief if my grandchild and daughter died.’With a sob, his wife added, ‘If my grandchild, daughter and husband died, how could I live? Our family is ruined.’‘But why are you crying?’ Pakya asked his own parents.‘Because Pallu and her parents are crying,’ said his mother, wiping away her tears.Pakya couldn’t believe his ears. He looked around at all the neighbours. ‘So many idiots in this village,’ Pakya thought silently. ‘Nothing has happened, and yet they are creating such a ruckus.’But Pakya was an intelligent guy. He realised that this foolishness had to be dealt with very smartly.‘This is such terrible news. Our families are ruined. I can only see two alternatives to avoid this great tragedy. Either I smash this pumpkin, or we cancel this wedding so that we don’t have a baby that can lie under that hook and be smashed by the pumpkin,’ he suggested.That quietened the crowd. Ganya sobered up. He didn’t want to cancel his daughter’s wedding. He quickly took the pumpkin off the hook and dashed it to the ground. It smashed into a hundred pieces.Both sets of parents and Pallu stopped crying and heaved a sigh of relief. Ganya loudly exclaimed, ‘Thank God, a calamity has been averted.’Hearing this, the crowd also eventually left.The wedding took place a few weeks later as decided. One dish was missing from the menu for the wedding feast. That’s right, it was pumpkin subzi.