Wednesday, July 11, 2012

51. Exhibition of the UTTERLY UNKNOWABLE

Thousand Full Moon: Shakuntala Fadnis

Contributed by: Br. Raghunath Boradkar


Shrimati Shakuntala Fadnis is a writer. Her husband Shri S,D,Fadnis [popularly known as shi.da. ] is a well known cartoonist. His caption-less cartoons transcend the barriers of region and language.
 Here she recalls an experience and calls it ‘EKDAM  ABODH ‘  or Absolutely  Unknowable.
                      It was the last week of November 1984. We were in Bhopal. We were organizing our exhibition of cartoons ‘Laughing Gallery’ in Madhyapradesh and the cities selected were Indore Bhopal Gwalior and Ujjain. We booked a hall in Indore and then went to Bhopal.
                       In Bhopal we couldn’t get the hall that was promised as the management had some unforeseen problems. So we started looking for another hall. But in spite of all our efforts we couldn’t get a hall to our liking.  Our needs and their expectations didn’t match. We tried our best but without any result. We were ready to pay more but that too didn’t help. We had total disappointment in store for us.
                         It was 29th November, my father’s memorial day. On 28th night I went to bed remembering him. Early morning on 29th I had a dream in which I saw my father, smiling and his right hand raised as if to bless and that was all. I got up feeling that the dream was a foretelling dream and that our efforts will bear fruit to day and it did so happen. After all my father was a great appreciator of his son in law’s work and he had blessed so everything was to be OK.
                            There was a famous and a beautiful hall in Bhopal and that was available to us. The president was ready to relax and overlook certain rules and give it to us. He needed a formal permission from the trustees and the hall would be ours. The only problem was that the trustees were out of town and were to be back in three or four days.  He assured us and told us not to worry and asked us to come after four days..
 We were to go to Gwalior from Bhopal. We had already booked a hall there and we had just to see it and pay the money. There was no problem in coming back to Bhopal after four days. Everything was really fine.
                               But then something unexpected happened and I was confronted with a different problem. Shi. Da. suddenly changed his mind and said ‘No. No exhibition here and No coming back to Bhopal.’ I tried to explain but he was insistent.  It was now my turn to be surprised. I asked’ What happened? Why are you so insistent on not coming back to Bhopal?’ He had no satisfactory answer and said’ I just don’t feel like.’ I tried to convince him in many ways, told him about the hall and how we frantically tried to get it and asked him ‘Why are you so adamant now on not having an exhibition here in Bhopal when we have got it?’ But he didn’t budge. And so we left Bhopal for Gwalior.
                                  Reaching Gwalior the first thing we did was booking a hall for the exhibition. We were staying with our relatives. We enjoyed their hospitality. We  went round Gwalior  Time just flew and the day foe our return journey to Pune arrived..
                                   We went to the station and learnt that the train was late. We had to wait.  We had to wait so long that the waiting appeared to be endless. Ultimately the much awaited train came and we were on our way back to Pune. We were bored and tired as we had waited on the platform for a very long time so we boarded the train occupied our berths had some  light supper and retired for the night.
                                   I had no idea what time it was when I woke up. But I was feeling very uneasy then. Then I started  getting a headache. I thought I would faint.Later I developed nausea and started vomiting.. I had a very light supper and it was homemade ,so there could’nt have been anything wrong with the food.  As I was wondering as to what must have happened, I started feeling chilly . I put on two sweaters and wrapped myself in a woolen shawl. Later I drank a large cup of hot tea and felt a little better afterwards. In the meanwhile shi.da. started feeling uneasy and complained of headache. He also felt a little feverish. We could’nt sleep and there was nothing that we could do but wait and watch.
                             It was late morning when we reached Bhusaval,  We got a newspaper and the front page news shocked us. The news of  explosion in the Union Carbide factory and the resulting Gas tragedy which later  on came to be known as Bhopal Gas Tragedy was on the front page of all newspapers. It was something terrible.
                             What’s peculiar is that the date of the explosion and the date when we were expected  to return to Bhopal  for booking the hall were same.3rd December 1984.
The hotel where we had stayed and where we were to stay on returning to Bhopal  was in the affected area.  But why did shi.da. suddenly decided to cancel the Bhopal Exhibition?
What sort of power motivated him to alter his decision? Was it a meaningful coincidence or just a coincidence? It still is a mystery to us. Shi Da himself has no explanation for the
Mysterious coincidence.
                                 Somehow I feel that my father had blessed me in the dream not for  getting the hall , but for saving us from the tragedy that was to occur. We had known that there had been an explosion in Union Carbide factory but had no idea about it’s intensity.
There were no mobiles then. It took time  for the news to spread .The train had halted at Bhopal station for a few minutes and that too 20 hours after the explosion. Even then we went on suffering for about a year. Unexplained fevers  Rashes ,cough. and boils. Things we had not suffered from before. Everything had started after that brief halt of the train in Bhopal
                                 We were lucky that we were saved. But what about those whose lives were shattered or those who just died? We still feel very sorry for them.
                                 Why did shi. da. Felt like canceling the Bhopal exhibition? Still a mystery. EKDAM ABODH.   OR UTTERLY UNKNOWABLE .

                                  Happy to have been saved.


Shakuntala Fadnis


                    
                               
                               





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