Manoj Das_____________________________________

On the bank of the sacred Godavari lived an ascetic. He lived in a small hut. The people of the nearby village were happy and proud that a holy man lived in their neighbourhood. They gave him food and fulfilled his other meager needs.

The ascetic was quite conscious of the respect he commanded. He knew that the people will do whatever he wanted them to do. After his bath early in the morning, he sat for prayer on a slab of stone on the river. He asked the villagers not to disturb him in any way at that time.

The villagers took his instruction very seriously. If some of them must bathe early in the morning, they would take their dips as quietly as possible, away from the ghat where the holy man sat.

One morning the ascetic was surprised to see someone dashing into the river, missing touching him by a hair's breadth. Jets of water from the splash the stranger made fell on him. He stood up, trembling with rage and shouted at the bather, "How dare you … dare you…." He could not complete his sentence.

But the boy who was swimming merrily with fierce strokes paid no attention to the holy man's tirade. In fact he could not hear him because of the splashing sound he made.

As soon as the boy emerged from the water, the ascetic slapped him, shouting, "You ghoul!" Just then a young man, panting and sweating, reached there and bowed to him keeping some distance.

"Sir," he said most politely, "This boy is my wife's younger brother. He hails from another village. He knew nothing of your morning rites. When I did not see him at home, I feared that very fond of swimming in the river that he is, he might have come here for a bath and disturbed your meditation. I came running, but it had been a bit too late!"

"The boy is your brother-in-law, is he?" the ascetic observed. He had calmed down, but since the speaker was an untouchable, his brother-in-law too was an untouchable. Hence the ascetic was obliged to take a bath once again for he had touched an untouchable in the process of slapping him.

The boy who stood silent, slowly entered the river and came out after a dip.

"What business had you to bathe again?" his sister's husband asked him impatiently.

"The ascetic had already taken bath. Why did he bathe again?" asked the boy.

"Do you forget that we are untouchable? He had touched you!"

"I saw the ghoul in him when he slapped me. Isn't the ghoul untouchable?" said the boy. "That is why I had to bathe again."

The holy man stood speechless for a moment. Then he approached the boy and said, "Indeed, I had been possessed by the ghoul of anger and ego. If anybody was untouchable, it was I, not you."

Then he embraced the boy as the boy too touched his feet.