The Scarecrow (Panorama--Lesson 4)

The scarecrow

About the author

‘The scarecrow’—one among the ‘Indigo Stories’ which has horror, fantasy, adventure, magic and supernatural stories—was written by Satyajit Ray, a famous illustrator, writer and a movie maker. Ray was a Bengali writer who won numerous awards along with the prestigious ‘DadaSaheb Phalke Award’ and India’s highest civilian award, ‘Bharat Ratna’. Ray has had an endless fascination towards supernatural and ghost fantasies and hence his tales turn out to be of such genre.

Summary

In this short story, the protagonist Mriganko Babu, a famous author, is stranded in the middle of nowhere when his car runs out of petrol. He sends his driver Sudheer to fetch petrol, while he is waiting. He is on his way back to Calcutta from Durgapur where he was felicitated this morning.

He lights a cigarette and starts observing the surroundings. It is the month of January and all plants have been removed leaving miles of barren lands. There are two huts seen with no people. In the middle of the field is a scarecrow. Mriganko Babu returns to his car and starts reading a detective novel. He is all alone, but no one on their way has stopped to help him. He started cursing the Bengalis. He is unable to concentrate on reading and so takes a book and starts jotting down some points related to a plot. He climbs out of the car as it is boring sitting in the car.

He looks at the scarecrow again. It is a vertical bamboo pole with a horizontal one fixed to it. A torn shirt is slipped on to it and an earthen pot is placed upside down. The pot is painted black and huge eyes drawn with white paint. Babu starts thinking how weird it is that birds get scared of this figure. He also tries to figure out why dogs don’t mistake it for human. He again justifies himself that dogs could smell the humans and wonders if birds do have the ability to smell. He sees that the scarecrow is wearing a torn, red and black printed shirt. It reminds him of someone. He is sure that he has seen someone wearing that shirt.

He drinks some tea from the flask and feels a bit warmer. He notices some change in the appearance of the scarecrow and his heart beats faster. It is slowly taking shape of a man. He lights another cigarette and starts thinking about the possibility of a scarecrow coming to life. He now sees that it has another leg and that it is limping towards him. Instead of the earthen pot, it now has a human head. It still has the same shirt on and a slightly dirty dhoti.

The scarecrow calls out to him, “Babu!” with a human voice. He now recognized that voice. It was the voice of Abhiram, who had been Mriganko Babu’s servant. Babu recollects that Abhiram’s hometown is close to the place where he is now. He is so terrified and leans heavily against his car. The scarecrow is now much closer to him and asks if Babu can recognize him. Babu says that he has recognized him as Abhiram. He also says that he recognized because of the shirt which he had bought for Abhiram in the past.

Abhiram says that he was quite innocent and questions Babu why he didn’t believe him. Babu recollects past.

Abhiram worked as a servant to Babu for 22 years. He was a faithful servant but he stole Babu’s gold watch which was given to him as a wedding gift. It all happened 3 years ago. When questioned about the watch, Abhiram said that he didn’t steal it. Babu’s father took the help of a witch doctor who points Abhiram to be the thief. Abhiram lost his job.

Abhiram starts speaking again. He says that he fell ill after he left Babu’s house and so couldn’t work anywhere. He had no money to go to a doctor, or to buy medicines or to even eat properly. He says that his son wore this shirt for a while and after it got torn, it became a shirt for a scarecrow. And, Abhiram became the scarecrow; waiting to meet Babu, one day. He also says that he learnt something after his death. He asks Babu to search under his wardrobe after going home. He also says that Babu’s new servant doesn’t clean properly and the watch has been lying there under the wardrobe for all these 3 years. He says that when Babu finds the watch, he will come to know that Abhiram is not a thief. Abhiram says that he found peace and relief as he told the truth to Babu. He slowly turns hazy. He bids goodbye to Babu telling that he must leave and disappears.

Mriganko Babu wakes up to Sudheer’s voice. He finds himself sitting in the car. He fell asleep thinking for a story plot and the pen is still in his hand. He looks at the scarecrow and it is standing there in the distance.

On reaching home, he goes straight into his room and searches under his wardrobe. He finds his gold watch there. He decides that from now on, even if something ever gets stolen from his house, he would never consult a witch doctor.

Mriganko Babu feels that despite being an author, he hasn’t evolved as a complete human being.