A Cure for all these Illness

Her naïve doubt was enough to turn on the edge of a ‘season ticket guy’ in me.
Gaping into the slowing down Intercity Express, she enquired:
“Is it a reservation compartment?”
I said ‘No’ and ushered her in.
A forty plus looking lady…she has a young girl and an elder lady with her.
The eldest one is in a Purdah and the young girl has a shawl cum thattam.

Once inside the train, with no hope of getting a seat, she took no time to throw her first query at me.
“What you do?”
“Where will you get down?”
I tried to answer as subdued as possible.
(One who screams his details inside packed buses and trains are as boring as
R Sreekandan Nair…I believe)
But it was no check dam before the flurry of questions.
Then I had to hear what she has been doing here…at Ponani.

She has some cancerous tumour.
Her daughter is studying in 8th and her husband left them and remarried 12 years back.
“I have suffered a lot and am working hard…”
Yes, she deserves respect…I should be attentive to what she is telling.
For her illness, she is taking treatment from Ervadi.
Ervadi…the name reminds mental asylums. She has been in a calm and safe house in Ponani where she gets drugs from over there.
“What kind of medicine they give you?” I can't help ask.
“A whole lot of kashayam, tablets, oils…”
By the time the train pulled into Tirur, we were talking in a very familiar tone.
It was then that she leaned towards me and asked in a hushed voice.
“Are you a Muslim?”
Shocking! Why should she ask that? If she wants to know, why can't she ask it aloud?
“I don’t believe or follow any religion”
The hopelessness of my reply dimmed her eyes.

I returned to the pages of my Mathrubhumi weekly, out today.
Hamid Chennamagalur argues, quoting Muslim scholars, that as per orthodox Islamic rules any Muslim who renounces his religion is sure to be beheaded…
if he is in an Islamic state.
An year back, I had a doubt related with this…while translating a story from Pakistan.
Will a Muslim killed for such an ‘offence’ be given a decent, religious funeral?
I haven’t yet got a categorical answer.

It was her blunt question that haunts me now…deeper than the plight of slain kafirs.

Now, into the compartment, comes a stout man…requesting
“…all my brothers and sisters help me… what ever coins you have…
ayyappa swami will save you all…”
He has lost both his palms. My lady friend starts quizzing him.
Happy, he replies and we hear about his diabetes and wife’s psoriasis as well.
“Do you want a cure for all these illness?” Her voice is now shrill.
“How can I…?” His voice was mellow.
“Tell me… do you want a cure for all these illness?”
Now, many others in the compartment turn into rubbernecks.
“Yes… if possible”
“Can you become a Muslim?” She had no air of asking anything awkward at all.
The poor guy stood perplexed. The whole compartment too.


Yes, we were in the sixth compartment from the engine…
Today, the 15th December, in the Ernakulam- Kannur Intercity Express.