Jankha

Even though Jankha is a very muffled sound, the word occupies a special place in the vocabulary of the young and the old inhabitants of Madhapur village. Subodh Sahani and his wife live in Madhapur village. Their two sons work in a company in Surat after passing the matriculation and live there for four years with their family members.

They pay off their debts before their marriage and send money to their parents for meeting their needs. Their house is a very small one constructed under Indira Awas Yojna and it has one adjoining thatched house where Subodh's wife is still cooking. Even though he is not sad, Subodh and his wife are not happy with their earnings.

In the last hour of the night, Subodh sees a beautiful dream. In that dream, he has got abundant gold and he constructed a beautiful building by selling that gold. He described his wife in this dream. His wife expresses her opinion that the morning dream often comes true. But efforts are needed to make the dream come true. Subodh sat down thinking of ways. He had heard from his father that his neighbour Ramakant Babu's father had captured Jankh, and had built a beautiful house by selling that gold. Their family members decorate themselves with the gold ornaments found from the

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Jankha's body. He prays to God to show him Jankha. That day he returned from the field, ate a piece of bread, and fell asleep. The woman fell asleep a little later after boiling the paddy.

At the third prahar of the night, Subodh comes out and sees the light of Jankha which is spreading on his body.

This time he moves towards the light source with a basket. Then he cuts his finger and offers blood to Jankh. Then he pours some water into the light source. The light is extinguished with a big sound. This time he sleeps soundly, placing a piece of wood on that basket. In the morning, he told his wife about the incident of last night. Now both of them are prepared to collect gold from Jankha. The woman slowly removes the basket but dont find any gold. Now both of them search the cooking chullah very minutely and find nothing but coal. The wife heard from her husband about the details of the incident of last night. She tries to assess the actual situation. She abjures his passion for getting the gold. She told her husband that she had not been able to put out the fire last night because she was tired of boiling the paddy. This time, Subodh's head was drugged. He wondered whether his dream would become......

....true.