The Tale Of A Flag

Rajesh claimed to be a brave boy. He feared nothing except ghosts and that too only at night when he was alone. In the morning he would be ashamed of himself. Waking up in the morning, he muttered, "I will become brave from now on", and assured himself, "All these ghostly affairs are nonsense."

However, as night approached, all his courage vanished. Night not only brought in darkness, but came with a whole stock of scary companions – howling foxes, ever-chirping crickets and many others. An eerie companion of the night was the fireflies who blinked relentlessly on the treetops. Rajesh thought a monster was looking down at him.

Palash was the bravest boy in the colony. He slept alone in a room. He generally stood first in the class but this year Rajesh stood first and he had become second.

 Well, that day, Palash became excessively angry at Rajesh and told all his classmates "You know, what the barber said that day? Whenever Rajesh goes to the saloon, he shows him a picture of a skeleton and all his hairs stand up like spines of a porcupine. Then it becomes easy to cut his hair." The whole class rang with laughter. Rajesh was outraged. He cried out "Utter nonsense. Nowadays I go to tuition and return all alone."

"Yes, I know", said Palash with a smirk, "Your uncle was telling yesterday that you are so scared that you reach the tuition class in five jumps. At least you will win a gold medal in the long jump." Again the class rang into laughter. Rajesh felt humiliated.

Palash said "Ok, go to the old banyan tree and come back now. Then I shall accept that you are brave."

Even in the morning, the old banyan tree at the end of the village was a scary place. Around the ancient banyan tree was an endless field with no houses except for nearby. At midnight, someone's laughter could be heard and fire broke out of nowhere. Out of the blue a sound of two drumsticks hitting each other could be heard. People said a group of skeletons was clapping.

Rajesh dreaded going there but had to accept the challenge for he did not want to be thought of a coward. He declared, "I accept the challenge but I cannot go today because a lot of my geometry homework is left. I will go on the 15^th of August to pluck some jasmine and cotton rose from the Sarkar garden at 3 am. I think you know it is near the old banyan tree." The challenge was accepted.

Rajesh set the alarm right at 3 am. The alarm rang and Rajesh slowly got up. No one except for Rajesh had got up. He unbolted the door carefully and went out. It was pitch-black outside. Rajesh started to walk. He was very much scared and tried to remember some 'mantra' but no 'mantra' came to his mind. He closed his eyes and suddenly pictures of Netaji, Gandhiji, Khudiram, Binay-Badal-Dinesh and Matangini Hazra flashed in his mind. He opened his eyes and found that he was strangely refreshed and started walking with long steps.

 Rajesh stopped in front of the Sarkar's garden. He had to climb over the bamboo fence to enter it. The banyan tree stood like a small hill nearby. He was about to climb over the fence when he suddenly heard laughter and then someone clapped. Out of the darkness a silhouette of someone wearing a shawl came out. Rajesh quickly closed his eyes. "You are even late today!" it said. The voice was vaguely similar. Rajesh cried out "You!" and opened his eyes to see Palash standing in front of him.

"Late! Late! You are late again. Ok, go and see if you can pluck that cotton rose bud. It's in one of the high branches of the tree. See if you can pluck it." Palash walked away. Rajesh climbed over the fence into the garden. He walked to the cotton rose mallow tree. Up in the highest branch was the bud. Rajesh understood that the bud would open just as it gets a touch of sunlight. He jumped to pluck the flower. Oh no! The flower slipped by inches. He caught hold of the branch but still couldn't get to the flower. He stood on his toe but before he even touched the flower the flower reached his hand! It was as if someone invisible had plucked the flower and handed it to him.

Rajesh was bewildered. He looked everywhere but saw nothing. The place was near the old banyan tree. Rajesh thought of running as he believed it was a paranormal activity. Just then the wind whispered into his ears "Don't be scared". Rajesh was shocked. Where did the words come from? He looked everywhere to see where from the words had come.

"You heard it right." whispered the wind, "Don't be scared. I plucked the flower for you.

"Who-who are you?" enquired Rajesh

"No one, actually" whispered the wind.

"The-then why are you talking so softly?"

"Oh, a bullet was shot right at my throat. Then another one was shot right at my chest. I think my vocal cord was severely injured."

"Then you are that what I was thinking of."

"Yes of course I am"

"I think I will faint now."

"You are really foolish. We have lots of work left to do. And on the other hand Palash will call you a coward if you faint"

"Oh yes! But who killed you?"

"Police, British police killed me and some of my companions because we went to the police station and pulled down the British flag and were about to hoist our tricolor flag. Just then we were shot."

"It was very sad indeed. Didn't it hurt?"Asked Rajesh feeling scared"

"No, it did not hurt at all. I was telling Bande Mataram and if you tell it, you will not feel pain. The only pain of mine was that I couldn't hoist the flag."

"But nowadays no one bothers about the sacrifice you all performed to make India independent."

"Yes, nobody bothers about us. There is corruption everywhere. No one loves their country."

"But I do."

"I know very well that you love our country. That's why I am visiting you today. And I want you to hoist my flag. Will you?"

"Of course I will. But where will I get it?"

"Go to your home and you will find the flag on your table, best of luck."

Rajesh found the flag on the table and the flower had opened up by then. The flag was the old flag of India and didn't have the Ashok Chakra drawn on it. Then Rajesh went to hoist the flag.

He tied the flag with the rope and started to pull it. But he didn't have to pull it someone else was pulling it. The flag started to flap as he tied it to the pole. As he saluted the magnificent flag, he understood Lady Gandhi had hoisted the flag.