Vidhwans-English

In a village named Bira in Banaras district, there lived an old, childless widow named Bhuri. She did not have a house to live. Her only source of livelihood was a small clay furnace that she used to roast the grains for the villagers. In return the villagers would give some grain to Bhuri. Bhuri would feed on that grain to survive. When night fell, Bhuri used to sleep near her furnace. And at the dawn, she would get up and go out to collect dry leaves for the furnace. This is how she was earning her living.

Udaybhan was a wealthy landlord of that village. He was very clever and ruthless. Many people of the village had taken loans from Udaybhan and in return used to work in his fields. That's why Udaybhan considered himself the master of the village. Udaybhan also used to get his grain sacks roasted in Bhuri's clay furnace. But he did not give anything to Bhuri in return. He said that he was doing Bhuri a favor by allowing her to work in his village. In return for that favor, Bhuri will have to roast his grain for free. Poor Bhuri could not do anything. It would take her the whole day to roast Udaybhan's sack of grains and then she would have to spend the night without eating anything.

Once a spring festival was being celebrated in the village. On that day everyone gives roasted grains to each other as gift. That day, there was a crowd of people at Bhuri's furnace since morning. Bhuri didn't even have time to breathe. Everyone wanted to get their grains roasted as quickly as possible. Just then two servants of Udaybhan came there. Both of them had a sack of grains each. They ordered Bhuri to quickly roast the grains and left. Bhuri got scared after seeing the sacks. By the time she roasts so much grain, it will be night and she will have to keep the furnace burning without eating anything. And she will not get anything in return for so much work. But she was aware of the cruelty of Udaybhan and his men. So she apologized to the others and quickly got busy roasting Udaybhan's grains.

As soon as the evening came, Udaybhan's servants returned and asked whether the grains had been roasted. Bhuri said boldly, "Don't you see, I am still working on it. It will be completed by night." Hearing this, the servants got angry. They said, "The whole day has passed and you still haven't finished it. You are roasting or eating grains. We will go to Udaybhan and complain about you.

When Udaybhan came to know about this, he became furious. He sent his men and got the furnace demolished that very night.

Bhuri now had no means of livelihood left. Now the villagers also had to go to other villages to get their grains roasted. Some people went to Udaybhan and started requesting him to get the furnace rebuilt. But Udaybhan did not listen to them. He wanted the villagers to get a lesson so that no one would take his work lightly in the future.

People who wanted Bhuri's well-being advised her to go to another village and work. But Bhuri's heart could not accept this suggestion. She had spent all her life in this village. It was here that she saw all the joys and sorrows. At this last stage of her life she did not want to go anywhere else.

One month passed. One morning Udaybhan went out with his servants to collect rent from the people. He saw that Bhuri was busy rebuilding her furnace. Probably she started this construction at night and wanted to finish it before the sun came up. Bhuri knew that she was going against Udaybhan's wishes but she was hopeful that maybe Udaybhan would have forgotten his anger by now.

But alas, Udaybhan still did not budge from his stubbornness. Seeing the furnace, he became furious and shouted, "On whose orders did you make this again? I will set it on fire right now." He told his men to pour oil and leaves on the furnace and set it on fire.

The servants collected dry leaves. Placed it on the furnace, poured kerosene oil on it and set it on fire. In a moment the furnace was engulfed in flames. But the burning leaves started being carried by the wind towards the nearby huts. Within no time the fire spread rapidly in all directions. The mansion and fields of landlord Udaybhan were nearby in which ripe crops were standing. Udaybhan's servants tried to extinguish the fire. But by that time it was too late. The flames kept increasing and within a short time the fire swallowed the crops and the mansion .