Barbara Edith O’Gorman (Nee Campbell) daughter of Marie Evanthia Von Lintzgy and Cyril Leslie Campbell wrote several stories in 1998, looking back on her life in Kharagpur and Calcutta (Kolkata), India.
This one is set in 1938, when Barbara was 5 years old. Barbara was affectionately called Chuntoo by her father
Chuntoo is five years old. The number "five" is beautiful to her. She's recently learned to read the clock. Those five little dots between numbers - the large hand sliding over the dots, turning so slowly that she doesn't even notice it move. But now she knows (as the little hand points to five and the large hand points to nine) that she'll be allowed out to the large iron gate at the front of the compound, where she'll climb two of its bars and look into the distance to see her father (Cyril) walk home.
The gate is very high and wide; it swings in a complete semi-circle from inside the compound to the opposite side - riding some 9 inches over the drive onto the grass verge near the main road. After heavy rain, the drive is submerged in water and then the rides are even more exciting.
But today she's not been allowed to go to the gate.
Chuntoo sits on her haunches in the corner of the veranda, but she's being punished. She can see the clock in the room where her mother sits. It's now too late for her to be bathed and dressed in time to meet her father at the gate.
She shivers and sobs intermittently, calling to her mother, pleading "mummy, mummy, I want to come in"
"No" her mother says "you're a bad girl and you'll stay on the verandah until the jackals get you".
At the mention of the word "Jackals" Chuntoo scrambles to her feet and dashes into the room and clutches her mother's skirt. Her mother gets a cane from the corner and whacks her on the legs for her disobedience. Chuntoo hits back in rage and her mother now beats her on her arms and back, surprised at her defiance - now they are both very angry
"Yes...I'll put you in the dark room" her mother shouts.
For Chuntoo this is the ultimate terror...Under the stairs lies a small dark store room with its looming shapes and grotesque shadows, thrown up by tiny cracks in the staircase above. She's been there before and felt the cobwebs on her face and imagined the horrors that threaten her there.
Her mother drags her near the dreaded door and grabs the door handle. "No, No, please Mummy" Chuntoo shouts through her hysterical tears.
Just then a Jackal howls in the front compound, so her mother drags Chuntoo towards the front veranda and once more says "shall it be the jackals then?"
"No Mummy... Please, I love you...I'll be a good girl" Chuntoo tries to kiss her mother's hand to show docility and her mother is taken aback by her sudden submission. She's in tears herself and clutches Chuntoo to her closely. She doesn't really want to hurt her child and now that she's beaten out her own frustration and anger, she feels she's achieved her aim of "braking" her child's will and stubbornness. It's an Anglo-Indian thing.
Chuntoo's father Cyril, is surprised when she's not there to greet him at the front gate on his return. "Chuntoo" he called...where are you?", but Chuntoo now was copying squiggly bits on a piece of paper. She didn't understand them, or their significance, but knew that by doing so, it would keep her mother and father happy.
After dinner, Chuntoo snuggled onto her father's lap and ran her face and hands over his stubbled chin, enjoying the close proximity of his strength. "Mummy says you were a naughty girl today Chuntoo" he says running his hands along the swollen wheals on her legs and arms, "you must learn to read and write like everyone else - why don't you like to do your writing?"
A loud knock on the door interrupted them. Chuntoo was glad she didn't have to answer her father and tell him that she doesn't understand the squiggles; that she likes being outside playing with insects and animals; that she prefers to be with servants and their children, learning their special ways.
It was the lady from the flat upstairs. She was going on a picnic in the morning and wanted to borrow our thermos flask, The bearer (servant) who was clearing the table after dinner, was told to get the flask from the dark room.
Seconds later there was a scream of fear. Chuntoo's father rushed down to the dark room and there inside, with its body curled around a tin, was a huge cobra. It looked beautiful, with its hood fully extended and the "V" majestically displayed as it moved its head rhythmically from side to side, as if in a dance - darting its tongue out every few seconds, whilst it uncoiled itself from the tin. Chuntoo stood back, behind her father, staring in disbelief.
Chuntoo's father whispered to the bearer to bring his gun from behind the bedroom door. Then he gently undid the safety catch, and after pushing his daughter further behind him for safety, took aim and fired a single shot through the cobra's head.
Later that night, Chuntoo heard her mother crying. She wasn't sure if it was it because of what might have happened to her, had the jackal not howled at that exact moment, or was it because her father said to her mother "if you had put that child under the stairs, the second bullet would have been for you".
