More fiction: Uma

Uma

By Karobi Moitra

A voice was calling out to her from beyond the outer fringes of her conscience, she felt safe, warm and cozy. She could hear drumbeats, smell the fragrance of flowers…..the voice called out ‘Uma, Uma…..wake up, today is the day of the festival’.

She tried to ignore the voice and lazily pulled the covers up over her head to drown out her mother’s voice. But there was no respite and her mother ultimately was the victor in the tug of war that ensued. Triumphant in victory Uma’s mother, Ursula carefully folded up the blanket while Uma languidly stretched and yawned but remained sprawled on her back until she was informed that Una her best friend was up and about.

‘Hey Uma aren’t you going to get up? I thought you wanted to go and check out the decorations?’ shouted Una. At the sound of her friend’s voice Uma came to life, opened her eyes, squinted to see if it was really Una and not just another voice in her dream, duly assured she jumped up with all the exuberance she could muster in her lithe frame and turned to her mother – ‘Can I go now please, please, please?’ she pouted. Her mother was not amused and told her with mock sternness she could go if she cleaned up and put on her new clothes made specially for the day. No food until the rituals were over, she was informed, unless she wanted to be categorized with the ‘babies’- the younger children who were allowed to eat before the holy ritual. Uma looked at her mother with mock horror and primly informed her that she had been fasting before the ritual for two years now and was most certainly not a baby!

The two friends scampered out, their ears ringing with warnings to be back before lunchtime or face the dire consequences that would follow. The two girls giggled and rolled their eyes at each other……mothers!

The air was chilly but the girls didn’t care, their goal was to beat their brothers and be the first to see the decorations. The last time they checked, the lazy louts were snoring loudly, oblivious to anything around them least of all pesky sisters. The girls, excited as they were, still stopped to admire the breathtaking view. A thousand feet below them fell away a vast plain, littered sparsely with trees. Beyond the tree line they could see a huge expanse of virgin grassland. ‘They say that miles beyond the grassland is the …. ocean’ Una struggled with the unfamiliar word rolling the o’s out on her tongue ‘I wish we could see it up close’ she said wistfully, squinting to try and make out where the azure blue of the sky ended and the mossy blue-green of the ocean began.

‘You know,’ replied Uma, lowering her voice to a secretive whisper ‘ I’ve heard rumors that maybe next spring the clan elders will allow us to make the journey to the ocean, now that its safer for us, I heard that the ‘others’ rarely bother our kind nowadays. I don’t remember the ocean at all, my mother said that 6 summers back was when we last journeyed to the coast’ she confided. As they talked the two friends made their way higher up the mountain pulling their furs closely around their bodies, these had been painstaking made by their mothers, taking months to complete working at night with a flint needle. They rounded a corner and stopped abruptly. The elements had carved out a small clearing in the rock of the mountain overlooking the valley; there she stood in all her splendor …… the Goddess. She had been fashioned from clay and loosely shaped into human form. She seemed truly ethereal, as if she belonged among the clouds. Adorned with garlands of berries and leaves that were painstakingly gathered from the forest below, she was the deity of Uma’s people, the hunter-gatherers of the Upper Paleolithic period. Uma’s people lived around 45,000 years ago, on the cliffs of Mount Parnassus, close to what would eventually become the ancient Greek site of Delphi. They lived in shallow caves on the cliff face and would hunt for Bison on the Great Plains below and forage for birds eggs, roots, tubers, berries, nuts and mushrooms. Their little band would live on the mountain during the summer, where they could hunt for smaller prey such as hare and then move to the plains during the harsh winters, which would get considerably harsher still in the millennia leading up to the great Ice Age. As it can be imagined, life must have been very hard for this little band of people. The average life expectancy was around 35 yrs, making the clan elders fairly young by modern standards.

But for now, lets return to Uma and her best friend Una. As the two friends took in the scene, they noticed that the smooth rock floor had been cleaned and decorated with charcoal markings in intricate patterns, stone bowls had been filled with berries and nuts as offerings to the Goddess. The Goddess herself was made of clay, a few of her tribe had perfected the artistry of clay but their real skill lay in carving stone. For some unknown reason they preferred that their deity be molded in clay rather than in stone. Her form was hidden by garlands of berries and leaves, but her face was left exposed looking over the land she had promised to protect. As Uma and Una gazed into her tranquil eyes they felt at peace, kneeling in front of her they asked her to protect their families and bring prosperity to the land and as they prayed (for unknowingly that was what they were actually doing!) a strange thing happened, it seemed that the Goddess was speaking to them. She told them that they would both be clan mothers of great tribes who would spread far and wide into the world and give rise to many, many descendants who would populate the four corners of the earth.

Illustration by Anwesha Moitra

And indeed they did, Uma’s (haplogroup U3) descendents moved further into Europe and gave rise to people on the continent of Europe and the near East. Una’s (haplogroup U1) descendents were, however, more adventurous, journeying into the near East and even further on to India making various settlements including one on the banks of a river. This settlement would eventually become Sutanati, which in time became a part of Kolkata, a long arduous journey - lasting over 45,000 years!

But what of our little girls Uma and Una on the day of the festival? As they made their way down from Mt. Parnassus, after being duly enlightened, Uma slipped on the mountain path, Una grabbed her just in time but in doing so dropped the berries she had pilfered from the ritual site ‘Oops I wonder how those got here?’ she giggled. ‘The same way that these did’ smirked Uma unclenching her fist to show Una her stash of nuts. They both giggled, looking for somewhere to hide their booty from their siblings and scampered down the mountain. Hand held in hand, just two little girls…. without a care in the world.