Is There Life After Death- Ganga Maya’s True Story

On a fine night of October 1938, when the stars were twinkling in the sky, a baby girl was born to Mr. Neopany and Mrs. Neopany in Tshokana village under Chirang District in Southern Bhutan. The girl grew up a little malnourished. The family could not provide the basic nutrients, being one of the poorest household in the village, but still her basic diet needs were met. Her parents had a few cows which supplemented their diet.

As she turned four years, she started helping her mother by looking after the smaller kids. She was always held in the house to look after the children when her parents went for work. One day she decided to follow her mother to the jungle, where they went in search of firewood and grass for the cows. She walked as much as she could but she could not catch up with her mom, and lost her way. She tried to return home but nothing could show her the way.  She became more confused in the middle of the jungle. Slowly the day turned into night. She cried for help with whatever voice she had in her but all in vain. She slept at the base of tree. Many times she was approached by the wild animals but was spared. She could produce loud human sound, which scared the animals away.

Then next day came and went, and she crawled slowly and carefully beneath the bushes. Her heart was breaking but no human face could be found, there were only wild animals and birds. The injuries, pains and fear started escalating for the 4 years old, all alone in the middle of a forest. By then, the hunger has reached a peak in her. There was no other alternative then to resort becoming herbivorous. She started surviving on the shoots of the plants; whatever was tender she ate. Days and nights passed. She was crossing the valleys, going up to the hills, walking in the jungle alone. No trace of a village to be seen. That time Chirang was sparsely populated; few villages were at sight from a distance. She was struggling for her life for 7days in the jungle. By that time she had almost forgotten human beings out of the fear and panic.

Back home her parents searched for her, wherever they could, hired the villagers to help look through possible areas of jungle, village, wherever they could. They gave up hope after a searching for 5 days. Ganga Maya managed to reach the Sonkosh river basin after seven days and slept in the riverbed. A cow harder saw the young girl sleeping; her hair matted, her clothes all torn out almost naked. He got confused, because he believed that the yeti existed. He ran out of fear to the village and shouted for help, to catch the young yeti. Villagers gathered and caught her on the riverbed. She was so scared that she has lost her voice, and others were confused whether she was a real human child or a young yeti. A few villagers had heard the story of a lost child from the Tshokana village and inquired. She was finally handed over to her parents. Ganga Maya took a month to come back to her senses and then the she could talk again with others.

Ganga Maya had just started forgetting her jungle experience and mental fear. She was turning to be a fair girl of 12 years of age, when her parents were approached by a family from Pankhey village, Doban block, Sarpang District. They asked for her marriage to their son named Ananta Lal Homgai who was only 11 years old. Child marriages were a part of the culture. Both of them hardly knew how to wash their faces. Ganga Maya was accepted for the marriage. Ganga Maya and Ananta Lal got married in a traditional way. They enjoyed their marriage celebration; there were a lot of songs, dances, shilok (recitation of poems by heart), and music by special class of people called Darjees etc. All of the village people gathered, it was to a great fun. However, they hardly knew that they would be putting up their life as couples in all the years to come.

In traditional way of escorting bride and groom, Ganga Maya was taken to her new husband’s house. Young and innocent, she had a difficult time adjusting with her husband’s family. By birth Ganga Maya was slow and steady in work. She never hurried even if the work needed a quick finish. She did it slowly but was always perfect. Her new family member always complained of her tardiness and categorized her as lazy most of the time. They never tried to understand her and the fact that she did the maximum work. There was back biting many times, and malicious gossip by other family members among themselves. This made Ganga Maya the subject of talk in family affairs. Being simple and silent in nature she would not complain of hardships. She bore all the difficulties and situations without a word of complaint throughout her life. There was even a time when she was not allowed to share the rice from the same pot; she was given separate food badly prepared and others ate the good food. She watched the others eating good food, cried to herself and ate her bad share without a word of complaint and went to work quietly. Like the other family member, her husband was little ill tempered and mistreated her. Time and again he beat her, badly sometimes making bruises in her body. She just said to herself, “You shall realize one day, you are walking on others shoes and is beating your own wife for no fault of her”. She just cried. Things went on and got cooled down with the passage of time. Her husband knew at heart, he was not doing right thing. He was doing that just to satisfy his family members and victimizing his innocent wife.

Though ill tempered, her husband in his heart loved Ganga. She gave birth to her first son named Bhakti Prasad when she was 21 years of age. A daughter followed after 18 months. By this time other family member realized, Ananta Lal is closer to her. He was warned and was asked to look for another wife and was threatened that, he won’t be given any share of the family property, if he did not send his wife away.  Ananta Lal analyzed the situation and for the first time went in favour of his wife taking the bold step and retaliated to his family’s proposals. Immediately he was made to pay the price. he was kicked out of the home giving the smallest share of that time i.e. 1 pot , 2 plates, 1kettle, a cow and a piece of land which took hardly few hours of work for cultivating, which was not enough to make his family survive. He took this as a challenge; he was only 24 years in age. He started working very hard. He wanted to prove he could do better than his other family members. He wanted to live in a better way. He was very intelligent, and though not formally educated, was able to read and write in Nepali. He had learned little astrology out of his own interest. He was clever and was good in passing the verdict whenever there was case in the village. He was appointed Gup’s assistant (Karbari) by his Gup, who also was his close relative. Ganga Maya had no time for other works though she managed herself. She gave birth to 14 children and still she could care for all of them, never complained, even when she was hungry, sick, or whatever may be the misfortune.

By this time, Ananta Lal became a well known man in his village with enough properties. He could buy his own father’s house when his father decided to sell it and moved to his own house, which is centrally located in Pankhey village. He built the new house with CGI roofing, which became a model in the village. What he said, he accomplished. Ananta lal’s main aim was to educate his children. He was far sighted. He asked for a school, when late Prime Minister Jigme Dorji visited Pankhey Village and a school was opened. He enrolled all his children in the school except for a daughter who was already married, when school opened. His first son Bhaktiram left school after class four, to support him in his work as he had become very fragile in health. Most of the morning and evenings he become a lawyer for his children; there were fights and quarrels, being too many in members. His second son Thakur Prasad, was a problem creator; most of the time, he was too naughty, when he was young.

Ill luck and misfortune fell on Ananta Lal’s family. He started becoming sick frequently. His sons took him to all the hospitals they knew. But he remained in poor health. On the other hand Ganga Maya started suffering from multiple chronic diseases. The diseases like diabetics, asthma, whooping cough and blood pressure made simply a caretaker of the house no outside works. Though suffering, Ananta lal in the pretext of his wife not being able to care for him when is sick, used his resources and brought a second wife when his 14^th child from Ganga maya was 8 years of age. The whole community got shocked but he did his job. Poor Ganga maya was powerless by her husband’s doing and she kept watching the whole drama and did not complain.

Another misfortune fell on the family. His first son’s wife expired leaving a day old baby girl alive. She was the only member of family taking care of the other 10 children who were going to school at that time. Ananta Lal decided to break himself from his family and establish a separate house with his second wife as the pressure mounted on him. This first son too decided to break away, as the family children were all underage children, it was too large to manage in the same house. He had 5 children of his won and a newly brought second wife. The whole family broke up. Ganga Maya watched all these things happening, but did not say anything; she decided to stay with her own children, all of them students. The questions that troubled Ganga Maya were these. Who will feed them? All are students. Those who were supposed to take care of them have abandoned them?  She still would not say anything but just sober in silence.   

The second son of Ganga Maya, Thakur Prasad, who had just completed class ten Examinations from Zhemgang High School, took a bold step in his life. That winter was the Gup’s (village headman) election in the Geog, Village people inspired him to be their Gup, and at the same time to take care of brothers and sisters; otherwise they would be in the gutter alone. He closed his eyes and closed his door to further education, and decided to give up his future for his young brothers and sisters. He contested and won the Gup’s election and become the youngest, educated Gup in the country at the age 21 years. He got his result after 2 months and was qualified for college, sad for him but was a big relief for Ganga Maya.

Misfortune did not leave the family. Ganga Maya’s 3^rd son Rup Narayan who along with 2^nd son completed class ten, and was qualified for college, he got Anesthesia specialist scholarship in Goa Medical College in India. He completed the course and was supposed to become the next day to Bhutan with specialist’s degree, first of its kind in the country. He had a tragic scooter accident on 15^th June 1998, he tragically died in Goa. This misfortune kept the family in tears for years. The only dream of Ganga Maya to live the rest of her life with her son Roop, came to an end. The only dream of Ananta Lal of getting cured medically of ailments which he had been suffering for last 30 years, which no doctors have diagnosed, came to end and mentally they became depressed and their sickness started getting worse rather than getting cured. With his 2^nd son’s initiative and his wife’s care, all the things Ganga Maya wanted, were made available but her disease had worsened. She was suffering from a disease, which could not be reversed.

In the month of May 2002, Ganga Maya decided to visit her 4^th son Bhanu, recently married and employed in Thimphu as a section officer with Bhutan telecom. Following her visit, she wanted to go around for sightseeing to visit her youngest daughter Deo Maya, working as a nurse in Gyelpozhing and so on. After reaching Thimphu she became seriously ill and was admitted in Jigme Dorji Wangchuk National Referral Hospital. She was treated in the hospital for 15 days but there was no sign of improvement. Doctors advised them to take her back home; she was suffering from urinary bladder cancer. Under medical supervision in the last stage, she was removed home on 13^th of June 2002. Until then, she spoke well but was undergoing tremendous pain. She advised all the family members. Finally Ganga Maya died on the 15^th of June 2002.

All the family members were gathered around her body and were crying over their lost mum. When we realized the 4^th son’s wife had become unconscious, catching the lost mother-in-law’s feet. Miraculously she came back to her sense after a couple of hours, but she had completely lost her voice. Puja was done in traditional way of Hindus; well-wishers came and went; she was not regaining her voice she could just look, stared and laughed. Puja continued, from the 13^th day, Shrimat Bhagwat Puran was recited by the renouned Pundit Madhav from Laring village in Sarpang. Ganga Maya had advised her 2^nd son in Thimphu to do, what she wanted, the night before she was removed from the hospital. She has predicted her death and has asked her 2^nd son  to  note all the things she would like see that should happened after her death.He exactly followed what she advised and expected. On the last day of the Puja, as advised by mother, her son did the offering of the same cow said by mother for Bhagwat Puran to Pundit, who recited it. As soon as that was done, the 4^th son’s wife again fainted and was carried inside the house. Tothe surprise of around 500 people gathered on the last day of the Puja, the unconscious daughter-in-law suddenly started speaking in Ganga Maya’s voice. She called her sons and daughters to be around and talked with them advising them and finally said “I am going with my son Roop, he is waiting for me, and he has come to accompany me to heaven” and the daughter-in-law lost her voice again. During the verbal outpouring in an unconscious state she said that she was cursed by Ganga Maya for offering her sour things on her Puja day, which is a sin as per the goddess Santoshi Mata, on whom daughter -in-law believed in. She said her daughter-in-law should regain her voice after 21 days. Exactly after 21days, the daughter-in-law regained her voice after performing Puja for forgiveness as advised by her.

This is the true story of the Late Mrs. Ganga Maya Humagai. I just wonder whether she was a part of god in disguise, who could tolerate all the pain, complains and never scolded any one. I wonder with what heart she could bear all these difficulties in her life. I also wonder what made her speak after the 16^th day of her passing away, in her voice through her daughter-in-law. Is there a life after death? This still remains a mystery. Even after all the family members heard their mother’s voice after she was no more it is hard to believe whether it is real. This remains a mystery. I too witnessed the scene for what happened on the last day but I do not have answers.

This is a true story as narrated by Mrs. Ganga Maya herself, Mr. Ananta Lal (husband), Deo Maya (daughter) and other family members.