Draft:Maaku

Maaku, published in 1968, is a novella by Bengali author Leela Majumdar. It follows the adventure of the sisters Sona and Tiya through the infamous Kaaliyar Bon in their search for the clockwork automaton Maaku.

Story

The story starts with Amma and Aaya-Didi telling stories of the Forest of Kaaliya. These stories intrigue the sisters Sona and Tiya, who refutes the stories claimimg that the stories of the Bhoyonkor of the forest are merely superstition and they don't believe them. Tiya in the middle of this tries to get to the new toy that has been bought for their uncle's son and kept out of the children's reach. Amma stops them and the sisters thus denied access to the newer shiny toys, and ground coconut, gets upset and declare that they are leaving for the Kaaliyar Bon to get themselves a bigger and better squeak doll than the one bought for their cousin.

Amma tries to stop them, but being unable to run and the house being empty other than the sisters' sleeping grandmother, no one is able to catch the sisters who had by then packed up their cloth bags and left. The sisters escape through their backdoor, empty lanes, roads and across a path by the church and the graveyard which has a penchant for being haunted. The sisters don't meet anyone until they are infront of the graveyard gates, where a man stands in loose and raggedy clothes with a bag on his bag. He introduces himself as a clockmaker, hungry and the on the run from Maaku. The clockmaker explains that he has a deep emotional attachment to Maaku because he created the automaton with his own hand for 17 years, yet he must run away from his beloved creation because he is unable to give Maaku the mechanisms for crying and laughing. After seeing the circus magician summon the queen of fairies, Maaku insists on marrying her, but the magician refuses the marriage citing Maaku's lack of human emotions inspite of the apparent expertise in other human actions. As a result, Maaku starts to haunt the clockmaker to give him the machinations for emotions, which he being unable to do has had to run away, but he is worried as Maaku being made of clock springs is going to run out of juice, which in his opinion would be within 15 days.

The sisters after hearing the clockmaker's plea promise to help him and search for Maaku inside the forest which the clockmaker is afraid to enter because of Maaku. The sisters, being very courageous, as they claim to be as a result of being children who go to school, enter the forest and as they tour the various dangers of wolves behind bushes, poisonous leaves and snakes they get tired and find a stream, beside which they fall asleep. This is where they lay asleep until the evening, until they are woken up by the sound of a platoon of animals coming to drink water herded by a clown. The sisters hide behind a rock and see this when they also meet a new person who by the red hair and the dimple on the nose, they take for Maaku. The clown noticing them asks if the group has seen their circus master, Mr. Adhikari. Sona, attempting to hide Maaku's identity lets the clown learn that they the sisters are in the forest in search for squeaky dolls bigger than the ones for their cousin. As the clown invites them to tag along, he informs that the circus party is in hiding because the circus master after renting ground, tent and buying dresses has left without paying, and as a result the shopkeepers have filed a complaint against the abandoned circus party. When Maaku helps them cross the stream, the sisters are again convinced that this person is the lost automaton of the clockmaker and they must take care to not let the circus people find that out. They learn more from the clown that the entire circus party eats at the inn inside the forest, which is run by a stingy owner.

When they reach the banyan tree, under which the inn runs they are greeted by the extremely bearded owner who invites the group to have dinner. The sisters work out a deal that the owner will give them food and boarding in return of the sisters helping out the owner cook meals. The inn itself is spread out along the branches of the tree, with the owner's shack also being perched on them. Maaku climbs the sisters to the owner's tree house where they have chapati and the heavenly suruwa. The other guests let them know that the suruwa used to taste very bad before, but after the owner started to add a secret spice to it, it has started to heavenly, where from it derives the name the heavenly suruwa. During their one and a half day stay at the banyan inn, the sisters become apt listeners to the backstories and hopes of the various characters of the inn and the circus, and look at the circus performances with great excitement, while Maaku becomes employed in the tasks around the inn. Despite several close calls from Tiya, and some from Maaku, Sona is cleverly able to handle it without arousing suspicion that Maak is an automaton and not a human.

When the sisters wake up next day, they learn that it is the owner's birthday and as a celebration the circus party shall perform in front of audience from three villages and free food. While the circus party is in high spirit for this the owner himself is in trouble as he has lost the half of a lottery ticket that the clown had asked him to keep. Tiya promises to help him find it, citing her experience in finding things, but before that happens the sisters get distracted by the performance of the circus animals. On the way back from the performance they find a man clad in secrecy talking to the owner, who hides the moment the sisters enter the clearing with Maaku. The owner is very upset at this point, as he has to do everything alone because his helping hands, the sisters had left him for the animal performance and Tiya still hasn't found him the half of the lottery.