Tervein

"There is a saying that the man dies, his soul stays earlier around the body and then in and around the house and watches keenly about the relations and their thinking and life after his death for thirteenth days. On thirteen day so called ‘ Tervein’ the soul gets ready to travel to the other loka a world called the world of Lord Yama the god of death to get its judgement depending upon its Karma of the past.

This is the story based on the saying whereby the soul of Zamindar stays in and around the village and even travels outside to see what happens to his mother, wife and other relatives when he was alive and unaware of their existence. The entire matter of its stay described – as adventure of soul after death was narrated by him to the only dalit of the village whom he always described as untouchable. However he narrated his adventures to him knowing that no body will believe him if this dalit ever talks about zamindar’s soul telling about its adventures. On thirteenth day after the panditji and relatives performed the rituals of ‘Tervein’ the soul left to the other world and the same event witnessed by Dalit who thought that in the other world if the judgment by Lord Yama is given on bases of ones karma and not on caste, creed and richness then why not do good karma and not worry about the people of this physical world.

Dr. Krishna Rajvir, M.S., FRACS, MNAMS, FICS, is presently a senior Paediatric Surgery Consultant at Apollo Hospital, New Delhi. She had her training in general and paediatric surgery at various hospitals in Australia. She was the first Asian woman to get an FRACS in surgery and become a member of the Royal Australian College Surgeons and a member of the Paediatric Association of Australia. On her return, she worked at the Post-graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh as clinician, teacher and medical researcher. She has written books in her own specialty and has to her credit over 147 scientific papers published in national and international medical journals. She is also the chief editor of the Journal of Paediatric Surgery in Developing Countries.

Her interest in the women in feudal India started during her first visit to a remote village in Uttar Pradesh and this followed the writing of her book The Zamindar’s Bahu- the first non-scientific book of her career, others are Janams, Kailash the abode of Shiva and The second wife."