Hopes of returning banjhakri

That year the banjhakri didn't come. There were no missing children no mysterious signs no strange sounds. The villagers found it strange though not extraordinarily so. Everyone had busy periods once in a while, they told each other, he probably had more important matters to attend. The children who had been prepared to be taken were disappointed...that none of them selected. They would be too old the following year, their career as a well trained jhakri could end up not working. The parents had hoped the wily creature would take at least a child off their hands, free and raise them and educate them well. They too were disappointed. No matter there was always next year, they thought.

The banjhakri didn't appear the following year either. Or the year after that. Or the year after. The villagers were getting concerned. In their little corner of nowhere, generally peaceful and uneventful, the banjhakri initiations were the most interesting things to happen all year round. The only jhakris that fisietrr the village had been exclusively trained by him, the villagers would trust no one trained by mere mortals. And yet. Maybe he got sick, some said. Maybe he moved to a different place, suggested others. Or maybe moved to America and Australia like everyone else is, said s few. That's all that they had in him. The wild couple hadn't been spotted for many years now and they had no clues to go off to find them.

The fifth year was a crisis. The old jhakri who visited regularly was too ill to walk to the village. Two young babies died of uncured fever. The village needed more jhakris but the best trainer had disappeared from the face of earth it seemed like.