The Congress secretary said in a hushed tone, ‘I have said what I had to. You are all the frontrunners of society, we shall accept whatever you decide. Let’s go then, I’ll accompany you; and in the process partake a bit of this pious deed. But please listen to a request of mine—allow me to approach him first. I would like to speak to him alone for ten minutes. All of you please stand at the gates till then, and meet him after I return.’ Why would anyone have an objection to this? The plea was granted.
The secretary had served the police department for a long time; he understood the weaknesses of the human mind. He went straight to the bazaar and bought five rupees’ worth of sweets. He took the sweets, which were smeared with fragrance and wrapped in silver foil, in a leaf-container and proceeded on his puja of appeasing the Brahmin God. He poured cold water into a latticed jug and added the scent of a screw pine flower. Fragrance oozed out from both containers. Who doesn’t know the exciting capacity of the smell of food? It can incite a craving even when one is not hungry, so imagine what it can do to a hungry man.
Panditji was, at that time, lying inert on the ground. He hadn’t had anything to eat the previous night. The half-a-score sweets that he had consumed were hardly worth mentioning! He hadn’t had anything in the afternoon either. And now it was past dinner time. Hunger did not generate hopeful yearning any more but the frigidity of hopelessness. The limbs were loose. Even his eyes would not remain open; he would try time and again, yet they would close on their own. His lips were parched. If there was any sign left of life, it was in his slow moaning. Such a crisis had never fallen upon him. He had complaints about indigestion a couple of times in a month, but he would attend to them with doses of the myrobalan fruit; he had never given up food altogether even during the times of indigestion. He had spent the day showering an entire array of abuses on the townsfolk, the Peace Committee, the government, the gods, the Congress and his wife. There was no hope from any one of them. And now, he had no strength left to stand up and go to the bazaar. He was certain that tonight was the night his soul would fly away. After all, the circle of life could hardly be said to have been formed out of chords so unbreakable that they wouldn’t snap howsoever one tugged at it!
The secretary called out, ‘Panditji!’
Shastriji opened his eyes without getting up. The pathos in them was like that of a child whose only sweet has been snatched away by a crow.
The secretary placed the container of sweets in front of him and, tilting the contents of the jug into a clay cup, said, ‘How long will you keep lying here?’
The fragrance of food had a sanjivani-like effect on Panditji’s senses. He sat up and said, ‘Let’s see by when this thing is decided.’
‘No decision will be arrived at. The panchayat went on the whole day, yet there was no conclusion. And the viceroy will arrive only by tomorrow evening. Who knows what will happen to you by then? Your face . . . it has gone so pale!’
Shastriji: ‘If it is fated that I die here, who can avert it? Are there kalakand sweets inside this container?’
‘Yes, and many other sweets. Specially prepared for the wedding of a relative.’
‘No wonder then it smells so divine. Would you open the lid a bit?’
The secretary smiled and opened the container, and Shastriji started devouring the sweets with his eyes. Even a blind man getting his sight back would not have stared at this world with such deep longing. His mouth watered. The secretary said, ‘Had you not been on fast, I would’ve asked you to taste a few. I’ve purchased these at five rupees a ser.’
‘These would be of the very best quality then. It’s been many days since I’ve tasted kalakand.’
‘It is you who has got himself entangled in this unnecessary fracas. What use would wealth be if you don’t get to live?’
‘I’m in a tight spot now, what to do. (Feeling them with his hands.) These are from Bhola’s shop?’
‘Taste a couple?’
‘How? I’m in a moral bind now.’
‘Come, come, just taste a few. The happiness it would bring now cannot be compared to coming across even a lakh of rupees. And anyway, would one disclose such things to anyone else?’
‘You think I fear anyone? Here I am dying without food and water, and nobody is bothered in the least. So, why should I be afraid? Come, pass on the container to me. Go and tell everyone that Shastriji has called off his fast. To hell with the market and the business! I don’t give a damn. When there is no righteousness left, why should I be the only one around to uphold it?’
With these words Panditji dragged the leaf container towards himself and started gobbling up the sweets in fistfuls. He ate with such haste that within a moment half the container was empty. The secretary went to the traders standing at the gate and said, ‘Just go and watch the spectacle. Now you neither have to worry about keeping your shops open, nor about humbling yourselves in front of Panditji. I have solved the entire problem. It is the glory of the Congress.’
The moonlight had spread all around. People went in to see Panditji engrossed in cleaning up the sweets just the way a sage is lost in a deep meditative trance.
Bhondumal said, ‘I touch your feet, Panditji. We
