But the scene inside the house was much worse. The blood froze in my veins. Halder’s hands were tied to a pillar, his whole body was covered with dust and he was still sobbing. Maybe he had rolled about in the courtyard. It appeared as if the entire courtyard was filled with his tears. Aunty was scolding Halder while my mother was grinding spices. Aunty was the first to notice me. She said, ‘See, even he has come now.’ Then to me, ‘Did you steal the rupee or did he?’
Fearlessly, I replied, ‘Halder.’
Mother said, ‘If he stole it why didn’t you come home and tell someone?’
It was difficult for me to save myself without lying. In my opinion, lying can easily be excused if a man’s life is in danger. Halder was used to being thrashed. Two or more punches would make no difference to him. But I had never been beaten before. I could have not have survived those punches. Even Halder had tried to save himself by involving me, otherwise why would Aunt ask me whether I had stolen the rupee or Halder? By all means, lying for me was, at that moment, pardonable if not praiseworthy. I promptly replied, ‘Halder warned me that if I told anybody about it, he would kill me.’
‘See, it is exactly as I had predicted. I kept saying that my child does not have this habit. He never touches any money. But everyone insisted otherwise.’
Halder protested, ‘When did I say that I would beat you if you tell someone?’
‘By the side of the pond,’ I replied.
Halder said, ‘Mother, he is lying.’
Aunt replied ‘It isn’t a lie, it is the truth. It is you who is the liar as your name has been revealed. The rest of the world is not. Had your father been working in the city and earning money, or, if he had earned respect in the eyes of other men, then you could have been considered truthful. Now it is only you who is the liar. Just as you faced the wrath for which you were destined, he ate the sweets he was destined to.’
Aunt then untied Halder’s hands and took him inside. By gently criticizing me, mother had changed the direction of the game. Otherwise, poor Halder would have been beaten up further. I sat next to my mother and sang about my innocence. My good-hearted mother believed it to be the truth incarnate. She was fully convinced that it was Halder’s fault. A moment later, I stepped out of the storeroom with jaggery and chabena in my hands. At that very moment, Halder also walked out eating rice puffs. We came out together and narrated our predicaments to each other. While my story was a happy one, Halder’s was sad. But the end was the same—jaggery and chabena.
Translated from the Hindi by Uttara Bisht
The Goddess from Heaven1
It’s all about destiny! Marriages are made in heaven. One marries whoever God or his agents, the Brahmins, decide upon. Babu Bharatdas had laid down no conditions while seeking a suitable bridegroom for his daughter. But he could not find the kind of boy and family he sought. He wanted his daughter happy, like any dutiful father, but according to him, possessions were of prime importance. Character and education were secondary. Character is not reflected on a person’s face and of what value is education in today’s world? Of course, if wealth is accompanied by education, then what more can one ask for! He searched far and wide for such a family but in vain. After all, how many families are there with both these attributes? And the few families that did exist were not of the same community. If the community matched, the stars did not; if the stars matched, then the terms and conditions of the marriage could not be agreed upon. Helpless, Bharatdas was forced to get his daughter Leela married off to Lala Santsaran’s son, Sitasaran. He was the only son, fairly well-educated, courteous, worldly-wise and also quite a romantic at heart. The most important thing was that though he was handsome, strong, cheerful and brave, his views were still very old-fashioned. Whatever was traditional was good, whatever was modern, bad. When it came to business the zamindar used all the new practices for that was an arena where he had no power. But he was a hardcore conservative when it came to societal customs. Sitasaran blindly followed his father in word and deed. He didn’t have a mind of his own. A dull intellect often manifests as a lack of social liberalism.2
Leela’s trials started from the day she stepped into the house. The acts that had been encouraged in her own home were prohibited here. Since childhood she had been taught to take in big gulps of air, here it was seen as sinful to even open one’s mouth to inhale. As a child she had been taught that sunlight was life, here to even glimpse sunlight was considered harmful. At home, tolerance, forgiveness and compassion were quoted as divine virtues, here one was not free to even name these traits. Santsaran was an extremely acerbic, angry man who wouldn’t allow a fly to land on his nose. It was only through cheating and lies that he had amassed so much property is there space before this? This was his mantra for a successful
