By ten o’clock the next morning, the news was all over the city. People exchanged opinions in low tones, while one expressed disbelief, the other, hatred, while yet another would scoff and jeer. Gopinath had his fair share of enemies. With Tribhuvan Nath in the lead, the defamation campaign against Gopinath was soon afoot. One could see small groups of people discussing this event threadbare in secretive tones almost everywhere. Someone would say that the woman was corrupt right from the very start, ‘Why else would she have come here all the way from Mumbai?’ Someone else would respond that she was not to blame. ‘It’s all the doing of that phoney bespectacled philosopher of a man. He could jolly well have married her if he was up to all this. He was bent upon committing the folly of remaining celibate and he has ended up with promiscuity. He should blacken his face and go drown himself in a pond.’ People would drop in pretending to inquire about his welfare and then would actually demean him. Everyone seemed to really enjoy slighting him. On the other hand, they were all sympathetic towards Anandi. However, Gopinath, too, had a large number of followers who refused to attribute this happening to Gopinath and regarded it as the doing of some notorious character. How could someone who even avoided the mention of women do such a thing? He could very well have got married if this is the kind of thing he was interested in!
As far as he was concerned, Gopinath acquired a shroud of mystery around him. He would listen to everybody but remain silent himself.
The question now was—of what should be done next. It wasn’t proper to penalize Anandi; after all she was the weaker sex. The debate was about how Gopinath should be treated. The general opinion was that he should get his just deserts and keep Anandi at home with him according to propriety. But the influential among them preferred an impartial attitude and said that it was none of their business. It was between Anandi and him. However, he should certainly be removed from the managerial responsibilities of the school.
Tribhuvan Nath and his friends didn’t want to let Gopinath off so easily. They had an age-old envy in their hearts against him. How could yesterday’s chit of a lad become a leader and strut around the city after reading a few books and tinkering with some philosophy? Why shouldn’t one blow the whistle on such people, who, spectacles and silk scarves in place, wear a patronizing look on their faces and pretend to be paragons of virtue and forbearance? Why shouldn’t the community be warned to steer clear of such double-faced and dishonest social workers?
They set about quizzing the teachers, gatekeepers and ayahs of the girls’ school about Gopinath. How often did he visit? For how long would he usually stay? What did he do there? Were you allowed in his presence or not? The meagre-salaried workers of the school were quite fed up of Gopinath’s strict ways. But they were reluctant to act as informants in this affair of personal honour. Despite there being no evidence, public opinion had declared Gopinath guilty. And there was no scope of any appeal against this judgement.
Meanwhile, Gopinath had discontinued visiting Anandi right from that very day. The poor woman had barely spent two weeks in the girls’ school since the birth when, on the fifteenth day, the management committee dispatched a letter informing her of her expulsion from the school’s faculty. They didn’t even think it necessary to give her a month’s due notice. Suffering silently, the unfortunate woman shifted into a small house with a tiny, helpless baby in her arms. There was no one to support her. The baby weak and she herself ill, she had no one to tend to her or share her worries. Except for one maid to help her with the dishes she had no one and she spent the night sitting all by herself with the baby in her arms. It was an awful time for her. One could marvel at her patience, tolerance and forbearance—she had no complaint against Gopinath on her lips, or even in her heart. She thought, It is natural for him to avoid me in the present circumstances. There is no other possible solution. The town would have suffered such a setback if he were exposed. Not that a large number of people aren’t suspicious of him even now. But no one can charge him publicly with anything. As for me, what is my importance in the scheme of things and how does my infamy harm the world?
Three months passed. It was past midnight, Anandi was sitting at her table translating from a book by Swami Abhedananda. She would normally do her translation work after putting the baby to sleep. This was her only means of livelihood. Suddenly, there was a furtive knock on her door. Startled, she tiptoed to the door and listened. It seemed like Gopinath’s voice. She opened the door immediately. Gopinath entered, and glancing lovingly at the baby, said, ‘Anandi, I’m not fit to show my face. I didn’t know I’d turn out to be such a moral weakling, so cowardly and so shameless. But my lack of moral strength and shamelessness could not protect me from disrepute. Whatever disrepute I could earn and whatever losses the movements I was spearheading could bear have already taken place. It’s impossible for me to show my face to the public now and the community can never trust me ever again. Despite all this, I don’t have the courage to take responsibility for my actions. Earlier, I was least bothered about the narrow-minded concerns of society but now I shudder at every step from fear of it. I curse myself for remaining aloof while you go through trials
