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“Your mother is so beautiful,” Samir said in a mellifluous voice. He twirled his pink toes in the basin. “I want to marry someone just like her.”
Biren went insane. “Well, you can’t!” he said fiercely. “She is already married to my father and she will be married to my father for the rest of her life!”
Nitin, who was splashing his hands in the foot basin, looked up with big, scared eyes. He had never seen his brother so angry.
Sammy tilted back his head to admire his toes. “I had an aunt once,” he said conversationally. He splashed a little water at Nitin, who darted away with a shriek, then tiptoed back to be splashed some more. “She used to be so beautiful. She had long black hair like your mother. Then my uncle died and she became very ugly. Nobody goes near her or talks to her anymore. Now she lives with the goats in the back of the house.”
“Who is it, Biren mia? Do we have a visitor?” Grandpa, woken up from his nap, called in a cracked sleepy voice from his room. “Bring him to me. Let me see who this is. Oh, my, my, what a fair and handsome fellow! What is your name, young man?”
Samir puffed out his chest. “My name is Samir Kumar Deb. I was born in Calcutta and I have been to London twice,” he said loudly. His eyes drifted lazily across the room, taking in Granny’s faded saris lumped over the clotheshorse and Grandpa’s lopsided clogs, the toes facing in opposite directions.
“London!” cried Grandpa, clapping his hands. “Imagine that! Tell me, mia, was it terribly cold? Lots of ice and snow?”
Biren left Samir sitting on Grandpa’s bed telling him all about Big Ben. Even Nitin fingered the fringe of the bedspread and listened with his mouth open. Biren was sick to his stomach. Samir enchanted the whole family. He made Shibani giggle by telling her she was beautiful like a goddess. Granny told them the story of Surparnarekha, the ugly she-demon with her sliced-off nose and used a candle flame to create shadow puppets. Grandpa, not to be outdone, pulled a cowrie out of Samir’s ear and offered it to him.
“No, thank you,” Samir declined politely.
“I’ll take it!” chirped Nitin, holding out his small hand. But Grandpa’s eyes wandered slyly and he put the cowrie away.
When Father came home, he cut a papaya and Biren was secretly pleased to see the wonder on Samir’s face. When Shamol handed him a slice, he wolfed it down wordlessly even before the others had taken a bite of theirs.
“I want some more,” he said, eyeing the remaining slices on the brass platter.
Biren opened his mouth to say everyone only got one piece each, when Shamol quickly cut up his own slice into equal portions and offered it to the boys.
“Here’s another small piece,” he said. “Today everybody gets a little extra.”
* * *
When it came time for homework, Shamol followed exactly the same routine as other days, not doing any more or any less than usual. Nitin stuck his tongue out and laboriously fashioned a capital A, only to be distracted by Samir making funny faces at him. Nitin broke into a squealy giggle and covered his mouth with his hands.
Shamol looked up from his book. “Boys,” he admonished them gently.
“I don’t need to do this sum,” Sammy announced, throwing down his pencil. “This is too easy. I already know the answer.”
“Is that so?” said Shamol mildly. “Perhaps you can show me how to do it, then.” He turned to Biren, who was standing beside him with a smug look on his face. “What is it, Biren, are you finished? Let me see. All right, you may put your things away and leave the room. And you, too, Nitin. Very good. Now, Samir is going to help me solve this tricky sum.”
Biren knew why Nitin and he were being sent out of the room. His father wanted to spare Samir the embarrassment of looking ignorant in front of others. Shamol Roy in his own quiet way instilled in his students a deep love of learning. He guarded their private struggles and brandished their victories to all. He was, after all, a born and gifted teacher.
* * *
The palanquin bearers slept peacefully under the mango tree. The shadows had lengthened in the bamboo grove and it was already time for evening puja by the time Samir was done. Shibani lovingly bandaged his feet in soft mulmul strips cut from her old saris and kissed the top of his head before sending him on his way. Biren sighed with relief to see the palanquin swing off at a brisk pace and disappear down the bend in the road. He had secretly begun to worry Samir would end up staying the night or, worse still, be adopted by the family and they would be stuck with him for the rest of their lives.
* * *
Six months later, Samir left for boarding school. Biren received a postcard with a beautiful photo of the marble domed Victoria Memorial of Calcutta.
Dear Biren Roy,
This is the Victoria Mangorial.
It is very fine.
I am very fine.
I hope you are fine, also.
Very truly yours,
Samir Kumar Deb
CHAPTER (#ulink_dcf6857d-6f55-58c6-aa2f-8e175764b5dd)
12 (#ulink_dcf6857d-6f55-58c6-aa2f-8e175764b5dd)
It was Shibani’s hair-washing day. Her jet-black hair, a whole yard and a half long, tumbled in tresses down to an old sari spread on the ground for the purpose. She sat on a footstool in the courtyard while Apu rubbed coconut oil into her scalp, parting her hair in sections with a wide bamboo toothcomb. Shibani’s eyes were closed and her head bobbed willingly under her friend’s massaging fingertips. She looked blissfully relaxed. Beside her stool was a brass bowl containing a solution of soap nuts and shikakai for her hair wash.
Shibani squinted up at the gathering clouds. “Looks like rain, don’t you think? Maybe I should put off washing my hair today. It will never dry in this humidity. I always catch a head cold when I sleep with wet hair.”
“Then, you will have to sleep with your oily hair tonight,” said Apu. “This is your last oil massage for a while, sister. Remember I am leaving for my cousin’s wedding on Friday. I will be gone for a whole month. Tomorrow I have to prepare all the sweets to take to the groom’s house. Coconut balls, rice cakes and palm fritters. I will send the maid over with some for you.”
“Do you have enough saris for all the days? You are welcome to borrow some of mine, you know.”
“Oh, no, no. Your saris are too expensive and fancy. You know what these family weddings are like. With hundreds of people coming and going, things get lost or stolen all the time. I would feel terrible if that happened.”
“Don’t be silly!” Shibani laughed. “Take my saris. I don’t care if they get lost. I have too many. There will never be enough occasions to wear them all. I’ll tell you what, when you have finished oiling my hair, we’ll go and pick out some for you. I have a beautiful banana-leaf-green one that will suit you very well. Today I am free in the evening and I can do the hems for you.”
* * *
That same morning on his way to work, Shamol Roy had noticed the clouds in the east had swallowed the sun. The river turned a dark and oily black against which the jute plants, eight feet tall, glowed an eerie and electric green.
Shamol fretted because he had not picked up his umbrella from the umbrella man. Now from the look of the sky they were heading for quite a downpour.
He arrived at the jute mill godown to find it still locked. Usually his assistant, who lived in the jute quarters nearby, came early to open it. The bullock carts laden with bales were already lined up outside. Shamol went to the main office to pick up the godown key and learned his assistant was sick and would not be coming in that day. Mr. Mallick, the mill manager, assured Shamol he would send help immediately.
By midday, no help had arrived and Shamol was finding it increasingly difficult to manage on his own. It was a brutally hot and humid day with no respite, not even a cup of tea. He had to run back and forth from the weighing scales outside to the ledger in the godown. The bullock cart lines grew longer and backed up all the way down the road to the bazaar. By early afternoon Shamol realized he would have to lock up the godown and drop off the keys at the main office at the end of the day. This meant he would most definitely miss the last ferry home. His only option was to stay overnight at a relative’s house in the village, but before that he would have to send a message home through Kanai. Maybe Kanai could bring back a change of fresh clothes for him. If not, he would have to borrow something from his cousin to wear to office the following morning.
But despite the harried day, he did not forget his son’s pencils. He had collected six stubs from the office, each two or three inches long. He wrapped the pencils in a piece of blotting paper and put them in the front pocket of his tunic.
Finally the last bale was weighed and the bullock cart ambled away, tinkling its bell. Shamol Roy made the last notations and closed his ledger. He sat down at his desk and felt the weight of the day slump on his shoulders. It was getting dark inside the godown. He knew there were candles and matches tucked around somewhere, but only the assistant knew where.
He was about to leave when the rain crashed down like a wall of glass. Shamol was trapped. There was nothing he could to do but wait it out, but he would have to find the candles before that.
He groped his way to the back of the godown. Squeaks and scrabbles emanated from the bales, and a small creature with scratchy claws ran over his feet, making him jump. To his relief he located the candles and a box of matches on a small bamboo shelf on the back wall. Shamol lit two candles and made his way back to the elevated platform of his desk. He considered shutting the door of the godown to keep out the rain but then it would get terribly stuffy. As it was, a thick vapor was rising off the floor and the smell of rot and decay from the bales was almost too much to bear.
He realized he had not eaten anything all day. The potato and fried flatbread Shibani packed for him that morning lay untouched in a cloth bag on his desk. He opened the bag and ate his cold food in the flickering candlelight while rain crashed and splattered outside. This kind of torrential rain usually did not last too long, he thought thankfully.
He missed Shibani and the boys. He was spending only one day away from his family and he was already homesick. He wondered what they were doing. Shibani was probably chatting with Apu. The boys would be out playing somewhere; there was no schoolwork after all.
His thoughts turned to Biren. The child was a dreamer. Biren saw the magic in the mundane. He imagined things bigger, better and more elaborate. When most children made a paper boat, Biren made a steamer ship with a chimney. When other children drew a duck, Biren drew a swan. He had natural showmanship and expressed himself with touching eloquence. His flashy good looks added to his charisma. Biren had curly hair, a straight nose and a wheat-colored complexion, but his most striking feature was his dark, expressive eyes.
Then there was, of course, little Nitin with his wandering smile and look of perpetual bafflement. No star quality there, Shamol thought tenderly of his younger son, but God had given the little fellow his own charm to get by in the world.
He wished he could do more for his boys. They deserved a better education, for one. He remembered what Shibani and he talked about a few nights ago by the river. She was right. Maybe he should broach the subject of the English boarding school with his boss, Owen McIntosh. There was no harm in asking after all.
The rain had almost stopped. In another ten or fifteen minutes he would be able to lock up the godown and leave. Shamol decided to use this time to write Owen McIntosh a letter and drop it off with the godown keys at the jute mill office on his way to his cousin’s house.
He found a clean sheet of paper, uncapped his fountain pen and began to write.
* * *
Biren had just got back from school when Kanai brought news that Shamol was not coming home that evening. Biren’s heart gave a little jump. That meant no homework. It was the perfect day to go fishing with Kanai.
After some persuasion, Kanai agreed to take him. It was a gloomy afternoon, and by the time they arrived at the backwaters, the clouds had deepened to purple-black like an angry bruise across the sky. A sly wind flicked the water and pushed the boat toward the reedy marsh, where it was difficult to cast the line because the wind blew it in the wrong direction. After an hour on the wobbling boat Kanai said they should go home. Biren was deeply disappointed.
Shibani was sitting on the bed, hemming the bottom border of a leaf-green sari. She wore an old turmeric-stained blouse and petticoat and her head, wrapped in a cotton towel, looked like a giant breadbasket. Biren had never seen his mother so slovenly. In the evenings she was usually dressed in fresh clothes with flowers in her hair. Then he remembered his father was not coming home that day.
Nitin hung upside down off the edge of the bed, swinging his hands. Shibani kept her foot firmly pressed on his bottom to make sure he did not slide off.
“I was worried about you,” she said. “Today is not a good day to be out in the open water. Kanai should have more sense than to take you.”
“We hardly got any time to fish,” grumbled Biren. “There were many other boats still out in the river, but Kanai made me come home.”
“Did you catch a big chital fish, Dada?” Nitin righted himself. His hair, long and straight, hung down like river reeds over his eyes.
Biren shook his head.
Shibani cut the thread with her teeth. “Go and wash your hands and face,” she said. “I want you to take these saris to Apumashi’s house before it starts raining. Come back immediately. Your grandmother is not feeling well. We are going to eat dinner and go to bed early tonight. I have to wash my hair in the morning.”
* * *
That night Shibani dreamed of a snake.
She could not see it, but she felt it twisted around her throat in thick damp coils, choking her breath. When she tried to scream, the coils tightened. She woke up drenched in sweat to find her long oily hair freed from the towel wrapped around her neck. Her hand crept instinctively to Shamol’s side of the bed and a small sadness fluttered in her heart when she touched his empty pillow. She lay in bed and thought of him. She hoped he would get some sleep that night. Shamol’s cousins were a big noisy family with several ill-behaved children who ran rumpus over the house. Would he miss her? She smiled. Of course he would. Her husband was a deeply romantic and sentimental man.
Shibani’s heart swelled with gratitude when she thought of him. He was such a caring husband and a good father. Shamol discerned unique qualities in each child and wove them into their self-confidence. She remembered a phase Nitin had gone through when he’d wanted to dress up in girl clothes and play with dolls all the time. Shamol had never once tried to dissuade him or make him feel it was wrong. “The child is only acting out his imagination,” he’d explained to Shibani. “He will grow out of it.” And sure enough, Nitin soon had.
Samir in the meantime had turned around and called Nitin a sissy. He’d done it in a mean-spirited way and Biren had been quick to lash out in defense of his young brother. “You are the sissy,” Biren had shot back. “Imagine a grown-up boy like you riding in a palanquin!”
Shamol, who had overheard their quarrel, had quickly diffused it by telling the boys about the brave Scottish Highlanders in their wool-pleated kilts and Roman emperors who wore togas. He’d gone on to talk about Japanese emperors and brave Samurai warriors who were borne aloft on palanquins because of their exalted status. At the end Shamol had had all three boys keen to wear kilts and togas and ride in palanquins.
Shibani’s fingers caressed her husband’s pillow, remembering. She slipped her small supple hand under it and found a sprig of dried jasmine from the garland of her hair. Her sweet husband must have tucked it there. Breathing in the scent, she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
* * *
An inky darkness had fallen outside by the time Shamol finished his letter. The rain had ceased and the candles, now reduced to shapeless gobs, spluttered in their pools of wax. Outside the door the jackals howled in a lonely chorus. Shamol quickly folded the letter, gathered together his things and picked up the ledger and keys from the table. Then he blew out the candles one by one. As he stepped off the platform, the keys slipped from his hand and fell with a clatter to the floor. He bent down and felt for them in the dark and bumped up against what he thought was the leg of the table. But it was hard and muscular and writhed against his upper arm. Too late, he realized it was a snake. He jerked back his hand and heard a loud spitting hiss followed by a needling stab on his right wrist. Shamol’s knees buckled; he grabbed the table to steady himself and slowly crumpled to the floor. A milky film floated before his eyes, his tongue twisted to the roof of his mouth and ribbons of white froth dribbled down his chin. The last thing Shamol Roy felt was a tremendous crushing pain in his chest and the sensation of being sucked underwater.
Twenty minutes later, he lay dead in the jute godown, surrounded by the rats and the filth. His hand clutched his pocket that held the six pencil stubs wrapped in a blotting paper he had planned on taking home for his son.
CHAPTER (#ulink_337fe0ba-0b9a-5240-ab46-42e986f547fd)
13 (#ulink_337fe0ba-0b9a-5240-ab46-42e986f547fd)
The disheveled man waiting for Biren in the headmaster’s office looked vaguely familiar. His hair was uncombed and he was still in his night pajamas. It finally dawned on Biren he was their neighbor, Apu’s husband, a man he had probably seen five times in his life and never spoken to even once.
“Mr. Bhowmik will take you home,” said the headmaster, fiddling with a bunch of papers on his desk. He did not explain why. From the look on their faces, Biren knew something was wrong. It must be something to do with his granny, he thought. Maybe she had died. Old people died quickly and suddenly after all. Like Kanai’s granny. Kanai said one day she was chewing betel nuts on the front steps and chatting with the neighbors and the next day she was gone.
On the boat ride back home the man turned his face away toward the jute fields and made no attempt at conversation. He was not one to talk much, from what Biren remembered. If Granny had died, why hadn’t his father come to get him? It was not like Father to send a stranger in his place.
Maybe he could trick Apu’s husband into conversation.
“I wonder if it will rain tonight,” Biren remarked, peering up at the clouds. “This changing weather is terrible. It is making us all sick. My granny had a high fever last night. She was terribly unwell.”
The man coughed and gave a brief nod but did not say anything. The silence was getting sticky. The boat rowed past the backwaters.
“I went fishing out to the backwaters yesterday,” Biren said brightly. “Kanai the fisherman caught a big chital fish a few days ago. Fifteen kilos, imagine!” Biren cast a sly glance to see if the man was impressed, but he just crossed his arms over his chest. “But it was hopeless for me,” Biren continued. “I did not even catch a two-inch pooty fish! It is this rough weather, you know. When it gets too windy, the fish go down too deep and don’t bite. It was a good thing we decided to come home...” His last few words dribbled off. His pitcher of conversation was running dry.
Finally, as the boat pulled up to Momati Ghat, the man cleared his throat. “You will stay at our house today,” he said. Biren was startled to hear his voice. It was low and throaty. Something warned him not to ask further questions.
They entered Apu’s house through the front door, which had a different street entrance from their own. Nitin was already there, behaving in a manner that would have earned him a sound paddling from Shibani. A half-packed trunk lay open on the floor. Nitin and Apu’s two little girls, Ruby and Ratna, had pulled out an expensive silk sari from the trunk and ran shrieking through the house as they trailed the leaf-green silk behind them. Biren remembered it as the same sari he had delivered the day before.
A toothless granny with collapsed cheeks, her hair coiled into a walnut-size bun, sat on the bed with a string of prayer beads wrapped in her hand. She called after them in a wavery voice, “Careful, careful.”
“Ma!” yelled Apu’s husband loudly in the old woman’s ear. “I am going out. Keep an eye on the children, do you hear? Don’t let them out of the house.”
Biren tugged the man’s hand. “Can I go home?”
“Not now,” said the man. “Your Apumashi will come to get you both later.”
“Where is Apumashi?”
“She’s gone...out,” said the man. “You all stay here. You must not leave the house.”
He turned around and left.
Four-year-old Ruby came running up to Biren and hugged him tightly around the waist. “Oh, my husband! My sweet husband!” she cried. She grabbed his hand and kissed it feverishly.
“I am not your husband,” Biren said gruffly, snatching his hand away. He disengaged her arms from around his waist.
“But of course you are,” Ruby replied in a sugary voice. She gave him a sly, coquettish look. “You are, you are, my handsome husband.” She twirled her skirt and sang. “We are going to get married. I will wear a red sari and we will exchange garlands. Oh, I love my husband! We are getting married.”
“Getting married! Getting married!” shrieked the other two, flinging the folds of the sari up in the air.
“Careful, careful,” chirruped the granny.
It was strange, but there didn’t seem to be another soul in the house.
“Granny!” yelled Biren in the old lady’s ear. “Where is everybody?”
