A Suitable Boy(127)

‘I think our fathers are mad to dislike each other so much,’ said Priya out of the blue. ‘Who cares who the next Chief Minister of Purva Pradesh will be?’

Veena nodded as she sipped her nimbu pani.

‘What news of Maan?’ asked Priya.

They gossiped on: Maan and Saeeda Bai; the Nawab Sahib’s daughter and whether her situation in purdah was worse than Priya’s; Savita’s pregnancy; even, at secondhand, Mrs Rupa Mehra, and how she was trying to corrupt her samdhins by teaching them rummy.

They had forgotten about the world. But suddenly Bablu’s large head and rounded shoulders appeared at the top of the stairs. ‘Oh my God,’ said Priya with a start. ‘My duties in the kitchen – since I‘ve been talking to you, they‘ve gone straight out of my head. My mother-in-law must have finished her stupid rigmarole of cooking her own food in a wet dhoti after her bath, and she’s yelling for me. I‘ve got to run. She does it for purity, so she says though she doesn’t mind that we have cockroaches the size of buffaloes running around all over the house, and rats that bite off your hair at night if you don’t wash the oil off. Oh, do stay for lunch, Veena, I never get to see you!’

‘I really can’t,’ said Veena. ‘The Sleeper likes his food just so. And so does the Snorer, I’m sure.’

‘Oh, he’s not so particular,’ said Priya, frowning. ‘He puts up with all my nonsense. But I can’t go out, I can’t go out, I can’t go out anywhere except for weddings and the odd trip to the temple or a religious fair and you know what I think of those. If he wasn’t so good, I would go completely mad. Wife-beating is something of a common sport in our neighbourhood, you aren’t considered much of a man if you don’t slap your wife around a couple of times, but Ram Vilas wouldn’t even beat a drum at Dussehra. And he’s so respectful to the witch it makes me sick, though she’s only his stepmother. They say he’s so nice to witnesses that they tell him the truth – even though they’re in court! Well, if you can’t stay, you must come tomorrow. Promise me again.’

Veena promised, and the two friends went down to the room on the top floor. Priya’s daughter and son were sitting on the bed, and they informed Veena that Bhaskar had gone back home.

‘What? By himself?’ said Veena anxiously.

‘He’s nine years old, and it’s five minutes away,’ said the boy.

‘Shh!’ said Priya. ‘Speak properly to your elders.’

‘I’d better go at once,’ said Veena.

On the way down, Veena met L.N. Agarwal coming up. The stairs were narrow and steep. She pressed herself against the wall and said namasté. He acknowledged the greeting with a ‘Jeeti raho, beti’, and went up.

But though he had addressed her as ‘daughter’, Veena felt that he had been reminded the instant he saw her of the ministerial rival whose daughter she really was.





5.6


‘IS THE Government aware that the Brahmpur Police made a lathi charge on the members of the jatav community last week when they demonstrated in front of the Govind Shoe Mart?’

The Minister for Home Affairs, Shri L.N. Agarwal, got to his feet. ‘There was no lathi charge,’ he replied.

‘Mild lathi charge, if you like. Is the Government aware of the incident I am referring to?’

The Home Minister looked across the well of the great circular chamber, and stated calmly: ‘There was no lathi charge in the usual sense. The police were forced to use light canes, one inch thick, when the unruly crowd had stoned and manhandled several members of the public and one policeman, and when it was apparent that the safety of the Govind Shoe Mart, and of the public, and of the policemen themselves was seriously threatened.’

He stared at his interrogator, Ram Dhan, a short, dark, pockmarked man in his forties, who asked his questions in standard Hindi but with a strong Brahmpuri accent with his arms folded across his chest.

‘Is it a fact,’ continued the questioner, ‘that on the same evening, the police beat up a large number of jatavs who were peacefully attempting to picket the Brahmpur Shoe Mart nearby?’ Shri Ram Dhan was an Independent MLA from the scheduled castes, and he stressed the word ‘jatavs‘. A kind of indignant murmur rose from all around the House. The Speaker called for order, and the Home Minister stood up again.

‘It is not a fact,’ he stated, keeping his voice level. ‘The police, being hard pressed by an angry mob, defended themselves and, in the course of this action, three people were injured. As for the honourable member’s innuendo that the police singled out members of a particular caste from the mob or were especially severe because the mob consisted largely of members of that caste, I would advise him to be more just to the police. Let me assure him that the action would have been no different had the mob been constituted differently.’