A Suitable Boy(410)

‘No, please, Sir –’ said one of the students.

The other kept quiet, but gave Pran a beseeching look.

The Rajkumar was now wondering how he would face his grandmother, the Dowager Rani of Marh. Even his father’s rage would be easier to bear than the look of disappointment in her eyes.

He began to sniffle.

‘We didn’t mean to do what we did,’ he said. ‘We were –’

‘Stop,’ said Pran. ‘And think about what you are saying before you say it.’

‘But we were drunk,’ said the luckless Rajkumar. ‘That’s why we behaved like that.’

‘So shamefully,’ said one of the others in a low voice.

Pran closed his eyes.

All of them reassured him that they would never do anything like this again. They swore it on their fathers’ honour, they pledged it in the names of several gods. They began to look repentant, and, indeed, they even began to feel repentant as a result of looking it.

After a while, Pran had had enough, and stood up.

‘You’ll hear in due course from the authorities,’ he told them at the door. The bureaucratic, formulary words sounded strange to him even as he said them. They hesitated, wondering what else they could say in their own defence, then walked off forlornly.





12.9


AFTER telling Savita he would be back for lunch, Pran went to Prem Nivas. It was a warm day, though overcast. By the time he got there he was somewhat out of breath. His mother was in the garden, giving instructions to the mali.

She came forward to welcome him, then stopped. ‘Pran, are you all right?’ she asked. ‘You don’t look at all well to me.’

‘Yes, Amma, I’m fine. Thanks to Ramjap Baba,’ he couldn’t resist adding.

‘You should not make fun of that good man.’

‘No, no,’ said Pran. ‘How is Bhaskar?’

‘He’s talking quite well, and even walking around. He insists on going back to Misri Mandi. But the air here is so much fresher.’ She gestured towards the garden. ‘And Savita?’

‘She’s annoyed that I spend so little time with her. I had to promise to return for lunch. I really don’t like all this extra work on the committee, but if I don’t do it, someone else will have to.’ He paused. ‘Other than that, she’s very well. Ma fusses over her so much that she’s going to want to have a baby every year.’

Mrs Mahesh Kapoor smiled to herself. Then an anxious look appeared on her face, and she said: ‘Where has Maan got to, do you know? He isn’t in the village, and he isn’t on the farm, and no one in Banaras knows where he is. He’s just disappeared. He hasn’t written for two weeks. I’m very worried about him. All your father says is that he can be in the underworld for all he cares so long as he’s not in Brahmpur.’

Pran frowned at this second reference to his brother that morning, then assured his mother that Maan disappearing for two weeks or even ten should not be cause for alarm. He may have decided to go hunting or for a trek in the foothills or for a holiday at Baitar Fort. Firoz might know his whereabouts; he’d be meeting Firoz this afternoon, and he would ask him if he’d heard from his friend.

His mother nodded unhappily. After a while she said: ‘Why don’t all of you come to Prem Nivas? It’ll be good for Savita in the last few days.’

‘No, Amma, she prefers to be where she’s used to living. And now that Baoji’s thinking of leaving the Congress Party the house will be full of politicians of every kind trying to persuade him or dissuade him. And you’re looking tired too. You take care of everyone, and don’t let anyone take care of you. You really look exhausted.’

‘Ah, that’s old age,’ said his mother.

‘Why don’t you call the mali into the house, where it’s cool, and give him his instructions there?’

‘Oh no,’ said Mrs Mahesh Kapoor. ‘That wouldn’t work at all. It would have a bad effect on the morale of the flowers.’





12.10


PRAN went home, and rested in lieu of lunch. He met Firoz a little later in the Chief Justice’s courtroom at the Brahmpur High Court. Firoz was appearing for a student who had a grievance against the university. The student had been one of the brightest chemistry students the university could remember, and was well-liked by his teachers. In the April examination, however, at the end of the academic year, he had done something so surprising that it was virtually inexplicable. He had gone to the bathroom in the middle of a paper, and then, seeing a couple of his friends standing just outside the exam hall, had stopped to talk to them for a minute. He claimed that they had talked about the fact that it was too hot to think; and there was no reason to assume that he was not telling the truth. His friends were both philosophy students, and could not possibly have helped him in his exam; in any case, he was by far the best chemistry student of his year.