Ustad Majeed Khan returned and sang Raag Bhatiyar as beautifully as if nothing had happened. Now and then he paused to sip a glass of water. At three o’clock he got up and yawned. As if in response, so did everyone else.
14.20
LATER in their room, Maan and Firoz lay in bed, yawning and talking.
‘I’m exhausted. What a day,’ said Maan.
‘It’s good I didn’t open my emergency bottle of Scotch before dinner, or we’d have been snoring through the Bhatiyar.’
There was a pause.
‘What exactly was wrong about my mentioning Saeeda Bai?’ asked Maan. ‘Everyone froze. So did you.’
‘Did I?’ said Firoz, leaning on his arm and looking at his friend rather intently.
‘Yes.’ Firoz was wondering what, if anything, to say in reply, when Maan went on: ‘I like that photograph, the one by the window of you and the family – you look just the same now as then.’
‘Nonsense,’ laughed Firoz. ‘I’m five years old in that photograph. And I’m much better-looking now,’ he added in a factual sort of way. ‘Better-looking than you, in fact.’
Maan explained himself. ‘What I meant was that you have the same kind of look, with your head tilted at an angle and that frown.’
‘All that that tilt reminds me of is the Chief Justice,’ said Firoz. After a while he said: ‘Why are you leaving tomorrow? Stay for a few days more.’
Maan shrugged. ‘I’d like to. I don’t get much time to spend with you. And I really like your Fort. We could go hunting again. The trouble is that I promised some people I know in Debaria that I’d be back for Bakr-Id. And I thought I’d show Baoji the place as well. He’s a politician in search of a constituency, so the more he sees of this one the better. Anyway, it’s not Bakr-Id so much as Moharram that’s important at Baitar, didn’t you tell me?’
Firoz yawned again. ‘Yes, yes, that’s right. Well, but this year I won’t be here. I’ll be in Brahmpur.’
‘Why?’
‘Oh, Imtiaz and I take it by turns: Burré Sahib one year, Chhoté Sahib the next. The fact is, we haven’t shared a Moharram since we’ve been eighteen. One of us has to be here, and the other in Brahmpur to take part in the processions there.’
‘Don’t tell me you beat your breast and flagellate yourself,’ said Maan.
‘No. But some people do. Some even walk on fire. Come and see it for yourself this year.’
‘Perhaps I will,’ said Maan. ‘Goodnight. Isn’t the light switch by your side of the bed?’
‘Do you know that even Saeeda Bai closes shop during Moharram?’ asked Firoz.
‘What?’ said Maan in a more wakeful voice. ‘How do you know?’
‘Everyone knows,’ said Firoz. ‘She’s very devout. Of course, the Raja of Marh will be pretty annoyed. Usually he counts on having a good time around Dussehra.’
Maan’s response was a grunt.
Firoz went on: ‘But she won’t sing for him, and she won’t play with him. All she’ll consent to sing is marsiyas, laments for the martyrs of the battle of Karbala. Not very titillating.’
‘No,’ agreed Maan.
‘She won’t even sing for you,’ said Firoz.
‘I suppose not,’ said Maan, slightly crestfallen and wondering why Firoz was being so unkind.
‘Nor for your friend.’
‘My friend?’ asked Maan.
‘The Rajkumar of Marh.’
Maan laughed. ‘Oh, him!’ he said.
‘Yes, him,’ said Firoz.
There was something in Firoz’s voice that reminded Maan of their younger days.
‘Firoz!’ laughed Maan, turning towards him. ‘All that is over. We were just kids. Don’t tell me you’re jealous.’
‘Well, as you once said, I never tell you anything.’
‘Oh?’ said Maan, rolling over on his side towards his friend, and taking him in his arms.
‘I thought you were sleepy,’ said Firoz, smiling to himself in the dark.
‘So I am,’ said Maan. ‘But so what?’
Firoz began to laugh quietly. ‘You’ll think I’ve planned all this.’
‘Well, perhaps you have,’ said Maan. ‘But I don’t mind,’ he added with a small sigh as he passed a hand through Firoz’s hair.
14.21
MAHESH KAPOOR and Maan borrowed a jeep from the Nawab Sahib and drove off towards Debaria. So full of pits and pools was the dirt road that led off the main road to the village that it was normally impossible to get to it in the monsoon. But they managed somehow, partly because it had not rained too heavily in the past week.