A Suitable Boy(605)

‘So what do you say?’ said Pran. ‘It’s only once in five years, these elections, and I know that Baoji wants me to help him.’

‘How about Maan?’

‘Well, of course, he’ll help.’

‘And Veena?’

‘You know what her mother-in-law would say.’

They both sipped their tea. The Brahmpur Chronicle lay unopened on the bed.

‘But how can you help?’ asked Savita. ‘I’m not going to have you travelling in jeeps and trains to Baitar and Salimpur and other barbaric places, getting all that dust and smoke into your lungs. You’d be asking for a relapse.’

Pran reflected that he probably couldn’t visit his father’s constituency, but that he could still be of some use to him. He said to Savita: ‘I can stay in Brahmpur, darling, and handle things at this end. Besides, I’m a little worried about what Mishra will be doing to spoil my chances here. The selection committee is meeting in a month.’

It was evident that Pran was not keen to go to Calcutta. But he had put forward so many reasons that Savita could not tell whether it was his father or his mother or his baby or himself that he was most concerned about.

‘How about me?’ said Savita.

‘You, darling?’ Pran sounded surprised.

‘Well, how do you think I will feel if Lata gets engaged to a man whom I haven’t even seen?’

Pran paused before replying: ‘Well, you got engaged to a man whom Lata hadn’t seen.’

‘That was quite different,’ said Savita, neatly distinguishing the cases. ‘Lata isn’t my elder sister. I have a responsibility towards her. Arun and Varun aren’t the best of advisers.’

Pran thought for a while, then said: ‘Well, darling, why don’t you go? I’ll miss you, of course, but it will only be for a fortnight or so.’

Savita looked at Pran. He did not seem very perturbed at the thought of their separation. She got a little annoyed. ‘If I go, the baby goes,’ she said. ‘And if the baby and I go, you go. And have you forgotten about the Test Match?’

So the three of them went to Calcutta with Lata and Mrs Rupa Mehra.

Their departure from Brahmpur was delayed for a couple of days by Dr Kishen Chand Seth falling ill. And their return to Brahmpur was brought forward by a couple of days because of sudden and devastating events. But these events were entirely unforeseeable, and arose neither out of electioneering nor out of anyone’s illness nor out of Professor Mishra’s manipulations. The events involved Maan; and as a result of them the family was never the same again.





17.2


IN the first week of December, Maan was still in Brahmpur. He had no plans whatsoever to go back to Banaras. As far as he was concerned, the entire city – ghats, temples, shop, fiancée, debtors, creditors and all – could have sunk into the Ganga and not a ripple would have been felt downstream. He wandered about Brahmpur quite happily, taking the occasional stroll through the old town to the Barsaat Mahal, passing through Tarbuz ka Bazaar on the way. He met the Rajkumar’s university friends for an evening or two of poker. The Rajkumar himself, after his expulsion, had disappeared from Brahmpur for a while and returned to Marh.

Maan appeared erratically at meals at Prem Nivas and Baitar House, and his cheerful presence acted as a tonic on his mother. He visited Veena, Kedarnath and Bhaskar. He spent a little time with Firoz, though not as much as he would have liked: Firoz, after his work in the zamindari case had had a fair amount of success obtaining briefs. Maan also discussed campaign strategy with his father and with the Nawab Sahib, who had pledged Mahesh Kapoor his support in his candidacy. And he visited Saeeda Bai whenever he could.

In between ghazals one evening Maan said to her: ‘I must meet Abdur Rasheed one of these days, Saeeda. But I understand he doesn’t come here any more.’

Saeeda Bai looked at Maan thoughtfully, her head slightly to one side, ‘He has gone mad,’ she stated simply. ‘I can’t have him here.’

Maan laughed and waited for her to elaborate. She did not.

‘What do you mean, mad?’ he said at last. ‘You told me before that you thought he had an interest in Tasneem, but – surely –’

Saeeda Bai rather dreamily played an ornament on the harmonium, then said: ‘He has been sending strange letters to Tasneem, Dagh Sahib, which naturally I don’t allow the girl to read. They are offensive.’

Maan could not believe that Rasheed, whom he knew to be an upright man, particularly where it came to women or his sense of duty, could possibly have written letters of an offensive nature to Tasneem. Saeeda Bai, one of whose traits was the habitual exaggeration of nuance, was, to his mind, being over-protective of her sister. He did not say so, however.