Stories from Tagore
draw tears from the eyes of the most hardened burglar should be as
carefully guarded as if it were a second Bank of Bengal.
"Does he actually believe," they said among themselves, "that the
temptation will be irresistible for us to steal that Parsee coat?"
Sailen had never visited this dark and mildewed room from which the
plaster was dropping. The glimpses that he had taken, while going
up-stairs,--especially when, in the evening, Kalipada, the upper part of
his body bare, would sit poring over his books with a smoky lamp beside
him,--were enough to give him a sense of suffocation. Sailen asked his
boon companions to explore the room below and find out the treasure
which Kalipada had hidden. Everybody felt intensely amused at the
proposal.
The lock on Kalipada's door was a cheap one, which had the magnanimity
to lend itself to any key. One evening when Kalipada had gone out to his
private tuition, two or three of the students with an exuberant sense of
humour took a lantern and unlocked the room and entered. It did not need
a moment to discover the pots of chutney under the bed, but these hardly
seemed valuable enough to demand such watchful care on the part of
Kalipada. A further search disclosed a key on a ring under the pillow.
They opened the steel trunk with the key and found a few soiled clothes,
books and writing material. They were about to shut the box in disgust
when they saw, at the very bottom, a packet covered by a dirty
handkerchief. On uncovering three or four wrappers they found a currency
note of fifty rupees. This made them burst out into peals of laughter.
They felt certain that Kalipada was harbouring suspicion against the
whole world in his mind because of this fifty rupees!
The meanness of this suspicious precaution deepened the intensity of
their contempt for Kalipada. Just then, they heard a foot-step outside.
They hastily shut the box, locked the door, and ran upstairs with the
note in their possession.
Sailen was vastly amused. Though fifty rupees was a mere trifle, he
could never have believed that Kalipada had so much money in his trunk.
They all decided to watch the result of this loss upon that queer
creature downstairs.
When Kalipada came home that night after his tuition was over, he was
too tired to notice any disorder in his room. One of his worst attacks
of nervous headache was coming on and he went straight to bed.
The next day, when he brought out his trunk from under the bed and took
out his clothes, he found it open. He was naturally careful, but it was
not unlikely, he thought, that he had forgotten to lock it on the day
before. But when he lifted the lid he found all the contents
topsy-turvy, and his heart gave a great thud when he discovered that
the note, given to him by his mother, was missing. He searched the box
over and over again in the vain hope of finding it, and when his loss
was made certain, he flung himself upon his bed and lay like one dead.
Just then, he heard footsteps following one another on the stairs, and
every now and then an outburst of laughter from the upper room. It
struck him, all of a sudden, that this was not a theft: Sailen and his
party must have taken the note to amuse themselves and make laughter out
of it. It would have given him less pain if a thief had stolen it. It
seemed to him that these young men had laid their impious hands upon his
mother herself.
This was the first time that Kalipada had ascended those stairs. He ran
to the upper floor,--the old jersey on his shoulders,--his face flushed
with anger and the pain of his illness. As it was Sunday, Sailen and his
company were seated in the verandah, laughing and talking. Without any
warning, Kalipada burst upon them and shouted:
"Give me back my note!"
If he had begged it of them, they would have relented; but the sight of
his anger made them furious. They started up from their chairs and
exclaimed:
"What do you mean, sir? What do you mean? What note?"
Kalipada shouted: "The note you have taken from my box!"
"How dare you?" they shouted back. "Do you take us to be thieves?"
If Kalipada had held any weapon in his hand at that moment he certainly
would have killed some one among them. But when he was about to spring,
they fell on him, and four or five of them dragged him down to his room
and thrust him inside.
Sailen said to his companions: "Here, take this hundred-rupee note, and
throw it to that _dog_!"
They all loudly exclaimed: "No! Let him climb down first and give us a
written apology. Then we shall consider it!"
Sailen's party all went to bed at the proper time and slept the sleep of
the innocent. In the morning they had almost forgotten Kalipada. But
some of them, while passing his room, heard the sound of talking and
they thought that possibly he was busy consulting some lawyer. The door
was shut from the inside. They tried to overhear, but what they heard
had nothing legal about it. It was quite incoherent.
They informed Sailen. He came down and stood with his ear close to the
door. The only thing that could be distinctly heard was the word
'Father.' This frightened Sailen. He thought that possibly Kalipada had
gone mad on account of the grief of losing that fifty-rupee note. Sailen
shouted "Kalipada Babu!" two or three times, but got no answer. Only
that muttering sound continued. Sailen called,--"Kalipada Babu,--please
open the door. Your note has been found." But still the door was not
opened and that muttering sound went on.
Sailen had never anticipated such a result as this. He did not express a
word of repentance to his followers, but he felt the sting of it all the
same. Some advised him to break open the door: others thought that the
police should be called in,--for Kalipada might be in a dangerous state
of lunacy. Sailen at once sent for a doctor who lived close at hand.
When they burst open the door they found the bedding hanging from the
bed and Kalipada lying on the floor unconscious. He was tossing about
and throwing up his arms and muttering, with his eyes red and open and
his face all flushed. The doctor examined him and asked if there were
any relative near at hand; for the case was serious.
Sailen answered that he knew nothing, but would make inquiries. The
doctor then advised the removal of the patient at once to an upstairs
room and proper nursing arrangements day and night. Sailen took him up
to his own room and dismissed his followers. He got some ice and put it
on Kalipada's head and began to fan him with his own hand.
Kalipada, fearing that mocking references would be made, had concealed
the names and address of his parents from these people with special
care. So Sailen had no alternative but to open his box. He found two
bundles of letters tied up with ribbon. One of them contained his
mother's letters, the other contained his father's. His mother's letters
were fewer in number than his father's. Sailen closed the door and began
to read the letters. He was startled when he saw the address,--Saniari,
the house of the Chowdhuries,--and then the name of the father, Bhavani.
He folded up the letters and sat still, gazing at Kalipada's face. Some
of his friends had casually mentioned, that there was a resemblance
between Kalipada and himself. But he was offended at the remark and did
not believe it. To-day he discovered the truth. He knew that his own
grandfather, Shyama Charan, had a step-brother named Bhavani; but the
later history to the family had remained a secret to him. He did not
even know that Bhavani had a son named Kalipada; and he never suspected
that Bhavani had come to such an abject state of poverty as this. He now
felt not only relieved, but proud of his own relative, Kalipada, that
he had refused to enter himself on the list of protA(C)gA(C)s.
IV
Knowing that his party had insulted Kalipada almost every day, Sailen
felt reluctant to keep him in the lodging house with them. So he rented
another suitable house and kept him there. Bhavani came down in haste to
Calcutta the moment he received a letter from Sailen informing him of
his son's illness. Rashmani parted with all her savings giving
instructions to her husband to spare no expense upon her son. It was not
considered proper for the daughters of the great Chowdhuri family to
leave their home and go to Calcutta unless absolutely obliged, and
therefore she had to remain behind offering prayers to all the tutelary
gods. When Bhavani Charan arrived he found Kalipada still unconscious
and delirious. It nearly broke Bhavani's heart when he heard himself
called 'Master Mashai.' Kalipada often called him in his delirium and he
tried to make himself recognized by his son, but in vain.
The doctor came again and said the fever was getting less. He thought
the case was taking a more favourable turn. For Bhavani, it was an
impossibility to imagine that his son would not recover. He _must_
live: it was his destiny to live. Bhavani was much struck with the
behaviour of Sailen. It was difficult to believe that he was not of
their own kith and kin. He supposed all this kindness to be due to the
town training which Sailen had received. Bhavani spoke to Sailen
disparagingly of the country habits which village people like himself
got into.
Gradually the fever went down and Kalipada recovered consciousness. He
was astonished beyond measure when he saw his father sitting in the room
beside him. His first anxiety was lest he should discover the miserable
state in which he had been living. But what would be harder still to
bear was, if his father with his rustic manners became the butt of the
people upstairs. He looked round him, but could not recognize his own
room and wondered if he had been dreaming. But he found himself too weak
to think.
He supposed that it had been his father who had removed him to this
better lodging, but he had no power to calculate how he could possibly
bear the expense. The only thing that concerned him at that moment was
that he felt he must live, and for that he had a claim upon the world.
Once when his father was absent Sailen came in with a plate of grapes in
his hand. Kalipada could not understand this at all and wondered if
there was some practical joke behind it. He at once became excited and
wondered how he could save his father from annoyance. Sailen set the
plate down on the table and touched Kalipada's feet humbly and said: "My
offence has been great: pray forgive me."
Kalipada started and sat up on his bed. He could see that Sailen's
repentance was sincere and he was greatly moved.
When Kalipada had first come to the students' lodging house he had felt
strongly drawn towards this handsome youth. He never missed a chance of
looking at his face when Sailen passed by his room on his way upstairs.
He would have given all the world to be friends with him, but the
barrier was too great to overcome. Now to-day when Sailen brought him
the grapes and asked his forgiveness, he silently looked at his face and
silently accepted the grapes which spoke of his repentance.
It amused Kalipada greatly when he noticed the intimacy that had sprung
up between his father and Sailen. Sailen used to call Bhavani Charan
"grandfather" and exercised to the full the grandchild's privilege of
joking with him. The principal object of the jokes was the absent
"grandmother." Sailen made the confession that he had taken the
opportunity of Kalipada's illness to steal all the delicious chutnies
which his "grandmother" had made with her own hand. The news of his act
of "thieving" gave Kalipada very great joy. He found it easy to deprive
himself, if he could find any one who could appreciate the good things
made by his mother. Thus this time of his convalescence became the
happiest period in the whole of Kalipada's life.