6

One afternoon at the start of the new monsoon, with rain clamorous and clouds dark across the sky, Mahendra --- wrapped in a fragrant, breezy shawl, a loose garland of jasmine at his neck --- entered the bedroom in a mood of high spirits. He made no sound with his shoes, planning to startle Asha. Peering in, he saw: a strong wind was blowing in through the open east window, carrying the slant of rain into the room; the lamp had been blown out; and on the mattress below, Asha lay weeping in a barely audible voice.

Mahendra came quickly and asked, "What has happened?" The girl wept more intensely.

After a long while, Mahendra gradually gathered that Masima, unable to bear it any longer, had gone to stay at her cousin's house. Mahendra thought with irritation: "If she had to go, did she have to go and ruin a rainy evening like this?" In the end all his anger fell upon his mother.

She was, after all, the source of every disturbance.

"Wherever Kaki has gone, we shall go there too," said Mahendra.

"Let me see whom Ma has left to quarrel with." So saying, he began with unnecessary din to tie up their things and shout for porters.

Rajlakshmi understood the whole of it. She came to Mahendra quietly and asked in a calm voice, "Where are you going?" Mahendra did not answer at first.

After two or three repetitions of the question, he replied, "I am going to Kaki."

"There is no need for either of you to go anywhere," said Rajlakshmi.

"I myself will bring Kaki back." With that, she immediately got into a palanquin and went to Annapurna's lodgings.

She placed a cloth at her own throat, joined her hands, and said: "Forgive me, Mejobou --- be gracious to me." Annapurna in great agitation took the dust of Rajlakshmi's feet and said beseechingly: "Didi, why do you make a sinner of me? I will do whatever you command."

"My son and his wife are about to leave the house because you have left," said Rajlakshmi.

As she spoke, her hurt pride, her anger, and her shame overcame her, and she burst into tears. The two sisters-in-law returned home together. It was still raining. When Annapurna went to Mahendra's room, Asha's weeping had subsided and Mahendra was trying to make her laugh with various tales. From all appearances, it seemed likely that the rainy evening might not entirely go to waste after all.

"Chuni," said Annapurna, "you will not let me stay in my own room and you pursue me wherever I go? Is there no peace for me anywhere?" Asha gave a sudden start like a deer that has been struck.

Mahendra said in extreme vexation: "Kaki, what has Chuni done to you?"

"It was because I could not bear to watch a young wife carrying on so shamelessly that I left," said Annapurna.

"And now this wicked girl has made the mother-in-law weep and dragged me back again." Mahendra had not known that the mothers and aunts of this world could prove such obstacles in the poetic chapter of life.

The next day Rajlakshmi called Bihari and said: "My dear boy, will you tell Mahin for me that I have not been to the village in a very long time and I wish to go to Barasat?"

"Since you have not gone for so long," said Bihari, "perhaps it is better to let it pass a little longer. Very well --- I will speak to Mahin-da, though I doubt he will agree to anything." Mahendra said: "Well, it is natural to want to see one's birthplace. But Ma had better not stay too long --- the place is not good during the rains." Seeing that Mahendra had consented so readily, Bihari was annoyed.

"Ma will be going alone," he said.

"Who will look after her? Why not send Bouthon along as well?" --- and he smiled a little.

Stung by Bihari's veiled reproach, Mahendra said, sheepishly: "Well, perhaps I might manage that." But the matter went no further.

This was Bihari's way --- he would set Asha's heart against himself, and in knowing that Asha found him irritating, he seemed to take a kind of dry, wry amusement. It need hardly be said that Rajlakshmi's eagerness to visit her birthplace was not very keen. As a boatman, when the river runs low in summer, sounds with his pole at every turn to test the depth of the water, so Rajlakshmi had been sounding --- in times of change --- the depth of the bond between mother and son. That her proposal to go to Barasat would be met with such swift and easy compliance she had not expected.

She thought to herself: "There is a difference between Annapurna leaving this house and my leaving it --- she is a witch who knows her spells, while I am nothing but a mother, and it is better I should go." Annapurna understood the unspoken meaning, and said to Mahendra: "If Didi goes, I too will not be able to stay." Mahendra said to Rajlakshmi: "Do you hear, Ma? If you go, Kaki will go too --- and then how will the household manage?" Stung and weary, Rajlakshmi said: "You are going, Mejobou? How can such a thing be? If you go, what will we do? You must stay --- you must." Rajlakshmi could delay no longer.

The very next day, at noon, she was ready to depart for the village. No one doubted that Mahendra would accompany his mother. But when the moment came, it appeared that Mahendra had arranged only for a male servant and a doorkeeper to escort her.

"Mahin-da --- you are not yet ready?" said Bihari.

Mahendra said with some embarrassment: "I have my college---"

"Very well, you stay," said Bihari.

"I will escort Ma and come back." Mahendra seethed inwardly.

In private he said to Asha: "Truly, Bihari is beginning to go too far. He wants to show that he cares more for Ma than I do." Annapurna was obliged to remain, but she stayed shrunken within herself --- ashamed, vexed, and resentful.

Seeing his aunt's this distant manner, Mahendra took offence; and Asha, for her part, withdrew into her own wounded pride.