An Astrologers Day and Other Stories Part 11

No, no, these are very bad parts. Not like your town.

Full of tigers . the station-master said. He let me, as a special concession, sleep in the station. A heavy table, a chair and a stool occupied most of the s.p.a.ce in the compartment. I pushed them aside and made a little s.p.a.ce for myself in a corner. Id at least eight hours before me. I laid myself down : all kinds ofhumming and rustling sounds came through the still night, and telegraph poles and night insects hummed, and bamboo bushes creaked. I got up, 70 THE TIGERS CLAW bolted the little station door and lay down, feeling forlorn. It became very warm, and I couldnt sleep.

I got up again, opened the door slightly to let in a little air, placed the chair across the door and went back to my bed.

I fell asleep and dreamt. I was standing on the crest of a hill and watching the valley below, under a pale moonlight. Far off a line of cat-like creatures was moving across the slope, half shadows, and I stood looking at them admiringly, for they marched on with great elegance. I was so much lost in this vision that I hadnt noticed that they had moved up, and come by a winding path right behind me. I turned and saw that they were not cat-like in size but full-grown tigers. I made a dash to the only available shelter the station room.

At this point the dream ended as the chair barricading the door came hurtling through and fell on me.

I opened my eyes and saw at the door a tiger pus.h.i.+ng himself in. It was a muddled moment for me : not being sure whether the dream was continuing or whether I was awake. I at first thought it was my friend the station-master who was coming in, but my dream had fully prepared my mind I saw the thing dearly against the star-lit sky, tail wagging, growling, and above all, his terrible eyes gleaming through the dark. I understood that the Fertilizer Company would have to manage without my lectures from the following day. The tiger himself was rather startled by the noise of the chair, and stood hesitating. He saw me quite clearly in my corner, and he seemed to be telling himself : My dinner is there ready, but let me first know what this clattering noise is about.9 Somehow wild animals are less afraid of human beings THE TIGERS CLAW 71 than they are of pieces of furniture like chairs and tables. I have seen circus men managing a whole menagerie with nothing more than a chair. G.o.d gives us such recollections in order to save us at critical moments ; and as the tiger stood observing me and watching the chair, I put out my hands and with desperate strength drew the table towards me, and also the stool. I sat with my back to the corner ; the table wedged in nicely with the corner. I sat under it, and the stool walled up another side. While I dragged the table down, a lot of things fell off it, a table lamp, a long knife and pins. From my shelter I peeped at the tiger, who was also watching me with interest. Evidently he didnt like his meal to be so completely shut out of sight. So he cautiously advanced a step or two, making a sort of rumbling noise at his throat which seemed to shake up the little station house. My end was nearing. I really pitied the woman whose lot it was to have become my wife.

I held up the chair like a s.h.i.+eld, and flourished it, and the tiger hesitated and fell back a step or two.

Now once again we spent some time watching for each others movements. I held my breath and waited. The tiger stood there fiercely waving its tail, which sometimes struck the side walls and sent forth a thud. He suddenly crouched down without taking his eyes off me, and scratched the floor with his daws.

c He is sharpening it for me, I told myself. The little shack had already acquired the smell of a zoo. It made me sick. The tiger kept scratching the floor with his forepaws. It was the most hideous sound you could think of.

All of a sudden he sprang up and flung his entire weight on this lot of furniture. I thought itd be 72 THE TIGERS CLAW reduced to matchwood, but fortunately, our railways have a lot of foresight and choose the heaviest timber for their furniture. That saved me. The tiger could do nothing more than perch himself on the roof of the table and hang down his paws : he tried to strike me down, but I parried with the chair and stool.

The table rocked under him. I felt smothered : I could feel his breath on me. He sat completely covering the top, and went on shooting his paws in my direction. He would have scooped portions of me out for his use, but fortunately I sat right in the centre, a hairs-breadth out ofhis reach on any side. He made vicious sounds and wriggled over my head.

He could have knocked the chair to one side and dragged me out, if he had come down, but somehow the sight of the chair seemed to worry him for a time.

He preferred to be out of its reach. This battle went on for a while, I cannot say how long : time had come to a dead stop in my world. He jumped down and walked about the table, looking for a gap ; I rattled the chair a couple of times, but very soon it lost all its terror for him ; he patted the chair and found that it was inoffensive. At this discovery he tried to hurl it aside. But I was too quick for him. I swiftly drew it towards me and wedged it tight into the arch of the table, and the stool protected me on another side.

I was more or less in a stockade made of the legs of furniture. He sat up on his haunch in front of me, wondering how best to get at me. Now the chair, table, and stool had formed a solid block with me at their heart, and they could withstand all his tricks. He scrutinized my arrangement with great interest, espied a gap, and thrust his paw in. It dangled in my eyes with the curved claws opening out THE TIGERS CLAW 73 towards me. I felt very angry at the sight of it.

Why should I allow the offensive to be developed all in his own way? I felt very indignant. The long knife from the station-masters table was lying nearby.

I picked it up and drove it in. He withdrew his paw, maddened by pain. Hejumped up and nearly brought down the room, and then tried to crack to bits the entire stockade. He did not succeed. He once again thrust his paw in. I employed the long knife to good purpose and cut off a digit with the claw on it. It was a fight to a finish between him and me. He returned again and again to the charge. And I cut out, let me confess, three claws, before I had done with him. I had become as blood-thirsty as he.

(Those claws, mounted on gold, are hanging around the necks of my three daughters. You can come and see them if you like sometime.) At about five in the morning the station-master and the porter arrived, and innocently walked in.

The moment they stepped in the tiger left me and turned on them. They both ran at top speed. The station-master flew back to his house and shut the door. The porter on fleet foot went up a tree, with the tiger halfway up behind him. Thus they stopped, staring at each other till the goods train lumbered in after 5.30. It hissed and whistled and belched fire, till the tiger took himself down and bolted across the lines into the jungle.

He did not visit these parts again, though one was constantly hearing of his ravages. I did not meet him again till a few moments ago when I saw him riding in that bullock cart. I instantly recognized him by his right forepaw, where three toes and claws are missing. You seemed to be so much lost in 74 THE TIGERS CLAW admiration for those people who met the tiger at their own convenience, with gun and company, thfrt I thought you might give a little credit to a fellow who has faced the same animal, alone, barehanded. Hence this narration.

When the Talkative Man left us we moved on to the square where they were keeping the trophy in view and hero-wors.h.i.+pping and feting the hunters, who were awaiting a lorry from the town. We pushed through the crowd, and begged to be shown the right forepaw of the tiger. Somebody lowered a gas lamp.

Yes, three toes were missing, and a black deep scar marked the spot. The man who cut it off must have driven his knife with the power of a hammer. To a question, the hunters replied : Cant say how it happens. Weve met a few instances like this.

Its said that some forest tribes, if they catch a tiger cub, cut off its claws for some talisman, and let it go.

They do not usually kill cubs.

10.

THE PERFORMING CHILD.

THE child was still in bed dreaming : she was given a green railway engine just large enough to accommodate her. She got into it and drove it all over the garden. Near the jasmine plant she stopped it for a while, and put her hand out of the window to pluck flowers, and then the engine took her under the red flowers of a creeper hanging over a wall at the end of the street. And then she drove all by herself to the zoo and all the monkeys there wanted to ride.

Of course there was no room for all of them. She had just enough s.p.a.ce for herself and the bald doll.

She applied some hair oil and the doll began to have such long tresses that she braided them and putjasmine into them ; and she clothed the doll in a green frock and the doll said how nice it was. Of course there were bags and bags of sweets scattered all over the floor of the engine . She was just stooping to pick up a handful of chocolates when mothers voice called :

Kutti ! Kutti ! get up. And Kutti came out of the dream. Get up, it is eight oclock.

Oh, mother, why did you disturb me now ? It was such a beautiful engine. Just let me sleep again.

The doll wants to go home.

They will be coming now, and you must be ready, my dear. And if they like your dancing they will give you so much money ; you can buy ten dolls and engines.

75.

76 THE PERFORMING CHILD.

Is it true, mother ?

Certainly, dear. Get up. They will give you a lot of money.

But I think you will take away all the money ; and I wont be able to buy what I want.

I promise, you shall have all the money, but only on condition that you dance and sing as you did in your school the other day.

Two people who were connected with the films had seen Kutti dance and sing in her school and they were now coming to see her. This was a sudden burst of good fortune for the family ; Kuttis father was a school master earning fifty rupees a month and with it he had to pay for Kuttis education, pay off instalments of a co-operative debt incurred for his sisters marriage, and also run the household. For two years this had been a major worry for the family, and it had given Kuttis father a permanent look of hara.s.sment.

And now in a most unexpected manner relief seemed to be coming : the debt could be ticked off ; the pieces of jewellery pledged with a banker could be released and Kuttis mother could once again hold up her head before her friends.

How much are you going to demand ?

she often asked her husband and was told : At least ten thousand rupees, not an annas less.

At nine oclock the film people arrived. One of them was elderly and wore diamond rings on his fingers, and the other was smart, and wore a tweed suit and rimless gla.s.ses ; they took the two ricketty chairs offered to them by Kuttis father. They looked too imposing in this humble home ; the roof seemed to be coining down and touching their heads they gave such an impression of being high and stooping.

THE PERFORMING CHILD 77.

They spent a few minutes in inanities and then the smart man said, looking at his watch : Weve not much time to spare. Will you call up the child ?

Kutti came into the hall, dressed for the occasion by her mother : her hair was plaited tight and had flowers ; she wore a chequered silk skirt, and a green jacket, and had a vermilion dot on her forehead.

Her father looked at her with pride.

The elderly man held out a packet of chocolates.

Kutti hesitated, looking at her father for permission.

The elderly man got up and thrust it in her hand and asked, Do you like cinemas, child ?

No, Kutti replied promptly, leaning on her fathers knees.

Why not?

Because they are so dark, replied Kutti. The smart man was viewing her gestures and movements critically. He said as if talking in a dream : Id like to see her in a frock ; and her hair to be untied.

This old-fas.h.i.+oned dressing makes her look older than she really is. Cant you put her into a frock now?

Now ?

asked father in consternation, and told his daughter : Get into a frock, Kutti, and undo your hair.

Let it fall down on your neck, said the smart man.

Kutti looked sullen.

And where will the flowers be ?

she asked.

I.

must keep the flowers.

All right, let your hair alone, a frock.

I like this skirt, said Kutti.

Very well ; dont worry nov it later, said the smart man.

78 THE PERFORMING CHILD.