An Astrologers Day and Other Stories Part 29

Till he was patted on the head, stroked, and told that he was forgiven, he would be in extreme misery.

Gradually he realized that his bouncing advances caused much unhappy misunderstanding. And so when he heard the gate click he hardly stirred. He merely looked in that direction and wagged his tail.

The people at home did not very much like this att.i.tude. They thought it rather a shame.

Why not change his name to Blind Worm ?

somebody asked.

He eats like an elephant, said the mother of the family. You can employ two watchmen for the price of the rice and meat he consumes. Somebody comes every morning and steals all the flowers in the garden and Attila wont do anything about it He has better business to do than catch flower thieves, replied the youngest, always the defender of the dog.

What is the better business ?

Well, if somebody comes in at dawn and takes away the flowers do you expect Attila to be looking out for him even at that hour ?

Why not ? Its what a well-fed dog ought to be ATTILA 181 doing instead of sleeping. You ought to be ashamed of your dog.

He does not sleep all night, mother. I have often seen him going round the house and watching all night.

Really ! Does he prowl about all night ?

Of course he does, said the defender.

I am quite alarmed to hear it, said the mother.

Please lock him up in a room at night, otherwise he may call in a burglar and show him round. Left alone a burglar might after all be less successful. It wouldnt be so bad if he at least barked. He is the most noiseless dog I have ever seen in my life.

The young man was extremely irritated at this.

He considered it to be the most uncharitable cynicism, but the dog justified it that very night.

Ranga lived in a hut three miles from the town.

He was a gang cooly

often employed in roadmending.

Occasionally at nights he enjoyed the thrill and profit of breaking into houses. At one oclock that night Ranga removed the bars of a window on the eastern side of the house and slipped in. He edged along the wall, searched all the trunks and almirahs in the house, and made a neat bundle of all the jewellery and other valuables he could pick up.

He was just starting to go out. He had just put one foot out of the gap he had made in the window when he saw Attila standing below, looking up expectantly. Ranga thought his end had come. He expected the dog to bark. But not Attila. He waited for a moment, grew tired of waiting, stood up and put his forepaws on the lap of the burglar. He put back his ears, licked Rangas hands, and rolled his eyes. Ranga whispered,

I hope you arent going to bark .

i8* ATTILA Dont you worry. I am not the sort, the dog tried to say.

Just a moment. Let me get down from here, said the burglar.

The dog obligingly took away his paws and lowered himself.

See there, said Ranga pointing to the backyard, there is a cat. Attila put up his ears at the mention of the cat, and dashed in the direction indicated. One might easily have thought he was going to tear up a cat, but actually he didnt want to miss the pleasure of the company of a cat if there was one.

As soon as the dog left him Ranga made a dash for the gate. Given a second more he would have hopped over it. But the dog turned and saw what was about to happen and in one spring was at the gate. He looked hurt.

Is this proper ?

he seemed to ask.

Do you want to shake me off?

He hung his heavy tail down so loosely and looked so miserable that the burglar stroked his head, at which he revived. The burglar opened the gate and went out, and the dog followed him. Attilas greatest ambition in life was to wander in the streets freely.

Now things seemed to be shaping out ideally.

Attila liked his new friend so much that he wouldnt leave him alone even for a moment. He sat before Ranga when he sat down to eat, sat on the edge of his mat when he slept in his hut, waited patiently on the edge of the pond when Ranga went there now and then for a wash, slept on the roadside when Ranga was at work.

This sort of companions.h.i.+p got on Rangas nerves.

He implored, Oh dog. Leave me alone for a ATTILA 183 moment. Wont you ?

Unmoved Attila sat before him with his eyes glued on his friend.

Attilas disappearance created a sensation in the bungalow.

Didnt I tell you, the mother said, to lock him up ? Now some burglar has gone away with him. What a shame ! We can hardly mention it to anyone.

You are mistaken, replied the defender.

It is just a coincidence. He must have gone off on his own account. If he had been here no thief would have dared to come in .

Whatever it is, I dont know if we should after all thank the thief for taking away that dog. He may keep the jewels as a reward for taking him away.

Shall we withdraw the police complaint ?

This facetiousness ceased a week later, and Attila rose to the ranks of a hero. The eldest son of the house was going towards the market one day. He saw Attila trotting behind someone on the road.

Hey, shouted the young man ; at which Ranga turned and broke into a run. Attila, who always suspected that his new friend was waiting for the slightest chance to throw him, galloped behind Ranga.

Hey, Attila !

shouted the young man, and he also started running. Attila wanted to answer the call after making sure of his friend ; and so he turned his head for a second and galloped faster. Ranga desperately doubled his pace. Attila determined to stick to him at any cost. As a result of it he ran so fast that he overtook Ranga and clumsily blocked his way, and Ranga stumbled over him and fell. As he rolled on the ground a piece of jewellery (which he was taking to a receiver of stolen property) flew from his hand. The young man recognized it as 184 ATTILA belonging to his sister, and sat down on Ranga. A crowd collected and the police appeared on the scene.

Attila was the hero of the day. Even the lady of the house softened towards him. She said, Whatever one might say of Attila, one has to admit that he is a very cunning detective. He is too deep for words.

It was as well that Attila had no powers of speech.

Otherwise he would have burst into a lamentation which would have shattered the pedestal under his feet.

25.

THE AXE.

AN astrologer pa.s.sing through the village foretold that Velan would live in a three-storied house surrounded by many acres of garden. At this everybody gathered round young Velan and made fun of him. For Koopal did not have a more ragged and G.o.d-forsaken family than Velans. His father had mortgaged every bit of property he had, and worked, with his whole family, on other peoples lands in return for a few annas a week. A three-storied house for Velan indeed ! But the scoffers would have congratulated the astrologer if they had seen Velan about thirty or forty years later. He became the sole occupant of k.u.mar Baugh

that palatial house on the outskirts of Malgudi town.

When he was eighteen Velan left home. His father slapped his face one day for coming late with the midday meal, and he did that in the presence of others in the field. Velan put down the basket, glared at his father, and left the place. He just walked out of the village and walked on and on till he came to the town. He starved for a couple of days, begged wherever he could, and arrived in Malgudi, where after much knocking about an old man took him on to a.s.sist him in laying out a garden.

The garden yet existed only in the mind ofthe gardener.

What they could see now was acre upon acre of i86 THE AXE weed-covered land. Velans main business consisted in destroying all the vegetation he saw. Day after day he sat in the sun and tore up by hand the unwanted plants. And all the jungle gradually disappeared and the land stood as bare as a football field. Three sides of the land were marked off for an extensive garden and on the rest was to be built a house. By the time the mangoes had sprouted they were laying the foundation of the house. About the time the margosa sapling had shot up a couple of yards the walls were also coming up.

The flowers hibiscus, chrysanthemum, jasmine, roses, and cannae in the front park suddenly created a wonderland one early summer. Velan had to race with the bricklayers. He was now the chief gardener, the old man he had come to a.s.sist having suddenly fallen ill. Velan was proud of his position and responsibility. He keenly watched the progress of the bricklayers and whispered to the plants as he watered them, Now look sharp, young fellows. The building is going up and up every day. If it is ready and we arent we shall be the laughing-stock of the town.

He heaped manure, aired the roots, trimmed the branches, and watered the plants twice a day, and on the whole gave an impression of hustling Nature ; and Nature seemed to respond. For he did present a good-sized garden to his master and his family when they came to occupy the house.

The house proudly held up a dome. Balconies with intricately carved woodwork hung down from the sides of the house ; smooth, rounded pillars, deep verandas, chequered marble floors, and s.p.a.cious halls ranged one behind another, gave the house such an imposing appearance that Velan asked himself, Can THE AXE 187.

any mortal live in this? I thought such mansions existed only in Swarga Loka When he saw the kitchen and the dining room he said, Why, our whole village could be accommodated in this eating place alone !

The housebuilders a.s.sistant told him, We have built bigger houses, things costing nearly two lakhs. What is this house ? It has hardly cost your master a lakh of rupees. It is just a little more than an ordinary house, that is all . After returning to his hut Velan sat a long time trying to grasp the vision, scope and calculations of the builders ofthe house, but he felt dizzy. He went to the margosa plant, gripped its stem with his fingers and said, Is this all, you scraggy one ? What if you wave your head so high above mine ? I can put my fingers around you and shake you up like this. Grow up, little one, grow up. Grow fat. Have a trunk which two pairs of arms cant hug, and go up and spread.

Be fit to stand beside this palace ; otherwise I will pull you out.

When the margosa tree approximately came up to this vision the house had acquired a mellowness in its appearance. Successive summers and monsoons had robbed the paint on the doors and windows and woodwork of their brightness and the walls of their original colour, and had put in their place tints and shades of their own choice. And though the house had lost its resplendence it had now a more human look. Hundreds of parrots and mynas and unnamed birds lived in the branches of the margosa, and under its shade the masters great-grand-children and the (younger) grandchildren played and quarrelled. The master walked about leaning on a staff. The lady of the house, who had looked such a blooming creature i88 THE AXE on the inauguration day, was shrunken and grey and spent most her time in an invalids chair in the veranda, gazing at the garden with dull eyes. Velan himself was much changed. Now he had to depend more and more upon his a.s.sistants to keep the garden in shape. He had lost his parents, his wife, and eight children out of fourteen. He had managed to reclaim his ancestral property which was now being looked after by his sons-in-law and sons. He went to the village for Ponged, New Year, and Decpavali, and brought back with him one or the other of his grandchildren of whom he was extremely fond.

Velan was perfectly contented and happy. He demanded nothing more of life. As far as he could see, the people in the big house too seemed to be equally at peace with life. One saw no reason why these goods things should not go on and on for ever.

But Death peeped around the corner. From the servants quarters whispers reached the gardener in his hut that the master was very ill and lay in his room downstairs (the bedroom upstairs so laboriously planned had to be abandoned with advancing age).

Doctors and visitors were constantly coming and going, and Velan had to be more than ever on guard against flower-pluckers. One midnight he was awakened and told that the master was dead.

What is to happen to the garden and to me ? The sons are no good, he thought at once.

And his fears proved to be not entirely groundless.

The sons were no good, really. They stayed for a year more, quarrelled among themselves, and went away to live in another house. A year later some other family came in as tenants. The moment they saw Vdan they said, Old gardener ? Dont be up. to THE AXE 189.

any tricks. We know the sort you are. We will sack you if you dont behave yourself. Velan found life intolerable. These people had no regard for a garden.

They walked on flower beds, children climbed the fruit trees and plucked unripe fruits, and they dug pits on the garden paths. Velan had no courage to protest. They ordered him about, sent him on errands, made him wash the cow, and lectured to him on how to grow a garden. He detested the whole business and often thought of throwing up his work and returning to his village. But the idea was unbearable : he couldnt live away from his plants. Fortune however, soon favoured him. The tenants left. The house was locked up for a few years. Occasionally one of the sons of the late owner came round and inspected the garden. Gradually even this ceased.

They left the keys of the house with Velan.

Occasionally a prospective tenant came down, had the house opened, and went away after remarking that it was in ruins plaster was falling off in flakes, paint on doors and windows remained only in a few small patches, and white ants were eating away all the cupboards and shelves. A year later another tenant came, and then another, and then a third. No one remained for more than a few months. And then the house acquired the reputation of being haunted.

Even the owners dropped the practice of coming and seeing the house. Velan was very nearly the master of the house now. The keys were with him. He was also growing old. With the best he could do, gra.s.s grew on the paths, weeds and creepers strangled the flowering plants in the front garden. The fruit trees yielded their load punctually. The owners leased out the whole of the fruit garden for three years.

igo THE AXE Velan was too old. His hut was leaky and he had no energy to put up new thatch. So he s.h.i.+fted his residence to the front veranda of the house. It was a deep veranda running on three sides, paved with chequered marble. The old man saw no reason why he should not live there. He had as good a right as the bats and the rats.

When the mood seized him (about once a year) he opened the house and had the floor swept and scrubbed.

But gradually he gave up this practice. He was too old to bother about these things.

Years and years pa.s.sed without any change. It came to be known as the Ghost House, and people avoided it. Velan found nothing to grumble in this state of affairs. It suited him excellently. Once a quarter he sent his son to the old family in the town to fetch his wages. There was no reason why this should not have gone on indefinitely. But one day a car sounded its horn angrily at the gate. Velan hobbled up with the keys.