An Astrologers Day and Other Stories Part 6

I am, I am only Ive been rather unwell, I a.s.sured him.

Cant you tell me something more about it : how it came to be found in the river ?

Yes, yes, said my friend.

It was carried and thrown into the river ; it didnt walk down there.

Oh !

I exclaimed.

That is a story. For this we went to the court and had the priest dismissed and fined. He cannot come near the temple now. We spent one thousand rupees in lawyer fees alone ; we were prepared to spend all our fortune if only to see that priest removed.

It went up to Malgudi court we got a vakil from Madras.

What was wrong with your priest ?

No doubt he had a hereditary claim and took up the work when his father died, but the fellow was a devil for drink, if ever there was one. Morning till night he was drinking, and he performed all the puja in that condition. We did not know what to do with him. We just tolerated him, hoping that some day the G.o.ddess would teach him a lesson. We did not like to be too harsh, since he was a poor fellow, and he went about his duties quietly. But when we added these two dwarapalakas at the doorway he got a queer notion in his head. He used to say that the two doorkeepers constantly harried him by staring at him wherever he went. He said that their look p.r.i.c.ked him in the neck. Sometimes he would peep in from THE ROMAN IMAGE 43 within to see if the images were looking away, and hed scream, Ah, still they are watching me, and shout at them. This went on for months. In course of time he began to shudder whenever he had to pa.s.s these doorkeepers. It was an acute moment of suspense for him when he had to cross that pair and get into the sanctum. Gradually he complained that if he ever took his eyes off these figures they b.u.t.ted him from behind, kicked him, and pulled his hair, and so forth. He was afraid to look anywhere else and walked on cautiously with his eyes on the images.

But if he had his eyes on one, the other knocked him from behind. He showed us bruises and scratches sometimes. We declared we might treat his complaints seriously if he ever went into the shrine without a drop of drink in him. In course of time he started to seek his own remedy. He carried a small mallet with him, and whenever he got a knock he returned the blow ; it fell on a nose today, on an arm tomorrow, and on an ear another day. We didnt notice his handiwork for months. Judging from the mallet blows, the image on the left side seems to have been the greater offender.

The culmination came when he knocked it off its pedestal and carried it to the river. Next morning he declared he saw it walk off and plunge into the river. He must have felt that this would serve as a lesson to the other image if it should be thinking of any trick. But the other image never got its chance.

For we dragged the priest before a law court and had him sent away.

Thus ended the villagers tale. It took time for me to recover. I asked :

Didnt you have to pick up the image from the water and show it to the judge ?

44 THE ROMAN IMAGE.

No, because the fellow would not tell us where he had flung it. I did not know till this moment where exactly it could be found.

When I went back to Madras I was a different man.

The doctor had just returned for a short stay. I told him everything. He was furious.

We have made ourselves mighty fools before the whole world, he cried.

I didnt know what to say. I mumbled : I am so sorry, sir. He pointed at the pile of ma.n.u.scripts on the table and cried : Throw all that rubbish into the fire, before we are declared mad. I pushed the whole pile off the table and applied a match-stick.

We stood frowning at the roaring fire for a moment, and then he asked, pointing at the image : And what will you do with it ?

I dont know, I said.

Drown it. After all, you picked it up from the water that piece of nonsense !

he cried.

I had never seen him in such a rage before. I wrapped the image in a piece of brown paper, carried it to the seash.o.r.e, and flung it far into the sea. I hope it is still rolling about at the bottom of the Bay of Bengal. I only hope it wont get into some large fish and come back to the study table ! Later a brief message appeared in all the important papers : The ma.n.u.script on which Doctor and a.s.sistant were engaged has been destroyed, and the work will be suspended.

The doctor gave me two months salary and bade me good-bye.

6.

THE BLIND DOG.

IT was not a very impressive or high-cla.s.s dog ; it was one of those commonplace dogs one sees everywhere colour of white and dust, tail mutilated at a young age by G.o.d knows whom, born in the street, and bred on the leavings and garbage of the market-place. He had spotty eyes and undistinguished carriage and needless pugnacity. Before he was two years old he had earned the scars of a hundred fights on his body. When he needed rest on hot afternoons he lay curled up under the culvert at the eastern gate of the market. In the evenings he set out on his daily rounds, loafed in the surrounding streets and lanes, engaged himself in skirmishes, picked up edibles on the roadside, and was back at the market gate by nightfall.

This life went on for three years. And then occurred a change in his life. A beggar, blind of both eyes, appeared at the market gate. An old woman led him up there early in the morning, seated him at the gate, and came up again at midday with some food, gathered his coins, and took him home at night.

The dog was sleeping near by. He was stirred by the smell of food. He got up, came out of his shelter, and stood before the blind man, wagging his tail and gazing expectantly at the bowl, as he was eating his spa.r.s.e meal. The blind man swept his arms about and asked : Who is there ?

At which the dog went up and licked his hand. The blind man stroked 45

46 THE BLIND DOG.

its coat gently tail to ear and said : What a beauty you are. Come with me He threw a handful of food which the dog ate gratefully. It was perhaps an auspicious moment for starting a friends.h.i.+p. They met every day there, and the dog cut off much of its rambling to sit up beside the blind man and watch him ^receive alms morning to evening. In course of time observing him, the dog understood that the pa.s.sers-by must give a coin, and whoever went away without dropping a coin was chased by the dog ; he tugged the edge of their clothes by his teeth and pulled them back to the old man at the gate and let go only after something was dropped in his bowl. Among those who frequented this place was a village urchin, who had the mischief of a devil in him. He liked to tease the blind man by calling him names and by trying to pick up the coins in his bowl. The blind man helplessly shouted and cried and whirled his staff. On Thursdays this boy appeared at the gate, carrying on his head a basket loaded with cuc.u.mber or plantain. Every Thursday afternoon it was a crisis in the blind mans life. A seller of bright coloured but doubtful perfumes with his wares mounted on a wheeled platform, a man who spread out cheap story-books on a gunny sack, another man who carried coloured ribbons on an elaborate frame these were the people who usually gathered under the same arch, On a Thursday when the young man appeared at the Eastern gate one of them remarked, Blind fellow !

Here comes your scourge

Oh, G.o.d, is this Thursday? he wailed. He swept his arms about and called : Dog, dog, come here, where are you ?

He made the peculiar noise which brought the dog to his side. He stroked his THE BLIND DOG 47 head and muttered : Dont let that little rascal

At this very moment the boy came up with a leer on his face.

Blind man ! Still pretending you have no eyes.

If you are really blind, you should not know this either He stopped, his hand moving towards the bowl. The dog sprang on him and snapped his jaws on wrist. The boy extricated his hand and ran for his life. The dog bounded up behind him and chased him out of the market.

See the mongrels affection for this old fellow/ marvelled the perfume-vendor.

One evening at the usual time the old woman failed to turn up, and the blind man waited at the gate, worrying as the evening grew into night. As he sat fretting there, a neighbour came up and said : Sami, dont wait for the old woman. She will not come again. She died this afternoon

The blind man lost the only home he had, and the only person who cared for him in this world. The ribbon-vendor suggested :

Here, take this white tape He held a length of the white cord which he had been selling

I will give this to you free of cost. Tie it to the dog and let him lead you about if he is really so fond of you Life for the dog took a new turn now. He came to take the place of the old woman. He lost his freedom completely. His world came to be circ.u.mscribed by the limits of the white cord which the ribbon-vendor had spared. He had to forget wholesale all his old life all his old haunts. He simply had to stay on for ever at the end of that string. When he saw other dogs, friends or foes, instinctively he sprang up, tugging the string, and this invariably earned him a 48 THE BLIND DOG kick from his master.

Rascal, want to tumble me down have sense In a few days the dog learnt to discipline his instinct and impulse. He ceased to take notice of other dogs, even if they came up and growled at his side. He lost his own orbit of movement and contact with his fellow-creatures.

To the extent of this loss his master gained. He moved about as he had never moved in his life. All day he was on his legs, led by the dog. With the staff in one hand and the dog-lead in the other he moved out ofhis home a corner in a choultry veranda a few yards off the market : he had moved in there after the old womans death. He started out early in the day. He found that he could treble his income by moving about instead of staying in one place. He moved down the choultry street, and wherever he heard peoples voices he stopped and held out his hands for alms. Shops, schools, hospitals, hotels he left nothing out. He gave a tug when he wanted the dog to stop, and shouted like a bullock-driver when he wanted him to move on. The dog protected his feet from going into pits, or stumping against steps or stones, and took him up inch by inch on safe ground and steps. For this sight people gave coins and helped him. Children gathered round him and gave him things to eat. A dog is essentially an active creature who punctuates his hectic rounds with well-defined periods of rest. But now this dog (henceforth to be known as Tiger) had lost all rest. He had rest only when the old man sat down somewhere. At night the old man slept with the cord turned around his finger.

I cant take chances with you he said. A great desire to earn more money than ever before seized his master, so that he felt any resting a waste THE BLIND DOG 49 of opportunity, and the dog had to be continuously on his feet. Sometimes his legs refused to move.

But if he slowed down even slightly his master goaded him on fiercely with his staff. The dog whined and groaned under this thrust.

Dont whine, you rascal. Dont I give you your food ? You want to loaf, do you ?

swore the blind man. The dog lumbered up and down and round and round the market-place on slow steps, tied down to the blind tyrant. Long after the traffic at the market ceased, you could hear the night stabbed by the far-off wail of the tired dog. It lost its original appearance. As months rolled on, bones stuck up at his haunches and ribs were reliefed through his fading coat.

The ribbonseller, the novel-vendor and the perfumer observed it one evening, when business was slack, and held a conference among themselves : It rends my heart to see that poor dog slaving. Cant we do something ?

The ribbonseller remarked : That rascal has started lending money for interest I heard it from that fruit-seller He is earning more than he needs. He has become a very devil for money At this point the perfumers eyes caught the scissors dangling from the ribbon-rack.

Give it here, he said and moved on with the scissors in hand.

The blind man was pa.s.sing in front of the Eastern gate. The dog was straining the lead. There was a piece of bone lying on the way and the dog was straining to pick it up. The lead became taut and hurt the blind mans hand, and he tugged the string and kicked till the dog howled. It howled, but could not pa.s.s the bone lightly ; it tried to make another dash for it. The blind man was heaping curses on it.

The perfumer stepped up, applied the scissors and 50 THE BLIND DOG snipped the cord. The dog bounced off and picked up the bone. The blind man stopped dead where he stood, with the other half of the string dangling in his hand.

Tiger ! Tiger ! Where are you ?

he cried. The perfumer moved away quietly, muttering : You heartless devil ! You will never get at him again ! He has his freedom !

The dog went off at top speed. He nosed about the ditches happily, hurled himself on other dogs, and ran round and round the fountain in the market-square barking, his eyes sparkling with joy. He returned to his favourite haunts and hung about the butchers shop, tea-stall, and the bakery.

The ribbon-vendor and his two friends stood at the market gate and enjoyed the sight immensely as the blind man struggled to find his way about. He stood rooted to the spot waving his stick ; he felt as if he were hanging in mid-air. He was wailing.

Oh, where is my dog? Where is my dog? Wont someone give him back to me? I will murder it when I get at it again !

He groped about, tried to cross the road, came near being run over by a dozen vehicles at different points, tumbled and struggled and gasped.

Hed deserve it if he was run over, this heartless blackguard