"DELIVERANCE" "Dhania!" "Where has your father gone?" "To cut grass." "To cut grass?" "Now?" "What's the matter?" "Have you forgotten?" "Weren't you supposed to go to the Brahmin's this morning?" "I can't go empty-handed, can I?" "That grass is meant for him?" "Who else?" "You go home and mind your own business." "Think about what he's doing to sit on." "Won't he sit on a cot?" "Not on ours surely." "We can borrow one from the headman." "Are you crazy?" "They won't let a coal out of their house to light your fire with and they'll lend us their cot?" "So?" "Tell Dhania to break off some mohwa leaves." "Make a mat with them." "Very well." "And we'll have to offer him some provisions too." "We'll need a plate for that." "Make a plate with mohwa leaves." "They're holy." "What happened?" "You felt dizzy, didn't you?" "I'll be alright." "Take the Gond's daughter, go to the grocer's and bring back all the things you need." "What things?" "Two pounds of flour, a pound of rice... half a pound of gram, a quarter of ghee... salt and turmeric." "Will you remember?" "Oh, yes." "Repeat what I said." "Two pounds of rice..." "Two pounds of flour." "Two pounds of flour." "A pound of rice." "Repeat." "A pound of rice." "Half a pound of gram." "Half a pound of gram." "A quarter of ghee... salt and turmeric." "And put four annas on the edge of the leaf." "Don't touch anything." "Listen." "Don't go today." "Go tomorrow." "You've only just recovered from fever." "I should have gone earlier." "It's the fever which has delayed me." "Don't worry, I'll be alright." "Come here." "D'you know who's coming here today?" "The Brahmin." "You know why he's coming?" "Listen, go and break off some mohwa leaves and bring them here." "They'll make a mat and a plate for the Brahmin." "Bring a lot of leaves." "And stay in the house after you're back." "The Brahmin may want to see you," "Go without eating?" "You had nothing to eat this morning." "I must hurry, or I'll miss him." "What if you get another dizzy spell on the way?" "Keep everything ready here." "Who is it?" "Dukhi, Your Honour, I've come to see you." "What for?" "We're arranging for our daughter's betrothal." "If you could come and help us fix an auspicious date." "Now?" "I've kept everything ready, Your Honour." "What are you standing there for?" "You want to be late for school again?" "You think I'm free to go anywhere people want me to go?" "Oh, no." "I know you have hardly any time to breathe." "But I can't fix my daughter's betrothal without your help." "See there's a broom lying there." "Yes, Your Honour." "Sweep that verandah clean." "I'll come when I'm free." "Where shall I put this grass down?" "Put it in the cowshed." "Well?" "Tell him." "Two pounds of flour, a pound of rice half a pound of gram, a quarter of ghee salt and turmeric." "Two pounds of rice?" "Two pounds of flour." "I've cleaned the verandah, Your Honour." "Now listen." "There's a store-room across the street out in front ...you'll find a pile of husk lying there." "Take it out and put it in cowshed." "And listen" "After that, I want you to chop wood for me." "You'll find a log lying below the banyan tree outside." "I want it chopped in small slices." "Understood?" "Yes, Your Honour." "Mohwa leaves." "Put them down there." "Shall I make a plate?" "Can you?" "Why not?" "See that there are no holes or the grain will trickle thorough." "As the Lord Krishna says in the Gita:" "Just as a person sheds his tartered clothes and puts on fresh ones so the soul abandons a decayed body and finds abode in a fresh one so you must realise that although your wife is dead her soul lives." "I find that a most consoling thought, Sir." "Why be sad?" "You're still young." "Take another wife." "Nowhere does it say in the Scriptures that you cannot marry again." "Look at me." "My present wife is my third." "My first wife died 7 months after marriage." "A year later, I married again." "In 3 years I lost my second wife too." "A snake bit her." "A Krait." "On the ankle." "Died in 2 hours." "2 years later, I managed for the third time." "You may suffer bereavement, but life doesn't stop." "It goes on." "Have you chopped wood?" "Where is the axe, Your Honour?" "Look in the storeroom." "It is our sacred duty to marry and procreate." "You have no son by your first wife, do you?" "No, sir." "Then it is your duty to marry again-- and keep alive your lineage." "Do you know how to chop wood?" "I'm used to cutting grass, brother-- not to chopping wood." "Then why wear yourself out for nothing?" "The brahmin's orders." "I'm taking him home to find a auspicious date for my daughter's betrothal." "So that's why he makes you chop wood?" "I could have done it too." "It's just that I had no time to take any food this morning." "Can't you feed you even if doesn't pay you?" "Ask him for some food." "I'm asking a favour;" "how can I ask for food?" "Then whack away." "I could tackle it better if I had a smoke." "It's not that I have no strength in my arms." "You have no tobacco?" "No." "Come with me." "Where?" "Drop the axe and come with me." "I wonder what's taking them so long." "Dhania, go and take a look." "There's no one coming, Mummy." "Sorry there's no fire." "I'll get fire from the Brahmin's wife." "Carry on, then." "I'll drop by later." "Why is that man back again?" "He wants me to come to his house to fix a date for his daughter's betrothal." "Now?" "In the middle of the day?" "I've asked him to do some work." "Let him finish that first." "What work?" "Chopping wood." "If I could get some fire to light this pipe..." "He's asking for fire now." "Why don't you give him some?" "You seem to have forgotten all about caste rules." "Tanners, washermen, birdshooters-- they just come walking in as though they owned the house." "You'd think it was an inn, and not a decent Hindu's house." "Tell him to get out or I'll scorch his face with a fire brand." "He's doing our work, isn't he?" "If you had a labourer to do the job you'd have to pay him atleast a rupee." "Why don't you give him some fire?" "If he ever comes back here, I'll give him the coals in his face." "Forgive me, mother." "It was very wrong of me to come inside the house." "It's because we're such fools that we get kisked about." "Has the tanner had anything to eat?" "Perhaps not." "He's been here since morning." "How can he chop wood on an empty stomach?" "Why don't you give him something to eat?" "What?" "Oh, I don't know." "Is there anything left over." "A couple of chapatis may be." "A couple?" "Hardly enough for a tanner." "Those fellows eat a lot." "Then let him go hungry." "I can't go cooking in this hot weather." "You son-of-a-bitch." "I'll see you split even if I have to give my life for it." "To hell with you!" "Forgive me, Sir." "It slipped out of my hand." "It'll never happen again." "What's the matter, Bhagwan?" "Why?" "He threw an axe at me." "Who?" "That tanner." "Don't come this way." "Have you come here to snouze?" "What's the matter?" "I had nothing to eat this morning." "So what?" "Finish your work," "So what?" "Finish your work, go home, and eat all you like." "The wood's lying there just the way it was." "So if you don't find an auspicious day for your daughter's marriage- don't blame me." "Come on, get going." "You seem to have no strength in your arm." "Hit hard!" "Don't stop until you've split it." "Yes, that's the way." "Daddy, the tanner's dead." "What?" "The tanner's dead." "He's fallen on his face by the log." "Must have fallen asleep again." "Dozen of again, have you?" "What are you standing there for?" "Go and play." "Go to Tulsi's house." "Listen." "Disaster." "What d'you mean?" "Dukhi's dead." "Who's Dukhi?" "Dukhi, the tanner." "But wasn't he chopping wood?" "He died chopping wood." "Are you sure he's not asleep?" "You think I don't know a dead man when I see one?" "But what are you so jumpy about?" "Go to the tanners' colony." "Tell them to come and take the corpse away." "But the trouble is, you see." "What are you numbling for?" "He was chopping wood and he died." "May be he had fever." "Some people die in their sleep, don't they?" "After all, you didn't know that he would die." "Of course not." "Well, don't sit there." "Go." "Holy man!" "God incarnate!" "What's the matter with him?" "He's dead." "Who is he?" "Tanner dead?" "He died while chopping wood." "The Brahmin forced him to work." "So he is responsible." "I know, because I saw everything with my own eyes." "He will come here." "He will ask you remove the corpse." "Don't touch the corpse, or you'll be in trouble with the police." "It's a police case and the guilty one is the Brahmin." "Listen to me, brothers." "A little while ago" "Dukhi died near my house." "I was about to come with him to his house when he died suddenly." "The question is-- how long is the corpse going to lie there?" "Oh God!" "I knew it." "I knew there was something wrong." "What'll happen to me now?" "If you could do something about..." "This is a serious matter, Panditji." "Until the corpse is removed, we can't use this road to go to the well." "How long can se do without water?" "I've just been to the tanners' colony and told them." "They'll be here presently." "You go home now and come back in an hour." "Well?" "They won' listen." "What do you mean?" "They won't remove this corpse." "They don't expect us to remove it, do they?" "Don't ask me." "What did you tell them?" "I told them what had to be told." "That Dukhi is dead, go and remove his dead body." "They just turned a deaf ear and looked at me with red eyes." "I had to come away." "Now it's started raining, and the corpse still lying there." "Open your eyes... open your eyes!" "What a curse this is!" "Our only daughter just about to be married." "I must go and fetch the Brahmin he said who knew he would never return?" "How could you be so cruel?" "Didn't you once think of me and what would happen to me?" "Maharaj!" "Maharaj - you made him chop wood - made him work so hard - when he had fever only the other day." "He had nothing to eat this morning he had no strength - ...yet you made him work." "What harm has he done you that you were so cruel?" "I don't know why you had to ask him to split wood." "I didn't know he'd had nothing to eat." "I told you to give him some food." "You told me?" "It was I who told you." "But, you refused to give him any food." "And now you blame me." "A poor starving man, and you made him work so hard." "Don't tell me people who work hard all die." "What if the police comes to know?" "You expect the police to be out in this weather?" "The corpse will start stinking soon." "They won't remove the corpse-- and you won't find anybody to do it for you." "Stop jabbering and let me think." "Let me think."