by Pran Kishore
Qadir cast another glance at Jane. Jane smiled and, holding his glass in her hands, moved it to his lips.
‘Now go ahead, she has finally granted you permission,’ Gul Beg said.
After heaving a long and cold sigh, Qadir started explaining his worries. ‘I am really scared for I have to be home again. If Abba comes to know that I tasted alcohol, he will send me to hell.’
‘But you cannot get any bus or auto at this time. You have no option but to spend the night here.’
‘Then let me give them a call.’
‘I wish there were a telephone connection. They are constructing a new exchange, and all the lines are temporarily disconnected … so, in the name of Gul Beg, go ahead and guzzle!’
Qadir knew that if he did not drink, Gul Beg would get enraged and then he knew no limits. So he began to sip.
Jane took out a pack of cigarettes, offered one to Gul Beg and sat with ease as if it was her own house. Qadir was engulfed in his many worries. On the one hand, he dreaded the situation at home as he did not know what happened after they left, and on the other, he did not want to be deprived of the opportunity to spend the night with Jane. Who knew what tomorrow would bring! He finished his glass in one long gulp and handed it to Gul Beg. Jane lifted the brown bag that had fallen down from the corner of the sofa and placed it on her lap.
Malla Khaliq’s house was sunk in gloom. Worried to the core and in need of some solace, he took a canoe, tossed it into the lake and began rowing towards Gagribal in the dark. Many taxis were always there for the convenience of tourists. He hired a taxi and reached Narayan Joo’s house at Gogji Bagh.
Narayan Joo was surprised to see Malla Khaliq clad in his phiran and asked him nervously, ‘What brings you here at this time of the night? Is everything all right?’
‘Narayan Joo, I have been struck by lightning! What happened today has never happened before. The police raided our houseboats. It was the DIG himself who led the search. The whole contingent was there to apprehend that dirty young woman, Jane.’
‘So she has finally been arrested, is it?’
‘No, she had already escaped by the time the police arrived.’
‘She is an important link in the chain of smugglers in Bombay, they say.’
‘That she has been identified is good, but what vexes me more is that Qadir is also missing.’
A sudden pallor appeared on Narayan Joo’s face as he added up the disappearance of Jane to that of Qadir. Ominous premonitions popped up in his mind. If the police apprehended Qadir along with Jane, his friend would really be in great trouble. His reputation would get besmeared. The name that he had earned not only in his dynasty and the community, but also among people of clout, would get covered with dirt. He started reflecting on some possible ways out so that Malla Khaliq’s honour would be safe and Qadir could also be saved from the police.
Malla Khaliq, already sinking with fear, felt heavier when he saw Narayan Joo silent. ‘Why don’t you say something?’
‘I think … we must call DIG Prahlad Singh and tell him everything.’
‘No, no. If we go directly to DIG Prahlad Singh and tell him about Qadir, that would further complicate the issue. He is the kind of officer who would not excuse his own father if he were caught committing a crime.’
‘If not him, then you know SHO Rahim Khan. He respects you and can easily help Qadir to escape this situation … and we could thank him with some bottles and some smokes.’
‘But it is already midnight. Is it okay to call on him at this hour?’
‘Let us wait until dawn. It is also possible that Qadir might be hiding with some friend of his, and will come home before sunrise.’
‘Oh, may your words come true!’
‘You better send the taxi back and spend the night here.’
‘No, no. My wife will simply breathe her last then. Let me go now.’
‘Do not be so nervous. Let us see what God decides. I will ring you up early tomorrow.’
Gul Beg emptied his plate and guzzled the remaining whisky as if it were water. Jane was already heavy with sleep and he cast a piercing glance at her. He said to Qadir, ‘So let me show this memsahib her room.’
Qadir started. ‘Aren’t we to sleep in the bedroom upstairs?’
‘Of course, where else?’
Qadir lifted the bag and said to Gul Beg, ‘You need not bother, I know where it is.’
Gul Beg chuckled and said, ‘You have no faith in me, my dear prince. Yet I forgive you. Go and enjoy. It is your night.’
Qadir said to Jane, ‘Come on.’
Gul Beg was already tipsy. He stood up unsteadily to say goodnight to Jane, then sat down on the sofa and wistfully watched Qadir climbing up the stairs with Jane.
Malla Khaliq returned to his houseboats. It was one-thirty in the morning and Noor Mohammad alone stood waiting for his father to return. The moment he had helped his father come over to the isle, he burst out, ‘Did you think I was dead that you left all alone in search of Qadir?’
‘I had not left in search of him. How will I know where he has buried himself? I went to call on Narayan Joo for his counsel.’
‘And? What did he say?’ Noor Mohammad asked impatiently.
Malla Khaliq responded bitterly. ‘I shall tell you all, but let me go in. Or are you planning to interrogate me here and now?’
Noor Mohammad dropped his head and followed his father to his room. Aziz Dyad was also awake, waiting for her husband. When she glanced at her husband’s face, she felt as though her heart was being chopped into pieces. It looked like he had grown very old and feeble in one day – his back was bent and his shoulders sagged. She asked Noor Mohammad, ‘Tell me, could you not locate him anywhere?’
Malla Khaliq said, smouldering in anger, ‘It is now up to the police to get him back. You just prepare to arrange for a sumptuous sacrifice.’
Aziz Dyad was flabbergasted.
Noor Mohammad knew that even a slight digression could escalate the issue. He told his mother that his father had gone to Narayan Joo for his advice. In the meantime, Malla Khaliq looked at Aziz Dyad who stood shrunk in a corner. His heart suddenly melted with pity for her. What was her fault after all? He moved near her and said, ‘Everything will be fine. I was not in search of Qadir. I was with Narayan Joo to seek his counsel. He assured me that with the rise of the sun we will find some way so that Qadir will come home and our name shall remain unharmed.’
They lay down to sleep and Noor Mohammad went back to his room.
Qadir woke up with the first ray of the sun. He stretched himself and turned towards Jane who lay sleeping beside him. He felt the force of desire again, but reminded himself that he had to be home well before his Abba returned from Makhdoom Sahib’s shrine. If he failed, there could be a calamity. He woke Jane up and told her that if he did not hasten to reach home, the whole issue could get so knotty that he would not be able to assist her in fleeing Kashmir. Jane hurried out of bed and put on her clothes. Qadir opened the door and she followed him downstairs. He went to Gul Beg’s bedroom and knocked on the door. There was no response. But when Qadir continued knocking, Gul Beg yelled, ‘Who is it who has sprung from some swamp when it is still dark?’
Qadir replied, ‘This is Qadir.’ The door was not locked and Qadir opened it cautiously and went in. Gul Beg turned over and looked at Qadir with sleepy eyes. With a long yawn, he asked him, ‘Tell me what you want.’
‘Nothing. I am leaving now.’
‘Have I kept you shackled here? You may leave and may God keep you safe.’
‘I want Jane to stay here with you.’
Hearing Jane’s name, Gul Beg’s eyes widened. ‘Good morning. I had forgotten her, really. Slept well? But you rascal wouldn’t have let her sleep.’
‘Yes, very well,’ Jane said and looked at Qadir. ‘When will you be back, Qadir?’
Qadir convinced her that he would make all arrangements for her safe exit from Kashmir and be back soon. And then he said
to Gul Beg, ‘Will you let her stay here with you for a couple of days?’
‘Oh surely, my prince, she may stay here if she wants to.’
‘I am leaving my friend in your care. I hope you will not do anything to harm the bonds of our trust and friendship.’
‘If you have no faith in me, you may take her along.’
This reply made Qadir uneasy and he hastened to say, ‘If I did not have faith in you, I would not have brought her here in the first place.’
Gul Beg got out of his bed, stood beside Qadir and laid his hands on his shoulders and said to him, ‘You may leave with Gul Beg’s name on your tongue, and see what he does for you.’ Qadir took leave of Jane and hurried towards the gate of the orchard.
Gul Beg cast a warm glance at Jane and said, ‘Relax. You’re safe here.’
‘Thank you,’ she said and went back to the room in which she had spent the night with Qadir.
The morning light was still dim when Qadir reached the general road. He saw a vehicle, with its headlights on, coming towards him. He stood in the middle of the road to flag it down. The truck stopped and the conductor asked him, ‘Where do you want to go?’
‘Just near the Navapore Bridge.’
The conductor took pity on him and made room for him beside the driver.
At the quay of Navapore, Qadir had left his canoe in the custody of a barge owner. Having reached Navapore, he hurriedly sat in his canoe and rowed it towards the Dal Lake.
The cliffs of the Zabarwan were now bright with morning light and a golden hue shimmered across the waters of the lake. Qadir rowed with all the force in his arms. On his way, he thought of rowing his canoe behind the houseboat of Kaw’s so he could see if the hippies who were in league with Jane were still there or had been apprehended by the police. But he decided against it and continued rowing through the swamps covered with rushes to reach home. By then the sun was well above the summits, shining like a crown.
Malla Khaliq had left for Makhdoom Sahib’s shrine. He shed tears there and prayed for absolution. He had left the shrine with the hope that the Lord would soon dispel all his worries and was back home before anyone in his family had woken up. Aziz Dyad felt reassured to see her husband’s face bright with hope. She was waiting with a hot samovar of tea. Placing his hand on her shoulder, Malla Khaliq said, ‘You should not worry. The Lord shall dispel all our dread, I am sure. Come and pour me some tea now.’
Aziz Dyad was quick in pouring tea into the cup for him. Taking the cup from her hands, Malla Khaliq asked her, ‘Has Parveen woken up? Isn’t she usually in the kitchen well before you?’
‘Even today she was here before I came in, but Bilal had woken up even before her. You know he had been wearing muddy clothes since yesterday evening. So she took him to the washroom to clean him up.’
‘This one person has caused so much trouble to the entire family,’ Malla Khaliq said with a long sigh and began to sip his tea.
Qadir anchored the boat and reached the hind prow of Gulshan. Parveen, who was towelling Bilal, saw Qadir from a distance. She hastened to help Bilal wear his clothes, took him in her arms and ran towards the kitchen and shouted to break the news, ‘Abba, Abba, Qadir Bhaijaan has returned!’
Malla Khaliq closed his eyes and raised his head to express his thanks to his Lord. Hearing about Qadir’s return, Ghulam Ahmed left the kitchen without saying a word to anyone.
Feigning nonchalance, Qadir ambled towards the kitchen, but Ghulam Ahmed stopped him there. ‘Where the hell have you been?’ He dragged him to the kitchen.
As soon as Qadir entered the pantry, Aziz Dyad stood up and roared like a lioness, ‘Where were you the whole night? Speak up!’
Qadir also feigned anger and said, ‘Tell me what has happened to all of you, Amma? Is it for the first time that I was away from home?’
Aziz Dyad shook with anger. Ghulam Ahmed helped her sit down and then said to Qadir, ‘Sit down. Do you want all the neighbours to know what has happened?’
Suppressing his anger, Qadir sat down. Malla Khaliq, who felt like his blood could be bursting out of his veins, raised his head, cast a piercing look at Qadir’s face and said, ‘Now tell me, where did you hide her?’
‘Whom?’
‘You say “whom” as though you know nothing! I mean Jane!’
‘Jane? Is she not there in the houseboat?’
Malla Khaliq could no longer control himself. ‘Look at me, you shameless rascal. I will not digest this false innocence of yours. You have taken her away, I know it for certain.’
‘What is all this about, Abba?’
‘Let your Abba be struck by a thunderbolt! You have already shamed him. The DIG, who once used to swear by my honesty, came here to search my house.’
Qadir did not know that things had taken such a frightening turn. Just then, Razaq entered carrying the cups and trays. The moment Qadir saw him there, he was struck dumb. Razaq blushed deeply. Having kept all the things in the kitchen, he left with his head bowed. Malla Khaliq started interrogating Qadir again. ‘Yes, all of us here are your enemies. We are always eager to find faults in you.’ Qadir was about to say something in his defence, but Malla Khaliq gave him a heavy pat. ‘Will you shut up? Go to your room where your wife is wailing over that she-monkey.’
As soon as Zeb saw Qadir, she said, ‘Do not enter the room carrying traces of that harlot.’
Qadir raised his hand to slap Zeb, but for some reason held himself back. Zeb held his raised hand in both her hands and placed it over her throat. ‘Go on, throttle me to death. Why don’t you? Kill me so that you can add a feather to your father’s cap—’
Qadir released himself from her grip and stormed out of the room in a blinding fury. While Razaq was returning to the pantry after serving breakfast to Raja Rathinder Singh, he bumped into Qadir. The tray fell from his hand and some of the crockery broke. Qadir raised his hand to vent his repressed anger on Razaq, but Razaq caught hold of his raised hand and said through gritted teeth, ‘You can take your hooliganism to some other person. If I open my mouth, you will be handcuffed in no time.’
Qadir realized that this was not the time to have a scuffle with Razaq, so he scurried out of the scene like a rat.
Seeing Razaq collecting the broken utensils, Malla Khaliq walked over to him. Narayan Joo, who had come to visit his friend, followed. Malla Khaliq asked him, ‘What happened, Razaq?’
‘I just stumbled here.’
‘My son, you must be careful.’
‘That is what I am trying to do.’
Malla Khaliq moved ahead. Narayan Joo placed a hand on his shoulder and said, ‘You see, all is well again. I think you have grown old and so you overreact to small things.’
‘Was it really a small thing?’ asked Malla Khaliq.
‘Well, I agree that it was no ordinary matter, but it was small. I want to say something serious to you—’
‘What?’
‘The ardour of youth does not abate so easily. I advise you to keep a constant vigil on Qadir and tighten your ropes on him.’
‘Yes, my friend, you are right. I hope this jolt will teach him a lesson.’
Narayan Joo was about to say something, but hearing the sound of hammering, he stopped. He saw Noor Mohammad fixing a ‘TO LET’ board on the rails of Gulshan. He called out to him, ‘No, no. Noor Mohammad, what are you doing? This is a bad omen. Bring the board down. A big party is coming within two days.’
Malla Khaliq also advised Noor Mohammad. ‘Yes, get that board down. Pray that this type of board may never be fixed to our houseboats again.’
Narayan Joo said to him, ‘I have such strong misgivings when I see a board bearing the words “TO LET” fixed to any houseboat.’
But Malla Khaliq said, ‘This board on Qadir’s houseboat might lead to gossip among the neighbours.’
‘How is that? It is quite normal to put a houseboat up for rent in an off season.’
Having seen them from a distance, Qadir retracted. Meanwhil
e Ghulam Ahmed came to seek his father’s permission to leave. His father prayed for him, ‘You may go. May God bless you! But come back early.’ Ghulam Ahmed was in a hurry and left without saying anything further. Malla Khaliq said to Narayan Joo, ‘I do not know what is on his mind.’
‘But Haji Sahib, he is not a prisoner after all. If you watch every movement of theirs like this, you will lose them one by one. Now let us go, it will be late otherwise. The SHO will not be available if we are late.’
A new ambassador car sped on to Zakoor road and came to a sharp halt near Gul Beg’s gate. The screech of the breaks made the dog lying there whine and run away. The door of the car opened and Ghulam Ahmed alighted. After surveying the area, he said to the rich man who was still sitting in the car, ‘Why don’t you come down? This is the orchard of Gul Beg. You can peep through the gaps in the gate and see how rich the orchard is with apples.’ The man in the car was the contractor with whom Ghulam Ahmed was to enter into a partnership and purchase an apple orchard at Pattan. Khwaja Amir Din came out of the car and looked at the orchard through the gaps in the gate and exclaimed with delight, ‘Oh my God! This type of crop is hardly seen anywhere else.’
‘Yes. I told you that if anybody wants to learn how to maintain their orchards, he should learn it from Gul Beg. Please wait here while I go and see if he is in.’
Ghulam Ahmed opened the gate and entered the orchard. He pressed the doorbell, but it did not ring. Then he called out to Gul Beg, but there was no response. He walked all around the bungalow, and finding the back door unlatched, slipped indoors and climbed up the stairs. He heard a woman chuckle inside a room. Ghulam Ahmed silently moved closer to the door, knocked on it and called, ‘Beg Sahib!’ Finally, Gul Beg appeared, wrapping his naked body with a gown and said, ‘Who the devil is there to die so soon at this hour?’
‘It’s me, Ghulam Ahmed.’
‘Yes. But is this the way to enter the house of a man of respect, that too without permission?’ Gul Beg staggered unsteadily on his feet. He held the door to balance himself and that threw it wide open. The room was filled with smoke and Ghulam Ahmed had to cover his nose with his handkerchief. Gul Beg roared at him, ‘Why are you still standing here? Get out! Should I call the police?’