The Complete Short Stories

by Premchand

  The boy retraced his steps and went to the terrace and wept. ‘What a beautiful child! What fun it would be—if only I could pick him up and put him in my lap! I wouldn’t have dropped him. Then why did she growl at me?’ How could the naive child know that a mother’s caution was not the reason for the growl but something else altogether?

  The boy was named Gyanprakash. One day while the infant was asleep and Devapriya was in the bathroom, Satyaprakash came in stealthily, removed the boy’s drape and looked at him with affectionate eyes. His heart longed to put him in his lap and play with him, but out of dread he did not and just kissed the baby’s cheeks. Just then Devapriya came out. Seething with anger upon seeing Satyaprakash kissing her child, she shouted, ‘Get away from there!’

  Looking at his stepmother helplessly, Satyaprakash left.

  In the evening, his father questioned him, ‘Why do you make the baby cry?’

  Satyaprakash replied, ‘I never make him cry. Mother doesn’t let me play with him.’

  Devapriya countered him, ‘You are lying. Today you pinched the child.’

  ‘No! I was just kissing him.’

  ‘He is lying!’

  ‘I don’t lie.’

  Devaprakash got angry and slapped the boy a few times. It was the first time Satyaprakash was punished in this manner, and that too when he was innocent! This completely altered the colour of his life.

  4

  That day onwards a strange change became discernible in Satyaprakash’s temperament. He would come home very infrequently. If anybody called him for meals, he would enter stealthily like a thief and eat. He no longer demanded anything, nor did he say anything. Earlier, he had been quite sharp; people felt captivated by his cleanliness, orderliness and dexterity. Now he disliked studying, and would wear dirty and torn clothes. There was nobody at home to love him. He roamed about the lanes with loafers, ran for kites, and even started swearing. His body became thin and his face also lost its lustre. Every other day Devaprakash received complaints of his mischief and Satyaprakash regularly got reprimands and beatings. So much so that if he ventured into the house for some chore, everybody dismissed him immediately, ordering him to stay away.

  A tutor was deputed to teach Gyanprakash. Devaprakash took his son for a stroll every day. He was a cheerful boy. Devapriya shielded him from even the shadow of Satyaprakash. How different the two boys were! One clean and tidy, wearing beautiful clothes, an embodiment of courtesy and docility, and truth; anyone who saw him spontaneously blessed him. The other was dirty, mischievous, hiding his face like a thief, loud-mouthed, swearing at every opportunity. One was a green sapling, raised with love and nurtured with affection; the other was a wilted, crooked, leafless tree, whose roots had not received nourishment for ages. The sight of one soothed the father’s heart; the other caused his body to singe.

  What was amazing was that Satyaprakash was not a bit jealous of his brother. If there was any tender emotion left in his heart, it was affection for the little boy. This was the only oasis in the desert of his life. Jealousy is a signifier of community. Satyaprakash thought of his brother as much higher, much more fortunate than himself. The very sentiment of jealousy had left him.

  While hate breeds hate, love gives birth to love. Gyanprakash also liked his elder brother. Occasionally he sided with his brother and picked arguments with his mother, such as ‘Brother’s shirt is torn, why don’t you get him a new one stitched?’ The mother said dismissively, ‘The same is good enough for him. It is not yet over; one day he will walk unclad!’ Gyanprakash tried very hard to save some of his own pocket money and give it to his brother, but Satyaprakash would never accept it. Whatever time he spent with his younger brother was a joyful experience. For a short duration, he would wander off into a realm of amity. No dirty and unpleasant words escaped his tongue. For a moment, his sedentary soul would wake up.

  Once, Satyaprakash did not go to the school for several days. The father inquired, ‘Why don’t you go to study nowadays? Do you think I have assumed responsibility for your entire life?’

  ‘My fines and fees have piled up. When I do go I am shunted out of the class.’

  ‘Why are there dues? Don’t you take money every month?’

  ‘There are collections every other day. I gave the fee money away as donations.’

  ‘And what are the fines for?’

  ‘For not paying the fees.’

  ‘Why did you donate the money!’

  ‘When Gyanu paid I followed.’

  ‘So you’re jealous of Gyanu?’

  ‘Why would I be jealous of Gyanu? We are different at home, outside we are considered together. I don’t want to say that I don’t have any money.’

  ‘Why? Are you ashamed of saying it?’

  ‘Yes, it will bring you a bad name.’

  ‘Right! So you’re protecting my honour! Why don’t you admit that studying is not agreeable to you any more? I don’t have so much money that I can let you study in the same class for three years and also spend on you every month. Gyan is much younger than you but just one class junior. You’ll surely fail this year and he will surely pass and be your classmate in the next class. Won’t your face be blackened then?’

  ‘My Fortune surely doesn’t have Knowledge for me.’

  ‘What is in your Fortune?’

  ‘To beg.’

  ‘Then go and beg. Out of my house!’

  Devapriya also joined in and said, ‘He’s so shameless! And he even talks back!!’

  Satyaprakash retorted, ‘Those who have it in their destiny to beg are the ones who become orphans in their childhood.’

  Devapriya was furious. ‘I’ve tolerated these obnoxious insults so far but I can’t stand these scathing taunts any more.’ Devaprakash supported her. ‘He is shameless. I’ll withdraw his name from the rolls tomorrow. If he is destined to beg, then let him beg!’

  5

  The next day Satyaprakash prepared to leave home. He was almost sixteen now. It was intolerable for him to live at home after all the taunting. So long as he was not physically strong and had the incapability that comes with adolescence, he continued to live at home tolerating disdain, insult, callousness and reproach. Now that he was capable, why would he continue to live in bondage? Self-pride, like hope, is long-lasting.

  It was an afternoon in the summer days. Everybody in the house was sleeping. Satyaprakash tucked his dhoti in his armpit, picked up a small bag in his hand and was about to leave quietly through the sitting room, when Gyanprakash saw him ready to set out and asked, ‘Where are you going, brother?’

  Satya replied, ‘I am leaving. I will take up a job somewhere.’

  ‘I will go and inform my mother.’

  ‘Then I will leave quietly without you knowing.’

  ‘But why will you leave? Don’t you love me at all?’

  Embracing his brother, Satyaprakash said, ‘I don’t want to leave you and go, but it is shameful to live where nobody cares about me. I’ll work a job worth five or ten rupees somewhere and feed myself. What else am I capable of?’

  ‘Why does mother dislike you so much? She keeps telling me not to meet you.’

  ‘What other than my misfortune can explain this?’

  ‘You don’t put your heart into studies.’

  ‘When my heart refuses how can I do it? Since nobody cares, I also think, damn it, at most I will be kicked! So what!’

  ‘Will you forget me? I will write letters to you, and do call me to visit you.’

  ‘I’ll post letters to your school address.’

  Gyanprakash started crying. ‘I don’t know why I feel such great affection for you.’

  Satyaprakash consoled him. ‘I will always remember you.’

  Saying this, he embraced his brother once again and left the house. He did not have a cowrie with him, yet he was going to Calcutta.

  6

  It is futile to write an account of how Satyaprakash reached Calcutta. The youth have great audacity
in their hearts. They can build castles in the air and row boats on the dry ground. They do not care about difficulties, and have unlimited self-confidence. Reaching Calcutta was not a difficult feat to achieve. Satyaprakash was a wise young man. He had decided beforehand what he would do and where he would live in Calcutta. There were scribing implements in his bag. In a big city, the issue of livelihood was easy as well as difficult—easy for those who could work manually and tough for those wielding a pen. Satyaprakash considered manual labour to be lowly. He lodged in a dharmashala. Later, after inspecting the prime areas of the city, he sat down in front of a post office with his writing implements and started the business of scribing letters, money orders and so on for illiterate labourers. In the first few days, he could not earn enough to even fill his belly but gradually his profit increased. He spoke to the labourers with such humility and wrote their news with such clarity that they felt elated by just listening to the letters. The unlettered get the same thing written twice or even thrice. Their condition is similar to that of patients who do not tire of narrating their pain and suffering to the doctor. Satyaprakash would explain the letters to the labourers in great detail and thus charm them. When one of them left satisfied, he would return with many of his fellows. Within a month, Satyaprakash started earning as much as one rupee a day. He left the dharmashala and rented a small room outside the city for five rupees a month. He ate once a day, cleaned his utensils himself and slept on the floor. He felt no regret or misery for his state of exile and never remembered the people at home. He was satisfied with his situation. It was only the affectionate words of Gyanprakash that he could not forget. This was the only light in the darkness around him. The last few moments before he went into exile would often flash before his eyes. Content with his livelihood, he now wrote a letter to Gyanprakash, and his joy knew no bounds when he received a reply. Gyan remembers me and cries and longs to come to me. Even his health is not good. Satyaprakash felt as pleased with this letter as a thirsty person is satiated by water. ‘I am not alone, I too am loved by someone, I too am remembered by someone.’

  That day onwards, Satyaprakash started thinking about sending a gift for Gyanprakash. The young make friends very quickly. Satyaprakash had also made friends with many young men. He had gone to the cinema with them several times. There had been many occasions for hemp, weed, liquor, and meat too. A fondness for the mirror, hair oil and comb had also developed and thus he would spend all that he earned. He was speedily hurtling towards moral and physical decline. The loving letter from Gyanprakash halted his pace. The attempt to send a gift began discouraging the addictions. No longer addicted to the movies, he also began avoiding his friends on some pretext or the other. He even pared down his meals. The concern of saving money defeated all his desires. He decided that he would send a nice watch to his brother. ‘That will cost at least forty rupees. If I do not waste even a paisa for three months, then I can purchase a watch. How delighted Gyanprakash will be! Mother and father will also take note. They will realize that I am not starving.’ Obsessed with saving, he would not even light a lamp in the evening on several occasions. Now he left for work very early and worked the entire day, eating sweetmeats that cost him only a few paise. His customers doubled in number almost every day. Apart from writing letters, he now practised writing telegrams also. Within two months, he had saved fifty rupees. When he parcelled the watch with a golden chain to Gyanprakash, he was as excited as a childless man blessed with a boy.

  7

  How soft, pure, and heart-warming are the memories evoked by the word ‘home’. It is where love dwells and it is a boon that love has acquired after much penance. During adolescence, home reminds one of the love of parents, siblings and friends, and in old age, the memories are that of the wife and the children. This is the wave that keeps the human life calm and saves it from getting tossed on choppy seas and smashed on rocks. This is the altar that protects life from all evil omens and hurdles.

  Where was Satyaprakash’s ‘home’? What was the power that protected him from the grand attractions of Calcutta? Was it his mother’s love? Or was it his father’s affection? Concern for children? No! The affection for Gyanprakash was his sole protector, refuge and reward. It was for his sake that he saved every paisa. It was for his sake that he laboured hard and thought of new ways to earn wealth. He gathered from Gyanprakash’s letters that Devaprakash’s financial situation was not healthy. He was getting a house constructed, for which the expenses had exceeded the estimates and he had had to borrow money, which was the reason the tutor did not visit any more to teach Gyanprakash. Since then Satyaprakash had been sending at least some amount to Gyanprakash every month. He was no longer just a letter writer but had opened a stationery store as well. This brought him a decent profit. In this manner, five years passed. When his fun-loving friends realized that he was not inclined to frivolous activities any more, they stopped visiting him.

  8

  It happened one evening; Devaprakash was at home, discussing the matter of Gyanprakash’s marriage with Devapriya. Gyanprakash was now a handsome youth of seventeen. Despite being opposed to child marriage, Devaprakash could not let go of the opportunity that had come knocking—a good man was willing to present a dowry of fifty thousand rupees.

  Devaprakash said, ‘I am willing but your son should be willing too.’

  Devapriya replied, ‘If you finalize the alliance, he will come around. Every boy says no at first.’

  ‘Gyanu’s refusal is not because of mere bashfulness. It is one based on principles. He has declared that he will not marry until his elder brother gets married.’

  ‘Who is going to look for a bride for him? He might have kept a mistress. Then why marry? Who keeps an eye on him?’

  Irritated, Devaprakash said, ‘If he had a mistress, he would not send forty rupees every month to your son, nor would he send the things that he has been sending regularly since the first month. One wonders why your heart is so full of dirt for him! You won’t relent even if he gives up his life.’

  Devapriya left the room in anger. Devaprakash just wanted her to agree that it was proper to first get Satyaprakash married, but she would never allow the subject to be raised. Even Devaprakash’s most heartfelt wish was to have the elder son marry first, but he had never even written a letter to Satyaprakash. After Devapriya left, he wrote his first letter to Satyaprakash. To begin with, he asked his forgiveness for the years of silence and then requested him lovingly to come home at least once. He wrote,

  I may live only for a few days now. It is my wish to see yours and your brother’s weddings. It will cause me immense pain if you do not accept my request.

  He also wrote of Gyanprakash’s hesitation. Finally he stressed that if not for anything, he must agree to the bond of matrimony for the sake of Gyanprakash.

  Satyaprakash was extremely pained when he received this letter. ‘I didn’t know my brotherly love would lead to this.’ But he also felt pleasure at the fact that his father and mother were suffering. ‘Did they ever have any concern for me? Their eyes will not well up even if I were to die. It has been seven years but they’ve never even written a letter to inquire if I am dead or alive. Now, they will be more careful. Gyanprakash will eventually agree to marriage, but not so easily. Gyanu does love me but even for his sake I shall not be responsible for this injustice in the family. Life in our families is full of injustice; it sows the seeds of folly and enmity, cruelty and brutality. It is this illusion which entraps man and makes him an enemy of his own child. No! I will not swallow this bait knowingly, though I will surely reason with Gyanu. Whatever I have saved, I will offer for his wedding. That is it! I cannot do anything more. So what if Gyanu remains unmarried? The world will not become desolate! Will the son of such a father not follow the family tradition? Will the same act be not repeated in his life? The one that absolutely ruined me?’

  The next day Satyaprakash sent five hundred rupees to his father and replied that he was fortunate to
be remembered.

  Congratulations for finalizing Gyanu’s marriage. Use this money to get some piece of jewellery for the bride. As for my marriage, considering all that I have seen with my own eyes and all that I have suffered, there will not be a bigger fool in the world than me if I agree to be tied down into a marriage and family. I hope that you will forgive me. The very talk of marriage hurts my heart.

  He wrote a second letter to Gyanprakash saying that he must obey their parents’ directions.

  I am an illiterate, foolish man without wisdom. I do not deserve to marry. But, for me, there cannot be a matter of greater pleasure and satisfaction than the prospect of you getting married, although I will be unable to attend the auspicious occasion of your wedding.

  9

  Devaprakash was shocked to read this and did not have the gall to repeat his request. Devapriya turned up her nose and said, ‘This boy only looks innocent. He sits a hundred miles away and shoots such poisoned arrows!’

  But Gyanprakash was deeply hurt when he read the letter. ‘It is the injustice meted out by mother and father that has forced him into such a severe vow. It was because of this that he was exiled, and probably for ever. I wonder why mother was so jealous of him. I remember him being very obedient, humble and sombre. I have not seen him ever talking back to mother. I ate the best food but even then he did not resent me, though he could have been jealous. What surprise is it then that he has so much disgust for a householder’s life? Why should I then be entrapped by the same predicament? Who knows if I may have to face similar circumstances? My brother has reached this conclusion after much thought.’