After some thought, Devdas said, “As I see it, you should give five thousand from your share towards the ceremonies and I will give twenty five thousand from my share. Of what I have left, I shall take twenty five thousand. The remaining twenty five thousand I shall place in an account under Mother’s name. What do you think?”
At first Dwijdas was ashamed of his own close-fistedness. Then he said, “Very well. Only, you know, I have a son, a daughter, a wife – I have many expenses. Your idea is good. I will have it written out and notarized.”
“Is all that necessary? Will it look well? There is no need to proclaim our financial arrangements to the world, surely?”
“True, true, but I don’t know if …”
“O.K., allright. I’ll write it out.”
That very day, Devdas prepared a document, duly legalized, that set out clearly how the money was to be divided.
The next afternoon, as Devdas was coming downstairs, he saw a familiar figure standing at the foot of the staircase. He halted abruptly. Parvati, for it was she, was staring up at him, as though she had some difficulty in recognizing him. Devdas recovered himself and came down. He managed to greet her tranquilly enough, “When did you come, Parvati?”
That voice! Three years had passed since she had last seen him. She replied, “This morning.”
“Its been a long time since we met. Are you well?”
Parvati nodded.
“And your husband? The children? All well ?”
“They’re all fine.”
Parvati continued to look at him, but she could not bring herself to ask the same questions, “Are you well? What are you doing?”
Devdas asked, “Will you be here for a few days?”
“Yes.”
“That’s all right, then!” with that, Devdas went away.
After the funeral services, Parvati secured Dharmadas, and talked to him privately.
First she gave him a set of gold bangles. “Dharma, for you daughter to wear…”
Dharma gazed at her, then lowered his eyes.
“How long its been since I’ve seen you! Are you well? Your family?”
“They’re fine. And your children?”
“They’re doing well, Paru!”
“And you?”
Now Dharmadas sighed heavily. “Am I well? The master’s gone – I wish I could go too!”
Dharmadas would have continued in this way, but Parvati did not have much time.
She said, “How can you talk like that, Dharma? If you go, who will look after Devdas?”
Dharmadas struck his forehead violently with the palm of his hand.
“I watched over him as a child. Now I wish I did not have to watch him ruin himself, Paru!”
Shocked, Parvati drew close to Dharma. “Dharma, is this true?”
“Why should I make it up, Paru?”
“Tell me truly! What does he do?”
“Do! He does nothing at all! Nothing that’s any good, that is.”
“Dharmadas, will you explain!”
Once again, Dharmadas struck his forehead. “What can I tell you? I’m ashamed to say these things. And the master’s gone – Devdas will have unlimited money – who can save him now?”
Parvati’s face turned ashen. She had heard some hints and rumors before. She had not wanted to believe what she had read in Monoroma’s letters.
Shaking his head, Dharmadas continued,
“He doesn’t eat, he doesn’t sleep, the one thing he does, is drink! He stays away from home for days at a time – I don’t know where he goes. He’s blown away so much money – and I hear he’s spent thousands on jewelry and gifts.”
Parvati trembled from head to foot. Her mouth turned dry and her words her hard to get out.
“Dharmadas, is this really true?” she choked.
Dharmadas said, “He doesn’t listen to me, but he might listen to you – speak to him – forbid him! You can see how his looks have changed? How can his body cope with the way he treats it? And who can I talk to? His father’s gone – I dare not tell his poor mother – his brother? And will Devdas even listen to him? Oh, Paru! I wish I were dead – rather than live to see my boy kill himself in this way!”
When the news of Narayan Mukherjees’s death reached her, Parvati had left immediately. She had felt that she ought to be at her friend’s side at this time of grief. But her treasured Devdas! How he had changed! Unbidden, her memories came flooding back, though she could not excuse the way he had treated her in the past, although she had silently recriminated against him, she could not withhold her sympathy, she could not deny her old love for him. If she had stayed with him, she thought, maybe he would not have come to this pass. She had turned away from him in anger, and she had destroyed him. Since then she had devoted herself to building up the fortunes of relative strangers, assuming them to be her own, while Devdas, her beloved Devdas, truly her own, was disintegrating.
It would soon be dusk. Parvati came to Devdas’s room and stepped inside. Devdas, sitting on his bed, immersed in some calculations and accounts, looked up. Closing the door behind her, she walked up to the bed, and sat down on the floor in front of him. Devdas smiled, his face was sad, yet calm.
Suddenly, he asked in a teasing voice, “And if someone were to slander you?”
Parvati raised her head to look directly into his eyes, but her gaze dropped immediately.
He realised that this memory was forever embedded in her mind, like a piece of shrapnel
buried too deep to recover, forever painful. And Parvati? She had come, planning to say so may well-intentioned things to him. In the actuality of his presence, she was lost, she forgot all that she had come prepared to say, and sat before him, quite dumb.
Devdas laughed. He said, “I understand, you’re embarrassed, right?”
Still Parvati could not make a sound.
Devdas continued to speak, “What is there to be ashamed of? We were children, - foolish children – together. We were foolish together – and then – what a mess! How angry you were! And how angry I was! I tried to scar you, remember? And now look at us!”
There was no bitterness in Devdas’s words, no sarcasm. His face was happy, pleasant, as he recounted the sorrowful story of their past love. But Parvati thought her heart would burst and she would dissolve in tears. She drew a corner of her sari across her face, thinking to herself, “That scar was a mark of your love for me, that memory of our love is a solace to me, I’m not ashamed of it.”
“Paru!”
Without removing the sari from her face, she said, “What?”
“I still get angry with you, Paru!”
Now Devdas’s voice lost it’s lightness and grew somber. “Father’s gone – these are painful days- ah, if only you were here! You know my brother’s nature and his wife’s – good people, but miserly. You know us all, Paru! Tell me, what shall I do about Mother? And what will happen to me? I don’t know, Paru! If you were here, I wouldn’t have to worry, I would leave everything in your hands- oh, Paru, what is it?”
For now Parvati had broken down, and was sobbing.
“Crying, eh? Well, I’d better stop talking.”
Parvati wiped her eyes. “No, don’t stop. Go on.”
Clearing his throat, Devdas continued, “I hear you’re an accomplished housewife now, eh?”
Parvati bit her lip. To herself she thought, “Damn my housewifery!’
Devdas said, laughing, “It makes me laugh to think of it. What a little pest you were – and now you’re a great lady, - with a great estate, and great, grown-up children, and the great Mr. Chowdhury, your husband! Hey, Paru?”
But Mr. Chowdhury was a source of great pleasure to Parvati; in spite of her grief, and almost of their own accord, her lips curved up into a smile.
Now Devdas spoke with mock solemnity. “Can you do me a favor, Paru?”
“What is it?”
“Are there good girls in your country?”
Parati swal
lowed, laughed , and replied, “Good girls? What do you want with them?”
“I’d marry one. I fancy myself as a solid married man.”
Parvati asked demurely, “She has to be pretty, I suppose?”
“Beautiful. Like you.”
“And innocent?”
“No, I don’t require innocence. Mischievous. Someone who can quarrel with me. Like you.”
Parvati thought, “But she must love like I do!” Aloud she said,”A thousand women, lovelier and better than I, would be happy to marry you.”
Devdas smiled, teasing. “Just one will do.”
“Devdas, will you really marry?”
“Didn’t I just say so?” but in his heart he thought, ‘There is only one woman for me. And that one is you.’
“Devdas, may I ask you something?”
“What?”
With difficulty. Parvati said, “I hear you’ve learnt to drink?”
Devdas laughed, “Do you have to learn to drink?”
“No, but you’ve made a habit of it!”
“Who told you? Dharmadas?”
“It doesn’t matter who told me. Is it true?”
Devdas did not prevaricate. He said, “It’s partly true.”
Parvati was silent for a moment. Then she asked, unwillingly, “And you’ve spent thousands on jewelry?”
Devdas laughed again. “Yes, but I haven’t given it to anyone yet. Do you want jewelry?”
Parvati stretched out her hand. “Yes. Give me them. As you can see, I don’t have any.”
“Didn’t Mr. Chowdhury give you any? “
“He did. But I gave them to his daughter.”
“I suppose you didn’t need any?”
Parvati bowed her head.
Now tears pricked at Devdas’s eyes. He understood how sorrowful a woman must be to give away her own ornaments.
He said, quietly. “It’s not true, Paru. I haven’t loved any woman, nor have I given her gifts of jewelry.”
Parvati breathed again. She thought, “I believe you.”
For a long time, the two were silent. Then Parvati said, “Promise me you’ll give up drinking.”
“That I can’t! Can you promise that you’ll never think of me?”
Parvati could not answer. Just then a conch sounded the beginning of evening prayers. Startled, Devdas looked out the window.
“It’s dark , Paru! Go home, now.”
“I will not. Promise me first.”
“I can’t.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Is everything possible for everyone?”
“If they wish it enough!”
“Will you run away with me tonight?”
Parvati thought her heart would stop beating, so tight was her breath. Barely audible, she said, “That cannot be.” And leaned against the door.
Devdas said, “Then, Paru, open the door!”
Parvati continued to stand by the locked door, and said again, “Promise me!”
“Paru, a promise taken by force is no good. I may promise you today and break it tomorrow. Do you want to make a liar of me?”
Again a silence descended. Then somewhere a clock struck nine. Devdas grew agitated.
“Paru, stand aside from the door!”
Parvati did not answer.
“Oh, Paru.”
“I won’t go. Never!” and she crumpled to the floor, weeping.
The room was very dark now, and he could no longer see her.
He called again, “Paru!”
Parvati cried out “Oh, Devdas, I’m in such pain!”
Devdas moved over to her. There were tears in his eyes, too, but he kept his voice firm.
“Don’t I know that, my love?”
“Devdas, I want to die! Never to be able to do what I wanted most in life – to love you, and care for you – “
Devdas wiped her eyes. “There’s still time.”
“Then come home with me. There’s no one to look after you here.”
“Will you take me to your home?”
“Why not? My childhood friend. Let me look after you, then I’ll die happy.”
Now Devdas wept openly.
Parvati said again, “Come home with me.”
Devdas said, “Very well.”
“You swear it?”
“I swear that I’ll come to you. Not today, but I will come. If it drives your sorrow away, yes, I’ll come. I promise, before I die, I’ll come.”
Chapter 13
Devdas remained quietly at home for the next six months. He found no peace, however, in this quiet life. His inherently restles nature chafed against the humdrum village life, chafed against the narrow, set-in-stone ways of his brother and sister-in-law. On top of it all, he was constantly reminded of Parvati, wherever he went in the village, he was reminded of her.
Devdas’s mother was chafing almost as much as he was. With the death of her husband, the light had gone out of her life. After the first days of grief had passed, she began to find time hanging heavy on her hands. Her daughter-in-law, was the mistress of the house now, and had taken over all the household duties. More and more, she began to think of moving to the holy city of Benaras and living a life of contemplation and meditation, possibly in one of those communities that existed for elder ladies or widows like herself. Yet she could not venture on this course of action – there was Devdas to think of. She wanted to say to him, “Devdas, get married, settle down. Then I can go to Benaras and live in peace.” Yet, of course, she could not. The period of mourning was not over, marriages could not be performed during this time, and, besides, there was all the business of finding a suitable bride. These days, she would think regretfully of Parvati, a marriage with her would not have been so bad, after all. So it went on in this way, until after one particularly tiresome day, she summoned Devdas to say, “I can’t stand it here any more. It may be a good idea to go to Benaras for a while.”
Devdas agreed at once. “I feel the same way. Six months seems like enough time to come back here.”
“Yes, dear, let’s do that. After six months we can return to complete the mourning ceremonies, and after that, I can see you married, and I will return to Benaras to live.”
Devdas took his mother to Benaras and having established her there, he returned to Calcutta. For a few days there, he went in search of Choony. Choony was nowhere to be found, having changed his residence and leaving no forwarding address. One evening, Devdas remembered Chondromookhi. Why not visit her? He had forgotten about her until now. A little embarrassed, he hailed a cab and arrived at her house. He rang and called for what seemed a very long time, before a woman’s voice answered, “Not here.”
Standing by a nearby lamp-post, Devdas called up, “Can you tell me where she is?”
The window opened and a voice asked,”Are you Devdas?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, I’ll open the door.”
Presently the door opened, and the voice said “Come!”
The voice was familiar, yet not as he remembered it, plus it was dark inside.
Suspiciously, he asked, “Can you tell me where Chondromookhi is?”
The woman smiled. “I can. Come upstairs.”
Now Devdas recognized her. “What! Is it you?”
Upstairs, there was some light, and Devdas saw that Chondromookhi was wearing a white sari with a plain black border. Save for a thin gold bangle on each hand, she wore no ornaments. Her hair had not been dressed, but hung loosely about her. Bewildered, Devdas repeated, “You?”
Looking more closely, he saw that she had grown thinner. He asked, “Have you been ill?”
Chondromookhi, it was indeed she, laughed. “I have no bodily ills. Please sit down.”
As he sat down, Devdas saw that the room, like it’s mistress had changed greatly, and fallen on evil days. The furniture, save for a bed and a chair, had gone. The paintings had vanished from the walls. The clock was still there, but silent and unmoving now. Spiders had spun
cobwebs in the corners. Only one small oil lamp cast its meagre light on the surroundings.
Distressed, Devdas asked, “Chondro, what happened? How did this sorry state come about?”
Chondromookhi smiled. “Sorry state? I say my fortune’s risen!”
Devdas could make nothing of this answer.
Instead he asked, “Where are your ornaments, your jewelry?”
“I sold them.”
“The furniture?”
“I sold that too.”
“The paintings? Did you sell them as well?”
Laughing, Chondromookhi pointed to the house across the street. “I gave them to Catermonie over there.”
Devdas stared at her. “Where is Choony?”
“I don’t know. We quarreled six months ago and I haven’t seen him since.”
Devdas grew even more amazed. “Quarreled? Why?”
Chondromookhi said, “Don’t quarrels happen?”
“They do. But why?”
“Because he tried to play the broker, and I drove him away!”
“What do you mean? Broker?”
Chondromookhi laughed, “Can’t you understand? Broker for my bed! He brought a rich man, who would pay two hundred a month, masses of jewelry, and an armed guard at the door! Do you follow now?”
Devdas understood. Laughing, he said, “Well, where are they? I see nothing of the sort.”
“Why should you? I drove them away, too!”
“And their crime?”
“Maybe none, but I did not like it.”
Devdas thought for along time. “Have you had no visitors since then?”
“I’ve had no visitors since you left. Sometimes Choony came. But he has not been here for nearly two months.”
Devdas lay down on the bed. After a long silence, he asked, ”Chondromookhi, have you closed the business?”
“Yes.”
Devdas said, “Then, how will you eat?”
“Didn’t you hear me say I’ve sold my jewelry?”
“And how much was that?”
“Not that much. Maybe eight or nine hundred. I”ve deposited it with a pawnbroker, and he gives me twenty a month.”
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