Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy

So far Rasheed had spoken with great, perhaps slightly exaggerated, conviction, maybe even with excessive animus against the great landowner of the district, who he knew was Maan’s friend; but there was nothing particularly odd about his manner of speaking or the logic of it. The word ‘duped’, however, acted as a kind of fault or fracture in his speech. He suddenly turned to Maan and said pointedly:

‘Of course, people who are duped are wiser than you think.’

‘Of course,’ Maan agreed amiably, though he was rather disappointed. Rasheed, he thought, would have been very helpful to his father in the area around Debaria, and probably even in Salimpur town. If it had not been for Rasheed, he himself would not have known anything about the place.

‘To be honest,’ said Rasheed, ‘I won’t deny that I hated you as well as the others when I realized what you were trying to do.’

‘Me?’ said Maan. He could not see where he came into it, except that he was his father’s son. And, anyway, why hatred?

‘But I have put all that behind me,’ continued Rasheed. ‘Nothing is to be gained by hatred. But I must now ask for your help. Since you are partly responsible, you cannot deny me this.’

‘What are you talking about?’ asked Maan, bewildered. He had sensed, when he visited the village at Bakr-Id, that there was some tension involving Rasheed, but what had he to do with it?

‘Please do not pretend ignorance,’ said Rasheed. ‘You know my family; you have even met Meher’s mother — and yet you insisted on these events and these plans. You yourself are associated with the elder sister.’

What Saeeda Bai had said to Maan now clicked in his mind.

‘Tasneem?’ he asked. ‘Are you talking about Saeeda Bai and Tasneem?’

A hard look passed over Rasheed’s face — as if Maan had confirmed his own guilt. ‘If you know it, what is the need to take her name?’ he asked.

‘But I don’t know it — whatever it is,’ protested Maan, amazed by the turn in the conversation.

Rasheed, attempting to be reasonable, said: ‘I know that you and Saeeda Bai and others, including important people in the government, are trying to get me married to her. And she has decided on me. The letter she wrote — the looks she has given me — suddenly one day in the middle of her lesson she made a remark which could only mean one thing. I cannot sleep for worry, for three weeks I have hardly slept a wink. I do not want to do this, but I am afraid for her sanity. She will go insane unless I return her love. But even if I undertake this — which I must do on the basis of humanity — even if I undertake this, I must have protection for my own wife and children. You will have to get complete confirmation from Saeeda Begum about this. I will only agree on certain clear conditions.’

‘What on earth are you talking about?’ said Maan a little sharply. ‘I am part of no plot—’

Rasheed cut him off. He was so annoyed that he was trembling. But he tried to get a hold on himself. ‘Please do not say that,’ he said. ‘I cannot accept it when you say this sort of thing to my very face. I know what is what. I have already said I bear no hatred towards you any longer. I have told myself that however mistaken your intentions, you were doing it for my good. But did you never give any thought to my wife and children?’

‘I don’t know about Saeeda Begum,’ said Maan, ‘but I doubt she wants Tasneem to marry you. As for myself, this is the first I’m hearing of it.’

A cunning look passed over Rasheed’s face. ‘Then why did you mention her name a minute ago?’

Maan frowned, trying to think back. ‘Saeeda Begum said something about some letters you sent her sister,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t advise you to write any more. They will only annoy her. And,’ he added, getting annoyed himself, but trying to control his temper — for he was, after all, talking to his teacher, young though he was, and one who had, moreover, been his host in the village—‘I wish you would not imagine that I am part of some plot.’

‘All right,’ said Rasheed firmly. ‘All right. I won’t mention it. When you visited the patwari with my family did I ever criticize you? Let us close the chapter. I won’t accuse you, and you will kindly not make these protests, these denials. All right?’

‘But of course I will deny it—’ said Maan, hardly even wondering where a patwari had entered all this. ‘Let me tell you, Rasheed, that you are completely mistaken. I have always had the greatest respect for you, but I can’t see where you have got these ideas from. What makes you think that Tasneem is in the least interested in you?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Rasheed speculatively. ‘Perhaps it is my looks, or my uprightness, or the fact that I have done so much in life already and will be famous some day. She knows I have helped so many people.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I did not invite any attentions. I have a religious attitude to life.’ He sighed. ‘But I know the meaning of duty. I must do what is necessary for her sanity.’ He bowed his head in sudden exhaustion and leaned forward.

‘I think,’ said Maan after a while, patting him on the back in a puzzled manner, ‘that you should take better care of yourself — or let your family do so. You should go back to the village as soon as the vacations begin, or even before — and let Meher’s mother take care of you. Rest. Sleep. Eat properly. Do not study. And do not exhaust yourself by campaigning for any party.’

Rasheed lifted his head and looked at Maan mockingly. ‘So that is what you would like?’ he said. ‘Then the path will be clear. Then you can farm my field again. Then you can send the police to break my head with a lathi. I may suffer some setbacks, but whatever I put my mind to doing, I do. I understand when things are connected with each other. It is not easy to dupe me, especially if your conscience is uneasy.’

‘You are speaking in riddles,’ said Maan. ‘And I think it is getting late for your tuition. In any case, I don’t want to hear anything more on this subject.’

‘You must confirm or deny it.’

‘What, for God’s sake?’ cried Maan in exasperation.

‘When you visit Saeeda Begum next, tell her that I am willing to spread happiness in her home if she insists on my going ahead with all this, that I will undergo a simple ceremony, but that any children I have in my second marriage cannot usurp the rights of the children I already have. And the marriage with Tasneem must be kept secret, even from the rest of my family. There must be no rumour — she is, after all, the sister of, well — I have my reputation and that of my family. Only those who already know. . ’

He drifted off.

Maan got up, looking at Rasheed in amazement and shaking his head. He sighed, then leaned against the trunk of the tree, continuing to stare at his former teacher and friend. Then he looked down at the ground and said:

‘I am not going back to Saeeda Begum’s, nor am I plotting against you. I am not interested in breaking anyone’s head. I am leaving for Salimpur tomorrow with my father. You can send your own messages to — to Saeeda Begum, but I beg you not to. I cannot understand a quarter of what you have been saying. But if you wish, Rasheed, I will accompany you to your village — or to your wife’s village — and make sure that you get there safely.’

Rasheed did not move. He pressed his right hand to his forehead.

‘Well, what do you say?’ asked Maan, concerned and angry. He had planned to go to Saeeda Bai’s before leaving. Now he felt obliged to mention to her his meeting with Rasheed and the disturbing turn it had taken. He fervently hoped that nothing harmful would come out of it, and he also hoped that it would not sour the evening of his departure.