Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy

Saeeda Bai leaned her head slightly at an angle. ‘Oh, that?’ she smiled, in a slightly mocking, even self-mocking, manner. ‘Fifty-two is the number of a pack of cards. Things are complete. Fate is bound to have shuffled and dealt things in a comprehensive way this year. So far I have lifted the edge of only two cards that have fallen to me, a Queen and a Jack: a Begum and a Ghulam.’

‘Of what suit?’ asked Maan, shaking his head. Ghulam could mean either a young man or a slave. ‘Are they of the same suit or are they antagonistic?’

‘Paan, perhaps,’ said Saeeda Bai, naming hearts. ‘At any rate I can see that they are both red. I can’t see any more. But I do not care for this conversation.’

‘Nor do I,’ said Maan, angrily. ‘At least there is no room this year for a joker in the pack.’

Suddenly Saeeda Bai started laughing in a desperate way. Then she covered her face with her hands. ‘Now it is up to you to think what you like. Think that I too have gone mad. It is beyond me to say what is the matter.’ Even before she uncovered her face Maan could tell that she was crying.

‘Saeeda Begum — Saeeda — I am sorry—’

‘Do not apologize. This is the easiest part of the night for me. I dread what is to come.’

‘Is it the Raja of Marh?’ said Maan.

‘The Raja of Marh?’ said Saeeda Bai softly, her eyes falling on the book. ‘Yes, yes, perhaps. Please leave me.’ The bowl of fruit was full of apples, pears, oranges, and even some unseasonal, wrinkled grapes. Impulsively she broke off a small bunch and gave them to Maan. ‘This will nourish you better than what comes of it,’ she said.

Maan put a grape in his mouth without thinking, then suddenly recalled eating peas that morning at Prem Nivas. For some reason, this made him furious. He crushed the rest of the grapes in his hand and dropped them into the bowl of water. His face red, he got up, stepped outside the threshold, put on his jutis, and walked downstairs. There he paused, and covered his face with his hands. Finally he went out and began walking homewards. But he had not gone a hundred yards when he stopped once more. He leaned against a huge tamarind tree and looked back towards Saeeda Bai’s house.

He took the bottle of whisky out of his pocket and began to drink. He felt as if his heart had been crushed. Every night for a fortnight he had thought of her. Every morning when he had woken up, whether at the Fort or in Salimpur, he had lingered for a few minutes in bed, imagining that she was with him. No doubt his dreams too had been of her. And now, after these fifteen days away, she had granted him fifteen minutes of her time, and as good as given him to understand that someone else mattered far more to her than he ever could. But surely not the gross Raja of Marh.

Yet there was so much in her talk that he could not even remotely understand, even though Saeeda Bai at the best of times very rarely spoke except by indirection. If he himself was the slave or the young man whom she was referring to, what then? What did she mean by dread? Who would be coming to the house? Where did the Raja of Marh fit into all this? And what about Rasheed? By now Maan had drunk so much that he hardly cared what he did. He walked halfway back to her house and stood where he could not be observed by the watchman, but could see if anyone went in.

Though it was not late, the street was almost deserted; but then this was a quiet part of town. A car or two and a few bicycles and tongas passed along the road, and now and then a pedestrian walked by. An owl hooted calmly overhead. Maan stood there for half an hour. No car or tonga halted near her house. No one entered and no one left. Occasionally the watchman strolled up and down outside, or knocked the base of his spear hard against the pavement, or stamped his feet against the cold. A variable mist started to descend, obscuring his view from time to time. Maan began to feel that there was no one — no Bilgrami, no Raja, no Rasheed, no mysterious Other — whom Saeeda Bai was to meet. It was simply that she wanted to have nothing further to do with him. She had tired of him. He no longer meant anything to her.

Another pedestrian approached Saeeda Bai’s house from the opposite direction, stopped by the gate, and was immediately admitted. Maan’s blood ran cold with shock. At first he had been too far away to see him clearly. Then the mist had cleared slightly, and he thought that he recognized Firoz.

Maan stared. The door opened, and the man entered. Was it Firoz? It looked like him from this distance. His bearing was the same as that of his friend. He was carrying a walking stick, but with a young man’s air. His gait was that of Firoz. Gripped by disbelief and misery Maan started forward, then stopped. Surely, surely, it could not be Firoz.

And even if it were Firoz, could he not be visiting the younger sister whom he appeared to be so fascinated by? Surely someone else would be visiting Saeeda Bai in due course. But the minutes passed, and no one else stopped by the house. And Maan realized that whoever had entered would never have been admitted to meet Tasneem. It could only be Saeeda Bai whom he was going to see. Again Maan covered his face with his hands.

He had drunk more than half his bottle of whisky. He was unaware of the cold, unaware of what he was doing. He wanted to go to the door again, to enter and to find out who it was who had gone in and for what purpose. It cannot be Firoz, he thought to himself. And yet the man had looked so similar from this distance. The mist, the streetlights, the sudden illumination when the door opened: Maan tried to visualize once again what had happened just a few minutes before. But nothing became clearer.

No one else went in. Nor did anyone come out. After half an hour, Maan could bear it no longer. He walked across the street. When he got to the gate he blurted out to the watchman the first thing that came into his head: ‘The Nawabzada asked me to bring his wallet in to him — and to take him a message.’

The watchman was startled, but, hearing Maan mention Firoz’s title, he knocked at the door. Maan walked in without waiting for Bibbo to admit him. ‘It’s urgent,’ he explained to the watchman. ‘Has the Nawabzada arrived yet?’

‘Yes, Kapoor Sahib, he went in some time ago. But can’t I—?’

‘No. I must deliver this personally,’ said Maan.

He walked up the stairs, not glancing at the mirror. If he had, he would have been shocked by the expression on his own face. Perhaps that glance in the mirror would have averted everything that was to happen.

There were no shoes outside the door. Saeeda Bai was alone in her room. She was praying.

‘Get up,’ said Maan.

She turned towards him and stood up, her face white. ‘How dare you?’ she began. ‘Who let you in? Take your shoes off in my room.’

‘Where is he?’ said Maan in a low voice.

‘Who—’ said Saeeda Bai, her voice trembling with anger. ‘The parakeet? His cage is covered up, as you can see.’

Maan looked quickly around the room. He noticed Firoz’s stick in the corner and was seized by a fit of rage. Without bothering to reply, he opened the bedroom door. There was no one inside.

‘Get out!’ said Saeeda Bai. ‘How dare you think — never come here again — get out, before I call Bibbo—’

‘Where is Firoz?’

‘He hasn’t been here.’

Maan looked at the walking stick. Saeeda Bai’s eyes followed his.

‘He’s gone,’ she whispered, agitated and suddenly fearful.

‘Why did he come? To meet your sister? Is it your sister he is in love with?’

Suddenly, Saeeda Bai began to laugh as if what he had said was both bizarre and hilarious.

Maan could not stand it. He gripped her by the shoulders and began to shake her. She looked at him, terrified by the expression of fury in his eyes — but she could still not help her grotesque, mocking laughter.