Saadat Manto - Bombay Stories

The officer was trying to remember Mozelle, when from God knows where she took out a pack of cigarettes and offered him one, ‘Here, have a cigarette.’

The officer accepted. Mozelle took the cigarette from her mouth and extended it towards the officer. ‘Let me give you a light.’

The officer took a drag. Mozelle winked at the officer with one eye and at Trilochan with the other, and rapping her sandals against the ground, she set off for the alley leading to Kirpal Kaur’s neighbourhood.

It seemed to Trilochan that Mozelle got a strange pleasure from defying the curfew, and it was true that she liked to play dangerous games. When they used to go to Juhu Beach, she was a headache. She would dash against the ocean’s enormous waves, swimming out so far that Trilochan feared she would drown. When she came back, her body always had bruises all over it, and yet she didn’t care.

Mozelle forged ahead, and Trilochan followed, surveying from side to side skittishly, fearful that a knife-wielding assailant would spring upon him. Mozelle stopped, and when Trilochan caught up with her, she explained, ‘Triloch, dear. Being scared like this doesn’t help. If you’re scared, something bad will certainly happen. Believe me, I’m talking from experience.’

Trilochan remained silent.

Leaving one alley, they made for one that led directly into Kirpal Kaur’s neighbourhood. Mozelle stopped abruptly. A little way ahead, people were looting a Marwari’s shop. She considered the scene and then said, ‘It’s nothing. Let’s go.’

They set off. Suddenly a man carrying a large brass basin on his head ran into Trilochan, and the basin fell. The man looked Trilochan up and down and realized Trilochan was a Sikh. Quickly, he reached for something inside his waistband, but Mozelle stumbled forward as if in a drunken stupor and rammed into him. ‘Hey, what’re you doin’?’ she asked in a drunken voice. ‘You wanna hit your own brother? I’m gonna marry him.’ Then she turned to Trilochan. ‘Karim! Pick up the basin and put it on this man’s head.’

The man withdrew his hand from his waistband and leered lasciviously at Mozelle; then he went up to her and nudged her breasts with his elbow. ‘Enjoy yourself, lady. Enjoy yourself.’ Then he picked up the basin and ran off down the road.

‘How rude, the dirty bastard,’ Trilochan muttered.

Mozelle rubbed her breasts. ‘It wasn’t that bad. Shit happens. Come on, let’s go.’

She set off quickly and Trilochan hurried after her.

After passing through this alley, they found themselves in Kirpal Kaur’s neighbourhood. ‘Which alley is it?’ Mozelle asked.

‘Third alley — corner building.’

Mozelle started off in that direction. The road was completely empty. The buildings were crammed full of people, but not even the cry of a baby could be heard.

When they approached the alley, they saw something suspicious ahead: a man rushed from a building to disappear into a building on the opposite side. After a little while, three men emerged from this building. They glanced back and forth over the pavement and then raced into the first building. Mozelle stopped. She motioned to Trilochan to step into the shadows. Then she whispered to him, ‘Triloch, dear, take off your turban.’

‘I’ll never take it off, never.’

Mozelle twitched with anger. ‘Whatever. But don’t you see what’s happening?’

What was happening was easy to see — something fishy was going on. When Mozelle saw two men coming from the building on her right carrying gunnysacks on their backs, she quivered with fear — a thick liquid was dripping from the sacks. Mozelle bit her lips, thinking. When these two men disappeared into the alley’s mouth, she told Trilochan, ‘Okay, this is what we’re going to do. I’m going to run to the corner building. You come after me like you’re chasing me, okay? But we’re going to have to do this fast.’

Mozelle didn’t wait for Trilochan’s answer but took off running for the corner building, and Trilochan ran after her. In a matter of seconds they were inside the building. Next to the stairs, Trilochan gasped for breath, but Mozelle was just fine.

‘Which floor?’ she asked.

Trilochan ran his tongue over his dry lips. ‘The second.’

‘Let’s go.’

Then she clambered up the stairs, and Trilochan followed her. Blood stained the stairs, and seeing this, Trilochan went numb.

Once he reached the second floor, Trilochan went down the corridor, stopped in front of a door, and quietly knocked. Mozelle remained next to the stairs. He knocked again, put his mouth to the door. ‘Mahanga Singhji! Mahanga Singhji!’

‘Who is it?’ a faint voice said from inside.

‘Trilochan.’

The door opened slowly. Trilochan signalled to Mozelle. She came quickly, and both went inside. Mozelle found herself standing next to a skinny, terrified girl, and for a moment Mozelle stared at her. She was very slight and her nose was very beautiful, but she seemed to be suffering from a cold. Mozelle hugged her against her broad chest and wiped Kirpal Kaur’s nose with the hem of her loose gown.

Trilochan blushed.

Mozelle spoke tenderly to Kirpal Kaur, ‘Don’t be scared. Trilochan’s here.’

Kirpal Kaur looked at Trilochan with terrified eyes and then separated herself from Mozelle.

‘Tell your father to get ready quickly, and your mother, too,’ Trilochan instructed her.

Then, from the floor above they heard loud voices and someone crying out as though mixed up in a fracas.

Kirpal Kaur emitted a stifled cry from her throat, ‘They took her.’

‘Who?’ Trilochan asked.

Kirpal Kaur was about to answer when Mozelle grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into a corner. ‘Good for her,’ she said. ‘Now take off your clothes.’

Kirpal Kaur hadn’t had time to react before Mozelle quickly pulled off the girl’s blouse and put it aside. Mortified, Kirpal Kaur tried to hide herself behind her arms. Trilochan looked away. Mozelle took off her loose gown and put it on Kirpal Kaur. Now Mozelle was completely nude. Very quickly, she loosened the drawstring of Kirpal Kaur’s pants, took them off, and then said to Trilochan, ‘Go, get her out of here! No, wait!’ She unfastened Kirpal Kaur’s hair and then said, ‘Go. Get out of here.’

‘Come on,’ Trilochan said. But then he suddenly stopped and turned toward Mozelle, who was standing shamelessly naked. The hairs on her arms were standing on end from the cold.

‘Why aren’t you going?’ Mozelle asked with irritation.

‘What about her parents?’

‘To hell with them. Get her out of here.’

‘And you?’

‘I’m coming.’

Suddenly from the floor above them, a bunch of men clambered down the stairs. They came up to the door and began to pound on it as if they were going to break it down.

Kirpal Kaur’s blind mother and paralysed father lay moaning in the next room.

Mozelle thought for a moment, gave her hair a light toss and said to Trilochan, ‘Listen. I can think of only one thing. I’m going to open the door.’

A stifled cry fell from Kirpal Kaur’s lips, ‘Door!’

Mozelle instructed Trilochan, ‘I’m going to open the door and go out. Run after me. I’m going to run up the stairs and you come too. Whoever’s at the door will forget everything and follow us.’

‘Then?’

‘Your what’s-her-name — this is her chance to escape. No one will say anything to her dressed like that.’

Trilochan quickly explained everything to Kirpal Kaur. Mozelle yelled loudly, opened the door, and rushed out. She fell among the men outside. They were so startled they didn’t react, and she immediately got up and climbed up the staircase. Trilochan ran after her, and the men gave way.