The Moneylenders of Shahpur. Helen Forrester

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       CHAPTER FOUR

      It was about three weeks later that John was again reminded of an uneasy sense of unwanted change in his life.

      Ranjit came in to tidy his room and, seeing that he was not working, sat down on the floor to gossip.

      He regaled John with a detailed description of the contents of Tilak’s baggage, Mrs Tilak’s disgruntlement at the poor lodgings provided for her son by the University, Dr Tilak’s hot temper and, by comparison, the quiet character of his sister, Damyanti. Mrs Tilak was a widow, he said, and she and her daughter normally lived with her elder brother-in-law in Bombay.

      John lay resting on his wooden couch and laughed at Ranjit. He lay on his back, with one muscular arm curled round his head, and Ranjit, as he watched him, thought that he must be much taller than he seemed when standing. When on his feet, he tended to stoop and put a lot of weight on his stick. A strong man, however, and very virtuous, though, in Ranjit’s opinion, he was too young to live in quite the sagelike manner that he did.

      ‘It defeats me, Ranjit,’ remarked John, ‘how you manage to find out all these things.’

      ‘Sahib,’ replied Ranjit primly, ‘I do but listen to the conversation of others. Ramji told me himself that Mrs Tilak upbraided him personally because, she said, the lavatories were filthy, and, you know, Sahib, that he does his best to clean them.’

      John thought of Ramji’s apathetic efforts at cleaning, and snorted.

      ‘And anyway, Sahib, what else does one expect a lavatory to be except very dirty?’

      ‘Ours is clean,’ said John, yawning and stretching like a cat.

      ‘You clean it yourself, Sahib,’ said Ranjit disapprovingly.

      ‘If I left it to you and Ramji it never would be clean.’

      He rolled over to face Ranjit and his eyes were suddenly a little flinty.

      ‘Why should one not clean one’s lavatory, may I ask? Gandhiji set everyone a good example by taking a sweeper’s broom and doing a sweeper’s work.’

      ‘I am a Brahmin, Sahib, and well versed in the scriptures.’

      ‘You cook for me.’

      ‘True, Sahib – but times are changing and I must change with them,’ said Ranjit huffily, fingering the little shikka on his head. His grey hair was thinning rapidly, but he cultivated carefully this precious tuft of hair by which God, in due course, would pull him up to Heaven.

      John abandoned what he knew to be a useless argument and swung his legs down to the floor.

      ‘Let’s look at the account book,’ he said. ‘It’s time we did.’

      Ranjit heaved a sigh and produced from his shirt pocket a much thumbed notebook, in which were entered in Gujerati characters the various expenditures of their small household. John ran an experienced eye down the list, to make sure that not overmuch of any one item was being used; occasionally, Ranjit’s hospitality to his family extended to gifts of tea or sugar out of John’s store, as well as free meals.

      Meanwhile, Ranjit took out of his shirt pocket a dirty screw of newspaper and from this extracted three rupee notes and a handful of small change, which he carefully counted out on to the floor in front of the couch. John checked the amount with the book and found it balanced. Satisfied, he returned the housekeeping book to Ranjit, heaved himself up and unlocked the almira, took out his cash box and went back to the couch.

      Without thinking, he sat down cross-legged and was surprised that he could arrange himself in that position without pain. Ranjit held out an incredibly wrinkled brown hand and John counted his wages into it. He then gave him money for a week’s supply of food and fuel.

      The servant folded the notes up carefully and stowed them away in a grubby handkerchief, after which he sat looking rather gloomily at a small line of ants marching across the floor, until John asked him, ‘What’s the matter, Ranjit?’

      ‘Sahib, you have thousands of rupees in the bank and yet you live like a monk. It is not fitting, Sahib, for an Englishman to live so. You should have a pukka bungalow with a compound – and a mali to cultivate the garden – and a kitchen boy to help me.’

      ‘Ranjit,’ said John with a sigh, ‘you should be in the Secret Service. Do you by any chance know the exact amount of my bank balance?’

      Ranjit flushed under the implied reproof, though he answered steadily, ‘Yes, Sahib. Rs. 40,581, As. 3.’ He cleared his throat, and went on, ‘Further, Sahib, you will soon get another letter from Wayne Sahib, your book man in America, with more money; and you have two wealthy students to coach here – more money!’

      John leaned back against the wall and roared with laughter.

      ‘You know more about my finances than I do,’ he said.

      ‘The Statement from the bank lies on your desk,’ replied Ranjit blandly.

      The idea of launching out on to a sea of housekeeping appalled John; he liked his present existence. It was comparatively uncomplicated, he had plenty of learned men for company, and for a change he could take an occasional trip to Abu or Delhi or Bombay, without having to worry about the cost of it. Already Tilak and Miss Armstrong had stirred in him a faint premonition of unwanted change, and here was Ranjit lecturing him about rearranging his life. A sharp reproof rose to his lips, but he stifled it hastily – Ranjit cared more about his wellbeing than anyone else.

      ‘I’ll think about it,’ he told Ranjit gravely, and dismissed him.

      He sat down at his desk and commenced reading the notes he had made on the Marwari Gate temple.

      The evening was approaching and there was a comfortable clatter of saucepans from Ranjit on the veranda. Behind it John could hear the wind whining among the bungalows and University buildings. He rose and stretched. Balancing himself by holding on to the furniture, he went to the door and opened it. The sky was flushed with sunset, the pinkness dulled by the threat of storm in it.

      His landlord’s grandchildren were playing, as usual, in the compound, and the smallest child was in the act of unlatching the compound gate. As he watched, it managed to heave the gate open and peep through it, and then ventured outside. John called to it to come back but it did not, so he got his stick and walked as quickly as he could to the gate.

      The toddler was sitting in the middle of the lane СКАЧАТЬ