'All right, all right, all right,' said Mahesh Kapoor, and closed his eyes.
He reflected that the cloth business in Banaras was, under the care of a competent assistant, doing better in Maan's absence than it had been doing when he was there. What then was to be done with Maan ?
At about eight o'clock that evening he was about to get into the car to visit Baitar House when he told the driver to wait. Then he sent a servant to see if Maan was in the house. When the servant told him that he was sleeping, Mahesh Kapoor said :
'Wake up the good-for-nothing fellow, and tell him to dress and come down at once. We are going to visit the Nawab Sahib of Baitar.'
Maan came down looking none too happy. Earlier in the day he had been exercising hard on the wooden horse, and now he was looking forward to visiting Saeeda Bai and exercising his wit, among other things.
'Baoji ?' he said enquiringly.
'Get into the car. We're going to Baitar House.'
'Do you want me to come along?' asked Maan.
'Yes.'
'All right, then.' Maan got into the car. There was, he realized, no way to avoid being kidnapped.
'I am assuming you have nothing better to do,' said his father.
'No Not really.'
'Then you should get used to adult company again,' said his father sternly.
As it happened, he also enjoyed Maan's cheerfulness, and thought it would be good to take him along for moral support when he went to apologize to his old friend the Nawab Sahib. But Maan was less than cheerful at the moment. He was thinking of Saeeda Bai. She would be expecting him and he would not even be able to send her a message to say that he could not come.
4506.15
AS they entered the grounds of Baitar House, however, he cheered up a little at the thought that he might meet Firoz. At polo practice Firoz had not mentioned that he would be going out for dinner.
They were asked to sit in the lobby for a few minutes.
The old servant said that the Nawab Sahib was in the
P. library, and that he would be informed of the Minister's
* arrival. After ten minutes or so, Mahesh Kapoor got up
from the old leather sofa and started walking up and
down. He was tired of twiddling his thumbs and staring at
photographs of white men with dead tigers at their feet.
A few minutes more, and his patience was at an end. He told Maan to come with him, and walked through the high-ceilinged rooms and somewhat ill-lit corridors towards the library. Ghulam Rusool made a few ineffectual attempts at dissuasion, but to no effect. Murtaza Ali, who was hanging around near the library, was brushed aside as well. The Minister of Revenue with his son in tow strode up to the library door and flung it open.
Brilliant light blinded him for a moment. Not only the mellower reading lights but the great chandelier in the middle of the library had been lit. And at the large round table below - with papers spread out around them and even a couple of buff leather-bound law-books lying open before them - sat three other sets of fathers and sons : The Nawab Sahib of Baitar and Firoz; the Raja and Rajkumar of Marh; and two Bony Bespectacled Bannerji Barristers (as that famous family of lawyers was known in Brahmpur).
It would be difficult to say who was most embarrassed by this sudden intrusion.
The crass Marh snarled : 'Speak of the Devil.'
Firoz, though he found the situation uncomfortable, was pleased to see Maan and went up to him immediately to shake his hand. Maan put his left arm around his friend's shoulder and said: 'Don't shake my right hand - you've crippled it already.'
45 !The Rajkumar of Marh, who was interested in young men more than in the jargon of the Zamindari Bill, looked at the handsome pair with a little more than approval.
The elder Bannerji ('P.N.') glanced quickly at his son ('S.N.') as if to say, 'I told you we should have had the conference in our chambers.'
The Nawab Sahib felt that he had been caught redhanded, plotting against Mahesh Kapoor's bill with a man whom he would normally have shunned.
And Mahesh Kapoor realized instantly that he was the least welcome intruder imaginable at this working conference - for it was he who was the enemy, the expropriator, the government, the fount of injustice, the other side.
It was, however, Mahesh Kapoor who broke the ice among the elder circle by going up to the Nawab Sahib and taking his hand. He did not say anything, but slowly nodded his head. No words of sympathy or apology were needed. The Nawab Sahib knew immediately that his friend would have done anything in his power to help him when Baitar House was under siege - but that he had been ignorant of the crisis.
The Raja of Marh broke the silence with a laugh:
'So you have come to spy on us! We are flattered. No mere minion but the Minister himself.'
Mahesh Kapoor said :
'Since I was not blinded by the vision of your gold number-plates outside, I could hardly have known you were here. Presumably, you came by rickshaw.'
'I will have to count my number-plates before I leave,' continued the Raja of Marh.
'If you need any help, let me send my son with you. He can count till two,' said Mahesh Kapoor.
The Raja of Marh had become red in the face. 'Was this planned?' he demanded of the Nawab Sahib. He was thinking that this could well be a plot by the Muslims and their sympathizers to humiliate him.
The Nawab Sahib found his voice. 'No, Your Highness, it was not. And I apologize to all of you, especially to you,
452.Mr Bannerji - I should not have insisted that we meet here.'
Since common interest in the impending litigation had thrown him together with the Raja of Marh anyway, the Nawab Sahib had hoped that by inviting the Raja to his own house he might get the chance to talk to him a little about the Shiva Temple in Chowk - or at least to create the possibility of a later talk. The communal situation * j among the Hindus and Muslims in Brahmpur was so troubling that the Nawab had swallowed his gorge and a little of his pride in order to help sort things out. The move had now backfired.
The elder of the Bony Bespectacleds, appalled by what had gone before, now said in a rather finicky voice: 'Well, I think we have already discussed the main lines of the matter, and can adjourn for the moment. I will inform my father by letter of what has been said by all sides, and I hope I can persuade him to appear for us in this matter if and when it is necessary.'
He was referring to the great G.N. Bannerji, a lawyer of legendary fame, acumen, and rapacity. If, as was now almost inevitable, the amended bill went through in the Upper House, obtained the President of India's signature, and became law, it would certainly be challenged in the Brahmpur High Court. If G.N. Bannerji could be persuaded to appear on behalf of the landlords, it would considerably improve their chances of having the act declared unconstitutional, and therefore null and void.
The Bannerjis took their leave. The younger Bannerji, though no older than Firoz, had a flourishing practice already. He was intelligent, worked hard, had cases shovelled his way by his family's old clients, and thought of Firoz as rather too languid for life at the Bar. Firoz admired his intelligence but thought him a prig, a little along the lines of his finicky father. His grandfather, the great G.N. Bannerji, however, was not a prig. Though he was in his seventies, he was as energetic erect on his feet in court as erect off his feet in bed. The huge, some would say unscrupulous, fees he insisted on before he accepted a
453case went to support a scattered harem of women ; but he still succeeded in living beyond his means.
The Rajkumar of Marh was a basically decent and not bad-looking but somewhat weak young man who was bullied by his father. Firoz loathed the crude, Muslimbaiting Raja : 'black as coal with his diamond buttons and ear-tops'. His sense of family honour made him keep his distance from the Rajkumar as well. Not so Maan, who was inclined to like people unless they made themselves unlikable. The Rajkumar, quite attracted by Maan, and discovering that he was at a loose end these days, suggested a few things that they could do together, and Maan agreed to meet him later in the week.
Meanwhile the Raja of Marh, the Nawab Sahib, and Mahesh Kapoor were standing by the table in the full light of the chandelier. Mahesh Kapoor's eyes fell on the papers spread out on the table, but then, remembering the Raja's earlier jeer, he quickly turned his gaze away.
'No, no, be our guest, Minister Sahib,' sneered the Raja of Marh. 'Read away. And in exchange, tell me when exactly you plan to vest the ownership of our lands in your own pocket.'
'My own pocket ?'
A silverfish scurried across the table. The Raja crushed it with his thumb.
'I meant, of course, the Revenue Department of the great state of Purva Pradesh.'
'In due course.'
'Now you are talking like your dear friend Agarwal in the Assembly.'
Mahesh Kapoor did not respond. The Nawab Sahib said : 'Should we move into the drawing room ?'
The Raja of Marh made no attempt to move. He said, almost equally to the Nawab Sahib and the Minister of Revenue : 'I asked you that question merely from altruistic motives. I am supporting the other zamindars simply because I do not care for the attitude of the government - or political insects like you. I myself have nothing to lose. My lands are protected from your laws.'
454'Oh?' said Mahesh Kapoor. 'One law for men and another for monkeys ?'
'If you still call yourself a Hindu,' said the Raja of Marh, 'you may recall that it was the army of monkeys that defeated the army of demons.'
'And what miracle do you expect this time ?' Mahesh Kapoor could not resist asking.
'Article 362. of the Constitution,' said the Raja of Marh, gleefully spitting out a number larger than two. 'These are our private lands, Minister Sahib, our own private lands, and by the covenants of merger that we rulers made when we agreed to join your India, the law cannot loot them and the courts cannot touch them.'
It was well known that the Raja of Marh had gone drunk and babbling to the dour Home Minister of India, Sardar Patel, to sign the Instrument of Accession by which he made over his state to the Indian Union, and had even smudged his signature with his tears - thus creating a unique historical document.
'We will see,' said Mahesh Kapoor. 'We will see. No doubt G.N. Bannerji will defend Your Highness in the future as ably as he has defended your lowness in the past.'
Whatever story lay behind this taunt, it had a signal effect.
The Raja of Marh made a sudden, growling, vicious lunge towards Mahesh Kapoor. Luckily he stumbled over a chair, and fell towards his left onto the table. Winded, he raised his face from among the law-books and scattered papers. But a page of a law-book had got Tom.
For a second, staring at the Tom page, the Raja of Marh looked dazed, as if he was uncertain where he was. Firoz, taking advantage of his disorientation, quickly went up to him, and with an assured arm led him towards the drawing room. It was all over in a few seconds. The Rajkumar followed his father.
The Nawab Sahib looked towards Mahesh Kapoor, and raised one hand slightly, as if to say, 'Let things be.' Mahesh Kapoor said, 'I am sorry, very sorry' ; but both he and his friend knew that he was referring less to the
455immediate incident than to his delay in coming to Baitar House.
After a while, he said to his son: 'Come, Maan, let's go.' On the way out, they noticed the Raja's long black Lancia with its solid gold ingot-like licence-plates stamped 'MARH i' lurking in the drive.
In the car back to Prem Nivas, each was lost in his own thoughts. Mahesh Kapoor was thinking that, despite his explosive timing, he was glad that he had not waited still longer to reassure his friend. He could sense how affected the Nawab Sahib had been when he had taken his hand.
Mahesh Kapoor expected that the Nawab Sahib would call him up the next day to apologize for what had happened, but not offer any substantial explanations. The whole business was very uncomfortable: there was a strange, unresolved air to events. And it was disturbing that a coalition - however volatile - of former enemies was coming into being out of self-interest or self-preservation against his long-nurtured legislation. He would very much have liked to know what legal weaknesses, if any, the lawyers had found in his bill.
Maan was thinking how glad he was that he had met his friend again. He had told Firoz that he would probably be stuck with his father the whole evening, and Firoz had promised to send a message to Saeeda Bai - and if necessary to take it there personally - to inform her that Dagh Sahib had been detained.
6.16
'NO; be careful; think.'
The voice was slightly mocking, but not without concern. It appeared to care that the task should be done well - that the neatly lined page should not become a record of shame and shapelessness. In a way, it appeared to care about what happened to Maan as well. Maan frowned, then wrote the character 'meem' again. It looked to him like a curved spermatozoon.
