The Final Question

by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay

  Ashu Babu gently said, ‘Shibani, we all admit that truth is a great thing in life, but ceremony isn’t false either.’

  Kamal retorted, ‘I don’t say it’s false. But in the same way, life is true and so is the body. Does the body remain true when there is no more life?’

  Manorama pulled her father by the arm and said, ‘Father, it’ll turn chilly. You must get up now.’

  ‘Yes, my dear.’

  Shibnath stood up suddenly and said, ‘It’s getting late, Shibani. Let’s go.’

  Kamal rose immediately. She did a namaskar and said, ‘It appears that we met only to argue. Please don’t be offended.’

  Shibnath smiled at last and said, ‘You only argued, Shibani. You didn’t learn anything.’

  Kamal replied in a surprised tone, ‘No. But I don’t recall that there was anything to learn.’

  ‘You wouldn’t,’ said Shibnath. ‘It remained hidden. If you can, try learning to have some respect for Ashu Babu’s mind, which you find so old and decrepit. There’s nothing greater that you could learn.’

  ‘What are you saying?’ said Kamal, amazed.

  Shibnath did not reply. He bid everybody goodbye and said, ‘Come, let’s go.’

  Ashu Babu heaved a sigh and only said, ‘Strange!’

  7

  IT WAS INDEED STRANGE. WAS THERE ANY OTHER WAY OF PUTTING the matter? In fact, their sudden exit was like drawing the curtain halfway through a fascinating play—leaving who knows what marvels hidden behind the screen. This was the very thought that rocked every mind. They all felt that they had come only for this. The moon rose in the sky. The white-marbled Taj looked like a phantom palace in the dewy moonlight of late autumn. But no one looked at it.

  Manorama said, ‘If you don’t get up now you really will catch cold, Father.’

  Abinash said, ‘It’s getting cold. Let’s go.’

  Everybody stood up. Ashu Babu’s large car was waiting at the gate, but the driver of Akshay and Harendra’s tonga was nowhere in sight. Perhaps he had left with another passenger, lured by a higher fare. So everybody squeezed into the car.

  They were silent for some time. Abinash was the first to speak. He said, ‘Shibnath lied to us. Kamal can’t be the daughter of a maidservant. Impossible!’ He looked at Manorama as he spoke.

  The same doubt had repeatedly arisen in Manorama’s mind, but she remained silent. Akshay said, ‘Why should he lie? What he said doesn’t show his own wife in a good light, Abinash Babu!’

  ‘That’s what I can’t understand,’ said Abinash.

  Akshay said, ‘You’re all surprised, but I’m not. She was simply echoing what Shibnath says. What she says is full of bravado but devoid of matter. I can tell the false from the true. It’s not so easy to deceive me.’

  ‘Goodness!’ exclaimed Harendra. ‘Deceive you! Challenge your monopoly?’

  Throwing him an angry glance Akshay retorted, ‘I can confidently say there isn’t a quarter paisa’s worth of respectable culture in her. Such words from a woman are not just immoral but obscene.’

  Abinash protested. ‘Maybe what she said doesn’t sound decorous coming from a woman, but one can’t call it obscene, Akshay.’

  Akshay said stiffly, ‘It’s all the same, Abinash Babu. Didn’t you see that marriage is a matter of jest to her? When everybody told her it was no marriage but a farce, she only smiled and said, “Is that so?” Didn’t you notice her absolute indifference? Is it either fitting or possible for a well-bred woman?’

  What Akshay said was true, so everybody remained silent. Ashu Babu had not said anything till now. He had heard everything, but was sunk in his own thoughts. The sudden silence broke his meditation. He said slowly, ‘Perhaps it’s not marriage but the form of marriage in which Kamal has so little faith. Any ritual will do for her. She told her husband, “They say that our marriage is a cheat.” Her husband replied, “We were married in the Shaivite way.” Kamal was delighted and said, “What can be better than to marry Shiva in the Shaivite way?” How sweet her words seemed to me, Abinash Babu!’

  Abinash’s mind was also tuned to the same pitch. He said, ‘And think of her gazing at Shibnath’s face and asking smilingly, “Well, my dear, would you ever do such a thing? Are you going to deceive me?” So many words passed after that, Ashu Babu, but that strain is still ringing in my ears.’

  Ashu Babu smiled and nodded by way of reply. Abinash then said, ‘And what about the name Shibani? Is it any less sweet, Ashu Babu?’

  Akshay could not bear all this any more. He said, ‘You really amaze me, Ashu Babu. Everything about them is honey-sweet. As soon as you added a “ni” to the name of Shibnath, honey started dripping from it; wasn’t that so?’

  Harendra said, ‘It’s not a question of adding “ni”, Akshay Babu. If I called your wife “Akshayni”, would that ooze honey-drops?’

  Everyone broke out in laughter at this. Even Manorama looked out of the car to hide her smile.

  Akshay was furious. He roared, ‘Haren Babu, don’t you go too far. Let me tell you straight that I consider even the hint of a comparison between a lady and a woman like this highly insulting.’

  Harendra remained silent. It was not in his nature to bandy words, nor his practice to prove himself by labouring his point. He would say something abruptly and then sink into so deep a silence that even a thousand jibes would not make him talk. That is exactly what happened now. Akshay diverted his attack from Shibani to Harendra for the rest of the journey. When the car pulled up at Ashu Babu’s gate, he was still deploring in great dudgeon how Harendra had made an ugly, uncivil sneer at a lady, and how Shibnath’s wife-by-Shaivite-rite had no whiff of culture in her speech or conduct, which showed her despicable lack of education and refinement.

  Abinash and the others got down. The car went on to deliver Harendra and Akshay to their homes. ‘I’m worried that the two of them might start fighting on the way,’ said Ashu Babu.

  ‘You needn’t be afraid,’ said Abinash. ‘This is an everyday affair. It doesn’t affect their friendship.’

  As they sat sipping tea in his room, Ashu Babu said in a subdued voice, ‘Akshay Babu’s nature seems to be very hard.’ He was incapable of uttering a harsher word. Then suddenly turning to his daughter, he asked, ‘Well, my dear, have you changed your earlier notion about Kamal?’

  ‘What notion are you talking of, Father?’

  ‘I mean … I mean …’

  ‘But why should you bother about my notions, Father?’

  He did not say anything more. He knew that Manorama was very averse to this woman. This hurt him, but to discuss the matter further would be both unpleasant and futile.

  Suddenly Abinash spoke out. ‘There’s one thing that perhaps escaped you: I mean Shibnath’s last words. If all that Kamal said was an echo of someone else’s words, Shibnath wouldn’t have had to tell her to learn to respect you, Ashu Babu.’ He himself looked at Ashu Babu reverentially and went on, ‘Really, how many people around us are worthy of respect? I can pardon many of his misdeeds only for this—that from such a brief encounter, Shibnath could grasp such a great truth.’

  Ashu Babu grew restive as he heard this. His huge bulk seemed to shrink with embarrassment. Manorama, her eyes brimming with gratitude, looked up at the speaker and said, ‘That’s the real difference between him and his wife, Abinash Babu. Now I know that the other day, under pretence of asking for a sari and a piece of soap, she was actually mocking me. I couldn’t see through her playacting. But Father, all her wiles and mockery amount to nothing if she hasn’t seen how superior you are to everybody else.’

  Ashu Babu was upset. ‘What nonsense you talk,’ he said.

  ‘There’s no hyperbole in this, Ashu Babu,’ said Abinash. This is what Shibnath was trying to tell his wife as they left. He didn’t say much today, but from that one remark of his, I can tell that there’s a lot of difference between the two.’

  Ashu Babu said, ‘If there is, it’s Shibnath’s fault, not Kamal’s.’<
br />
  Manorama blurted out, ‘I don’t know with what eyes you look at her. But can one ever forgive someone who shows so little respect for a man like you?’

  Looking at his daughter’s face, Ashu Babu replied, ‘There wasn’t the slightest hint of disrespect to me in her conduct.’

  ‘But there wasn’t any respect either.’

  Ashu Babu said, ‘That was not to be expected—on the contrary, if she had shown anything of that sort, she would have been acting a lie. What seems to you my exceptional strength is to her merely a lack of strength. She told me that you can love a weak man by force of affection. But by not forcing herself to accord me a value she didn’t see in me, she neither belittled me nor demeaned herself. She acted rightly: there’s nothing to feel hurt about, Mani.’

  Ajit had seemed inattentive till now, but he looked up at this. He knew nothing, nor had he had the opportunity to know anything. To him everything was vague, and Ashu Babu’s words did not make matters any clearer. Nonetheless, he seemed to wake up within.

  Manorama kept silent but Abinash Babu spoke excitedly. ‘Are you suggesting that self-sacrifice has no value?’

  Ashu Babu smilingly said, ‘That’s not a fitting question from a professor. Be that as it may, it has no value for her.’

  ‘Then self-restraint has no value either?’

  ‘No, not to her. Meaningless self-restraint is fruitless self-denial. And to air one’s superiority on that account is to deceive not only oneself but the whole world. As I listened to Kamal it seemed to me that this is what she wanted to say.’ He remained silent for a while and again said, ‘I wonder where she got the idea from. But when you suddenly hear it, it surprises you.’

  ‘Surprises you!’ said Manorama. ‘Doesn’t it make you burn from top to toe? Father, won’t you ever assert yourself? Will you always agree with what anyone might say?’

  Ashu Babu said, ‘No, my dear, I haven’t agreed. But if you try to pass judgement with malice and hostility, you deceive not only your opponent but yourself. Kamal didn’t say quite what we’re putting into her mouth. Perhaps what she wanted to say is that the premises we have imbibed as the truth through our blood, from long custom, only make up one side of the question. There is another side as well. Does it help if we shut our eyes and shake our heads, Mani?’

  Manorama said, ‘Father, hasn’t there been anyone in India all this time to show us the other side of the question?’

  Her father smiled a little. He said, ‘These are angry words, my dear. You know that neither in our country nor anywhere else have our forebears provided the answer to the final question: in that case, creation would have come to a halt. There would be no point in its continuance.’

  He noticed that Ajit was looking at him fixedly. He said, ‘I suppose you’re wondering what this is all about. Isn’t that so?’

  As Ajit nodded, Ashu Babu recounted the whole sequence of events and said, ‘Akshay has lit such a holy fire that no one can see anything by its light—their eyes simply smart from the smoke. But the funny thing is that though our charge was against Shibnath, we have punished Kamal. He was a professor here. He lost his job for drinking, abandoned his sick wife and brought Kamal to his home. He declared that they had married according to Shaivite rites; Akshay Babu made enquiries and found it was all a fraud. Shibnath was asked if the bride came from a respectable family; he replied that she was the daughter of a maidservant in their house. We asked whether she was educated; Shibnath answered that he had married her not for her education but for her looks. Just hear that! I don’t find any fault with her, Ajit, and yet we have cast her out from our company. Our repugnance has landed chiefly upon her head. This is how society dispenses justice!’

  Manorama said, ‘Do you mean to draw her into our society, Father?’

  Ashu Babu said, ‘What would it avail if I did? There are men like Akshay Babu in our society; they are the stronger party.’

  The daughter said, ‘Had you been alone you would have called her back, wouldn’t you?’

  The father evaded the question by replying, ‘Does everyone come when you call?’

  Ajit said, ‘What amazes me is that it’s with you that she disagrees most, yet it’s your affection she has most attracted.’

  Abinash said, ‘There’s a reason for it, Ajit Babu. We know nothing about Kamal, we only know her revolutionary opinions and her worse traits. Hence her words scare and anger us. We think we are about to lose everything.’ Then pointing at Ashu Babu, he continued: ‘No shadow of suspicion, no touch of fear can fall on his sinless body and unstained mind. It doesn’t matter to Mahadeva1 whether he drinks venom or nectar; it’ll remain in his throat and not reach his stomach. Whether it’s gods or demons who surround him, he remains indifferent and undisturbed—he’s happy as long as he’s not crippled with gout. But we …’

  Before he could finish, Ashu Babu raised both his hands and stopped him. ‘Not a word more, Abinash Babu, I beg of you. I spent a whole decade in Britain. I don’t even remember everything that I did there. If Akshay comes to learn of it, I’m lost. He’ll fish out even the most arcane details, and then what shall I do?’

  An amazed Abinash said, ‘Did you really go abroad?’

  Ashu Babu said, ‘Yes, I’ve committed that sin.’

  Manorama said, ‘All of Father’s education since his childhood was in Europe. He’s a barrister, and he holds a doctorate.’

  ‘Indeed!’ Abinash said.

  Ashu Babu continued in the same vein: ‘Don’t be afraid, Professor, I’ve forgotten everything I learnt. I’ve long been a vagrant, wandering with my daughter from place to place, setting up school here and there. As you were saying, my mind has been washed absolutely blank and innocent: there’s no mark left anywhere. But however that may be, don’t let Akshay Babu know of this.’

  Abinash smiled and said, ‘Are you so afraid of Akshay?’

  Ashu Babu admitted to it at once. ‘Yes. It’s hard enough to live with my gout; now if his curiosity is roused, I’ll be quite dead.’

  Manorama laughed at this even though she was angry. ‘Now, Father, this is very wrong of you.’

  Her father said, ‘I don’t care. Everybody has the right to self-defence.’

  Everyone began to laugh. Manorama asked, ‘Well, Father, don’t you think people like Akshay Babu are needed in human society?’

  Ashu Babu said, ‘That word “need” is the source of all the trouble in the world. Let’s solve that problem first, then perhaps we can find a proper answer to your question. But that will never happen; the debate has dragged on through all time to no end.’

  Manorama was vexed and said, ‘You dodge every answer in that way, Father. You don’t say anything clearly. I think this is very wrong of you.’

  Ashu Babu smilingly said, ‘Your father isn’t wise enough to give clear answers—that’s your misfortune. What’s the use of being angry with me?’

  Ajit stood up abruptly, saying, ‘I have a headache. I’d like to go out for a walk.’

  A flustered Ashu Babu said, ‘One can’t blame your head, but what about the cold and darkness?’

  An expanse of soft moonlight had spread over the carpet through an open window. Ajit pointed to this and said, ‘It’s a little cold perhaps, but not so dark. Let me go out for a while.’

  ‘But don’t go on foot.’

  ‘No, I’ll take the car.’

  ‘Put up the hood and see that you don’t catch cold.’

  Ajit agreed.

  Ashu Babu said, ‘You might also take Abinash Babu home. But don’t be too late.’

  ‘All right,’ said Ajit, and went out with Abinash Babu.

  A smile flickered on Ashu Babu’s lips. He said, ‘The boy has not yet got over the habit of driving around in a car. He’s gone out even in this cold.’

  8

  ABOUT A FORTNIGHT LATER, AS EVENING WAS CLOSING IN, AJIT left Ashu Babu and Manorama at Abinash Babu’s house and drove on alone. This had become his usual practice. He drove a
long the road which led from the north of the town, passed the college and then turned westward. On a lonely stretch, he suddenly heard his name called out in a woman’s shrill voice. He was startled, and stopped his car to find that it was Kamal, Shibnath’s wife.

  She was waving and calling to him from a shabby garden outside an old, dilapidated two-storeyed house fronting the road. As the car stopped, she drew near and said, ‘I saw you the other day too. I called so many times but you didn’t hear me. Why do you drive so fast? It stops one’s breath to watch you. Aren’t you afraid?’

  Ajit got down from the car and said, ‘Why are you alone? Where’s Shibnath Babu?’

  Kamal said, ‘He’s not at home. But you too are alone. There was no one with you the other day either.’

  ‘No,’ said Ajit. ‘Ashu Babu hasn’t been well for the last few days, so they didn’t go out. Today I’ve left them at Abinash Babu’s house and come out for a drive. I simply can’t stay indoors in the evening.’

  Kamal said, ‘It’s the same with me. But I can’t say so—poor people have many things to do.’ She looked at Ajit’s face and suddenly asked, ‘Will you take me with you? Just for a little drive?’

  Ajit was embarrassed. He didn’t even have the chauffeur with him today, and Shibnath Babu, he had been told, was not at home. Yet he felt it awkward to refuse. He hesitated for a moment and said, ‘Don’t you have any companions here?’

  Kamal replied, ‘What a thing to ask! Where should I find companions? Just take a look at this place. It’s almost outside the town, called Shahganj or something like that. There must be a leather factory nearby—my neighbours are all leather workers. They go to the factory and come back, drink and clamour all through the night. This is the kind of place I live in.’

  Ajit asked, ‘Aren’t there any decent middle-class people here?’

  Kamal said, ‘I don’t think so. And what good would it be if there were? Would they let me step into their homes? In that case, I could even have gone to your place if I felt very lonely.’ As she said this, she climbed into the car through the open door and continued, ‘Let’s go! I haven’t had a car ride for a long time. You must take me for a long drive.’