‘But in the days of the kazis, one had to sell one’s soul to afford the bribes,’ Satkori pointed out.
‘But bribery was not the ruler’s decree,’ Gora insisted. ‘Corrupt kazis would demand bribes, and that continues even in the present regime. But now, to seek justice at the ruler’s door, the subject must suffer, be he plaintiff or defendant, guilty or innocent. For the destitute, both victory and defeat spell disaster in their fight for justice. And where the ruler is the plaintiff and the defendant is a man like me, lawyers and barristers would all take his side, and as for me, I’d be lucky to find someone, or else I’m at the mercy of my fate! If a court case doesn’t need a lawyer’s assistance, why have government lawyers at all? If legal help is necessary, why must the party opposing the government have to find his own lawyer? Does this make the government an enemy of the nation’s subjects? What sort of political ideology is this?’
‘Bhai, why are you so angry?’ asked Satkori. ‘Civilization doesn’t come cheap. For fine judgement, fine laws must be formulated, and to create fine laws, one must become a trader in law. To run a business you must buy and sell, hence the court of justice called civilization automatically becomes a market where judgements can be bought and sold. And it will remain likely that a person without money will get a raw deal. Tell me, what would you do if you were king?’
‘If I created laws impenetrable even for a judge on a salary of a thousand rupees or a thousand-and-a-half, I would employ government-paid lawyers for both unfortunate parties, plaintiff and defendant alike. I wouldn’t insult the Pathans and Mughals, vaunting the fairness of my own judgement while forcing my subjects to bear the costs of a well-conducted trial.’
‘Good idea,’ said Satkori, ‘but since that auspicious day has not yet arrived, since you have not become king, since at present you are the defendant in a civilized monarch’s court, you must either spend from your own pocket or seek the help of a lawyer friend. The third option would not be pleasant for you.’
‘Let my fate be that which comes of making no effort,’ said Gora obstinately. ‘Let me share the fate of those who are utterly helpless in this kingdom.’
Binoy tried very hard to persuade him, but Gora paid no heed to his pleas.
‘How did you suddenly turn up here?’ he asked Binoy.
Binoy flushed slightly. Had Gora not been confined in the lockup, Binoy might have explained his presence in defiant terms. But now he could not offer an outspoken reply.
‘We’ll talk about my affairs later …’ he demurred. ‘Now as for you …’
‘Today, I am a royal guest,’ declared Gora. ‘Today, the king himself is concerned about me, so none of you need have any concern.’
Knowing it was impossible to sway Gora, Binoy had to relinquish his efforts to engage a lawyer.
‘I know you can’t swallow the food here,’ he said. ‘I’ll arrange to have some food sent to you from outside.’
‘Binoy, why do you struggle in vain?’ cried Gora, losing his patience. ‘I don’t want anything from outside. I want nothing more than what’s meted out to everyone in the lockup.’
Binoy went back to the dak bungalow with a heavy heart. In a bedroom facing the street, Sucharita was awaiting his return, with her door shut and window open. She could not bear the company and conversation of others. Seeing Binoy approach the dak bungalow looking worried and dejected, her heart lurched in fear. Forcing herself to remain calm, she picked up a book and made her way to the drawing room. Lalita did not enjoy needlework, but today she was sewing silently in a corner. Labanya was playing a spelling game with Sudhir, with Leela as her audience. Haranbabu was discussing the next day’s festivities with Borodasundari.
Binoy gave them a detailed account of Gora’s confrontation with the police early that morning. Sucharita sat frozen still. The sewing fell from Lalita’s lap and her face grew flushed.
‘Have no fear, Binoybabu,’ Borodasundari assured him. ‘This evening, I shall personally petition the magistrate saheb and his mem on Gora’s behalf.’
‘No,’ said Binoy, ‘please don’t do that. If Gora hears of it, he will never forgive me, all his life.’
‘But we must make some arrangements for his defense,’ Sudhir insisted.
Binoy told them all about Gora’s objections to seeking bail or engaging a lawyer.
‘This is too much!’ exclaimed Haranbabu impatiently.
Whatever Lalita’s opinion of Haranbabu, she had shown him deference up until now, and had never argued with him. But now she burst out, shaking her head violently:
‘It’s not too much at all! Gourbabu has done the right thing. If magistrates entrap us, are we supposed to defend ourselves? Must we provide taxes for them to receive a fat salary, and then pay a lawyer from our own pocket to escape their clutches! Better go to jail than receive such justice.’
Haranbabu had known Lalita since she was very young; he had never dreamt that she had opinions of her own. He was amazed to hear such sharp words from her lips.
‘What do you understand of such things?’ he admonished her reprovingly. ‘You are carried away by the irresponsible, frenzied delirium of those who have just cleared college by learning a few books by rote, those who have no religion, no considered opinions.’
He proceeded to recount Gora’s meeting with the magistrate the previous evening, and his own discussion about it with the magistrate. Binoy was unaware of the incident at Ghoshpur Chor. Hearing about it, he was filled with apprehension, realizing that the magistrate would not easily forgive Gora. Haran’s purpose in telling this story was completely thwarted. Sucharita was wounded by the secret pettiness of his having kept his meeting with Gora a total secret until now. Haranbabu’s personal envy of Gora, evident in every word he uttered, elicited the disrespect of all present, at such a time when Gora was in trouble. Sucharita had remained silent, but now she felt the urge to say something. Controlling herself, she opened her book and began to turn the pages with trembling hands.
‘However closely Haranbabu’s views might match the magistrate’s, the Ghoshpur affair has demonstrated the greatness of Gourmohanbabu!’ declared Lalita with pride.
~29~
Because the Lieutenant Governor was expected that day, the magistrate arrived at the courthouse punctually at half past ten, and tried to dispense with the day’s legal business as early as possible.
Satkoribabu tried to save his friend by defending the schoolboys. Given the circumstances, he had realized that pleading guilty was the best strategy here. He pleaded for mercy, arguing that boys were naturally mischievous, that they had acted immaturely and foolishly, and so on. The magistrate ordered that the boys be taken to jail, and caned five to twenty times, according to their age and the gravity of their offence. Gora had no lawyer to defend him. In his own defense, he tried to say something about police torture. The magistrate at once silenced him with a sharp reprimand, sentenced him to a month’s rigorous imprisonment for obstructing police activities, and acclaimed this light sentence as extremely lenient.
Sudhir and Binoy were present in the courtroom. Binoy could not bear to meet Gora’s eyes. Feeling suffocated, he rushed from the courtroom. Sudhir begged him to return to the dak bungalow for his bath and breakfast, but he would not listen. He walked some distance down the path that skirted the field, and collapsed under a tree.
‘Go back to the bungalow,’ he told Sudhir. ‘I’ll come after a while.’
Sudhir went away. How long he remained in this state, Binoy had no idea. When the sun that had been directly overhead was declining westwards, a carriage stopped just in front of him. Raising his head, Binoy saw Sudhir and Sucharita dismount and approach him. Quickly, he rose to his feet.
‘Come, Binoybabu,’ pleaded Sucharita tenderly, coming up close.
Binoy suddenly realized that people on the street were highly entertained at this spectacle. He quickly stepped into the carriage. Nobody said a word, all the way back. Arriving at the dak bungalow, Binoy found tha
t a fight had broken out there. Lalita had stubbornly refused to participate in the magistrate’s programme that evening, under any circumstances. Borodasundari was in a grave dilemma. Haranbabu was outraged at such inappropriate rebelliousness in a girl so young. ‘How depraved today’s youngsters have become!’ he kept exclaiming. ‘They won’t observe any discipline! This is the outcome of discussing all sorts of ideas in the company of all sorts of people.’
‘Forgive me Binoybabu,’ Lalita blurted out as soon as Binoy arrived. ‘I have wronged you greatly. I had not understood any of your words before this. It’s due to our total ignorance about the outside world that our notions are so mistaken. Panubabu says it’s by God’s decree that magistrates rule Bharatvarsha. In that case, it’s by the same God’s decree that one feels a heartfelt desire to curse this rule.’
‘Lalita, you …’ began Haranbabu angrily.
‘Please be quiet!’ Lalita interrupted, turning her back on Haranbabu. ‘I am not speaking to you. Binoybabu, please ignore all requests. The show cannot be allowed to take place today.’
‘Lalilta, you are quite amazing, I must say!’ Borodasundari hastily intervened, to silence Lalita’s outburst. ‘Won’t you give Binoybabu a chance to bathe and eat today? It’s one-thirty already, do you realize? See how drained he looks!’
‘Here we are guests of the magistrate,’ declared Binoy. ‘I can’t bathe or dine in this house.’
Borodasundari pleaded with Binoy, trying hard to persuade him. Observing the girls’ silence, she scolded them angrily:
‘What’s the matter with all of you? Shuchi, why don’t you try to explain to Binoybabu? We have given them our word. People have been invited. We must somehow manage this occasion, or what will they think, tell me! We could never face them again.’
Sucharita bowed her head in silence.
Binoy left by steamer from the riverside not far away. The steamer with its passengers would depart for Kolkata in a couple of hours, to arrive there at approximately eight o’clock the next day.
Haranbabu began to criticize Gora and Binoy agitatedly. Quickly rising from her chowki, Sucharita went into the adjacent room and slammed the door. Soon afterwards, Lalita pushed the door open and came in. She saw Sucharita lying on the bed, both hands covering her face. Locking the door from within, Lalita gently sat down beside her, and began to run her fingers through Sucharita’s hair. After a long while, when Sucharita had calmed down, Lalita prised away the arms shielding her face, and bent close to whisper in Sucharita’s ear:
‘Didi, let’s go back to Kolkata. After all, we can’t go to the magistrate’s tonight.’
For a long time, Sucharita offered no answer. When Lalita persisted, she sat up in bed.
‘How is that possible my dear?’ she said. ‘I had no wish to come here. But since Baba has sent me here, I can’t leave without completing my undertaking.’
‘But Baba knows nothing of what has transpired. Had he known, he would never have asked us to stay on.’
‘That I couldn’t say, bhai!’
‘Didi, can you really bring yourself to do it?’ asked Lalita. ‘Tell me, how can you go there? And then, we must don our costumes to recite poems on stage! Even if I bit my tongue till it bled, I couldn’t utter a word!’
‘I know that bon, sister of mine! But even hell must be endured. There’s no way out now. I’ll never forget this day, all my life!’
Incensed at Sucharita’s compliance, Lalita left her room.
‘Aren’t all of you going, Ma?’ she asked.
‘Have you lost your mind?’ said Borodasundari. ‘We’re supposed to go there after nine.’
‘I’m talking about going to Kolkata.’
‘Listen, just listen to this girl!’
‘Sudhirda, will you remain here as well?’ Lalita demanded.
Sudhir’s heart was broken at Gora’s conviction, but he lacked the capacity to resist the temptation of displaying his learning before all those powerful sahebs. He uttered something inarticulate, signifying that although he was hesitant, he would stay back, after all.
‘With all this confusion, it’s already very late,’ Borodasundari interrupted. ‘We can’t delay any longer. Now nobody must arise from bed before five-thirty—you have to rest. Otherwise you’ll get tired and look haggard in the evening, and what an ugly sight that would be!’
She firmly propelled everyone to their rooms and to bed. They all went to sleep. Only Sucharita could not sleep, and in another room Lalita remained sitting upright in bed.
The steamer horn sounded, again and again.
As the steamer was preparing to leave and the sailors were about to draw up the gangway, from the upper deck Binoy saw a woman, seemingly from a respectable bhadra family, rushing towards the vessel. From her attire and appearance she looked like Lalita, but Binoy could not immediately believe it. Ultimately, when she came closer, he was left in no doubt. For a moment he thought she had come to take him back, but it was Lalilta after all who had opposed their participation in the magistrate’s programme. She boarded the steamer. The sailors pulled up the gangway. Full of foreboding, Binoy descended from the upper deck to face Lalita.
‘Take me to the upper deck,’ she said.
‘But the steamer is about to leave,’ protested Binoy.
‘I know.’
Without waiting for Binoy she ascended to the upper deck. Sounding its horn, the steamer set out.
Having offered Lalita an armchair on the first class deck, Binoy looked at her questioningly without saying a word.
‘I’m going to Kolkata,’ she said. ‘I found it impossible to stay on.’
‘What about all of them?’
‘They don’t know as yet, any of them. I’ve left a letter; as soon as they read it, they will know.’
Binoy was astounded at Lalita’s daring.
‘But …’ he faltered.
‘The steamer has left, so there’s no room for ifs and buts!’ she interrupted quickly. ‘I don’t understand why I must bear everything in silence just because I’m born a woman. Even women are capable of distinguishing between just and unjust, possible and impossible. I’d rather kill myself than perform at tonight’s event.’
Binoy realized that now the deed was done, it was no use brooding over the pros and cons of having taken such a step.
‘Look,’ Lalita resumed after a short silence, ‘privately, I had gravely misjudged your friend Gourmohanbabu. I don’t know why, from the moment I saw him and heard him speak, my heart grew averse to him. He spoke too forcefully, and all of you seemed to comply. This used to make me angry. Such is my nature—if I see anyone use force in their speech and behaviour, I just can’t tolerate it. Gourmohanbabu exerts force not only on others, though, but also on himself. That is real power. I have never seen such a person.’
Lalita prattled on in this fashion. Not that she was saying all this only from remorse about Gora. Actually, embarrassment at her impulsive act was constantly threatening to make itself felt. She was beginning to doubt whether she had acted wisely. Until now, she had never imagined how awkward it might be to confront Binoy alone on the steamer. But because the slightest expression of shame would at once make the whole affair utterly shameful, she desperately babbled on. Binoy found himself at a loss for words. For one thing there was Gora’s misery and humiliation, then the shame of having come here to entertain himself at the magistrate’s house, and to top it all, this sudden predicament created by Lalita. All this, taken together, had rendered Binoy speechless.
On earlier occasions, such daring on Lalita’s part would have evoked Binoy’s disapproval, but today that did not happen at all. In fact, the amazement roused in him was mingled with respect. There was the added satisfaction that, out of their entire group, only Binoy and Lalita had made the slightest attempt to oppose Gora’s humiliation. For this, Binoy would not have to suffer too much, but Lalita’s act would cause her great torment, for a long time to come. Yet Binoy had always regarded the same Lal
ita as hostile to Gora. The more he thought about it, the more he began to respect Lalita’s courage, so heedless of her actions’ outcome, and her extreme contempt for injustice. He could not think of a way to demonstrate or articulate this respect. Binoy was haunted by the feeling that Lalita’s disdain for him as a spineless person constantly dependant on others’ views, was entirely justified. He could never have forcefully disregarded the approval and disapproval of all relatives and friends, to express his own views on any subject through courageous action in this fashion. Today, secretly acknowledging that he had often avoided following his own instincts for fear of hurting Gora’s feelings or appearing weak in Gora’s eyes, and that he had often used a web of subtle arguments to delude himself that Gora’s ideas were his own, he admitted that Lalita was vastly his superior in her capacity for independent thought. He was ashamed to remember that he had often privately censured Lalita. Indeed, he wanted to apologize to her, but could not think of a way. Binoy saw Lalita’s graceful feminine figure illumined by such inner glory, that he felt that this revelation of woman’s uniqueness had made his own life worthwhile. Today he surrendered all his pride, all his pettiness, to this shakti, this power infused with sweetness.
~30~
Accompanied by Lalita, Binoy arrived at Poreshbabu’s house.
Before he boarded the steamer Binoy was unsure about the nature of his feelings for Lalita. His antagonism with Lalita had kept his heart engaged. For some time now, it had become his daily preoccupation to devise some way of making some kind of truce with this irrepressible girl. It was Sucharita, with the pure radiance of her feminine charm, who had first appeared on Binoy’s horizon like the evening star. His exquisite joy at her arrival had imparted wholeness to his nature, or so he had privately imagined. But that other stars had also meanwhile appeared, and that the first star having ushered in the festival of lights had slowly started to fade unnoticed from the horizon, was something Binoy had not clearly realized.