Dramatis Personae NETAIBABU manager of Khudiya Colliery VOCE a police officer GOBARDHAN (GOBRA) — a chowkidar SUKHNI a girl from the Bowri tribe [Scene: Verandah of Shonabank dak bungalow. The time is evening. NETAIBABU has come up for a night halt. He is relaxing in an easychair on the verandah, smoking’ a cigarette and fiddling with his hunting rifle.) NETAI Chowkidar! [The reply comes from offstage: ‘Coming, Sahib’.] It’s getting dark. Come, get a light. [GOBARDHAN, the chowkidar-caretaker of the dak bungalow enters with a lantern in one hand and a ‘tangi’ in the other. He is jet black, his body strong and sinewy. As he sets down the lantern on the verandah and approaches the room, NETAIBABU speaks.] Hey, where are you going? GoprA [slightly embarrassed]. Your honour, the goddess has come—she has taken four men in the last three days. She dragged away a boy from yonder Santhal village only last evening. The villagers came out with tangis, drums, swords. They have taken the injured boy to Hazaribag today. NETAL Who is this goddess, pray? GoBRA A tiger! That is, a tigress. NETAI Oh! That is why you are calling her a goddess. How do you know that it’s a tigress? GOBRA Your honour, we know that from the sound of her roar. Her roar and call are sure to bring down the god here within a few days’ time.BENGALI DRAMA 83 NETAI All right. But what about our god? He hasn’t come round here as yet you see. GOBRA What god is this? NETAT Come, come—I mean your police sahib. He was supposed to have reached here by the evening. GOBRA He must have been caught up in some work. NETAI I guess so, but what about dinner now? He promised to bring food with him. GOBRA Your honour, you had said you didn’t want to eat anything. NETAI Yes, I said that. But I have to eat something now, haven't I? Get some chicken for us. GOBRA Your honour, I'd haye got everything ready if you had told me during the day. It is now night. NETAL Take up your lantern, shoulder your ‘tangi’ and march onward with brave steps. GOBRA I’ve got to get down from this hillock, then on through the ‘sal’ forest. NETAI You look so strong, like a Bheema! But you are such a coward! GOBRA How will my strength serve me! I cannot fight against a god, your honour—suddenly it will come and snatch me away in its jaws! NETAT You expect me to go hungry through the night? GOBRA You should have told me earlier, huzoor. Let me see if I have any puffed rice at home. NETAI Puffed rice! Nonsense! That won’t do at all. Go and get me fowl- curry. Otherwise I’ll send a report against your name. GOBRA Go and do whatever you wish. I can get other jobs as long as I have life in me. ENETAT stares at him with angry eyes. GOBRA notices this.] Huzoor! I have to feed many stomachs. If I am gone— NETAL [angrily]. Get cracking! Don’t make excuses. GOBRA Your honour, counting wife and children there're eleven people in all depending on me. NETAI I didn’t notice a single one of them. GOBRA Can I stay here with my wife and children? They are all at home. NETAI Why can’t you stay here with your wife and children? GOBRA So many different types of sahibs come and go here. They drink and swear, give odd orders to be carried out. NETAI Come, come! GoBRA I can’t tell all that they do in a drunken state. Just the other day—oh, looks like our sahib has come. [Looks out.) NETAL He'll come in a car. GoBRA There’s the torchight. Look, look there, your honour. [NETAIBABU gets up and looks out.] NETAI What’s the matter, Mr Voce! I’ve been waiting from 4 o'clock.84 MODERN INDIAN LITERATURE [MR VOCE enters in khaki, rifle in hand. With him is SUKHNI. She carries a hold-all on her head, and a tiffin-carrier in her hand.] VOCE The car’s been giving trouble. We tried our best. Finally, I left the driver, and came here. Go Sukhni, take these into the room. NETAI Tiffin-carrier—I hope there’s something in it? VOCE There are some snacks there. You haven’t ordered for dinner? NETAI There’s been the advent of a goddess here. I was waiting for you and didn’t order anything. It seems it’s not possible to get anything now—the goddess is so tyrannical. voce That Sukhni was telling me the same thing. Couldn’t get any people together—otherwise I could have got the car pushed up here. NETAI Let’s eat whatever there is. If it doesn’t fill our bellies we can capture Gobardhan chowkidar’s stock of puffed rice later. VOCE Hey, chowkidar—get everything out of the tiffin-carrier and set them upon a tea-poy. Let me just have a wash. Come Sukhni, keep the hold-all in the room. What, you hayen’t lit the lamps in the room yet.! GOBRA I'll get it done instantly, huzoor. [Runs quickly into the room, followed by MR VOCE and SUKHNT. The room lights up. SUKHNI returns; then GOBRA enters with a tea-poy.] NETAI Hey, Santhali! SUKHNI [stopping him short with a laugh]. 1 am a Bowri, not a Santhal woman. NETAI [looking over her shapely, supple body]. 1 thought you were a Santhal going by your shape and form. [GOBRA looks askance at him while working. SUKHNI shyly covers herself up with her saree in a feminine way and smiles.) SUKHNI Heavens! Can a Santhal speak Bengali like this? If they had to speak they would say [imitating a Santhal]: ‘We cannot speak Bengali like you do.’ [NETAIBABU breaks into a smile on seeing the subtle and various ways in which racial pride works upon the human psyche.] NETAI Be that as it may. But how will you go home now? SUKHNI Why? I'll walk along the road. It’s not very far to go. NETAI Won’t you feel afraid—for the goddess has come! SUKHNI Let her come! The poor cannot afford the luxury of fear. GoBRA That woman’s—a right witch, definitely. SUKHNI [angrily]. Oh yes! He is saying it out of envy, sahib. GOBRA [turning upon her]. Then shall I tell them everything? SUKHNI Go on. Say what you want. So many people say so many thirigs. Everybody can talk, but few can feed. GOBRA, What can I say huzoor? This woman has a bad character.BENGALI DRAMA 85 SUKHNI Right you are! GOBRA Why can’t you settle down? Your husband’s been dead these two years. SUKHNI I have two small kids. What’ll my old woman eat? Who'll feed them? Everyone wants to marry me only and leave the others. No one has the guts to take on the responsibility of four stomachs. GOBRA [nearly outdone]. You know how it is. SUKHNI Yes, I know how it is, I know. [Sings.] My youth is a great burden Alas, it wants this and that, And burns for what is not. GoBRA [scolding her], Look huzoor, how shameless she is. I warn you it won't go well with you if you come to the dak bungalow! SUKHNI I've come only because sahib has asked me to come. [MR VOCE enters from adjacent room.} voce I hear hot words being exchanged. GOBRA AND SUKHNI [speaking together]. Look sir, this rotten immoral woman... . You asked me to carry your luggage, that’s why I am here... . VOCE Oh, quiet! SUKHNI Make a proper judgment and give me your verdict. voce This sahib is the manager of the colliery, tell him. NETAI This sahib is the boss of the police force, tell him. SUKHNIAND GOBRA [speaking together]. Your honour, he’s called me a shameless, fallen woman—Look how she’s behaving before the sahibs. vocE Enough, enough. Quiet now. We will hold court and judge later. Now take this torch and go escort her home. GoBRA I will not be able to do it, huzoor. SURHNI I'll go alone sahib. If anything happens, he’ll push me aside and be the first to run away. NETAI That’s right! Okay, wait a while. Let us have something to eat. Then we’ll take our guns and escort you ourselves. SUKHNI No god or goddess will take me, huzoor! If I go who will feed four innocent mouths? [Humbly.] Will you give me something, your honour? Voce Chowkidar, give her four annas. SUKHNI I will not take four annas. ¥OcE. Is that so? Then how much do you want? SUKHNI Id like two rupees. NETAI Two rupees! Voce Two rupees for this little luggage! SUKHNI I’ve told you that I'll serve you further, if I get two rupees. VOCE Go, go get away. Let us eat now in peace. Come some other time. SUKHNI Another time?86 MODERN INDIAN LITERATURE VOCE Yes, yes, some other time. Chowkidar, switch on the torch for her and show her the way. Let her go. SUKHNI Will I come then at another time? copra Look huzoor, how shameless this woman is. [SUKHNI laughs and makes a face at GOBRA.] SUKHNI I am off now. I’ll come again, fellow, another time. The sahib has given the order for me to come again. [Exits. Song heard off stage.] My fellow is an enchanter T'll polish him up and make him a medallion on my neck My fellow is an enchanter. [ The song fades away in the distance, as the sahibs eat and laugh.] NETAT What’s that woman called, chowkidar? GOBRA Sukhni. voce Yes, Sukhni! Happiness surrounds them, doesn’t it? GOBRA Your honour, her name does not mean that ‘Sukh’. She was born on Friday, Sukhrabar—hence Sukhni, if it was Tuesday, Mangalbar, then it would have been Mungli, if Wednesday, Budhbar, then Budhni—like that. NETAI But how reckless she is to venture out into the night through this dense sal forest. GOBRA Yes, your honour. There's only the moon to see by—otherwise it is a terrible dark night to go out in. That Sukhni is a tough one, she is! VOCE Tough? GoBRA Yes huzoor, tough. The other day she drove off Aga Sahib, the Kabuliwallah. NETAL Do the Kabulis lend money to the likes of Sukhni? copra No, your honour, they lend to the labourers, traders and suchlike. But they lent her money—she’s an attractive woman who has her way, you see. [NETAIBABU and VOCE exchange glances while eating.| O, how she turned upon the Kabuli and drove him off. That’s a tough one, Sukhni is. Shall I get the puffed rice, huzoor? NETAI No, this will do for tonight. Tomorrow we will see how you cook. What do you say, Voce? VOCE What’ll we stay here for tomorrow? I’ll get the car into working order first thing tomorrow morning. NETAI Won't you stay back to see the goddess? voce The goddess? NETAI She, whose advent requires one sacrifice each day. If there’s a kill tonight then shouldn’t we take a chance on bagging her tomorrow? VOCE Look at you! Don’t tell me you believe all that these people say. GopRA Tonight you'll hear her call, huzoor. Every day we hear the goddess roar. Listen! you can hear the foxes howling as they follow her far off into the night. [They listen attentively. ]BENGALI DRAMA 87 NeETAI Yes, I can hear them, it’s true. voce Come, come, those are the usual fox howls. You can hear them howling throughout the year. GOBRA She'll take someone tonight. The Santhal boy slipped out of her grasp yesterday. The goddess will surely claim a libation tonight. voce No goats or cows have been killed? GOBRA One had been taken away from Namakuli about a week ago. Everyone’s become very cautious now. All the herds are gathered home before sunset. Three humans only have been taken. But she couldn’t eat them. Just caught them and killed them. NETAI Why didn’t the goddess feast on them! copra A lot of hullaballoo was made—everyone came out with weapons to drive her off. voce Then perhaps we may get to meet her even tonight. GoBRA I can’t say whether you'll get to see her. But certainly you can hear her roar, your honour. NETAI That settles it. We'll use magic arrows that will home in on the sound. Come now, let’s stop all this. I want morning tea very early tomorrow. [GOBRA removes the tea-poy and the dinner utensils.] GOBRA I'll get your tea just at dawn, huzoor. [Takes the things into the room. | NETAI Perhaps we will have a darshan of the devi, eh? Get a glimpse of the goddess, what? voce Let me load the gun with two bullets and keep it ready. [ Goes inside the room. GOBRA comes in.] GOBRA Then give me leave to go, huzoor. I’ve locked up the bathroom door. You can go and sit in the room, your honour. NETAI Why? Will the goddess come here and drag us away? GOBRA Let us not joke about it, sir. Divinities can do anything they wish to. {VOCE enters with gun and two cartridges.) NETAI Here come the flowers for the worship of the goddess. You may go. VOCE You have kept some drinking water for us, I hope? GOBRA All taken care of, huzoor. Don’t come out of the room at night. And keep the lamp burning. I think it’s about time you went into your room, huzoor. voce [loading the gun]. You go home and lie down in peace. We shall await a glimpse of the goddess. [GopRA clasps his hands in worshipful greeting and exits.) NETAI Paying homage to us! voce As the chowkidar of this dak bungalow he has to get around and manage many other gentlemen like us.88 MODERN INDIAN LITERATURE NETAI That's why he doesn’t keep his wife and family here. What a desolate place this is—only wild animals and wild tribal men. This Kind of environment must be stirring up the primitive mind in many. VocE Is the primitive stirring in you? NETAI It has already risen in you. That's why you got hold of that wench. VOCE Did you notice her contours? The polished, sophisticated, urban beauties get to be monotonous, eh! NETAI [with a mocking smile]. Too much rich food Tires the stomach As glimpsing enchanting seductresses every day Tires the eyes. VOCE Too right! Come let us go in and sleep it off now. NETAT There’s a lovely moon rising. Why not sit here some more? Maybe we'll get a darshan of the goddess, Voce Are you mad? If there’s any kill at all tonight then we will give it a try tomorrow. NETAI Look! The dance of light and shadow under those sal trees is fascinating. VOCE Your primitive mind is stirring, Netai. It’s not a good sign. NETAI Let's sit here a little longer. VOCE Had a long journey—trouble with the car—it’s impossible to stay up the night now. We'll see tomorrow. Let’s go in now. (They get up, go in,and shut the door. The silence of the night is occasionally punctuated by the distant calls of the foxes,the ory of dogs and the monotonous hum of the gnats. A little later SUKEINI comes in, looks carefully towards the chowkidar’s room-and enters the verandah. Then she tiptoes to the door and begins to make small sounds with her fingers on the shutters. Hearing a noise inside she steps back and flattens herself against the wall. Her face lights up in @ smile as she hears small noises and whispers inside the room. As the shutters begin to open in the nearby window she looks up expectantly, takes the long hem of her saree and flings it at the window, A shot rings out with a bang. SUKHNI dissolves in giggles and speaks in a somewhat high-pitched voice.] SUKHNT You asked me to come yourself and now you are shooting at me sahib. [The door opens and the two men come out holding their guns. Seeing SUKHNI, VOCE speaks angrily. ] VOCE You bitch! Are you crazy? SUKHNI [smiling]. Crazy, aye, that | am. NETAI Kick her out. Do you realize what would have happened if the bullet had hit her? VOCE What are you doing here at this time of night? SUKHNT [flustered]. You asked me to come, sahib. VOCE What! I told you to come?BENGALI DRAMA 89 SUKHNI You said to come some other time. [GOBRA enters with lantern, tangi in hand.| GOBRA What's the matter, huzoor? I heard a shot! NETAL This rascal woman was walking around on the verandah. We heard the noise, thought it was the tiger... GOBRA What a shameless fallen woman this is! Would have served her right to get all shot up. SUKHNI Right you are. GOBRA Why have you come here? SUKHNI I came because I was asked to come. GosRA [imitating her]. Asked to come! SUKHNI They said they would give me money. GOBRA To take the money you could have come in the morning. SUKHNI Not morning—they asked me to come another time. NETAI What a dangerous girl this is. ¥OcE Dangerous is right! Don’t you have any fear? GOBRA She is a witch that walks by night. VOCE Weill, the fault is mine. I had thought that if she came in the morning to take the money we could get her to take the luggage into the car. NETAI Get rid of her! Ger rid of her! [VOCE goes into the room.] That's why these are called the lower classes. She has no sense of shame, or honour or propriety. SUKHNI You too would not have them if you were like me. NETAT What? SURHNI Babu! I am a woman forced to feed four stomachs each and every day. NETAI Can’t you work for a living? SURHNI I work as a labourer in the mines. NETAI So? SUKHNI That's only seven-and-a-half rupecs a week. NETAL Don’t you get rice and dal cheap? SUKHNI Will only rice and dal suffice? What about vegetables, salt, clothes and all. The old woman smokes bidis worth eight annas a week. To light the lamps cost a rupee a day. This time during the poush festival I could not give the children a single sweetmeat. Who'll give them anything? I am their mother. It’s my responsibility to get the things. [VOCE enters with wallet, takes out an eight anna piece.] VOCE Come, take this eight anna bit and go. SUBHNI Sahib, give me two rupees. NETAI No one can satisfy these people. Two rupees for carrying one piece of luggage! Aren’t you ashamed to ask that much? SUBHNI That's why I came to you in the night! NETAI Came in the night! Don’t give her a pice more. Take it or leave it and go.90 MODERN INDIAN LITERATURE SUKHNI I had told the old woman that I'd buy some portions tomorrow. VOCE Buy portions of what? GOBRA Goat meat, your honour. NETAI Look at her greed! They are all like that. There’s no end to their desires. SUKHNI Babu, I can’t stop them from asking. The old woman tells me that she wants something juicy to eat. I tell my mother, where’ll I get anything like that. She tells me then, ‘When you were a little girl you used to say, Mother, give me some sweets, some fish, something good. Did you at all think where or how I would get them then? Then why should I think about where you'll get these things? Tell me.’ The old woman doesn’t understand, neither do the two boys, what I'll do. GoBRA Then borrow some money from somewhere. Just because the sahibs are soft-hearted you can’t pressurize them to get your two rupees, can you? SUKHNI I am up to my ears in debt, huzoor. I have to Pay two rupees interest each month. VOCE Here, take one rupee and go. SUKHNI Huzoor, you earn so much money, what is one rupee more or less to you? Let me see my-children smile and be happy for at least one day. Let me not hear the old woman’s abuses at least for one day. What shall I say, sahib? How will my children live? The old woman has worked herself to her bones for us through her whole life; how can I let her starve to death now? Otherwise I could have left home long ago and become a roving sanyasin. [There is a catch in her voice.] voce All right. Here, take two rupees. [Gives money.| Gobardhan, come with your lantern. We'll see her off through the sal forest. SUKHNI [with a smile on her face]. 1 don’t need the lantern, huzoor. God has created moonlight for us all. He gives equally to all, He doesn’t differentiate between high and low. I am going. I have this in my hand. [Showing the knife, she exits.] VOCE What Netai! You seem to have become spellbound. NETAI I saw how she coaxed two rupees out of you. They are all experts at lying. I am accustomed to hearing the cries and complaints of the coolies. I have to hear this every day. GOBRA May I go, huzoor? VOCE You can go. [Exit GOBRA.] Netai, my many years of experience in police work has taught me this: good taste, morality, high ideals all depend on man’s economic situation. There are very few born criminals—fighting desperate battles against poverty and economic pressures ultimately makes man inhuman. [They are suddenly startled by a distant cry and a roar.| What's the matter? NETAI What! Has the tiger got her? VocE Come on! come on! [VOCE runs out with his rifle.)BENGALI DRAMA 91 NETAL Gobardhan! Gobardhan, come quickly with a light. [NETAIBABU runs out too with his rifle. Enter GOBRA with a lantern, tangi in hand. He too has heard the roar. He has understood that SUKHNI has fallen victim to the goddess. Excitedly, he runs out from the verandah, then abruptly returns, places the lantern on the floor, and sits waiting, holding the tangi in his hand. The sound of two shots are heard in the distance. GOBRA jumps up, goes out, turns back. Loud cries are heard offstage: ‘Chowkidar, chowkidar’. Reluctantly, GOBRA holds up the lantern, grips his tangi and goes out. NETAI and VOCE enter carrying the bloody and badly injured SUKHINI. They put her down on the floor.] vOcE We could have taken her inside, into the room. NETAI She’s fainted. Open air is better. vocr Let us give her whatever first aid we can here. NETAI What else can we do? The car’s out of order. Voce. Do you have anything with you? NETAI I might have some iodine. Let me see . . - Oh! Oh! my clothes are all bloodied. [NETAIBABU goes in.] vock [walking about restlessly, then going up to call oul]. Gobardhan! Gobardhan! [From offstage he shouts ‘Coming huzoor’ and enters running. | VOCE What were you doing there? copra Your honour, the tigress is dead. So I was plucking out a few whiskers. Makes good strong medicine. voce Is this the proper time to pluck out whiskers? This girl is dying. coBRA Lots of people are congregating here. They'll tear out the whiskers! VOCE Shut up about those whiskers, will you? Is there a doctor close by? GoBRA Over in Gobindapore. voce Go and call him here. GoBRA He won't stir out at this late hour of night. voce Well, your goddess is dead. What have you to fear now? GoBRA There may be more of them. VOCE Go on! We can’t let the girl die without medical care. GoBRA She won't die, your honour, She’s killed the goddess before the goddess could finish her off. She’s an extraordinary woman, this Sukhni is! [NETAIBABU enters with bottle and bandage rags.) vock We shot at the tigress when she was already dead. Sukhni’s knife thrust had finished her off before we came. Otherwise the beast wouldn’t have kept still like that. NETAT Perhaps it is so. But I have only a litde tincture of iodine with me. voce You stay here. Let me go with the chowkidar and get the doctor. Come chowkidar. [NETAI goes over to SUKHNI.]92 MODERN INDIAN LITERATURE NETAI She seems to want some water. Get some drinking water chowkidar. [Exit GoBRA.] Let the doctor come Voce, there’s no hot water here. With these dirty rags we'll probably do more harm than good. Voce How are the injuries? NETAI All her body is bloodied and limbs ripped apart. The exact extent of damage can only be known when her wounds are washed. [GOBRA enters, gives SUKHNI water to drink.] GOBRA She is saying something, huzoor! [They all go close. SUKHNI mutters something. The two rupee notes fall Jrom her left hand on to the ground. GOBARDHAN brings his ear close to her mouth and listens.] Huzoor, she is muttering about buying her portion of goat-meat. [Listens again.] She’s calling out to her children, calling out to her old woman. [Suddenly the body gives a wrench and then SUKHNI lies still.] GOBRA [startled]. Huzoor! [Gets up.) [VOCE goes over, places hand near her nostrils, on her breast, then solemnly stands up.] NETAI What has happened? voce Sukhni’s gone on eternal leave. Life's fitful fevers, finished. [NETAIBABU slumps down, shocked, and cries: ‘O God!’] Voce Didn’t you say that perhaps we will get a glimpse of the goddess? Yes Netai, we have got a glimpse of the goddess, we have achieved Devidarshan. She fought through life carrying the burdens of the past, took upon herself the responsibility of feeding the children of the future, struggled till the last, and made a glorious exit. [VOGE picks up the chowkidar’s lantern to go and see SUKHNI’s face for the last time, but springs back seeing the two rupee notes fallen from her fingers. He cries out.] Netai! Netai! Look! Look! There lie the blood-stained rupee notes. Netai, I have seen such rupee notes marked with vermilion in my mother’s prayer box. My mother, with so much respect and humility and devotion, would touch her forehead with them, would bring them to touch our heads and bless us. Come let us pick up those notes and bring them to touch our heads with their blessings. [VOCE picks up the notes to touch his head with; NETAT follows suit.] NETAI [in an emotion-charged voice]. Verily, we got a glimpse of the goddess, we achieved Devidarshan at last. Yes, Devidarshan. Devi, 1956 Translated by Amitava Roy chowkidar watchman tang large dagger