Pather Panchali Chapter 11

It is the festival of the Holy Pond when sisters pray for their brothers. Opu finishes his task of writing
alphabets and goes looking for Durga. She has had her bath early and does prayers in the square pit in
the inner yard. She had set some banana suckers outside the pit and when Opu finds her she is tracing
pictures of lotuses, birds, bundles of rice, and the rising sun. She wants to take him somewhere after the
prayers.The words of the prayer amuse Opu and he makes fun of Durga. After the ritual gets over, they
goout to the Moat lake to get water fruit. At the extreme north end of the village near the forest there is
a tank in the open field. In old days the Mojumdars used to live there and had dug a moat round their
house. Now it is mostly filled in but there is water in one place which is called the moat lake. The house
no longer remains.. In the lake there is a lot of water fruit which are mostly high up. Durga asks Opu to
get a fruit pole. While waiting for Opu Durga starts eating Sheora berries and Opu is alarmed thinking
they are poisonous. Durga dismisses his fears lightly as she has eaten them many times before. Opu also
experiments the taste but finds them bitter.Durg and Opu never have anything sweet to eat. They have
never been able to satisfy their craving for delicacies with cream and sugared curds. Being children of a
poor home they are forced to find their sweets on the jungle bushes.The water fruit is far out over the
water.Durga tries her best to reach it with the bamboocane. The bank being very steep there she needs
Opu to hold on to her sari so that she doesn't fall into the water.Opu is distracted by a bird and Durga
scolds him. Slowly Durga goes into the water and her clothes get wet and she tries to reach out. Opu
stands behind pulling hard as he could and then suddenly finds he is not strong enough and bursts out
laughing. He lets go and Durga manages to save herself. She too laughs. They have another go and
succeeds in hooking a cluster of fruit. But they are raw and Durga throws them away. In the next
attempt Opu too gets wet and he gives up. They both stand there laughing.Opu then notices something
near the bushes and digs it out. Durga comes to look at it. It is roundish, with sharply cut facets and
sparkling. Durga wonders whether it is a diamond and hushes Opu. Opu had heard of diamonds in
stories of princes and princesses. The children take it home to mother who is also fascinated. They
wonder whether this is part of Mojumdar family's treasure. Shorbojaya shows it Horihar when he comes
home and he is also interested. He takes it to Shottobabu, the Ganguli's son in law who examines it and
pronounces it to be crystal glass from chandeliers.