CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 5

ATALE OF TWO BULLOCKS 13

A TALE OF TWO BULLOCK\ 2 21

THE FEAST 30

GULLI-DANDA 40

DETERMINATION 48

IDGAH 54

KAKI 63

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM 71

 MUNSHI PREMCHAND

THE WAY PREMCHAND WROTE

 INTRODUCTION
The flames leapt up! The fire blazed as it consumed all the
hopes and dreams the young man had expressed for his beloved
country. As he stood there, stunned and disbelieving, watching
the precious copies of his book turn to ashes, the harsh words
of the District Collector rang in his ears.
"Be thankful you are under British rule. If this had been
the Mughal Raj. you would have had both your hands cut
off!" Harsher stillwas the injunction, "You will write nothing
in future without our permission." An injunction impossible
to comply with!
Which was this book. the first book by an Indian writer
to be publicly burnt? Its name was Soz-e-Watan, a collection
of romantic stories of bravery and patriotism, published in
1909.And the young man was its author, afiery patriot, Dhanpat
Rai Srivastava, better known by his pen-name, Premchand
or Munshi Premchand. He was destined to become one of
India's greates. writers.

His Life
Premchand was born on 31 July 1880 in the village of Lamhi,
near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. His father was a postal clerk
who had neither time nor monev to spare for his son. Premchand's
mother died when he was only eight years old. His father
6 PRE MC H AND

remarried but his stepmother turned out to be a harsh and

domineering wonman, with no love for her little stepson, And
soPremchand's childhood was shadowed by both neglect and
poverty.
In fact, poverty and ill-health were to dog him all his
life. When Premchand was only fifteen, his father got him
married to agirl with whom he had nothing 1n conmmon
and who left him afew years later.
A year after Premchand's marriage, his father passed away.
Premchand, who was then a student of Class Nine, was left
to support awife, a stepmother and her two children! There
was no money in the house. Whatever little there had been,
had been spent on his father's long illness.
Premchand had dreanmt of getting an M.A. degree and then
becomingalawyer.Allthese dreams were shattered. He finished
school somehow and got down to earning a living for his
family.
For a while he worked as a tutor, earning five rupees a
month (equivalent to about two hundred and fifty rupees
today). Then he got a job as an assistant teacher at a princely
salary of eighteen rupees a month! Premchand was nineteen
years old at the time. For the next 22 years of his lite, ne
remained a teacher in one government school or another,
different parts of Uttar Pradesh.
Life was never casy. Although Premchand would hand over
most of his earnings to his stepmother and keep the bat
minimum for himself, she remained harsh and critical towards
him.
In 1906, when he was 26.,
this marriage was a happy one.
Premchand married again and
Shivrani Devi, hissecond wiie:
proved to be an
understanding
strength for her husband. companion
It was with
and a pillar of
that he was
hersupport
 INTRODUCTION 7
able to take the difficult decision of quitting his go
government
job in 1920. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who had visited
Gorakhpur where he was then posted, Premchand decided
to join the struggle for independence and sever all links with
the British 'sarkar'.
The remaining years of his life saw him struggling to earn
adecent livelihood. Besides his writing, he worked as an editor
for several Hindimagazines. In 1923 he started his own printing
press and began to publish two weeklies. One was Hans, a
literary magazine, which acquainted its readers with the various
regional literatures of India. The other was Jagran, a nationalist
paper, through which Premchand fearlessly voiced his political
opinions, despite the heavy fines imposed on the magazine
from time to time. Neither paper was a commercial success.
To supplement his income, Premchand even wrote the scripts
for some Hindi flms in Bombay, but, financial worries con
tinued to harass.
Despite them and his failing health-worsened by years
of travelling, long hours of work and little rest-much of his
best work belongs to this period. A source of inspiration and
help for many an aspiring young writer, Premchand was at
the peak of his creativity when he passed away, possibly of
achronic gastric ulcer, on 8 October 1936. He was only 56
years old.

His Writings
As a boy, Premchand had developed a voracious appetite tor
books. He read all the Urdu novels he could lay his hands
romance and
On. These were, by and large, stirring sagas of
adventure. Premchand and a few of his friends would meet
books.
regularly and read aloud from their favourite
was perhaps natural that a man, who loved booksas much
It
8 PRE MCHAND

as Premnchand did, should take to writing. His first novel

appeared in 1901 and his first short story in 1907. He continued
to write steadily for the rest of his life, producing about 300
short stories, a dozen novels, innumerable essays, articles,
editorials,plays, screenplays and translations in a relatively short
span of 36 years.
Premchand began writing in Urdu and gradually, though
never completely, switched over to Hindi in an attempt to
reach a wider readership. He is acknowledged as a master in
influenced
both languages. From a florid and fanciful style,
Premchand's
by the Urdu romances he had read as a youth,
language became simple, direct and immensely powerful.
fervour.
His early writing was marked by great nationalistic banned
Besides Soz-e-Watan, the collection of stories that was
nineteenth
bythe British, he wrote biographies of prominentGaribaldi and
century freedom fighters such as the Italians,
Mazzini. He also wrote a biography of Swami Vivekananda,
world
the dynamic and revolutionary sage who made the
recognize the spiritual wealth that was India.
However, Premchand wanted more than just political free
dom for his country. He wanted greater social and economic
justice. Through a character in one of his short stories, he
said, "We are fighting for more than freedom-to reduce
oppression, to raise culture, clean homes. smiling children,
enlightened universities, honest law courts." For Premchand,
freedom did not only mean"putting Govind in place of John .
Through his writings he attacked and exposed many social
evils of his time. In one of his earliest novels published in
1907 in Hindi, Prema, he describes the plight of child widows
ostracized by Hindu society. The hero of the novel marries
the child-widow, Prema. Premchand himself flouted tradition,
when at about this time, he chose to marry a child widow
 INTRODU CTIO N 9
Shivrani Devi, refusing the dowry he could easily have asked
for and obtained.
Premchand's other early novels also reflect a desire for social
reform. Nirmala deals with the evils of the dowry system. In
Premashram, Premchand took up the pight of the struggling
peasant, a subject he returned to again and again, notably in
Godan, his last and perhaps the finest of his novels.
In the world of Premchand's stories, love for humanity is
the greatest religion. Communal harmony was very much a
part of the India of Premchand's dreams. Those who aroused
his ire and contempt were the fanatics, the exploiters, who
could belong to any community.
Pandit Motey Ram Shastri is one such character. He is
an exploiter of the credulity ofcommon folk. Premchand wrote
several stories featuring this rotund, ridiculous and greedy
pandit, one of which, "The Feast' (Nimantran), is included
in the present volume.
Another of Premchand's major concerns in his novels and
short stories seemsto be the many problems that beset women
all through their lives, the evils of the dowry system, the terror
and heartbreak of not being able to bear sons; the shame and
the isolation of widowhood.The women in Premchand's stories
are portrayed with a respect and understanding that is rare
ina male writer. Aged and helpless Kaki(in the story 'Boodhi
Kaki') and Amena, the poverty-stricken grandmother in the
story 'Idgah' are two memorable women characters among
many others.
The most authentic and penetrating of Premchand's por
trayals centre around, village life. This was a life he knew
intimately, since he had grown up in a village.Then as a teacher,
and later an inspector of schools, he travelled extensively
through the villages of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
10 PREMCHAND

Premchand was always a man of the people, a man of the

soil. He spoke for his country's poor, not just for the poor
of his native state. With his powerful pen, he painted picture
after picture of rural India, its largely static society, its caste
clashes as well as its communal harmony, its poverty and its
exploitation, as well as the richness of character of so many
of its people.

His Times
Premchand may have spent much of his life in the villages
and small towns of Uttar Pradesh, but he was well aware of
the literary and political winds sweeping over not only India,
but other countries as well.
As a well-informed editor and author, he was acquainted
with the works of many literary giants of his day--notably,
British novelists like Charles Dickens, John Galsworthy and
George Eliot; Russian masters of prose-Leo Tolstoy and
Maxim Gorky; and French writers such as Honoré de Balzac
and Guy de Maupassant. He had also translated some of their
work into Hindi and Urdu. All these writers reflected the
mood of°Realism'that pervaded the prose of the nineteenth
century. By and large, their work concentrated on portraying
ordinary people, oppressed by social circumstances and strug
ging to shape their destinies.
Influenced no doubt by these writers and his own com
mitment to the cause of the poor, Premchand, almost single
handedly, raised the Hindi novel and short story from the unreal
world of fantasy and romance to a high level of real1stic
narrative.
His feelings for the poor attracted him to the Communist
Revolution in Russia in 1918. This is clearly reflected in
Premchand's novel Premashram, written in 1922, in which one
 INTRODUCIION 11

of the struggling peasants states that "cultivators are now the

ruling class in Russia '"
LLke the great Indian writers of the nineteenth and early
rwentieth centurics, such as Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim
Chandra Chatterjee in Bengal and Subramaniam Bharati
Tamil Nadu, Premchand's work was fired by a sense of intense
nationalism, but he did not live long enough to see his country
gain freedom.

Conclusion
While much of Premchand's work was influenced by his
political convictions,the values that shine through the finest
of his writing are the old, old values of love, compassion and
tolerance. It is in the moving blend of tragedy and hope, of
realism and idealism that Premchand's greatness lies.
"The greater the calamity" he once wrote,ote, "the tougher
the fibre. It is tragedy that makes a man."
How true this was of his own ife! The simply dressed man,
with the serene countenance and the infectious laugh, had
a harder and sadder ife than many of his readers will ever
know. His life and his work serve as inspiration for us al.

This Selection
This selection is in two volumes, consisting of 14 stories in
all, taken from the Mansarovar collection of stories.
"A Tale ofTwo Bullocks' (which was later made into a film)
and Determination' reflect Premchand'sempathy for the mute
beast of burden.
Also burdened, but this time with the sorrows and trials
of old age is 'Kaki'.Premchand's portrayal of the helpless old
Woman grips the heart of every reader.
rare comic
In "The Feast'. we meet one of Premchand's
12 PREMCHAND

characters, the corpulent and corrupt Pandit Motey Ram

Shastri: while in the 'Price of Freedom', Premchand focuses
on the plight of the poor farmer, struggling to live a life of
dignity amidst abject poverty.
In 'Gulli-Danda', Premchand contrasts the carefree spirit
of childhood with the self-consciousness and awareness of
material status, that creep into a man later in life. There is
astrong autobiographical element running through the story.
'Idgah' is one of Premchand's best-known stories. This
beautiful tale of a stout-hearted and resourceful little boy, is
both endearing and enduring.
It has not been possible to translate these stories word for
word from Hindi to English. Many words and expressions
in Hindi defy direct translation into another language.
Even so, every attempt has been made to ensure that there
is no diminishing of impact and that the essence of each story
is fully conveyed to the reader.
ANUPA LAL
 A TALE OF TWO BULLOCKS 1

Jhuri owned two bullocks named Hira and

Moti. They were tall, handsome,
hardworking animals, who had spent so
much time together that they had grown
as close to one another as two brothers.
Sitting side by side, theywould talk without
saying a word!How each was able to know
what went on in the mind of the other is hard to say. They
must have possessed a hidden power that is denied to us humans,
who consider ourselves so much superior to animals.
Hira and Moti expressed their affection by sniffing or licking
one another. Sometimes they locked horns, not in anger but
in play, the way good friends sometimes grapple with each
other. The moment they were yoked to the plough or the
cart, each would attempt to shift the maximum weight on
to his own neck and spare his friend.When they were unhitched,
themselves
after the day's work was over, they would refresh
their
by licking each other. They would get up together to eat
turned his face
meal of oil-cakes and straw and when one
away from the food, so would the other.
bullocks away
It so happened that one day Jhurisent his
 14 PREMC HAND

to the house of his in-laws. Hira and Motii thought they were
with all their
their
might. When Jhuri's
being sold and they resisted
brother-in-law Gaya tried to push them from behind,
, they
ran hither and thither. When he tried to pull them from the
backwards. If he hit
front by their ropes, they strained them,
they lowered their horns and snorted in protest.
Had God granted Hira and Moti the power power of human
speech, they would surely have asked Jhuri, "Master, why are
you getting rid of us? We have served you faithfully. If you
hadwanted us to work even harder, we would have. We were
prepared todie in your service. We never complained.Whatever
you gave us to eat, we ate quietly. Then why have you sold
us to this hard-hearted man?"
It was sevening by the time the bullocks reached their
home. They had not eaten the whole day but their hearts
were so heavy that they did not touch the food in the manger.
Everything seemed strange and unfamiliar.
Hira and Moti held a silent conversation and lay down.
When everyone in the village was asleep, they pulled fiercely
at their ropes, broke them and galloped home.
The following morning when Jhuri woke up, he saw his
bullocks standing at the manger, the broken ropes still round
their necks, their legs covered with mud and their eyes ful
of happiness, though they seemed a little uncertain of thelr
welcome.
Jhuri ran to embrace them and held them close, his heart
overflowing with love. The children of the village gathered
round the bullocks and welcomed them with claps and
of joy. Someone ran home to fetch our for Hira whoOP
and Mot.
Other children brought them rotis. bran
and straw.
 A TALE OF T WO
BULOCKS 15
"Nobody else has such bullocks!" said one of the boys.
Just imagine, they ran home from such a distance!" said
another.
They must have been human beings in their
previous
birth!" declared a third. No one refuted this declaration. But
when Jhuri's wife saw the bullocks, she was furious. "What
ungrateful creatures!" she said."They couldn't even work there
for a day!"
"Why call them ungrateful?" said Jhuri, defending his
bullocks."They must not have got any food, so what could
they do?"
You think you are the only one who knows how to feed
bullocks!" said his wife scathingly."Everyone else gives them
only water!"
"If they were properly fed, why did they run away?"
demanded Jhuri.
*They ran away because my people didn't spoil them the
way fools like you do," snapped his wife. "My people feed
their animals well and work them hard. Your bullocks are
shirkers, that's why they ran away. Now let me see how they
get bran and oil-cakes. All they'll get from me is dry straw.
Let them eat it or starve."
to feed the bullockS
She gave the servant strict instructions
Moti found their food
straw and nothing else. Poor Hira and
told the servant
dry and tasteless. Moved by their plight, Jhuri servant
to the straw. But the
to quietly add some oil-cakes
so.
was too scared of Jhuri's wife to do
brother-in-law Gaya came again
The following day Jhuri's This time he yoked
bullocks back with him.
and took the upset the cart
twice or thrice to
them to a cart. Moti tried
 16 PREMCHAND

into a ditch but Hira steadied it. He was the more tolerant

of the two.
On reaching home in the evening, Gaya tethered the two
bullocks securely and then thrashed them soundly for their
escapade of the previous day. Again they were given only dry
straw to eat, while Gaya's own bullocks were fed oil-cak
and bran as well as straw.
Hira andMoti had never been so ill-treated. Jhurihad neyer
sO much as touched them with a stick. He had only to call
to them,for them to race like the wind. Here they had been
beaten and insulted and then given only straw to eat. They
refused to even look at the manger.
The next day Gaya hitched them to his plough but it was
as if Hira and Moti had vowed not to move. Gaya thrashed
them till he was exhausted but they did not budge! When
the tyrannical Gaya hit Hira several cruel blows on the
nose
with his stick, Moti could no longer control his anger. He
galloped off with the plough at such a rate that it broke into
pieces. Had the bullocks not had thick, strong ropes around
their necks, it would have been impossible to catch them.
Hira said silently to his friend,"It is useless to try
and run
away"
Moti: "He almost killed you
Hira:
today."
"Now we are going to be beaten really badly.
Moti: "We've been born as
bullocks. How can we avoid
being beaten?"
Hira: "Here comes Gaya with two men. Both have stout
sticks."
Moti: "Shall I teach them a
Hira: "No. Just stand lesson?"
quietly."
 They must have possessed a hidden power that is
denied to us humans, who consider ourselves so much
superior to animals
18 PREMCHAND

Moti: "If they hit me I'll knock them down."

Hira: "No. Moti. You know that would be aeainst
our
way of life"
Gaya caught hold of both the bullocks and led them back
to the house. It was just as well that he did not hit them
then or Moti would have turned violent.
Again they were given only strawto eat. Both stood silently
beside the manger. The people in the house began their meal.
Suddenly a little girl darted out of the house with two rotis.
She put one each intothe mouths of Hira and Moti and then
ran back into the house. Two rotis could hardly satisfy their
hunger, but the hunger in their hearts was somewhat appeased.
The little girl did not have a mother. Her stepmother used
to beat her, which was why she felt a kind of kinship with
these two ill-treated creatures.
The two bullocks were made to work hard the whole day.
They rebelled and they were beaten. Every evening they were
tethered to the stall and every night the same little girl fed
them two rotis. This offering of love had such power that
even though they Were eating no more than a few mouthtuls
of straw, they did not grow weak. But their eyes and every
pore of their bodies seethed with revolt.
One day Moti said silently, "Hira, I cannot bear this any
longer."
Hira: What do you want to do?
Moti: Tl toss at least one or two of these people on "
horns."
Hira: "But do you realize that Sweet gil who feeds us
rotis is the daughter of the master of this house
Won't she be orphaned?"
 A TALE OF T WO BULLOCKS 19

Moti: "Then Ishould toss the little girl's stepmother, the

mistress of the house. She is the one who beats her."
Hira: "But you forget we are forbidden to attack a woman."
Moti: You will not suggest any way out. What about
breaking these ropes and running away?"
Hira: "Yes. That I can agree to. But how will we break
such strong ropes?"
Moti: "There is away. Let us chew the ropes a little first.
Then one strong tug should break them."
That night, after the little girl had fed them and left, Hira
and Moti began chewing their ropes. But the ropes were too
thick and their labour seemed to be in vain.
Suddenly the door of the house opened and the little girl
came out again. The bullocks lowered their heads and licked
her hand lovingly. Their tails stood erect with happiness. She
stroked their foreheads and said,"I am going to untether you.
Run away quiedy or these people willkill you. Today I heard
them saying that rings were going to be put through your
noses."
She untethered them but Hira and Moti did not move.
Moti said, Why don't we go?"
into trouble
"If we go, said Hira, "this child will get
tomorrow. Everyone will suspect her."
runing away!
The girl began yelling."Uncle's bullocksare
Dada! Dada! Come quickly!"
They ran. Hechased
Gaya rushed out to catch the bullocks.
and went back
them. They ran faster. Gaya shouted for help chance
village. Hira and Moti got a
to get some men from the knowing where they
ran and ran without
to escape. They
villages they saw around them were untamiliar.
Were gong.The
20 PREMCHAND

After a long while, they stopped near a field.

Hira said, "It seems we've lost our way."
Moti: "We both ran wildly. We should have knocked Gava
down there and then."
Hira: "If we had done that, what would the world have
said of us? He can give up his principles. Why should
we give up ours?"
Both were ravenously hungry. The field contained a crop
of peas. They began feeding on the peas, while keeping a
lookout.
When they had eaten their fill, they frisked about, enjoying
their freedom. They locked horns in a mock battle and Moti
pushed Hira back several paces,right into a ditch.This annoyed
the normally even-tempered Hira. He got up and locked horns
with Moti once again. But, seeing the mock fight becoming
real, Moti retreated.
 A TALE OF TWO BULLOCKS 2

Arrey! What was this? A bull was coming

that way, snorting menacingly. Hira and
Moti were in a fix. The bull was huge,
like an elephant! To fight him meant certain
death. But there was no way to avoid him.
He was coming straight at them. What
frightening sight he was!
Now what do we do?" Moti said soundlessly to Hira.
Hira was equally worried. He said, "This bull seems very
arrogant. He will not spare us!"
Moti: "Why don't we run away?"
Hira: "That would be cowardly"
Moti: Then you stay here and face the music! I'm going."
Hira: What if he comes after you?"
Moti: "Well then, you suggest something, quick!"
Hira: "I suggest that we mount a joint attack on him. I'l
hit him from the front, you hit him from the back!
As soon as he tries to pounce on me, you thrust
your horns into his stomach. Iknow we are risking
our lives, but we have no choice."
The two friends leapt at the bull. He had never encountered
22 PREMCH AND

When he rushed atat Hira, Moti

dual
from
attack.
the rear. When the bull turned towards atMottackedi, Hihit,t
tried his utmost to tackle one
assaulted him. The bull
adverary
at a time, but Hira and Moti were too clever to let this tati.
succeed.
Frustrated, the bulltried to finish Hira off, only to ka gored
by Moti. When heturned around to confront Moti, Hira dug
side. Woundeland outmanoeuvred
his horns into the bull's otherrside.
the bullfinally took to his heels, pursued by the two friend.
for a long distance. It was only when he collapsed, exhausted
that Hira and Moti gave up the chase.
They swaggered along, drunk with success. "I wanted to
finish of that bull," said Moti.
Hira disagreed. "It is wrong to attack your enemy when
he is down," he said.
"That's all hypocrisy."said Moti."You should hit your enemy
so hard that he never gets up again!
Hira: "Now let us think how we are going to reach home"
Moti: "Let's eat something first. Then we'll think about
it"
In front of them was another field of peas. Moti plunged
right into it, although Hira Cautioned him not to.men Mou 1
armed
not eaten more than aa few
fewmouthfuls when two
with sticks appeared on the him. Hia
scene and surrounded stood
was on the boundary of the escaped but Moti
in an irrigated field, his field. He es wetearth.
into the sawthis,
He could not run hooves sinking
so he was caught. When Hira trapped
he came back. If they
had to be they would be
together. The watchmen caughttrapped,
hold of Hira too. locked
Early the following the two friends
Were
morning,
 A TALE OF T WO BULLO CKS 23

up in the cattle pound, an enclosure for stray cattle.

It happened for the first time in their lives that Hira and
Moti spent an entire day without getting even a morsel of
food. They could not understand' what kind of a man their
new master was. Even Gaya had not been so cruel! Here there
were several buffaloes,goats, horses and donkeys. But no food
had been given to any of them. Allof them lay on the ground
like corpses. Some were so weak that they could not even
stand. The two friends spent the whole day with their eyes
fixed on the door, but no one came with any fodder for them.
In desperation they began licking the saline clay of the walls,
but how much could that satisfy them?
When nightfell and they were still left hungry, Hira'sheart
revolted against the injustice of it all. "I cannot endure this
any more!" he _aid to Moti.
With his head hanging, Moti said, "Ifeel as if I'm dying"
Hira: "Don't lose heart, my friend. Let's think of a way
of escaping from here."
Moti: "Come then. Let's break down the wall."
Hira: "1 don't think I have the strength."
Moti: "Is this the strength you used to boast of?"
Hira: "I can't boast about anything now."
The wall of the cattle pound was weak. Hira was still a
strong animal. When he dug his pointed horns into the wall,
with all the strength that he could muster, a chunk of earth
fell out. This encouraged him. He rushed at the wall again
and again, ramming it with his horns and each attempt dislodged
more chunks of earth.
Just then the chowkidar of the cattle pound came in to
check on the animals. He hit Hira several blows with his stick
24 PREMCH AND

and tied him securely with a thick rope.

From where he lay on the floor, Moti said, "So what dd
vou achieve, besides getting beaten?"
Hira: "At least I made a whole-hearted attempt."
Moti: "That attenpt only got you more securely tied up."
Hira: "Never mind. Il keep trying whatever happens"
Moti: "You might even lose your life!"
Hira: "1 don't care. Just think Moti, if we had managed
to make an opening in the wall, how many lives
would have been saved! If we remain here, in this
condition, we will all be dead in a few days."
"Hira, you are right," said Moti. "Come on then. Il try
and break the wall along with you."
Moti also began to ram the wall with his horns, as if it
were his mortal enemy. After two hours of labour, about a
foot of the upper wall collapsed. A few more efforts brought
half the wall down.
The breaking of the wall revived the half-dead animals!
The three horses escaped from their prison, followed by the
goats and the buffaloes. Only the donkeys were let.
"Why don't you both escape?" Hira asked them.
*What if we are recaptured?" asked one of the donkeys.
"We don't have the courage to go. We'll stay here," saud
the other.
It was past midnight. The two donkeys were still wonderug
whether to escape or not and Moti was busy ryng to bca
the thick rope with which Hira was tethered. Whe he could
not manage to, Hira said, "Go, Moi. Leave me here. We'll
surely neet again somewhere"
Moti's eyes filled with tears. "Do you think I'm so selfish.
Here there were several buftaloes, goats, horses and
donkeys. But no food had been given to any of them.
26 PREMC HAND

Hira, that Iwould abandon you, after we have been together

for so long?"
"But you'll get a terrible beating if you stay" said Hir
"You will be blamed for the escape of the other animals
Moti said gravely,"At least I managed to save some lives"
Using his horns, he pushed the reluctant donkeys out of
the enclosure and then went to leep peacefully beside his
friend.
Of course there was a big row when the escape was
discovered the following morning! Moti was severely beaten
and tethered, like Hira, with athick rope.
For a week the two friends remained tied in the enclosure,
without being given even a shred of fodder. They lived only
on water. Both grew so weak, they could hardly stand. Their
once beautiful, strong bodies were reduced to skin and bone.
One morning, they heard the sound of a dug-dugi outside
the cattle pound and by the afternoon, about sixty men had
gathered there. Hira and Moti were taken out of the enclosure.
Several men looked them over but no one considered such
feeble, half-dead animals worth buying.
Then a bearded individual with red eyes and a cruel tace
came up to examine them. Digging a finger into their sides,
he began to bargain with the Munshi who was in charge ot
the cattle pound.
One look at the face of thebearded man and the two bullocks
were petrified with fear. They knevw instinctively who the man
was and why he was examining them. They looked at each
other with frightened eyes and hung their heads.
Hira: "Our running away from Gaya's house was of no
use. We are doomed"
 A TALE OFT WO BULLOC KS 27

Moti: "They say God takes care of all His creatures. Then
why doesn't He take pity on us?"
Hira: "For God, our living or ourdying, both are the same.
Still it will be nice to spend some time with Him.
Moti, once He did come to our rescue in the shape
of that little girl. Whoknows, He might save us again."
Moti: "This man will wield his knife on us. Wait and see."
Hira: "Why worry then? Flesh, hide, horns and bones
they will all be used"
After being sold at the auction, Hira and Moti went along
with the bearded man. They were trembling in every fibre
of their bodies. Though they hardly had the energy to lift
a hoof. fear made them stumble along at a fast pace. Anything
slower earned them blows from the bearded man.
On the way they saw a herd of cattle grazing in a lush,
well-fed. Some
green field. Allthe animals looked content and
How
were frisking about, others sat placidly chewing the cud.
them spared
happy they all were, but how selfish! None of
a thought for their brothers, sold to a butcher and
so unhappy.
Suddenly it seemed to Hira and Moti that they recognized
which Gaya had
their surroundings. Yes, this was the path by
fields, gardens and
taken them. They were passing familiar
Every second, their speed began to increase! All their
villages.
all their weakness disappeared! And look! Here
exhaustion, used
their own land and their own well from which they
was
was that well!
to draw water! Yes indeed, it
said ecstatically, "We are nearing our home, Hira!"
Moti
said Hira.
"Thank God for His kindness"
Moti.
"I'm running home" said
"Will he let you?"