It was also possible, though this did not cross his daughter's mind, that Dr Kishen Chand Seth would have gone mad at the wedding had he attended it, and had in fact fled from that specific eventuality.

Short and trim though hel had always been, he was enormously fond of food; but1 owing to a digestive disorder combined with diabetes his diet was now confined to boiled eggs, weak tea, lemon i squash, and arrowroot biscuits. f

I don't care who stares at me, I have plenty of reasons to cry, said Mrs Rupa Mehra to herself defiantly. I am so( happy and heartbroken today. But her heartbreak lasted only a few minutes more.

The groom an^ '-:Jarnim^l !- c

f

noititK lasted

~ *v.w minutes more. The groom and bride walked around the fire seven times, Savita keeping her head meekly down, her eyelashes wet with tears ; and Pran and she were man and wife.

After a few concluding words by the priests, everyone ( rose. The newly-weds were escorted to a flower-shrouded I bench near a sweet-smelling, rough-leafed harsingar tree in I white and orange bloom ; and congratulations fell on them and their parents and all the Mehras and Kapoors present as copiously as those delicate flowers fall to the ground at dawn.

Mrs Rupa Mehra's joy was unconfined. She gobbled the congratulations down like forbidden gulab- jamuns. She looked a little speculatively at her younger daughter, who

appeared to be laughing at her from a distance. Or was she laughing at her sister? Well, she would find out soon enough what the happy tears of matrimony were all about !

Fran's much-shouted-at mother, subdued yet happy, after blessing her son and daughter-in-law, and failing to see her younger son Maan anywhere, had gone over to her daughter Veena. Veena embraced her; Mrs Mahesh Kapoor, temporarily overcome, said nothing, but sobbed and smiled simultaneously.

The dreaded Home Minister and his daughter Priya joined them for a few minutes, and in return for their congratulations, Mrs Mahesh Kapoor had a few kind words to say to each of them. Priya, who was married and virtually immured by her in-laws in a house in the old, cramped part of Brahmpur, said, rather wistfully, that the garden looked beautiful. And it was true, thought Mrs Mahesh Kapoor with quiet pride : the garden was indeed looking beautiful. The grass was rich, the gardenias were creamy and fragrant, and a few chrysanthemums and roses were already in bloom. And though she could take no credit for the sudden, prolific blossoming of the harsingar tree, that was surely the grace of the gods whose prized and contested possession, in mythical times, it used to be.

1.6

HER lord and master the Minister of Revenue was meanwhile accepting congratulations from the Chief Minister of Purva Pradesh, Shri S.S. Sharma. Sharmaji was rather a hulking man with a perceptible limp and an unconscious and slight vibration of the head, which was exacerbated when, as now, he had had a long day. He ran the state with a mixture of guile, charisma and benevolence. Delhi was far away and rarely interested in his legislative and administrative fief. Though he was uncommunicative about his discussion with his Home Minister, he was nevertheless in good spirits.

Z3s 'g tly nasal voice to Mahesh if Rudnia he said in hbeen an active member of the Muslim League ; and though 5o you're cultivating a rural Por: he had not lived to see the birth of Pakistan, that above all

MahnS h cnstituency for tlte^omil,was what he had dedicated his life to.

fro a ^ Kapoor smiled. Ever ' ^ne ta^' grey-hearded Nawab Sahib, noticing four eyes

grak same urban constitue ^"^ I537 ^e nad stooion nim' gravely raised his cupped hand to his forehead in

M %pu? ~ a constituency i-ha/"^ i"1 ^e neart of CH Ponte salutation, then tilted his head sideways with a quiet farm and f" ^ f the s^e trade^^ mUch of W smile' as if to congratulate his old friend. m "and his knowledge of n.^irrty-Desnire hi, TU havent seen Firoz and Imtiaz anywhere, have

mover ings ir

"'"^Knowledge of rural Clty-uespite hi You naven't seen Mr

^^toabo^^f^-^wa.the^youi' he asked Mahesh In the stafP _ .v _ ge and IWprodiirr;,, l~ jVT*'r

5^-^j5=2-^

z and Imtiaz anywhere, have Kapoor, after walking slowly

rural constituen no

cy- By way Of

'Ose to

, nis Sectoral home and Y glnable that he Wouij 'No, no - but I haven't seen my son either, so I rural constituency. By way of ^ * COntest from assume....'

Lh?^! t,he nandsome black LlT^T' he indicated hi, The Nawab Sahib ralsed his hands slightly, palms for"gnt otf-white m,; . acnkan he was ,.._ Vs ,,,,r^ ir, , t,,r^ f l,i^ieo^

* h* ;,,-'

Pyjamas, and rh k n Was Wearing the war-' m a gesture of helplessness, l their . . onlliantlv emr,r^;5' After a while he said : 'So Pran

_. -..^ L-ujnandy embroidered

^ juus with their up-turned toes would present an

incongruous picture in a rice field.

'Why, nothing is impossible in politics,' said Sharmaji slowly. 'After your Zamindari Abolition R-" -

you will berr,rr,~ - '

After a while he said: 'So Pran is married, and Maan is next. I would imagine you will find him a little less tractable.'

'Well, tractable or not, there are some people in Ba-

you u -H k y ^arnmdari Ah r ia ^narrnaii wel1' tractaDle or not, tftere are some people m K

choJ Cme a hero throueho, /T" B'J1 goes through naras l have been talking to" said Mahesh Kapoor in

Sharni ^ CUld becme Chief JU countryside. If you determined tone. 'Maan has met the father. He's also

his eyeJ1f^nerUsJy and warily fTT^ ^Y nt?' said ^ clth business' We're making enquiries. Let's see.

Ai

srrnlr; i n the Nawab Sak'k6 ke~ around, anr) what about your twins ? A joint wedding to two sisters ?'

court"8 beard and Jooking of aitar, who was s see' let's see" said the Nawab Sahib- thinki,

added' you might lose a friend or r Perplexedjy- 'Of rather sadly about his wife' buried these manyyear

j^j L wo in the process ' he 'Inshallah, all of them will settle down soon enough.'

^15^r"-:s:r/-'i

^f^*S^^ 'if my father h ^ ImtiaZ Iau8hed'

more. Oh GodF O" behalf f tw People^And?*8 ** Shut "P' bth f yU" Sa'd F'rZ' attemPting to aPPear

'What - v e ' 1ater ft more annoyed than he was ; he had had enough of this sort