cried his master.

You think Im speaking in drink.

96 THE EVENING GIFT.

I dont want you. I can look after myself. If you dont leave me, I will tell the waiter to neck you out Sankar stood baffled.

Now, young man He took out his wallet : What is your salary ?

Thirty rupees, sir.

Heres your four-months. Take it and be off. I have some business meeting here, and I will go home just when I like, there is the car. He held out a hundred-rupee note and two tens. Mortgage instalment.

How can I take it? A conflict raged in Sankars mind, and he finally took the money and said : Thank you very much, sir.

Dont mention it.

You are very kind.

Just ordinary duty, that is all. My principle is Do unto others as you would be done by others is my principle is do. You need not come in the morning. Ive no need for you. I had you only as a temporary arrangement Ill put in a word for you if any friend wants a clerk or something of the sort

Good-bye, sir.

Good-bye. He was gone. The gentleman looked after him with satisfaction, muttering : My principle is unto other .

Next morning Sankar went out shopping, purchased bits of silk for his younger sister, a pair of spectacles for his mother and a few painted tin toys for the child at home. He went to the hotel, looked into the accounts, and settled his months bill. Im leaving today, he said.

I am returning to my village . His heart was all aflame withjoy. He paid a rupee to the servant as tip. He packed up his THE EVENING GIFT 97 trunk and bed, took a last look round his garret ; had an unaccountable feeling of sadness at leaving the familiar smoke-stained cell. He was at the bus stand at about eleven in the day. The bus was ready to start. He took his seat. He would be at home at six in the evening. What a surprise for his mother !

He would chat all night and tell them about the drunkard .

He was shaken out of this reverie. A police inspector standing at the foot-board of the bus touched his shoulder and asked : Are you Sankar ?

Yes.

Get down and follow me.

I am going to my village .

You cant go now. The inspector placed the trunk and bed on a coolies head and they marched to the police station. There Sankar was subjected to much questioning, and his pockets were searched and all his money was taken away by the inspector. The inspector scrutinized the hundred-rupee note and remarked : Same number. How did you get this ?

Be truthful .

Presently the inspector got up and said : Follow me to the gentlemans house . Sankar found his employer sitting in a chair in the veranda, with a very tired look on his face. He motioned the inspector to a chair and addressed Sankar in a voice full of sorrow.

I never knew you were this sort, Sankar.

You robbed me when I was not aware of it. If youd asked me Id have given you any amount you wanted.

Did you have to tie me up and throw me down ?

he showed the bruises on his arm.

In addition to robbing ?

Sankar stood aghast. He could hardly 13 A SNAKE IN THE GRa.s.s.

ON a sunny afternoon, when the inmates of the bungalow were at their siesta a cyclist rang his bell at the gate frantically and announced : A big cobra has got into your compound. It crossed my wheel. He pointed to its track under the gate, and resumed his journey.

The family consisting of the mother and her four sons a.s.sembled at the gate in great agitation. The old servant Dasa was sleeping in the shed. They shook him out of his sleep and announced to him the arrival of the cobra.

There is no cobra, he replied and tried to dismiss the matter. They swore at him and forced him to take an interest in the cobra.

The thing is somewhere here. If it is not found before the evening, we will dismiss you. Your neglect of the garden and the lawns is responsible for all these dreadful things coming in. Some neighbours dropped in. They looked accusingly at Dasa : You have the laziest servant on earth, they said.

He ought to keep the surroundings tidy.

I have been asking for a gra.s.s-cutter for months, Dasa said. In one voice they ordered him to manage with the available things and learn not to make demands. He persisted.

They began to speculate how much it would cost to buy a gra.s.s-cutter. A neighbour declared that you could not think of buying any article made of iron 100 A SNAKE IN THE GRa.s.s 101.

till after the war. He chanted ba.n.a.lities of wartime prices. The second son of the house a.s.serted that he could get anything he wanted at controlled prices.

The neighbour became eloquent on black-market. A heated debate followed. The rest watched in apathy.

At this point the college-boy of the house b.u.t.ted in with :

I read in an American paper that 30,000 people die of snake-bite every year. Mother threw up her arms in horror and arraigned Dasa. The boy elaborated the statistics.

I have worked it out, 83 a day. That means every twenty minutes someone is dying of cobra-bite. As we have been talking here, one person has lost his life somewhere. Mother nearly screamed on hearing it. The compound looked sinister. The boys brought in bamboo-sticks and pressed one into the hands of the servant also. He kept desultorily poking it into the foliage with a cynical air.

The fellow is beating about the bush, someone cried aptly. They tucked up their dhoties, seized every available knife and crow-bar and began to hack the garden. Creepers, bushes, and lawns, were laid low.

What could not be trimmed was cut to the root. The inner walls of the house brightened with the un.o.bstructed glare streaming in. When there was nothing more to be done Dasa asked triumphantly, Where is the snake ?

An old beggar cried for alms at the gate. They told her not to pester when they were engaged in a snake-hunt. On hearing it the old woman became happy.

You are fortunate. It is G.o.d Subramanya who has come to visit you. Dont kill the snake/ Mother was in hearty agreement : You are right.

I forgot all about the promised Abhishckam. This is a reminder. She gave a coin to the beggar, who 102 A SNAKE IN THE GRa.s.s promised to send down a snake-charmer as she went.

Presently an old man appeared at the gate and announced himself as a snake-charmer. They gathered around him. He spoke to them of his life and activities and his power over snakes. They asked admiringly : How do you catch them? Thus, he said, pouncing upon a hypothetical snake on the ground. They pointed the direction in which the cobra had gone and asked him to go ahead. He looked helplessly about and said :

If you show me the snake, Ill at once catch it. Otherwise what can I do ? The moment you see it again, send for me. I live nearby. He gave his name and address and departed.

At five in the evening, they threw away their sticks and implements and repaired to the veranda to rest.

They had turned up every stone in the garden and cut down every gra.s.s-blade and shrub, so that the tiniest insect coming into the garden should have no cover.

They were loudly discussing the various measures they would take to protect themselves against reptiles in the future, when Dasa appeared before them carrying a water-pot whose mouth was sealed with a slab of stone. He put the pot down and said : I have caught him in this. I saw him peeping out of it .

I saw him before he could see me. He explained at length the strategy he had employed to catch and seal up the snake in the pot. They stood at a safe distance and gazed on the pot. Dasa had the glow of a champion on his face.

Dont call me an idler hereafter, he said. Mother complimented him on his sharpness and wished she had placed some milk in the pot as a sort of religious duty. Dasa picked up the pot cautiously and walked off saying that he would .

leave the pot with its contents with the snake-charmer A SNAKE IN THE GRa.s.s 103 living nearby. He became the hero of the day. They watched him in great admiration and decided to reward him adequately.

It was five minutes since Dasa was gone when the youngest son cried : See there !

Out of a hole in the compound wall a cobra emerged. It glided along towards the gate, paused for a moment to look at the gathering in the veranda with its hood halfopen.

It crawled under the gate and disappeared along a drain. When they recovered from the shock they asked, Does it mean that there are two snakes here ?

The college-boy murmured :

I wish I had taken the risk and knocked the water-pot from Dasas hand ; we might have known what it contained.

14.

AN ACCIDENT.

I.

WAS returning from the hill temple where I had been held up till nearly nine oclock. I had driven the car down the hill, turned to my left, and gone a few yards further skirting the base of the hill when the engine sighed and spluttered, the whole car jerked and rocked and then came to a dead stop. The hill loomed over me, jackals wailed in the dark. I faithfully got down, went round the car, opened the bonnet, and gazed in. What was the use ? I knew nothing about a cars inside. My car was usually well-behaved ; and occasionally when it had some trouble I had it pushed to the nearest workshop. Now I went round and round, opened and closed the bonnet, and made futile efforts to start the car. I soon realized that I should be a fool to be going round, prodding here and there, hoping that it could be started somehow. I sat down on the running board, blinking, and hoping that some motorist would come along and help me. The time pa.s.sed, and not a sign of a human being. The wind rattled the side screen, and unseen insects hummed and whirred about. I had a feeling that I was on some strange planet with myself as the only human being on it.

Presently I said to myself,

I will count ten and if 104.

AN ACCIDENT 105.

the car does not start by then I will abandon her and walk home.

I looked at the ground and counted, One, two, three I believe after I reached eight or nine I went back to one and counted up ; back and forth untiringly like an auctioneer. After counting half a dozen times thus I turned and saw a shadowy figure at my side. I was startled.

When did you come here ? Who are you ?

I came here a moment ago, sir.