The Spoilt Child/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X.
The Marriage Contract.
The waving of lamps and the loud clanging of bells showed the worship of the goddess Nistarini to be in full swing in Sheoraphuli. Becharam Babu looked into the shrine of the goddess as he went by on foot: lining both sides of the road were shops: in some of them heaps of potatoes, grown at Bandipore and Gopalpore, were exposed for sale: in others, the shopkeepers were hard at work selling parched rice and sweetmeats, grain and dal. Here in one part were oil-merchants sitting near their mills, (which were simply the hollowed out trunks of trees,) and reading the Ramayan in the vulgar tongue: now and then they would urge on their cattle, as they went circling round, with a click of the tongue, and when the circle was completed, would shriek out the passage: "Oh Ram! we are monkeys, Ram, we are monkeys!" Women were busily engaged in cutting up fish for sale by the light of their lamps, and calling out: "Buy our fish, buy our fish!" while cloth merchants, reciting some passage from the Mahabharat, were murdering its unhappy author. All this, as he passed through the Bazaar, Becharam Babu was closely observing. When a man is taking a solitary walk, anything that has recently occupied his attention keeps recurring to his mind. Now, Becharam Babu was very fond in those days of processional singing; and as he went along an unfrequented path, after leaving his dwelling, one of his favourite songs came into his mind. The night was dark and there was hardly a soul about: only a few bullock-carts, their wheels creaking as they lumbered along, were on their way home: dogs were barking here and there. So Becharam Babu began to put all his lung-power into the song he was chanting in the monotone peculiar to processional music. The village women hearing his nasal twang, screamed aloud in their terror, for it is the rooted conviction of the country folk that only ghosts adopt this peculiar vocal style. Hearing the commotion Becharam was somewhat disconcerted, so he took to his heels and soon reached the Vaidyabati house.
Baburam Babu had a big gathering. Beni Babu of Bally, Bakreswar Babu of Batalata, Bancharam Babu of Outer Simla and many others were present. Thakchacha sat on a chair near the master. Several pandits were there discussing the Shastras; some had taken up passages of the treatises concerning logic and metaphysics for discussion: others were hotly discussing the dates that would be auspicious or otherwise for the annual festivals: others were giving their interpretation of the slokas out of a particular portion of the Bhagavad Gita: others were holding a great argument on grammatical niceties. One of the pandits, a man with an Assamese designation and a resident of Kamikhya, who was sitting near the master, said to him as he pulled away at his pipe: "You are a very fortunate man, sir, to possess two sons and two daughters. This year is a somewhat unpropitious one, but if you offer up a sacrifice, the stars may all be favourable again, and you can use their influence on your behalf." In the midst of the discussion Becharam Babu arrived, and the whole company rose to their feet as he entered, and welcomed him most cordially. The visitor had been more or less in a bad temper since the affair of the police court, but a courteous and kind address has a great effect in turning a man's wrath away; and Becharam Babu, mollified by the courteous welcome so unanimously accorded him, sat down with a smile close to Beni Babu. Baburam Babu thereupon said to him: "Sir, the seat you have taken is not a good one: come and sit with me on my couch." Men after each other's hearts are as inseparable as cranes, and notwithstanding the pressing invitation of Baburam Babu, Becharam Babu would not give up his seat near Beni Babu.
After some time spent in conversation on different topics, Becharam Babu asked: "What about Matilall's marriage contract? Where has it been arranged?"
Baburam.—A good many proposals for a contract of marriage have come in: Haridas Babu of Guptipara, Shyma Charan Babu of Nakashipur, Ram Hari Babu of Kanchrapara, and many others belonging to different districts have sent in proposals. These have all been passed over, and a marriage has been arranged with the daughter of Madhav Babu of Manirampur. He is a man possessed of considerable property; we shall, moreover, make a good deal out of the connection.
Becharam.—Beni, my friend, what do you think about this? Come, tell me plainly and openly your opinion.
Beni.—Becharam, my dear friend, it is no easy matter to tell you plainly: you know the proverb: "A dumb man makes no enemies." Besides what is the use of discussing a thing that has been settled?
Becharam.—Oh, but you must tell me: I like to know the ins and outs of every marriage.
Beni.—Listen then: Madhav Babu of Manirampur is a very quarrelsome sort of person,—has not even the manners of a gentleman. He has a reputation amongst Brahmans for orthodoxy, only gained by making presents to them, but he is an utterly unscrupulous man. True, he may be able to make handsome presents of money and other things on the occasion of his daughter's marriage; but is money the only thing worth taking into consideration when a marriage is in question? Surely the first requisite is a respectable family, and the next a good girl; and then if there is wealth as well, so much the better, but it does not very much matter. Now Ram Hari Babu of Kanchrapara is a very excellent person: he lives cheerfully and contentedly on the income he derives from his own exertions, and never casts a longing eye on another man's wealth. He may not be in very good circumstances, I allow, but he has always been very careful to have his children well educated, and the one object of his thoughts has been the happiness and moral well-being of his family. To be connected with such a man as this would be a source of entire happiness.
Becharam.—Baburam Babu, who is the intelligent person who has recommended this match to you? Avarice will be your ruin yet. But what right have I to speak? It is after all our social system that is at fault: whenever the topic of marriage comes to the front, people always say: "How sir! will you give me a pot of silver? will you give me a necklace of pearls?" It is only an idiot who would think of saying: "Look first to see whether your proposed relation be respectable or not: enquire whether the girl be a good girl or otherwise." This is a mere trifle: if only wealth is to be got, that is everything.
Bancharam.—We want family, we want beauty, and we want wealth as well: how can a family possibly get on if it professes to despise wealth?
Bakreswar.—True enough: we must keep up a proper respect for wealth. What do we get by intercourse with a poor man? Are our stomachs filled by it?
Thakchacha [bending down from his chair].—All this talk is a reflection upon me: it was I that counselled this match. I would have been ashamed to show my face in the world if I had not succeeded in getting a girl of noble parentage. I took immense pains to ascertain that Madhav Babu of Manirampur was a good man. Why, he is a man at whose name the tiger and cow might drink at the same pool together! besides, look at the advantage of being able to get his lathials whenever we need them in cases of dispute. Then too everybody connected with the Law-Courts is under his thumb: there are a thousand ways in which he can be of assistance to us in any strait. Ram Hari Babu of Kanchrapara on the other hand, is a feeble sort of person: he makes a very precarious living: what would have been the good of an arrangement with him?
Becharam.—A fine counsellor you have got Baburam! If you listen to all such a counsellor has to advise, you are bound to get to heaven, body and all. And what a son, too, you have! And so he is actually about to be married? What do you think about it all, Beni Babu!
Beni.—I think that the man who will first thoroughly educate his son, and who will take special pains that he shall grow up thoroughly moral, will be best able to be of assistance to his son when the time comes that he should marry. Many evils are likely to arise if a boy is married at an unreasonable age.
On hearing all this, Baburam Babu rose in much irritation and hurriedly retreated into the inner apartments of the house, where his wife was engaged in discussing the match with some of the women of the village. Going up to her, he informed her of all that had been said outside, and as he stood there in some perplexity, inquired: "Cannot we put off Matilall's marriage for a few days?" His wife replied: "What is this that you are saying? Plague take our enemies! By divine favour Matilall is now sixteen: would it look well not to marry him now? If you upset the arrangements now, the proper season for marriage will slip away. You surely do not know what you are doing: is the caste of a good man to be destroyed in this way? Go at once, and take the bridegroom off with you."
At this advice from his wife, all the master's indecision disappeared. He at once went outside and gave the order for the lamps to be lit: the musical instruments all struck up at the same time, and the English bands began to play. Baburam lifted the bridegroom into his palanquin, and taking Thakchacha by the hand, walked by the side, with heavy gait, accompanied by his kinsmen and near friends. From the roof of the house the boy's mother gazed down upon her son's face, and the women of the household called out, "Ah, mother of Mati! Ah, how beautiful is your child!" The friends of the bridegroom were all with him: they amused themselves by taking torches to the rear of the crowd and setting people alight, and by letting off squibs and fireworks near the houses and in the thick of the crowd. None of the poor people ventured to remonstrate, though they were sadly annoyed.
The bridegroom soon reached Manirampur, and got down from the palanquin. Both sides of the road were crowded with people gazing at the bridegroom. The women chattered away to each other about him. "The boy has a certain amount of beauty," said one, "but if his nose were a bit straighter, he would look better." Another remarked, "His complexion, fair as it is, would look better even fairer."
The marriage was to take place at a late hour, but it had not struck ten when Madhav Babu, taking a durwan with a lantern, came out to meet the bridegroom and his guests. After he had joined the marriage procession in the street, nearly half an hour was wasted in the exchange of compliments, each man wishing to give precedence to the other. While one said: "Pray sir! precede me!" the other politely declined: "Nay sir! do you please go first." At last, Beni Babu of Bally went forward and said: "Please one of you gentlemen go on ahead. I cannot stand here in the street and catch cold." An amicable arrangement being at last come to, the whole company arrived at the house of the bride's father and entered.
The bridegroom took his seat in the assembly. Numbers of roughs were standing about, ripe for mischief. The distribution of money to the village, and other subjects, then came up for discussion. Thakchacha was doing his best, but apparently without avail, to effect some arrangement for his own profit. A rough blustering sort of fellow came up to him and said: "Who is this low Mahomedan? Get out of this ! what has a Mahomedan to do with Hindu concerns?" Thakchacha was furious, and shaking his head fiercely, his eyes inflamed with passion, abused the man roundly.
This was the very opportunity Matilall's young friends, Haladhar, Gadadhar, and the other young Babus, had been longing for. They saw from the clouds that were gathering that a storm was imminent. One set to work to tear the carpet into pieces, another to extinguish the lamps: some set the chandeliers clashing and jingling, while others threw missiles among the assembled company. Some of the people of the bride's father, seeing the confusion they were creating, began to abuse them and strike them with their fists, and Matilall seeing the quarrel in progress, thought to himself: "I fancy I am not destined to get married. I may have to return home after all, with the thread only on my wrist."