The Spoilt Child/Chapter 17
CHAPTER XVII.
BABURAM'S SECOND MARRIAGE.
There had been heavy rain in the night: the roads and ghâts was all muddy and wet: the sky was still overcast, and there were occasional distant rumblings of thunder: frogs croaked everywhere in loud chorus. The shopkeepers in the bazaar had opened out their awnings, and were now engaged in smoking. Owing to the rainy weather very few people were moving about: only a few gariwans passed along the road, singing at the top of their voices, and some coolies bearing loads on their heads, absorbed in their favourite melody, of which the refrain ran:--
"Oh yes, my darling Bisakha!
"Your friend's just off to Mathura."
A number of barbers lived on the west side of the Vaidyabati Bazar. One of them was sitting in his verandah on account of the rain, and as he sat there, every now and then looking up at the sky or humming softly to himself, his wife brought her infant child to him and said, "I have not yet got through all my house work: just nurse this child for me a bit! the pots and pans have not yet been scoured, and the floor has not been rubbed down with cow-dung; and besides, I have a lot of cooking to do. I am the only woman in the house: how can I possibly do all this myself? -- have I four hands or four feet?"
The barber straightway tucked his shaving instruments under his arm and got up to go, saying, "I have no time just now to nurse the child. Baburam Babu is to be married to-morrow: I must be off at once." His wife started back, saying: "Good heavens! what next? what, that fat unwieldy old man going to marry again! Alas, alas! And such an excellent housewife as he has already, a chaste divinity, as pure as Lakshmi! What, he must go and tie a co-wife to her neck! It is a crying shame! Why, there is a really nothing that men will not do!" The barber was dumbfounded by this eloquent outburst, but taking no notice of what his wife was saying, stuck his hat of plaited leaves on his head and went off.
That day was a very cloudy one, but early next morning the sun shone brightly. The trees and plants seemed all to have received new life, and the joyous sounds of beast and bird, in field and garden, were redoubled. Baburam Babu, Thakchacha, Bakreswar Babu, and Bancharam Babu were just getting into one of the numerous boats at the Vaidyabati Ghât, when suddenly Beni Babu and Becharam Babu appeared. Thakchacha pretended not to see them, and shouted to the boatmen to let the boat loose, while they remonstrated: "But master, the ebb tide is still running! how shall we be able to get along against it even if we punt with poles or haul with ropes?" Baburam Babu received his two friends very courteously, saying: "Your arrival is most opportune: come, let us all be off." Becharam Babu then remonstrated: "Ah Baburam, who in the world advised you to go and marry at your age?"
Baburam.-- Ah Becharam, my dear friend, am I so old as all that? I am a good deal younger than you are: besides, if you say that my hair is quite gray and that I have lost all my teeth, that is the case with a good many others even at an early age: it is not such a very great drawback. I have a good many things to think of; one of my sons has gone to the bad, another has become a lunatic: one of my daughters is no more, another is as good as a widow. If I have children by this marriage, my family will be preserved from extinction: I am, moreover, under an obligation to marry: if I do not do so the girl's father will lose caste, for they have no other family they can marry her into.
Bakreswar.-- That is indeed true: do you suppose that the master has entered upon a matter of this importance without taking everything into consideration? I know no one of a better understanding.
Bancharam.-- We are Kulins: we must maintain the traditions of our family at any cost, and where wealth is a recommendation as well, why, there is nothing more to be said!
Becharam.-- Confound your family traditions and bad luck to your wealth! Alas, how many persons have combined to overthrow one house! What do you say, friend Beni?
Beni.-- What shall I say? our remonstrances are but as idle words, as the tears of one weeping in a wilderness. But really this matter is a cause of great grief to me. To marry again when you already have one wife, is a grievous sin: no man who wished to maintain his virtue could ever do such a thing. There may be a Shástra of an opposite opinion, it is true; but there is never any necessity for following it: that such a Shástra is not a genuine one there can be no reasonable doubt, and should it be taken as a guide in actual practice, the bonds of marriage would thereby become much weakened. The feelings of the wife towards her husband cannot remain as before, and the feelings of the husband towards his wife will also be constantly changing. If such a calamity as this befalls a family, it cannot possibly prosper or be happy. If there is such a rule in the Shástras, that rule should not be regarded as binding. Be that as it may, it is very base of Baburam Baba to marry a second time, considering what a wife he has still living. I know nothing about the details of the matter: it has only just come to my ears.
Thakchacha.-- Ah, the man of books picks a hole in everything! he seems to me to have nothing else to do. I am getting an old man now, and my beard is gray. Must I be always arguing with such children? Does the learned Babu know how much wealth this marriage will bring to the family?
Becharam.-- Mercenary wretch that you are! do you recognise money only? Have you no regard for anything else? You are a low unprincipled scoundrel, that is all I can say. Ugh! friend Beni, come, let us be off.
Thakchacha.-- I will have a talk with you some other day: we cannot waste any more time now. You will have to hurry if you want to reach the house in time.
Thereupon, Becharam caught hold of Beni Babu by the hand and got up, saying: "We will never, as long as we live, go to such a marriage; and if there be such a thing as virtue in the world, may you not return in peace! Only ruin can attend your counsel: you who are now enjoying yourself at Baburam Babu's expense! I have nothing more to say to you. Ugh!"