'Outside Madan Lal's Theatre By the Hall Gate MISS TARA BAI! THE FEMALE HERCULES! Most Magnificent! Most Spectacular Show on Earth!' There, fifty yards away, was the Hall Gate, its red bricks shining cruelly against the glare of the sun. And there, a hundred yards away, shadowed by the imposing architec- ture of Madan Lal's Theatre, was the vast circus tent. 'Bombay, Bom-Bom-Bombay,' the word seemed to strike like the pendulum of the Town Hall in his brain. And, as if the reverberations of the note had conjured up all the elements of his life in a deep echo, the pendulum gathered up in its swing the distant menories of all that he had heard about Bombay. A coolie in the vegetable market, whose brother had gone to work in Bombay, had said that one could earn anything from fifteen to thirty rupees a month in a factory there. And that it was truly a wonder city one should visit before one died. The coolie said his brother had exhorted him to save money from that very moment for the fare, and work day and night to get there. Because once you were there, there was plenty of work. The ships sailed across the black waters, too, from Bombay, the coolie had said, and, there were palm trees and coconut trees in plenty on the ambro- sial isle, among which lived rich Southerners and Parsis. 'It is an island, of course, it is an island,' Munoo recol- lected having read in his geography book that Bombay was an island on the coast of Malabar. 'Bombay, Bom-Bom- Bombay. I shall go to Bombay,' he decided. He crossed a dirty ditch by a smai! garden beyond which the big top of Miss Tara Bai's circus stood. He had looked at the handbill and read that the price of the cheapest seat was eight annas. And he had decided that he was going to see the circus without paying the price of a ticket. 'I wouldn't waste the rupee Prabha gave me on useless enjoy- ment like this,' he said to himself, feeling the edge of his loin cloth, in which the silver coin lay knotted. 174 His habitual recklessness had suddenly turned to un- scrupulousness, because his good conscience sought to defend the kindliness of his master. So he avoided the regular entrance. A bay horse, a white mare and a snub-nosed pony stood snorting, as they grazed on a bundle of grass, by a few pie- bald nags. Mundo detected the form of a smart man with a turned up moustache, looking somewhat like Sorabji, the Parsi chemist, except that he wore breeches, whereas the compounder of medicines always had cotton trousers and au alpaca jacket on. He crept under cover of a small, filthy tent and waited tensely for a while. Then he looked towards the right and sighted an elephant coming soundlessly out of the entrance of the tent, followed by a crowd of city urchins, while a black driver sat on its head with his legs hidden under the cars of the beast. 'Do you know it dances, climbs on a ladder, and plays a mouth organ.' one of the urchins was saying to his friend. Munoo ran and joined the throng of boys. One, of the leaders of the throng mistook his caper for an invasion. He lifted his strip of a turban and threw it at the elephant's trunk. Jumbo swallowed it up after a grace-elephant's trunk. Jumbo swallowed it up after a grace- ful salute, as if it were a piece of straw. Munoo returned the compliment by snatching the cap off the boy's head and throwing it to the elephant. Before he knew where he was he had been caught by the neck by the youth. He swerved, and planting his leg against his opponent, flung him lightly into the ditch. As the young man struggled out, covered all over with slime, the urchins behind roared and screamed with laughter. The elephant shied for a moment and the driver punched cursing Munoo the while. the beast with an iron Handle, 'He started it first, Menoo apologised. The driver jumped down and, catching Munoo by the 175 ear, led him towards the trunk of the elephant to frighten him. All the boys shied off screaming. Munoo thought his last moment had come. But Jumbo only blew a heavy breath at his head and went on. 'I am not afraid,' Munoo said brazenly. The driver smiled. 'All right,' the driver said, 'Go and call that grass cutter who is going on the road with the bundle of grass on his, head.' Munoo was only too willing to oblige, for he knew that if he came back with the grass cutter he would get free access to the circus ground where people were not admitted without a pass. He ran for the grass cutter. He caught him at the en- trance of the Theatre stables and. brought him back. 'I want to see the tamasha,' he said to the elephant driver, currying favour with a humble smile, when the man had brought the grass. 'Go away! Go away!' the driver said casually. 'Look, Munoo insisted, 'I did that work for you.' The man was walking away towards the back of the tent. Munoo followed lightly behind. 'Look, I did that work for you!' he repeated as they got well behind the tent. 'Don't pester ine,' snapped the elephant driver. 'Sit down. there, anywhere, and see through the hole in the canopy." And he walked away. Munoo looked for a hole in the canopy. There did not seem to be one at first glance. He tried to lift it from a side. 'Don't do that, the elephant driver's voice came sharp into his ear. 'You will bring the whole tent down. Here!' Munoo jumped towards a rent in the canvas in which the elephant driver had dug the forefinger of his left hand. The performance was well uncer way. The arena was packed in a crescent of layer upon layer of chairs. On the near side a band played European music, while 176 just brought off a miraculous swing, flying from one end of space to another, till their supple bodies came to a stand- still and they walked out of the arena. Munoo's heart beat wildly at the cheering which fol- lowed. Then its violent activity died down in the applause with which the audience greeted Miss Tara Bai, who came swaying, almost like the elephant, Munoo thought, who had swallowed his turban. He could not see the details of I er face through the rent in the tent, but she acted like lightning, as she lay down to accept a huge stone on her stomach and rested calmly as two men beat the stone with sledge hammers, in the way in which Munoo had seen the coolies break huge boulders to make small stones for new roads. There was applause as she flung the weight off her body and stood bowing to the audience.