FATHER'S ROOM

IT WAS Saturday and Rajam had promised to come in the afternoon. Swaminathan
was greatly excited. Where was he to entertain him? Probably in his own 'room';
but his father often came in to dress and undress. No, he would be at Court,
Swaminathan reminded himself with relief. He cleaned his table and arranged his
books so neatly that his father was surprised and had a good word to say about it.
Swaminathan went to his grandmother. 'Granny,' he said, 'I have talked to
you about Rajam, haven't I?
'Yes. That boy who is very strong but never passes his examination.'
'No. No. That is Mani.'
'Oh, now I remember, it is a boy who is called the Gram or something, that
witty little boy.'
Swaminathan made a gesture of despair. 'Look here granny, you are again
mistaking the Pea for him. I mean Rajam, who has killed tigers, whose father is the
Police Superintendent, and who is great.'
'Oh,' granny cried, 'that boy, is he coming here? I am so glad.'
'H'm.... But I have got to tell you--'
'Will you bring him to me? I want to see him.'
'Let us see,' Swaminathan said vaguely, 'I can't promise. But I have got to
tell you, when he is with me, you must not call me or come to my room.'
'Why so?' asked granny.
'The fact is--you are, well you are too old,' said Swaminathan with brutal
candour. Granny accepted her lot cheerfully.
That he must give his friend something very nice to eat, haunted his mind.
He went to his mother, who was squatting before a cutter with a bundle of plantain
leaves beside her. He sat before her, nervously crushing a piece of leaf this way
and that, and tearing it to minute bits.
'Don't throw all those bits on the floor. I simply can't sweep the floor any
more,' she said.
'Mother, what are you preparing for the afternoon tiffin?'
'Time enough to think of it,' said mother.
'You had better prepare something very nice, something fine and sweet.
Rajam is coming this afternoon. Don't make the sort of coffee that you usually give
me. It must be very good and hot.' He remembered how in Rajam's house
everything was brought to the room by the cook. 'Mother, would you mind if I don't
come here for coffee and tiffin? Can you send it to my room?' He turned to the cook
and said: 'Look here you can't come to my room in that dhoti. You will have to wear
a clean, white dhoti and shirt.' After a while he said: 'Mother, can you ask father to
lend me his room for just an hour or two?' She said that she could not as she was
very busy. Why could he himself not go and ask?
'Oh, he will give more readily if you ask,' said Swaminathan.
He went to his father and said: 'Father, I want to ask you something.'
Father looked up from the papers over which he was bent.
'Father, I want your room.'
'What for?'
'I have to receive a friend,' Swaminathan replied.
'You have your own room,' father said.
'I can't show it to Rajam.'
'Who is this Rajam, such a big man?'
'He is the Police Superintendent's son. He is--he is not ordinary.'
'I see. Oh! Yes, you can have my room, but be sure not to mess up the
things on the table.'
'Oh, I will be very careful. You are a nice father, father.'
Father guffawed and said: 'Now run in, boy, and sit at your books.'
Rajam's visit went off much more smoothly that Swaminathan had
anticipated. Father had left his room open; mother had prepared some marvel with
wheat, plum, and sugar. Coffee was really good. Granny had kept her promise and did not show her senile self to Rajam. Swaminathan was only sorry that the cook
did not change his dhoti.
Swaminathan seated Rajam in his father's revolving chair. It was nearly
three hours since he had come. They had talked out all subjects--Mani, Ebenezar,
trains, tiger-hunting, police, and ghosts.
Which is your room?' Rajam asked.
Swaminathan replied with a grave face: This is my room, why?'
Rajam took time to swallow this. 'Do you read such books?' he asked,
eyeing the big giltedged law books on the table. Swaminathan was embarrassed.
Rajam made matters worse with another question.
'But where are your books?' There was just a flicker of a smile on his lips.
'The fact is,' said Swaminathan, 'this table belongs to my father. When I am
out, he meets his clients in this room.'
'But where do you keep your books?'
Swaminathan made desperate attempts to change the topic: 'You have
seen my grandmother, Rajam?'
'No. Will you show her to me? I should love to see her' replied Rajam.
'Wait a minute then,' said Swaminathan and ran out.
He had one last hope that his granny might be asleep. It was infinitely safer
to show one's friends a sleeping granny.
He saw her sitting on her bed complacently. He was disappointed. He
stood staring at her, lost in thought.
'What is it, boy?' granny asked, 'Do you want anything?'
'No. Aren't you asleep? Granny,' he said a few minutes later, 'I have
brought Rajam to see you.'
'Have you?' cried granny, 'Come nearer, Rajam. I can't see your face well.
You know I am old and blind.'
Swaminathan was furious and muttered under his breath that his granny
had no business to talk all this drivel to Rajam.
Rajam sat on her bed. Granny stroked his hair and said that he had fine
soft hair, though it was really short and prickly. Granny asked what his mother's name was, and how many children she had. She then asked if she had many
jewels. Rajam replied that his mother had a black trunk filled with jewels, and a
green one containing gold and silver vessels. Rajam then described to her Madras,
its light house, its sea, its trams and buses, and its cinemas. Every item made
granny gasp with wonder.
When Swaminathan entered the class, a giggle went round the benches.
He walked to his seat hoping that he might not be the cause of the giggling. But it
continued. He looked about. His eyes travelled up to the black-board. His face
burnt red. On the board was written in huge letters 'TAIL'. Swaminathan walked to
the black-board and rubbed it off with his hands. He turned and saw Sankar's head
bent over his note-book, and the Pea was busy, unpacking his satchel. Without a
word Swaminathan approached the Pea and gave him a fierce slap on his cheek.
The Pea burst into tears and swore that he did not do it. He cast a sly look at
Sankar, who was absorbed in some work. Swaminathan turned to him and slapped
his face also.
Soon there was pandemonium, Sankar, Swaminathan, and the Pea, rolling
over, tearing, scratching, and kicking one another. The bell rang. Rajam, Somu,
and Mani entered. The teacher came in and stood aghast. He could do little more
than look on and ejaculate. He was the old Tamil Pundit, the most helpless teacher
in the school.
Somu and Mani parted the fighters. The teacher ascended the platform
and took his seat. The class settled down. Somu got up and said: 'Sir, please let us
go out. We do not want to disturb the class.' The teacher demurred; but already
Mani had gone out, pushing Swaminathan and the Pea before him. Somu followed
him with Sankar.
They came to a lonely spot in the field adjoining the school. There was
tense silence for a while, and Mani broke it: "What is wrong with you, you little
rogues?' Three started to speak at once. Swaminathan's voice was the loud-
protest: 'He--the Pea--wrote TAIL--Big Tail--on the Blackboard--big--'
'No--I didn't, you--' screamed the Pea.
The other two wrote it,' cried Swaminathan pointing at Sankar. 'Rascal! Did you see me?' howled Sankar.
Mani covered their mouths with his hands. 'What is a tail, anyway?' he
asked, not having been told anything about it till then.
'They call me Rajam's tail,' sobbed Swaminathan.
A frozen expression came over Mani's face, and he asked, 'And who dares
to talk of Rajam here?'
'Oh, dare!' repeated Somu.
'If any of you fellows have done it--' growled Mani, looking at the trembling
Sankar and the Pea.
'If they have, what can you do?' asked Somu with a contemptuous smile.
'What do you mean, Somu, what do you mean?'
'Look here, Mani,' Somu cried, 'for a long time I have been waiting to tell
you this: you think too much of yourself and your powers.' Mani swung his hand
and brought it down on Somu's nape. Somu pushed it away with a heavy blow.
Mani aimed a kick at Somu, which would send him rolling. Somu stepped aside
and delivered one himself, which nearly bent the other.
The three youngsters could hardly believe their eyes. Somu and Mani
fighting! They lost their heads. They thought that Somu and Mani were killing each
other. They looked accusingly at one another, and then ran towards the school.
They burst in upon the Head Master, who gathered from them with difficulty
that in the adjacent field two murders were being committed at that very moment.
He was disposed to laugh at first. But the excitement and seriousness on the boy's
faces made him check his laughter and scratch his chin. He called a peon and with
him set off to the field.
The fighters, rolling and rolling, were everywhere in the field. The Head
Master and the peon easily picked them apart, much to the astonishment of
Swaminathan, who had thought till then that the strength that Somu or Mani
possessed was not possessed by anyone else in the world.