THE child was still in bed dreaming : she was given a green railway engine just large
enough to accommodate her. She got into it and drove it all over the garden. Near the
jasmine plant she stopped it for a while, and put her hand out of the window to pluck
flowers, and then the engine took her under the red flowers of a creeper hanging over
a wall at the end of the street. And then she drove all by herself to the zoo and all the
monkeys there wanted to ride.
Of course there was no room for all of them. She had just enough space for herself
and the bald doll. She applied some hair oil and the doll began to have such long
tresses that she braided them and put jasmine into them ; and she clothed the doll in a
green frock and the doll said how nice it was. Of course there were bags and bags of
sweets scattered all over the floor of the engine. . . . She was just stooping to pick up a
handful of chocolates when mother's voice called : " Kutti ! Kutti ! get up." And Kutti
came out of the dream. " Get up, it is eight o'clock.'*
" Oh, mother, why did you disturb me now ? It was such a beautiful engine. Just let me
sleep again. The doll wants to go home."
" They will be coming now, and you must be ready, my dear. And if they like your
dancing they will give you so much money ; you can buy ten dolls and engines."
" Is it true, mother ? "
" Certainly, dear. Get up. They will give you a lot of money."
" But I think you will take away all the money ; and I won't be able to buy what I want."
" I promise, you shall have all the money, but only on condition that you dance and sing
as you did in your school the other day."
Two people who were connected with the films had seen Kutti dance and sing in her
school and they were now coming to see her. This was a sudden burst of good fortune
for the family ; Kutti's father was a school master earning fifty rupees a month and with
it he had to pay for Kutti's education, pay off instalments of a co-operative debt
incurred for his sister's marriage, and also run the household. For two years this had
been a major worry for the family, and it had given Kutti's father a permanent look of
harassment. And now in a most unexpected manner relief seemed to be coming : the
debt could be ticked off ; the pieces of jewellery pledged with a banker could be
released and Kutti's mother could once again hold up her head before her friends.
" How much are you going to demand ? " she often asked her husband
and was told : " At least ten thousand rupees, not an annas less."
At nine o'clock the film people arrived. One of them was elderly and wore diamond
rings on his fingers, and the other was smart, and wore a tweed suit and rimless
glasses ; they took the two ricketty chairs offered to them by Kutti's father. They looked
too imposing in this humble home ; the roof seemed to be coining down and touching
their heads they gave such an impression of being high and stooping.
They spent a few minutes in inanities and then the smart man said, looking at his
watch : " We've not much time to spare. Will you call up the child ? "
Kutti came into the hall, dressed for the occasion by her mother : her hair was plaited
tight and had flowers ; she wore a chequered silk skirt, and a green jacket, and had a
vermilion dot on her forehead. Her father looked at her with pride.
The elderly man held out a packet of chocolates. Kutti hesitated, looking at her father
for permission. The elderly man got up and thrust it in her hand and asked, " Do you
like cinemas, child ? "
" No," Kutti replied promptly, leaning on her father's knees.
"Why not?"
" Because they are so dark," replied Kutti. The smart man was viewing her gestures
and movements critically. He said as if talking in a dream : " I'd like to see her in a frock
; and her hair to be untied. This old-fashioned dressing makes her look older than she
really is. Can't you put her into a frock now?"
" Now ? " asked father in consternation, and told his daughter : " Get into a frock, Kutti,
and undo your hair."
" Let it fall down on your neck," said the smart man. Kutti looked sullen.
" And where will the flowers be ? " she asked. " I must keep the flowers."
" All right, let your hair alone, a frock."
" I like this skirt," said Kutti.
" Very well ; don't worry do it later," said the smart man.
" Will you sing the piece you sang in your school the other day, and dance ? "
"No," said Kutti. "I've forgotten it."
The elderly man fumbled in his pocket and brought out another piece of chocolate. "
And now baby, give us that song and you can have this." Kutti looked at her father.
" Go on, sing," he said, which meant to her by implication " Yes, you may accept the
chocolate."
Her mother's voice said from an inner room : " Go on, Kutti, be a good girl." And Kutti
opened her mouth and her shrill voice sang an invitation to Lord Krishna. Her eyes
danced as if they beheld Krishna before them ; her arms beckoned him, and her feet
were tremulous ; with every muscle in her body she enriched the song. She was a born
dancer, a born actress. She could conjure up with her voice, expression, and
movement, a vision for others. For a moment that humble room, with its ricketty chairs,
and fading prints of gods in frames, and dusty floor, acquired the atmosphere of a fairy-
land for the gods to come and go :
Krishna, an enchanting baby, toddled up and revealed the universe in his mouth when
his mother looked in to see if he had put anything in his mouth ; and then when grown
up, the leader of a gang of disreputable youngsters keeping the neighbourhood in
tantrums ; and then the divine lover wringing the heart ofgopis . . . and he vanished
abruptly, the fairy hall vanished, and the fading prints in frames, and the ricketty chairs
came into view again when Kutti's voice ceased. She took breath and looked around at
her audience. The smart man sprang forward, took her in his arms, kissed her, hugged
her and would not put her down
He said to his companion : " This is a marvellous child, just the kid for the picture. I
shall refuse to go on with your picture unless you take in this kid, understand ? "
" Certainly, certainly."
" We are going now, and coming back at about four in the afternoon, and if you don't
mind I would like to take the kid to the studio and test her before a camera and mike."
As they were leaving, the elderly man said to Kutti's father : " We like your child very
much. I hope she will be famous very soon. If you are free, I would like to have a word
with you in the evening."
The whole day the husband and wife could think and talk of nothing but their child.
Existence had acquired a sudden smoothness and richness.
" I suppose this is how the rich people feel," said Kutti's father.
" No mortgages, no debts, money for everything. See here, my girl, I may even throw
up this dirty work and do something else. After this picture the baby will be in demand
everywhere. I will buy a house for her in the extension."
" Don't fail to give her the engine she is asking for, and the doll the bald doll. A girl has
one in her school and Kutti has been crying for it night and day. It seems that it costs
about six rupees."
" Let it cost sixty rupees. Why should we care ? The child can have it."
Kutti was dressed and ready at three o'clock. Her mother had taken care to leave her
hair free ; and put her into a frock. Kutti was furious. " I hate this frock, mother ; why do
you put me into this dirty frock ? " She said tugging her hair : " I want to have this tied
up. You understand ? I don't care, I don't care." Her mother calmed her, and she went
out to play in the backyard. " Take care that you don't make yourself dirty," said her
mother.
At four o'clock when the film people arrived Kutti's father went to the backyard to fetch
her. She was not to be seen. He asked his wife : " Where is Kutti ? "
" She was in the backyard. She may be in the next house. I will see." She returned a
few minutes later. " She is not in that house, nor in the next one. Where could she have
gone ? "
The smart man waited for fifteen minutes and then said : " We will be in the studio. As
soon as you find the child, will you bring her over ? "
" Yes," said Kutti's father.
Then began a search for Kutti. Her mother wandered up and down the street ; her
father went to her school. An hour later they became desperate. They had looked into
every corner of the house, called " Kutti, Kutti," a score of times and had gone and
enquired in every possible place. Mother became hysterical, threw herself on the floor
and began to cry ; father stood in the doorway completely beaten by the mystery. His
wife's despair affected him. He himself wondered if anybody had kidnapped the child.
Such things were common. People were known to give drugged sweets to children and
carry them away.
He told his wife, " I'll be back in a moment," and went out to have a talk with his friends
in the police station. Long after he was gone, his wife after a spasm of weeping got up.
She looked again into every corner of every room. At last she noticed a slight stirring in
a linen basket kept in an ante-room. She opened the lid and looked in. Kutti was curled
up at its dark bottom with her unbraided hair covering her face. " Kutti ! Kutti ! " the
mother screamed, and rocked the basket. The child didn't stir. The mother dived into it
and brought out the child. She carried her in her arms and ran out of the house, down
the street.
" My child is dead, take me to a doctor," she wailed.
Someone took pity on her, and put her into a jutka and took her to the hospital. The
doctor felt her pulse and heart, and said, " She has only swooned ; you've not been a
minute too soon ; don't get excited. She will be all right." He laid the child on a table. In
an hour Kutti sat up and locked her arms around her mother's neck. Mother cried with
joy ; and took her in her arms. On the Way home mother asked : " What made you get
into the basket, child ? "
Kutti paused for a while, and asked with puckered brow : " Are those people gone ? "
" Who ? "
" The cinema men."
" Yes."
" Mother, if they ever come to our house again, I will get into the basket once more and
never come out of it."
Mother hugged her close and said, " Don't fear. I will see that they don't trouble you
ever any more. "
