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Authors: Bapsi Sidhwa
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port wine up to you,’ she declared breathlessly. ‘See how much he cares for you? It’s only that he is too shy to show it. Some men are like that I suppose. Why, he is so concerned about you, he noticed you weren’t looking well. And he feels – he
really
feels for you; that you have been parted from your dear ones. Oh dear, how much he cares for us all … I hadn’t realised it before.’
Jerbanoo eyed her daughter’s enthusiasm with bleak, unmoved countenance. She could not bear to hear Putli praise that abominable man.
‘He does seem to have changed a bit,’ she conceded cagily, ‘but let’s see how long it lasts.’
‘Oh Mother! Give him a chance. He has his own way of showing his love for you. Try and overlook his little faults … won’t you?’
Jerbanoo averted her eyes. ‘You cannot clap with one hand only,’ she intoned sagely. ‘If your husband is suddenly being nice to me, it is because I have made such an effort to pleasehim. I have sacrificed so much for you all, stood so much for your sake. Maybe God at last sees fit to reward my labours.’
‘God is just. He will always reward those who work for Him,’ said her daughter, matching Jerbanoo’s high-mindedness. And upon this pious note mother and daughter parted, the one to bathe and the other to cook.
Freddy, shrewdly aware of his limitations, did not risk his equilibrium too far. He was polite and convivial only when Jerbanoo was not in one of her more sour-faced and morbid moods. Then his face grew tight and he sometimes succeeded in stemming the tide of her moribund discourses with a stern glower.
Preparatory step two: Freddy’s love of the outdoors became an obsessive passion.
He all at once discovered that his four children, and Putli and Jerbanoo were too pale. Vowing, ‘I’m going to put some colour into our cheeks,’ he threw open doors and windows, taught them breathing exercises and at every opportunity, bundling them into the tonga, took them for long drives.
One Sunday Jerbanoo, drowsy with port wine, politely declined the airing. ‘I’ll accompany you in the evenings … but I must have my afternoon rest. This is getting a bit too much for me … after all I am not as young as I once was … but it’s good for you young people. You must get out in the fresh air. Carry on. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right on my own.’
Putli protested kindly, ‘Come on Mother, we won’t be gone long. I’ll massage your back afterwards.’
But she didn’t press when Freddy intervened with an understanding murmur, ‘It’s all right, Mother. Do as you wish. We will go out together tomorrow evening.’
Putli, who had protested because she felt Freddy might be offended by her mother’s refusal, instructed the children to kiss their grandmother goodbye. Casting a diligent eye over the flat to see if everything was in order, she shooed thefamily, including the servant boy, down to the tonga.
Jerbanoo was quite alone in the flat.
Step three: In a matter of days the store was filled up with fresh stocks. Staid rows of coffee, honey, Italian olives and pickle jars gleamed on the glass-encased shelves. Rich oaken boxes of Havana cigars, liqueur chocolates, saffron and caviar, tiered decoratively in the show windows. The main bulk of space was taken up by biscuit tins, tea and other staple items. The floor to one corner was neatly stacked with small unopened crates.
Freddy’s shop was at one corner of a long row of commercial establishments facing the main street. A strip of metalled road ran along the front of the buildings, and between it and the main street was a cheery bar of grass and trees maintained by the municipality. Freddy’s immediate neighbour ran a successful brokerage. Then there was a toy shop, shoe shop, sari shop, and so on down the line, each with its own proprietors visible through the entrance.
Around the corner, across a busy thoroughfare, was the huge square block of the General Market, the main
really
feels for you; that you have been parted from your dear ones. Oh dear, how much he cares for us all … I hadn’t realised it before.’
Jerbanoo eyed her daughter’s enthusiasm with bleak, unmoved countenance. She could not bear to hear Putli praise that abominable man.
‘He does seem to have changed a bit,’ she conceded cagily, ‘but let’s see how long it lasts.’
‘Oh Mother! Give him a chance. He has his own way of showing his love for you. Try and overlook his little faults … won’t you?’
Jerbanoo averted her eyes. ‘You cannot clap with one hand only,’ she intoned sagely. ‘If your husband is suddenly being nice to me, it is because I have made such an effort to pleasehim. I have sacrificed so much for you all, stood so much for your sake. Maybe God at last sees fit to reward my labours.’
‘God is just. He will always reward those who work for Him,’ said her daughter, matching Jerbanoo’s high-mindedness. And upon this pious note mother and daughter parted, the one to bathe and the other to cook.
Freddy, shrewdly aware of his limitations, did not risk his equilibrium too far. He was polite and convivial only when Jerbanoo was not in one of her more sour-faced and morbid moods. Then his face grew tight and he sometimes succeeded in stemming the tide of her moribund discourses with a stern glower.
Preparatory step two: Freddy’s love of the outdoors became an obsessive passion.
He all at once discovered that his four children, and Putli and Jerbanoo were too pale. Vowing, ‘I’m going to put some colour into our cheeks,’ he threw open doors and windows, taught them breathing exercises and at every opportunity, bundling them into the tonga, took them for long drives.
One Sunday Jerbanoo, drowsy with port wine, politely declined the airing. ‘I’ll accompany you in the evenings … but I must have my afternoon rest. This is getting a bit too much for me … after all I am not as young as I once was … but it’s good for you young people. You must get out in the fresh air. Carry on. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right on my own.’
Putli protested kindly, ‘Come on Mother, we won’t be gone long. I’ll massage your back afterwards.’
But she didn’t press when Freddy intervened with an understanding murmur, ‘It’s all right, Mother. Do as you wish. We will go out together tomorrow evening.’
Putli, who had protested because she felt Freddy might be offended by her mother’s refusal, instructed the children to kiss their grandmother goodbye. Casting a diligent eye over the flat to see if everything was in order, she shooed thefamily, including the servant boy, down to the tonga.
Jerbanoo was quite alone in the flat.
Step three: In a matter of days the store was filled up with fresh stocks. Staid rows of coffee, honey, Italian olives and pickle jars gleamed on the glass-encased shelves. Rich oaken boxes of Havana cigars, liqueur chocolates, saffron and caviar, tiered decoratively in the show windows. The main bulk of space was taken up by biscuit tins, tea and other staple items. The floor to one corner was neatly stacked with small unopened crates.
Freddy’s shop was at one corner of a long row of commercial establishments facing the main street. A strip of metalled road ran along the front of the buildings, and between it and the main street was a cheery bar of grass and trees maintained by the municipality. Freddy’s immediate neighbour ran a successful brokerage. Then there was a toy shop, shoe shop, sari shop, and so on down the line, each with its own proprietors visible through the entrance.
Around the corner, across a busy thoroughfare, was the huge square block of the General Market, the main
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