Chapter 2

Devdas was severely beaten the next day and kept locked in his room all through the day. Later, when his mother broke into bitter weeping, he was released. Early the following morning, he crept away to stand beside Parvati's bedroom window and called out, "Paru!" Then he called again, "Paru!"

Parvati opened the window and said, "Dev-da!"

Devdas motioned to her and said, "Come out, quick." When they met, Devdas asked, "Why did you tell them about my smoking tobacco?"

"Why did you hit me?"

"Why didn't you go fetch the water?"

Parvati remained silent.

Devdas said, "You are a great donkey—mind you never tell tales again."

Parvati nodded her head and said, "No."

"Come along then, let's cut some fishing rods. We have to catch fish at the embankment today."

Near the bamboo grove stood a bullock’s-heart tree, and Devdas climbed up into it. Bending down the tip of a bamboo shoot with great effort, he handed it to Parvati to hold and said, "Mind you don't let go, or I shall fall."

Parvati held on with all her strength. Holding fast to the shoot and resting one foot on a branch of the tree, Devdas set about cutting rods. From below, Parvati asked, "Dev-da, won't you go to the village school today?"

"No."

"Uncle will send you anyway."

"Father said so himself—I am not studying there anymore. A tutor is coming to the house."

Parvati looked a little troubled. After a moment she said, "Starting yesterday, because of the heat, our school meets in the morning. I am going right now."

Devdas glared down from above and said, "No, you must not go."

Just at that moment, Parvati allowed her mind to wander—and instantly the tip of the bamboo shoot snapped upward, sending Devdas tumbling down from the branch. Because it was not very high, he was not hurt badly, but his skin was scraped in several places. Scrambling to his feet in a fury, Devdas picked up a dry cane and landed several hard blows on Parvati’s back, her cheek, wherever it fell, shouting, "Go, get out of my sight!"

At first, Parvati had felt ashamed of her blunder; but as switch after switch continued to fall upon her, her eyes flared like fire with anger and wounded pride. Weeping, she said, "I am going straight to Uncle right now—"

Devdas, still enraged, struck her once more and retorted, "Go on, go tell him right now—see if I care!"

Parvati walked away. When she had covered some distance, Devdas called out, "Paru!"

Parvati heard him but turned a deaf ear, quickening her pace. Devdas called out once more, "Oh Paru, listen to me, won't you?"

Parvati did not answer. Exasperated, Devdas shouted partly aloud and partly to himself, "Fine then—let her go to the devil!"

Once Parvati had gone, Devdas cut a couple of fishing rods as best he could. His mood was completely ruined. Weeping continuously, Parvati returned home. The marks of the cane had swollen into dark blue welts across her cheek. They caught her grandmother’s eye first of all.

The old woman shrieked, "Oh dear Lord! Who has beaten you like this, Paru?"

Wiping her eyes, Parvati answered, "Pandit-moshai."

Her grandmother pulled her into her lap, furious beyond measure. "Come," she said, "let us go to Narayan at once and see what sort of schoolmaster he is! Ah, the wretch has beaten the poor child nearly to death!"

Parvati wrapped her arms around her grandmother's neck and said, "Let's go."

Coming before Mukherji-moshai, the grandmother invoked several generations of the schoolmaster’s ancestors, wishing them ill in the next world and sparing no foul words regarding their sustenance either. Finally, hurling all manner of abuse at Govinda himself, she cried, "Narayan, look at the shameless audacity of the wretch! A Sudra laying hands on a Brahmin’s daughter! Just look at how he has beaten her!" So saying, the old woman pointed out the blue welts on the girl’s cheek with intense grief.

Narayan-babu then asked Parvati directly, "Who beat you, Paru?"

Parvati remained silent. Thereupon her grandmother shrieked once more, "Who else but that brute of a schoolmaster!"

"Why did he hit her?"

Parvati did not speak this time either. Mukherji-moshai understood that she must have been punished for some misdeed—yet such severity of violence was uncalled for, as he declared aloud. Hearing this, Parvati bared her back and said, "He beat me here too."

The marks on her back were even clearer, far more severe. At this, both elders grew thoroughly incensed. Mukherji-moshai declared his intention to summon the schoolmaster and demand an explanation; and it was decided that children ought no longer to be sent to such a teacher.

Delighted with the verdict, Parvati returned home nestled in her grandmother’s arms. But upon reaching the house, she faced her mother’s interrogation. Holding her fast, her mother insisted, "Tell me why he beat you!"

Parvati said, "He beat me for no reason at all."

Her mother gave her ear a sharp twist and said, "Does anyone ever beat a child for no reason?"

The mother-in-law was passing along the veranda just then. Stepping up to the doorway, she interjected, "Bouma, if you as a mother can twist her ear for no reason, why shouldn't that burnt-face of a schoolmaster do the same?"

Bouma replied, "He has never hit anyone without cause. She is such a quiet girl—what could she have done to deserve a beating?"

Irritated, the mother-in-law said, "Well, even if that were so, I will not let her go to that school any longer."

"Is she not to learn even a little reading and writing?"

"What good will it do, Bouma? If she learns to write a letter or two and read a couple of lines from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, that is more than enough. Is Paru going to sit on the bench as a judge or practice as a lawyer?"

Bouma was forced to hold her tongue. That day Devdas returned home in great fear. He had no doubt whatsoever that Parvati had blabbed everything by now. But when he arrived home and found not the slightest hint of trouble—learning instead from his mother that Govinda Pandit had thrashed Parvati so severely today that she would not be going to school anymore—his joy was so overwhelming that he could not even eat properly. Hastily stuffing down a few mouthfuls, he ran over to Parvati’s house and asked, out of breath, "Are you really not going back to school?"

"No."

"How did that happen?"

"I told them Pandit-moshai beat me."

Devdas broke into a wide grin, patted her on the back, and declared that there was no girl as clever as her on this earth. Then, slowly and carefully inspecting the blue marks on her cheek, he let out a sigh and said, "Ah..."

Parvati offered a slight smile, looked into his face, and asked, "What is it?"

"Did it hurt very much, Paru?"

Parvati nodded and said, "Mm."

"Ah, why do you act like that? That is what makes me angry—that is why I hit you."

Tears came to Parvati's eyes. She thought of asking, What do I do?, but she could not.

Devdas laid his hand on her head and said, "Don't do it again, promise?"

Parvati shook her head and said, "No."

Devdas patted her back once more and said, "All right then—I will never hit you again."