The Tailor's Needle by Lakshmi Raj Sharma

Author:Lakshmi Raj Sharma [Raj Sharma, Lakshmi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788184757996
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

28

When Maneka entered her new home, she found it a very old looking palatial structure. There were signs of grandeur in the place, no doubt, but it seemed to be in a dilapidated condition. There was Mohan living all by himself in twenty-one rooms. The house had hardly been painted even though it had seen two weddings within the span of a year, his sister’s and his own. The doors were huge – they would need strong men to open and close them and they made screeching sounds when they moved on their hinges. There were plenty of windows with lace curtains that flew all the time. It was a windy place – the cold north wind made whistling sounds as it swept through the rooms. The old portraits of Mohan’s ancestors, that had unusually large ropes to hang from, kept swinging like pendulums. There was fine antique furniture made of mahogany. The carving on this furniture was intricate but dust had settled into the carving. There were glass chandeliers that were meant for candles. But now they contained old solidified wax. They had obviously not been cleaned for long. The cornices in the walls had also become seats of dust and vantage points for cobwebs.

There were probably some servants who worked somewhere in the distance, perhaps in the rooms near the backyard, but they were hardly to be seen. There was only one old steward, named Jaan Mohammad, and one old maid, called Hardeesh Bi, who were present. Both of these had very serious looking faces and both of them did not have the desired energy levels required of domestic help. They seemed listless and discontented, as if mourning over some loss and would not respond easily when called. They had to be called to again and again and when they did respond they did it grudgingly and would come slowly and unwillingly. They went about with long, unsmiling faces and they seemed to dislike people, especially those who were friendly and cheerful. It followed that Jaan Mohammad and Hardeesh Bi did not like each other as well. Perhaps the only thing they did respect in each other was the ability to kill the other’s joy. But they blended extremely well with everything else in Nadir Palace. The darkness, the gusts of whistling wind, the dust, the cobwebs, the bats, the lizards, the creaky sounds, the Jaan Mohammads and the Hardeesh Bis were all of a piece in the Nadir Palace. Even the old skinny black hound, Musty, was in tune with the rest of the inhabitants. He kept whining at short intervals, as though he wanted to communicate something. His eyes said that he was complaining. He would now and again even show his teeth and growl at the bride. He didn’t find Maneka’s entry into the palace quite to his taste.

Mohan had tried several times to talk to Maneka during the journey. He had wanted to share something with her, again, as he had wanted to in Meerut.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.