Daddyji by Ved Mehta

Author:Ved Mehta [Mehta, Ved]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789351185789
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2013-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

Lalaji, Lahore, 1919

Now, in Lahore, Daddyji entered the little house; went straight to Lalaji, who sat enthroned at the head of a charpoy, pulling at his hookah; took from his pocket a thousand rupees in new banknotes, which he had saved from his salary; and tried to press them into Lalaji’s hand.

Lalaji, with a casual glance, waved them aside.

Bhabiji stepped forward joyfully with tears in her eyes and held out her veil. Lalaji looked the other way, and Daddyji placed the banknotes in it. She shyly folded her veil around the notes, and as the younger children, who had been waiting to pay their respects to Daddyji, surrounded him with a clamor, she slipped the little bundle under the bedclothes at the foot of the charpoy.

Daddyji changed out of his Western suit into his comfortable pajamas and collarless shirt, and while he was sitting on the floor in the kitchen with the family eating the midday meal, the wife of a neighbor walked in and said to Bhabiji, ‘Where is the England-returned? I would like to see an England-returned before I die.’

Bhabiji waved a hand toward Daddyji.

‘England-returned!’ the neighbor exclaimed. ‘And sitting on the floor, eating with his fingers! Why go all the way to England for that?’

Just before Daddyji returned to Rawalpindi, Bhabiji insisted that he take four hundred rupees out of the thousand he had given her, and buy himself a tonga and harness worthy of his pony. When he got back to Rawalpindi, he did as she had asked. He retained Tika Ram, a tall, thin syce, who belonged to a community of grooms from the eastern part of the United Provinces; the forebears of these grooms, it was said, had taken part in the Mutiny, but subsequently, as if to atone for this deed, they and their descendants had dedicated themselves to looking after Englishmen’s horses, especially their polo ponies. Tika Ram kept the rig polished and the pony well groomed. Although Daddyji still rode the pony on his morning rounds, in the late afternoons Tika Ram hitched it to the tonga, and Daddyji drove around in the tonga with Tika Ram at his side ready to catch the reins and wait whenever Daddyji jumped down for a call. Out in the open, Daddyji let the pony gallop along the rutted roads. The bumpier the tonga ride, the more excited he felt; he was optimistic, young, handsome, and a bachelor, and he was courted by the small official community of British and Indians.

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