Banquet on the Dead (23 page)

‘But with me there was
love
, you know,’ he went on. ‘She took an interest in everything I did—what I ate, what I did in school, what I wore, what subjects I took— everything. I mean
everything
. My father tells me she fell in love with me when she first saw me in the hospital when I was born. Apparently she said I would make a lot of money; people with deep belly-buttons make a lot of money, that’s what she said.’

‘Did it come true?’ asked Hamid Pasha, glancing around at the room.

‘No,’ said Praveen. ‘At least not yet. And I don’t think it will happen as long as I am working here.’

‘It certainly won’t happen if you kill yourself,’ Nagarajan said coldly.

Praveen laughed. ‘That too. The only way I can “earn” a lot of money is if she has left me something. We haven’t yet seen who the biggest beneficiary is. I bet
you
two are very interested in knowing that.’ He pointed the bottle at Hamid bhai with a gleam in his eye.

Hamid Pasha nodded. ‘As a matter of fact, we are. Do you have any theories as to who will get how much? If the old lady was close to you, she must have given you some hints.’

‘Ah, no, no. She did not. If I tell you anything about this it will be guesswork on my part. Let me see—Kotesh Bava will get
something
—maybe a plot or two. He may have got one already. You see, he has been tending to her for a good seven years now; well, tending to
all of us
, in fact, for free. So none of us will begrudge whatever he gets. One can think of it as repayment...

‘Other than that, it should be a rather clean three-way split between Swamannayya, Raja and my father. Oh, then there is Attayya as well, I guess. She might get a plot or two. Grandmother would have been a little sentimental about her—and with good reason too. She has been through a lot.’

Hamid Pasha leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. ‘Tell me, miyan, how much property is there in total?’

Praveen shrugged and shook his head. ‘Nobody has gone to the trouble of finding out exactly, I am sure. But there is a lot. Even without the backyard plot there is a lot going around for everyone. And this area has developed so much in the last fifteen years or so, you know. Look around at the number of doctors—land here is gold; pure gold.

‘Do you think your father would get a bigger share because he has a family to support?’

‘Ah—now that makes me think. Grandmother would definitely think along those lines. Yes, you’re right. My father would probably get a slightly bigger share, even though Swamannayya is the eldest.’

‘And Raja might get partial treatment too,’ said Hamid Pasha, ‘because of his condition?’

Praveen looked at Hamid Pasha with a slightly embarrassed smile. ‘You’re not making this easy for me, are you? Yes, of course, that would be correct too. Grandmother
was
quite partial to Raja, even though they did have such huge rows every now and then.’

‘About his smoking, I gather?’

‘And his movie-going,’ Praveen said. ‘You’d be surprised how much money he spends on movies. And of course, Grandmother didn’t approve of movies at all. Even then, she wouldn’t have minded if he did not spend so much money watching them.’

‘Does the family have nothing by way of earnings?’

Praveen grinned; again that contemptuous curl of the lips. ‘That communist party building you see in the backyard was meant to be an investment. But after they moved in we realised they were more powerful than we were. Of
course
. They’re a political party. What are we? Kakaji’s descendants? There is only one winner in
that
battle.’

He coughed, and ran his fingertips along the bruise on his neck. ‘It cut a bit deeper than I thought it would.’ He faced Nagarajan. ‘They say hanging is a painless death. I struggled for a good five minutes before I passed out.’

‘You have to do it just right,’ said Nagarajan.

‘Ah.’ He caressed his bruise thoughtfully for a minute, then turned back to Hamid Pasha. ‘So, yes, it started off being a good investment—they paid us rather well for the first few months; but now we’re almost sure that piece of land is gone. And this won’t be the first time Swamannayya has lost money on a venture. Let us just say he is not a businessman.’ He paused, licked his lips, then said: ‘None of us is.’

‘Not even your father?’

Praveen laughed. ‘Have you talked to my father about it? A similar situation is developing in Puthoor as well. We’re
this
close to losing our land. But at least it is not in the past tense like this one, and that is agricultural land, so not that high in value. But then, land is land.’ He finished his soda, swallowing it with a grimace. ‘They put too much lemon in this.’

‘So in your opinion, everybody wants money.’

Praveen smiled and said, ‘Yes, everybody does, even you and me.’

‘Even you?’

‘Yes, of course. Why would I be here in this office if I had money? I would set myself up so that I could go to Hyderabad, to Kalanjali, and become a stage actor.’

‘Ah, your brother was telling me about that this evening, miyan. You like the stage, hain?’

‘Yes, the stage... it is the one place where you can forget yourself, isn’t it? If you have an appetite for the arts, you can never satisfy it no matter how much you feed it.’ He stopped, and let out a long sigh. ‘Forget it.’

‘And Kalanjali is—what?’

‘Kalanjali school of dance and acting? In Hyderabad? You don’t know of it?’

Hamid Pasha shook his head.

‘Karuna told me about it. She is a regular member there. She even told me to go to Hyderabad. But then Grandmother said no.’ His tone stayed even, but there was a little twinge of hurt accompanying the last sentence.

‘Did you feel any—resentment—towards her for that?’

‘Resentment,’ Praveen said. ‘You’re starting to speak like my brother now. He asked me a lot of similar questions too: if I’d born resentment, if I’d felt anger...’

‘Well,’ said Hamid Pasha, ‘did you?’

‘It is hard to say, isn’t it? One tends to forget most things. I knew what she was like, so I tried not do thingst she disapproved of, but sometimes I couldn’t help it.’ His eyes acquired a faraway gaze. ‘When that happened and— as expected—she disapproved, I let it go. I didn’t give it much thought. It just—passed. It was only when I sat down and consciously thought about things that I really knew how I felt.’ He played with his hands as he spoke. ‘Isn’t that the way with everyone?’

Hamid Pasha shrugged. ‘You tell us what
you
feel, miyan. We are here only to listen.’

‘Right,’ said Praveen. ‘Right. So anyway, now that you have asked me how I felt about it, I am now being forced to think about that time, about how Grandmother behaved, her words, her actions... and yes, as you said, there is some resentment; some anger. I don’t love her as much when I think about these things.’

Hamid Pasha asked slowly, ‘Do you hate her at such times?’

Again Praveen smiled. ‘You speak more and more like my brother. Yes, I do—well, I don’t
hate
her, but I dislike her; intensely.’

‘Enough to want to kill her, perhaps.’

Praveen did not react at all to that. He nodded quite matter-of-factly. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I never thought of actively killing her, but there were times when I thought things would be
smoother
without her around. She had lived her life; she was now living all of ours, I thought.’

‘And yet you cried the most when you brought her out of the well.’

‘Yes, well, it is one thing wishing a person would go away. When you’re thinking of that you’re imagining how things would be without that person present. It was the same with Grandmother. I wanted her gone—I had that feeling only occasionally, but it was there, and it was very intense. But I wanted her to vanish, you know? Without leaving anything behind. One day she would be there, and the next day she would be gone. And all of us would carry on with our lives...’

His voice sank into a murmur, and there was a catch in his throat which he cleared and started again: ‘But she did leave something behind. I did not bargain for her dead body in the well, facing downward, hair loose, waving in the water, her arms and legs splayed out like a dead frog’s...’

Again his throat caught, and again he released it with a cough. ‘You don’t wish for things like that. But what I did wish for—that she would be gone—was basically this, wasn’t it? In a different form, in an
impossible
form, maybe, but the wish was for her to die. And it did come true. Just that she
did
leave something behind, in that well...’

For a third time he cleared his throat, and covered his mouth with his closed fist, bending over it. A thin shudder passed through his body. He massaged his eyes with his fingers; his breathing became forced.

Presently he took a few deliberate breaths and found his voice. ‘I am going to take that sight with me to my pyre, sir, I swear.’

For a minute there was silence. Hamid Pasha emptied his bottle, set it back on the table, and said, ‘Do you not think it strange, my boy, that your grandmother chose to kill herself by jumping into the well?’

‘Because how much she feared it? No, not at all. One way is as good as another. Some people prefer silent, painless deaths. Some like to go for spectacle.’

‘But your grandmother—is she the kind to choose a death of this sort? And for what purpose?’

‘All of us wanted her out of the way, sir—and I am sure all of us have told her that in one way or the other. She was a smart woman.’

‘But that is it? Just because everyone in the family wanted her to die, she would?’

‘Who knows? Maybe it was reason enough for her. Maybe there was a sense of hurt at it all; at how much she had worked at building this family—she had been a young widow with a bunch of kids and a huge estate and a flock of vultures to manage. She did quite well, didn’t she, when you look at it that way?’

‘Most definitely.’

‘Maybe there was a sense of loss, that the family she had moulded with her own hands had now turned its back on her. Maybe, when I turned on her too, it was the last straw...’

‘Has it occurred to you, miyan, that if most of the family did not want her to live, one of them may have pushed her into the well? That she may have been
murdered
?’

Praveen said, ‘None of our family members could be murderers. They lack the guts to carry out something like that.’

‘Ah, you agree the intent is there.’

‘Of course. But who cares about intent? The deed is everything.’

‘You said your brother talked to you about your feelings for your grandmother.’

‘Yes?’

‘When did he do it last?’

‘Listen, I know what you’re getting at, and you cannot be more mistaken.’ He paused. ‘Today.’

‘Hain?’

‘Today. He talked to me today. He was here all afternoon. He—when he talked to me I felt like my grandmother’s dying was all my fault. I—yes, he first asked me about all the resentment I held against her, and then asked me whether my quarrelling with her may have pushed her over the edge. He first asked me to promise him that I did not kill her, of course, and I asked him to do the same.’

‘Ah, indeed.’

Praveen nodded. ‘So I am sure he wasn’t referring to actively killing her. But he did hint that I may be responsible. And after he went it started getting dark—and you know how this place gets when it is dark. It feels like the walls are closing in; and I told you, I saw red on them. Just like Macbeth.’ He shook his head and grinned. ‘Now it feels stupid, but when you’re in that zone...’

Hamid Pasha leaned forward. ‘Miyan, do you see that your brother may have had a reason for coming to you and talking to you today? For placing the guilt on your shoulders?’

‘Sir,’ said Praveen, ‘I know what you’re getting at. I told you—none of our family had the balls. My brother—well, he promised.’

‘What is a promise, my boy, when lives are at stake?’

‘Why would he want to do away with me?’ Praveen asked, and Nagarajan saw the seed of doubt had been sown successfully.

‘Why not?’ Hamid Pasha asked. ‘You are his direct competition to your father’s wealth, are you not?’

Praveen pursed his lips as though giving the matter some thought, but snapped out of it and shook his head vehemently. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t believe it. Grandmother killed herself. Nobody killed her.’

Hamid Pasha smiled at Praveen, and Nagarajan felt he could see compassion in his eyes. ‘All I am saying, my boy, is think it over. The world is not as good as it seems.’

‘No,’ said Praveen. ‘I know my brother. He wouldn’t do it.’

And into the silence that settled on the three of them, the final bell of Vijaya Talkies, signifying the end of the evening show, rang, and Nagarajan heard Shankar’s gas burners come to life downstairs, no doubt in anticipation of the crowd that would soon fill the street.

‘Come,’ said Hamid Pasha, jumping off the table and smelling the air, ‘let us have some samosas!’

17

G
IVEN BELOW ARE
the transcripts taken from the voice-recordings of testimonies given by witnesses Nagesh and Ashok (last names unknown), reproduced with the permission of Inspector Valmiki Nagarajan, Inspector, Hanamkonda Branch.