Latest / A Passage to India / Ch 7 - A Passage to India

Transcript

Ch 7 - A Passage to India · A Passage to India

• 0:00
  Chapter seven. This mister Fielding had been caught by India late. He was
• 0:08
  over forty when he entered that oddest portal, the Victoria Terminus at Bombay,
• 0:14
  and having bribed a European ticket inspector, took his luggage into the compartment of
• 0:21
  his first tropical train. The journey remained in his mind as significant his two
• 0:29
  carriage companions. One was a youth fresh from the East like himself, the
• 0:35
  other a seasoned Anglo Indian of his own age. A gulf divided him from
• 0:41
  either. He had seen too many cities and men to be the first or
• 0:47
  to become the second. New impressions crowded on him, but they were not
• 0:52
  the orthodox new impressions. The past conditioned them, and so it was with
• 0:59
  his mistakes. To regard an Indian as if he were an Italian is not,
• 1:04
  for instance, a common error, nor perhaps a fatal one, and
• 1:11
  Fielding often attempted analogies between this peninsula and that other, smaller and more exquisitely
• 1:19
  shaped that stretches into the classic waters of the Mediterranean. His career, though
• 1:26
  scholastic, was varied, and had included going to the bad and repenting thereafter.
• 1:34
  By now he was a hard bidden, good tempered, intelligent fellow on
• 1:40
  the verge of middle age, with a belief in education. He did not
• 1:46
  mind whom he taught. Public schoolboys, mental defectives and policeman at all come
• 1:53
  his way, and he had no objection to adding Indians. Through the influence
• 1:59
  of friends. He was nominated principle of the little college at Chandrapur, liked
• 2:05
  it and assumed he was a success. He did succeed with his pupils,
• 2:12
  but the gulf between himself and his countrymen, which he had noticed in the
• 2:16
  train, widened distressingly. He could not at first see what was wrong.
• 2:23
  He was not unpatriotic. He always got on with englishmen in England. All
• 2:30
  his best friends were English, so why was it not the same out here?
• 2:36
  Outwardly of the large, shaggy type, with sprawling limbs and blue eyes,
• 2:43
  he appeared to inspire confidence until he spoke. Then something in his manner
• 2:50
  puzzled people and failed to allay the distrust which his profession naturally inspired. Their
• 2:58
  needs must be this evil of brains in India. But woe to him through
• 3:04
  whom they are increased. The feeling grew that mister Fielding was a disruptive force,
• 3:12
  and rightly for ideas are fatal to cast, and he used ideas by
• 3:19
  that most potent method interchange. Neither a missionary nor a student, he was
• 3:27
  happiest in the give and take of a private conversation. The world, he
• 3:32
  believed, is a globe of men who are trying to reach one another,
• 3:38
  and can best do so by the help of goodwill, plus culture and intelligence.
• 3:45
  A creed ill suited to chandrapur, but he had come out too late
• 3:51
  to lose it. He had no racial feeling, not because he was superior
• 3:57
  to his brother civilians, but because he had matured in a different atmosphere where
• 4:02
  the herd instinct does not flourish. The remark that did him most harm at
• 4:10
  the club was a silly aside to the effect that the so called white races
• 4:15
  are really pinko gray. He only said this to be cheery. He did
• 4:23
  not realize that white has no more to do with a color than God,
• 4:29
  save the king with a God, and that it is the height of impropriety
• 4:35
  to consider what it does connote. The pinko gray male whom he addressed was
• 4:43
  subtly scandalized. His sense of insecurity was awoken, and he communicated it to
• 4:49
  the rest of the herd. Still the men tolerated him for the sake of
• 4:56
  his good heart and strong body. It was their wives who decided that he
• 5:01
  was not a sahib. Really they disliked him. He took no notice of
• 5:08
  them, and this, which would have passed without comment in feminist England,
• 5:14
  did him harm. In a community where the male is expected to be lively
• 5:18
  and helpful. Mister Fielding never advised one about dogs or horses, or dined
• 5:27
  or paid his mid day calls, or decorated trees for one's children at Christmas.
• 5:32
  And though he came to the club, it was only to get his
• 5:36
  tennis or billiards and to go. This was true. He had discovered that
• 5:43
  it is possible to keep in with Indians and Englishmen, but that he who
• 5:48
  would also keep in with English women must drop the Indians. The two wouldn't
• 5:56
  combine. Useless to blame either party, useless to blame them for blaming one
• 6:03
  another. It was just so, and one had to choose. Most Englishmen
• 6:11
  preferred their own kinswomen, who coming out in increasing numbers, made life on
• 6:16
  the home pattern yearly more possible. He had found it convenient and pleasant to
• 6:23
  associate with Indians, and he must pay the price. As a rule,
• 6:28
  no englishwoman entered the college except for official functions, and if he invited Missus
• 6:34
  Moore and Misquested to tea, it was because they were newcomers who would view
• 6:41
  everything with an equal, if superficial eye, and would not turn on a
• 6:46
  special voice when speaking to his other guests. The college itself had been slapped
• 6:55
  down by a public works department, but its grounds include an ancient garden and
• 7:00
  a garden house, and here he lived for much of the year. He
• 7:06
  was dressing after a bath when Doctor Aziz was announced. Lifting up his voice,
• 7:14
  he shouted from the bedroom, please make yourself at home. The remark
• 7:18
  was unpremeditated, like most of his actions, it was what he felt inclined
• 7:25
  to say to Doctor Aziz. It had a very definite meaning. May I
• 7:31
  really, mister Fielding, it's very good of you, he called back.
• 7:36
  I like unconventional behavior, so extremely his spirits flared up. He glanced round
• 7:45
  the living room, some luxury in it, but no order, nothing to
• 7:50
  intimidate poor Indians. It was also a very beautiful room, opening into the
• 7:56
  garden through three high arches, of wood. The fact is I have long
• 8:01
  wanted to meet you, he continued, I have heard so much about your
• 8:07
  warm heart from the Nawab Bahadur. But where is one to meet? In
• 8:11
  a wretched hole like Chandrapor. He came close up to the door when I
• 8:18
  was greener here, I'll tell you what I used to wish you to fall
• 8:22
  ill, so that we could meet that way. They laughed, and encouraged
• 8:28
  by his success, he began to improvise. I said to myself, how
• 8:35
  does mister Fielding look this morning? Perhaps pale? And the civil surgeon is
• 8:41
  pale too. He will not be able to attend upon him when the shivering
• 8:45
  commences. I should have been sent for instead. Then we would have had
• 8:50
  jolly talks, for you are a celebrated student of Persian poetry. You know
• 8:56
  me by sight? Then? Of course of course you know me. I
• 9:03
  know you very well by name. I've been here such a short time at
• 9:07
  always in the bazaar. No wonder you have never seen me, and I
• 9:13
  wonder you know my name, I say, mister Fielding. Yes, guess
• 9:18
  what I look like before you come out. That will be a kind of
• 9:22
  game. You're five feet nine inches high, said Fielding, surmising as much
• 9:31
  through the ground glass of the bedroom door. Jolly good, what next?
• 9:37
  Have I not a venerable white beard? Blast? Anything wrong? I've stamped
• 9:45
  on my last collar stud? Take mine? Take mine? Have you a
• 9:50
  spare one? Yes? Yes? One minute? Not if you're wearing it
• 9:56
  yourself? No, no one in my pocket. Stepping aside so that his
• 10:03
  outline might vanish, he wrenched off his collar and pulled out of his shirt
• 10:09
  the back stud, a gold stud, which was part of a set that
• 10:13
  his brother in law had brought from Europe. Here it is, he cried,
• 10:20
  Come in with it, if you don't mind the unconventionality. One minute.
• 10:26
  Again, replacing his collar, he prayed that it would not spring up
• 10:31
  at the back. During tea, Fielding's bearer, who was helping him to
• 10:37
  dress, opened the door for him, and many thanks, they shook hands.
• 10:43
  Smiling, he began to look round as he would have with any old
• 10:50
  friend. The Fielding was not surprised at the rapidity of their intimacy. With
• 10:56
  so emotional a people, it was apt to come at once or never,
• 11:01
  and he and Aziz, having heard only good of each other, could afford
• 11:07
  to dispense with preliminaries. But I always thought that Englishmen kept their rooms so
• 11:13
  tidy. It seems that this is not so. I need not be so
• 11:18
  ashamed. He sat down gaily on the bed, then, forgetting himself entirely,
• 11:26
  drew up his legs and folded them under him. Everything ranged coldly on
• 11:31
  shelves was what I thought. I say, mister Fielding, is the stunt
• 11:37
  going to go in ahi meduts? What's that last sentence? Please? Will
• 11:43
  you teach me some new words and so improve my English? Fielding doubted whether
• 11:50
  everything ranged coldly on shelves could be improved. He was often struck with the
• 11:58
  liveliness with which the young generation pandled a foreign tongue. They altered the idiom,
• 12:03
  but they could say whatever they wanted to say quickly. There were none
• 12:09
  of the babui isms ascribed to them up at the club. But then the
• 12:15
  club moved slowly. It still declared that few Mohammedans and no Hindus would eat
• 12:22
  at an Englishman's table, and that all Indian ladies were in impenetrable porta.
• 12:28
  Individually, it knew better. As a club, it declined to change.
• 12:35
  Let me put in your stud I see the shirt's back hole is rather small,
• 12:43
  and to rip it wider A pity mine. The hell does one wear
• 12:48
  collars at all? Grumbled Fielding as he bent his neck. We wear them
• 12:54
  to pass the police. What's that? If I'm biking in English dress starch
• 13:01
  collar hat with it, they take no notice. When I wear a fez,
• 13:07
  they cry your lamps out. Lord Curzon did not consider this when he
• 13:13
  urged natives of India to retain their picturesque costumes. Hooray, stud's gone in.
• 13:20
  Sometimes I shut my eyes and dream I have splendid clothes again and am
• 13:26
  briding into battle behind Alamgir. Mister Fielding must not India have been beautiful then,
• 13:35
  with the Mogul Empire at its height and Alamgir reigning at Delhi upon the
• 13:41
  peacock throne. Two ladies are coming to Tea to meet you. I think
• 13:46
  you know them, meet me. I know no ladies, not missus Moore
• 13:52
  and Miss Question. Oh yes, I remember the romance at the mosque had
• 14:00
  sunk out of his consciousness as soon as it was over an excessively aged lady.
• 14:07
  But will you please repeat the name of her companion, Miss quested?
• 14:13
  Just as you wish, he was disappointed that other guests were coming, for
• 14:18
  he preferred to be alone with his new friend. You can talk to misquested
• 14:22
  about the peacock throne. If you like she's artistic, they say, is
• 14:28
  she a post impressionist? Post impressionism? Indeed, come along to tea.
• 14:35
  This world is getting too much from me altogether. Aziz was offended. The
• 14:41
  remark suggested that he, an obscure Indian, had no right to have heard
• 14:48
  of post impressionism, privilege reserved for the ruling race. He said stiffly,
• 14:56
  I do not consider missus Moore my friend. Only met her accidentally in my
• 15:01
  mosque, and was adding a single meeting is too short to make a friend.
• 15:09
  But before he could finish the sentence, the stiffness vanished from it.
• 15:13
  Because he felt feelings fundamental goodwill his own, went out to it and grappled
• 15:20
  beneath the shifting tides of emotion, which can alone bear the voyager to an
• 15:26
  anchorage, but may also carry him across it onto the rocks. He was
• 15:33
  safe, really, as safe as the shore dweller who can only understand stability
• 15:39
  and supposes that every ship must be wrecked. And he had sensations the shore
• 15:46
  dweller cannot know. Indeed, he was sensitive rather than responsive. In every
• 15:52
  remark he found a meaning, but not always the true meaning, and his
• 15:58
  life, though vivid, as largely a dream. Fielding, for instance,
• 16:04
  had not meant that Indians are obscure, but that post Impressionism is a gulf
• 16:12
  divided his remark from Missus Turton's why they speak English? But to Aziz the
• 16:19
  two sounded alike. Fielding saw that something had gone wrong, and equally that
• 16:26
  it had come right. But he didn't fidget, being an optimist where personal
• 16:32
  relations were concerned, and their talk rattled on as before. Besides the ladies,
• 16:38
  I am expecting one of my assistants, Narayan Godboi oh ho, the
• 16:45
  Dekhani Brahman. He wants to pass back too, but not precisely. Alamgir,
• 16:52
  I should think not. Do you know what de Khani Brahmans say that
• 16:57
  England conquered India from them? From them mind and not from the moguls?
• 17:04
  Is not that like their cheek? They have even bribed it to appear in
• 17:10
  textbooks, for they are so subtle and immensely rich. Professor Goodbilly must be
• 17:17
  quite unlike all other Dekani Brahmins. From all I can hear a most sincere
• 17:22
  chap. Oh, why don't you fellows run a club and chandrap or uzzies?
• 17:29
  Perhaps someday, Just now, I see missus Moore and what's her name?
• 17:34
  Coming? How fortunate that it was an unconventional party where formalities are ruled
• 17:44
  out On this basis, uzzies found English ladies easy to talk to. He
• 17:49
  treated them like men. Beauty would have troubled him, for it entails rules
• 17:56
  of its own, but Missus Moore was so old and misquested, so plain,
• 18:03
  that he was spared this anxiety. Adela's angular body and the freckles on
• 18:10
  her face were terrible defects in his eyes, and he wondered how God could
• 18:15
  have been so unkind to any female form. His attitude towards her remained entirely
• 18:22
  straightforward. In consequence, I want to ask you something, doctor Aziz,
• 18:30
  she began. I heard from Missus Moore how helpful you were to her in
• 18:34
  the mosque, and how interesting she learnt more about India in those few minutes
• 18:41
  talk with you than in the three weeks since we landed. I hope please
• 18:47
  do not mention a little thing like that? Is there anything else I may
• 18:52
  tell you by my country. I want you to explain a disappointment we had
• 18:56
  this morning. It must be some point of Indian etiquette they are, honestly,
• 19:03
  is none, he replied. We are, by nature are most informal
• 19:08
  people. I'm afraid we must have made some blunder and given offense, said
• 19:15
  missus Moore. That is even more impossible. But may I know the facts.
• 19:22
  An Indian lady and gentlemen were to send their carriage for us this morning
• 19:27
  at nine. It has never come. We waited and waited and waited.
• 19:34
  We can't think what happened, some misunderstanding, said Fielding, seeing at once
• 19:41
  that it was the type of incident that had better not be cleared up.
• 19:47
  Oh no, it wasn't that, miss Quested, persisted. They even gave
• 19:52
  up going to Calcutta to entertain us, and we must have made some stupid
• 19:56
  blunder. We both feel sure. I wouldn't worry about that. Exactly what
• 20:03
  mister Easlot tells me, she retorted, reddening a little. If one doesn't
• 20:08
  worry, how's one to understand. The host was inclined to change the subject,
• 20:15
  but Aziz took it up warmly and on learning fragments of the delinquent's name
• 20:22
  pronounced that they were Hindoos, slack Hindoos. They have no idea of society.
• 20:30
  I know them very well because of a doctor at the hospital, such
• 20:34
  a slack, unpunctual fellow. It is as well you did not go to
• 20:40
  their house, for it would give you a wrong idea of India. Nothing
• 20:45
  sanitary. I think for my own part, they grew ashamed of their house
• 20:49
  and that is why they did not send. That's a notion, said the
• 20:56
  other men. I do so hate mysteries, Adela announced, we English do
• 21:04
  I dislike them, not because I'm English, but from my own personal point
• 21:10
  of view. She corrected. I like mysteries, but I rather dislike muddles,
• 21:18
  said missus Moore. A mystery is a muddle. Oh do you think
• 21:23
  so, mister Fielding? A mystery is only a high sounding term for a
• 21:29
  muddle. No advantage in stirring it up in either case, Azziz, and
• 21:34
  I know well that India's a muddle in his Oh, what an alarming idea.
• 21:42
  There'll be no muddle when you come to see me, said Azziz,
• 21:47
  rather out of his depth. Missus Moore and everyone, I invite you all,
• 21:52
  Oh please, the old lady accepted. She still thought the young doctor
• 21:57
  excessively nice. Moreover, a new feeling half languor half excitement, bade her
• 22:04
  turn down any fresh path. Misquested, accepted out of adventure. She also
• 22:11
  liked Uzziz and believed that when she knew him better, he would unlock his
• 22:18
  country for her. His invitation gratified her, and she asked him for his
• 22:22
  address. Azziz thought of his bungalow with horror. It was a detestable shanty
• 22:30
  near a low bazaar. There was practically only one room in it, and
• 22:37
  that infested with small black flies. Oh but we will talk of something else
• 22:44
  now, he exclaimed. I wish I lived here. See this beautiful room.
• 22:49
  Let us admire it together for a little. See those curbs at the
• 22:53
  bottom of the arches. What delicacy. It is the architecture of question and
• 23:00
  answer. Missus Moore, you are in India. I am not joking.
• 23:07
  The room inspired him. It was an audience hall built in the eighteenth century
• 23:12
  for some high official, and though of wood, had reminded feeling of the
• 23:18
  Loggia de Lanzi at Florence. Little rooms now europeanized clung to it on either
• 23:26
  side, but the central hall was unpapered and unglassed, and the air of
• 23:32
  the garden poured in freely. One sat in public on exhibition, as it
• 23:38
  were, in full view of the gardeners who were screaming at the birds,
• 23:44
  and of the man who rented the tank for the cultivation of water chestnut fielding
• 23:51
  let the mango trees too. There was no knowing who might not come in,
• 23:56
  and his servants sat on his steps night and day to scourge thieves.
• 24:02
  Beautiful certainly, and the Englishman had not spoilt it, whereas Aziz, in
• 24:07
  an occidental moment, would have hung Maud Goodman's on the walls. Yet there
• 24:15
  was no doubt to whom the room really belonged. I am doing justice.
• 24:21
  Here A poor widow who has been robbed comes along, and I give her
• 24:26
  fifty rupees to another one hundred, and so on and so on. I
• 24:30
  should like that, missus Moore smiled, thinking of the modern method as exemplified
• 24:37
  in her son. Rupees don't last forever. I'm afraid, she said mine
• 24:44
  would. God would give me more when he saw I gave, always be
• 24:49
  giving like the Thaua Bahadur. My father was the same. That is why
• 24:55
  he died poor and pointing about the room he people did with clerks and officials,
• 25:02
  all benevolent because they lived long ago. So we would sit giving forever
• 25:08
  on a carpet instead of chairs. That is the chief change between now and
• 25:15
  then. But I think we would never punish anyone. The ladies agreed,
• 25:22
  poor criminal, give him another chance. His face grew very tender, the
• 25:29
  tenderness of one incapable of administration and unable to grasp that if the poor criminal
• 25:37
  is that off, he will again rob the poor widow. He was tender
• 25:42
  to everyone except a few family enemies, whom he did not consider human.
• 25:48
  On these he desired revenge. He was even tender to the English. He
• 25:55
  knew at the bottom of his heart that they could not help being cold and
• 26:00
  odd and circulating like an ice stream through his land. We punish no one,
• 26:07
  no one, he repeated. And in the evening we will go and
• 26:11
  give a great banquet with a nouch, and lovely girls shall shine on every
• 26:17
  side of the tank with fireworks in their hands, and all shall be feasting
• 26:22
  and happiness until the next day, when there shall be justice. As before.
• 26:27
  Fifty rupees a hundred a thousand till peace comes. Ah, why didn't
• 26:34
  we live in that time? But are you admiring mister Fielding's house? Do
• 26:41
  look how the pillars are painted blue, and the veranda's pavilions what you call
• 26:45
  them, that are above us inside are blue. Also look at the carving
• 26:52
  on the pavilions. Think of the hours it took. Their little roofs are
• 26:56
  curved to imitate bamboo. So pretty? Had the bamboos waving by the tank
• 27:03
  outside? Missus Moore, Missus Moore, go hell, she said, laughing,
• 27:11
  you remember the water by our mosque. It fills this tank. A
• 27:15
  skillful arrangement of the emperors. They stopped here going down into Bengal. They
• 27:22
  loved water wherever they went. They created fountains, gardens. Moms I was
• 27:30
  telling mister Fielding I would give anything to serve them. He was wrong about
• 27:36
  the water, which no emperor, however skillful, can cause to gravitate uphill
• 27:44
  a depression of some depths together with the whole of chandrapor lay between the mosque
• 27:49
  and the Fielding's house. Ronnie would have pulled him up. Turtin would have
• 27:55
  wanted to pull him up, but restrained himself field did not even want to
• 28:00
  pull him up. He had dulled his craving for verbal truth and cared chiefly
• 28:07
  for truths of mood. As for Misquested, she accepted everything azz he said
• 28:14
  as true verbally. In her ignorance, she regarded him as India, and
• 28:22
  never surmised that his outlook was limited and his method inaccurate, and that no
• 28:29
  one is India. He was now much excited, chattering away hard and even
• 28:37
  saying damn when he got mixed up in his sentences. He told them of
• 28:44
  his profession and of the operations he had witnessed and performed, and he went
• 28:49
  into details that scared missus Moore, though Misquested, mistook them for proofs of
• 28:56
  his broad mindedness. She had heard such talk at home in advanced academic circles.
• 29:04
  Deliberately free, she supposed him to be emancipated as well as reliable,
• 29:11
  and placed him on a pinnacle which he could not retain. He was high
• 29:18
  enough for the moment to be sure, but not on any pinnacle. Wings
• 29:25
  bore him up and flagging would deposit him. The arrival of Professor Gondboulet quieted
• 29:33
  him somewhat, but it remained his afternoon. The Brahman, polite and enigmatic,
• 29:42
  did not impede his eloquence, and even applauded it. He took his
• 29:48
  tea at a little distance from the outcasts, from a low table slightly behind
• 29:55
  him, to which he stretched back, and as it were, countered food
• 30:00
  by accident, all feigned indifference to Professor Godboy's tea. He was elderly and
• 30:08
  wizzened, with a gray mustache and gray blue eyes, and his complexion was
• 30:15
  as fair as a european's. He wore a turban that looked like pale purple
• 30:21
  macaroni coat, waistcoat, doughty socks with clocks. The clocks matched the turban,
• 30:30
  and his whole appearance suggested harmony, as if he had reconciled the products
• 30:36
  of East and West, mental as well as physical, and could never be
• 30:41
  discomposed. The ladies were interested in him and hoped that he would supplement Doctor
• 30:48
  Aziz by saying something about religion, but he only ate eight and eight and
• 30:57
  eight, smiling, never letting his eyes catch sight of his hand. Leaving
• 31:04
  the Mogul emperors, Aziz turned to topics that could distress no one. He
• 31:11
  described the ripening of the mangoes, and how in his boyhood he used to
• 31:18
  run out in the reins to a big mango grove belonging to an uncle and
• 31:23
  gorge there, then back with water streaming over you, and perhaps rather a
• 31:30
  pain inside. But I did not mind. All my friends were paining with
• 31:37
  me. We have a proverb in Urdu, what does unhappiness matter when we
• 31:44
  are all unhappy together? Which comes inconveniently after mangoes? Misquestion, do wait
• 31:52
  for mangoes? Why not settle altogether in India. I'm afraid I can't do
• 31:59
  that, said Adela. She made the remark without thinking what it meant to
• 32:05
  her, As to the three men, it seemed in key with the rest
• 32:09
  of the conversation, and not for several minutes, indeed, not for half
• 32:14
  an hour, did she realize that it was an important remark and ought to
• 32:21
  have been made in the first place. To Ranie, Visitors like you are
• 32:25
  too rare. They are, indeed, said Professor Gondola, Such affability is
• 32:35
  seldom seen. But what can we offer to detain them? Mangoes? Mangoes,
• 32:44
  they laughed. Even mangoes can be got in England now put in fielding.
• 32:51
  They ship them in ice cold rooms. You can make India in England
• 32:55
  apparently, just as you can make England in India frightfully expensive in both cases,
• 33:04
  said the girl. I suppose so and nasty. But the host wouldn't
• 33:12
  allow the conversation to take this heavy turn. He turned to the old lady,
• 33:16
  who looked flustered and put out. He could not imagine why, and
• 33:22
  asked about her own plans. She replied that she should like to see over
• 33:28
  the college. Everyone immediately rose, with the exception of Professor Godbolt, who
• 33:35
  was finishing a banana. Don't you come to Adela you dislike institutions. Yes,
• 33:43
  that is so, said missquested, and sat down again. Aziz hesitated.
• 33:51
  His audience was splitting up. The more familiar half was going, but
• 33:55
  the more attentive remained. Electing that it was an unconventional afternoon, he stopped
• 34:05
  talk went on as before, could one offer the visitor's unripe mangoes in a
• 34:10
  fool I speak now as a doctor? No, then, the old man
• 34:17
  said, but I will send you up a few healthy sweets. I will
• 34:23
  give myself that pleasure, misquested Professor Godbolet sweets are delicious, said Azziz sadly,
• 34:34
  for he wanted to send sweets too, and had no wife to cook
• 34:38
  them. They will give you a real Indian treat Ah, in my poor
• 34:45
  position, I can give you nothing. I don't know why you say that,
• 34:50
  when you have so kindly asked us to your house. He thought again
• 34:54
  of his bungalow with horror. Good heavens, the stupid girl had taken him
• 35:01
  at his word. What was he to do? Yes, all that is
• 35:07
  settled, he cried, I invite you all to see me in the Marabar
• 35:14
  Caves. I shall be delighted. Oh, that is a most magnificent entertainment
• 35:21
  compared to my poor sweets. But has not misquested visited our caves already?
• 35:29
  No, I've not even heard of them. Not heard of them, both
• 35:35
  cried, the Marabar caves, in the Marabar Hills. We hear nothing interesting
• 35:43
  up at the club, only tennis and ridiculous gossip. The old man was
• 35:49
  silent, perhaps feeling that it was unseemly of her to criticize her race,
• 35:54
  perhaps fearing that if he agreed, she would report him for disloyalty. But
• 36:01
  the younger man uttered a rapid I know, then tell me everything you will
• 36:07
  or I shall never understand India. Are they the hills I sometimes see in
• 36:13
  the evening? What are these caves? As he's undertook to explain, but
• 36:20
  it presently appeared that he had never visited the caves himself, had always been
• 36:24
  meaning to go, but work or private business had prevented him, And they
• 36:30
  were so far Professor Godbullet chaffed him pleasantly, My dear young sir, the
• 36:38
  pots and the kettle? Have you ever heard of that useful proverb? Are
• 36:45
  they very large caves? She asked, No, not large? Do describe
• 36:52
  them, Professor Goodbullet, It will be a great honor. He drew up
• 36:58
  his chair, and an expression of tension came over his face. Taking the
• 37:04
  cigarette box she offered to him and to Aziz, and lit up herself.
• 37:09
  After an impressive pause, he said, there is an entrance in the rock
• 37:15
  which you enter, and through the entrance is the cave something like the caves
• 37:22
  at Elephanta. Oh, no, not at all. At Elephanta there are
• 37:29
  sculptures of Shiva and Parvati. There are no sculptures at Marabar. They are
• 37:36
  immensely wholly no doubt, said Aziz to help on the narrative, oh no,
• 37:43
  oh no, still they are ornamental in some way. Oh no,
• 37:50
  well, why are they so famous? We all talk of the famous mara
• 37:54
  Bar caves. Perhaps that is our empty brag. No, I should not
• 38:00
  quite say that. Describe them to this lady, then it will be a
• 38:07
  great pleasure. He forwent the pleasure, and Aziz realized that he was keeping
• 38:14
  back something about the caves. He realized because he often suffered from similar inhibitions
• 38:21
  himself, Sometimes to the exasperation of Major Calendar, he would pass over the
• 38:29
  one relevant fact in a position to dwell on the hundred irrelevant. The Major
• 38:35
  accused him of disingenuousness, and was roughly right, but only roughly. It
• 38:43
  was rather that a power he couldn't control capriciously silenced his mind. God Boulet
• 38:51
  had been silenced now, no doubt, not willingly. He was concealing something.
• 38:59
  Handled subtly, he might regain control and announce that the Marabar caves were
• 39:06
  full of stalactites. Perhaps Aziz led up to this, but they weren't.
• 39:14
  The dialog remained light and friendly, and Adela had no conception of its under
• 39:20
  drift. She did not know that the comparatively simple mind of the Mohammedan was
• 39:27
  encountering ancient knight. Aziz played a thrilling game. He was handling a human
• 39:35
  toy that refused to work. He knew that much. If it worked,
• 39:40
  neither he nor Professor Godbal would be the least advantaged. But the attempt enthralled
• 39:47
  him and was akin to abstract thought. On he chattered, defeated at every
• 39:55
  move by an opponent who would not even admit that a move had been made,
• 40:01
  and further than ever from discovering what, if anything, was extraordinary about
• 40:08
  the Marabar caves. Into this, Ronnie dropped with an annoyance he took no
• 40:16
  trouble to conceal. He called from the garden, Oh, what's happened to
• 40:22
  Fielding, where's my mother? Good evening, she replied coolly. I want
• 40:29
  you and mother at once. There's to be polo. I thought there was
• 40:32
  to be no polo. Everything's altered. Some soldier men have come in.
• 40:37
  Come along. I'll tell you about it. Your mother will return shortly,
• 40:43
  sir, said Professor Gondbullet, who had risen with deference. There is but
• 40:50
  little to see at our poor college. Ronnie took no notice, but continued
• 40:55
  to address his remarks to Adela. He had hurried away from his work to
• 41:00
  take her to see the Polo because he thought it would give her pleasure.
• 41:07
  He did not mean to be rude to the two men, but the only
• 41:10
  link he could be conscious of with an Indian was the official, and neither
• 41:16
  happened to be his subordinate. As private individuals, he forgot them. Unfortunately,
• 41:24
  Aziz was in no mood to be forgotten. He would not give up
• 41:30
  the secure and intimate note of the last hour. He had not risen with
• 41:36
  godbolet and now offensively friendly called from his seat, come along up and join
• 41:44
  us, mister Heslop, sit down till your mother turns up. Rani replied
• 41:50
  by ordering one of Fielding's servants to fetch his master at once. He may
• 41:54
  not understand that, allow me, as he's repeated the order idiomatically. Ronnie
• 42:02
  was tempted to retort he knew the type, He knew all the types,
• 42:09
  and this was the spoilt Westernized. But he was a servant of the government.
• 42:15
  It was his job to avoid incidents. So he said nothing and ignored
• 42:22
  the provocation that Aziz continued to offer, as he's was provocative. Everything he
• 42:30
  said had an impertinent flavor or jarred. His wings were failing, but he
• 42:37
  refused to fall without a struggle. He did not mean to be impertinent to
• 42:42
  mister Heaslop, who had never done him harm. But here was an Anglo
• 42:46
  Indian who must become a man before comfort could be regained. He did not
• 42:53
  mean to be greasily confidential to Misquested, only to enlist her support, nor
• 43:01
  to be loud and jolly towards Professor gondolet a strange quartet. He fluttering to
• 43:09
  the ground, She puzzled by the sudden ugliness. Ronnie fuming the Brahman,
• 43:15
  observing all three, but with downcast eyes and hands folded as if nothing was
• 43:23
  noticeable. A scene from a play, thought Fielding, who now saw them
• 43:30
  from the distance across the garden, grouped among the blue pillars of his beautiful
• 43:36
  hall. Don't trouble to come, mother, Ronnie called, we are just
• 43:42
  starting. Then he hurried to Fielding, drew him aside and said, with
• 43:47
  pseudo heartiness, I say, old man, do excuse me, but I
• 43:52
  think perhaps you oughtn't to have left Misquested alone. I'm sorry, what's up?
• 44:00
  Applied Fielding, also trying to be genial. Well, I'm the sundry
• 44:05
  bureaucrat, no doubt. Still, I don't like to see an english girl
• 44:09
  left smoking with two Indians. She stopped as she smokes by her own wish
• 44:16
  old man. Yes, that's all right in England. I really can't see
• 44:22
  the harm. If you can't see, you can't see. Can't you see
• 44:28
  that fellow's a bounder as he's flamboyant, was patronizing missus Moore. He isn't
• 44:37
  a bounder protested fielding. His nerves are on edge, that's all. What
• 44:43
  should have upset his precious nerves. I don't know. He was all right
• 44:47
  when I left. Well, it's nothing i've said, said Ronnie, reassuringly.
• 44:53
  I never even spoke to him. Oh well, come along now and
• 44:58
  take your ladies away. The catastrophe over a fielding. I don't think I'm
• 45:04
  taking it badly or anything of that sort. I suppose you won't come on
• 45:08
  to the polo with us. We should all be delighted. I'm afraid I
• 45:14
  can't. Thanks all the same, I'm awfully sorry you feel I've been remiss.
• 45:19
  I didn't mean to be so. The leave taking began, everyone was
• 45:24
  cross or wretched. It was as if irritation exuded from the very soil.
• 45:32
  Could one have been so petty on a Scotch More or an Italian alp,
• 45:38
  Fielding wondered afterwards, there seemed no reserve of tranquility to draw upon in India,
• 45:47
  either none or else tranquility swallowed up everything, as it appeared to do
• 45:53
  for a professor godboule. Here was Aziz all shaddy and missus Moore, and
• 46:01
  misquested, both silly and he himself and he slap, both decorous on the
• 46:08
  surface, but detestable really and detesting each other. Goodbye, mister Fielding,
• 46:16
  and thank you so very much, what lovely college buildings. Goodbye missus Moore.
• 46:23
  Goodbye mister Fielding, such an interesting afternoon. Goodbye, Misquested. Goodbye
• 46:31
  doctor Azziz, Goodbye Missus Moore, Goodbye doctor Azziz, Goodbye misquested. He
• 46:40
  pumped her hand up and down to show that he felt at ease. You'll
• 46:46
  jolly jolly well not forget those caves, won't you. I'll fix the whole
• 46:51
  show up in a jiffy. Thank you. Inspired by the devil to a
• 46:58
  final effort, he added, what a shame you leave India? So soon.
• 47:04
  Oh, do reconsider your decision? Do stay good bye, Professor Gudbery,
• 47:09
  she continued, suddenly agitated, it's a shame we never heard you sing.
• 47:16
  I may sing now, he replied, and did. His thin voice
• 47:23
  rose and gave out one sound after another. At times there seemed rhythm,
• 47:30
  at times there was the illusion of a western melody. But the ear,
• 47:37
  baffled repeatedly, soon lost any clue and wandered in a maze of noises,
• 47:45
  none harsh or unpleasant, none intelligible. It was the song of an unknown
• 47:52
  bird. Only the servants understood it. They began to whisper to one another.
• 48:00
  The man who was gathering water chestnut came naked out of the tank.
• 48:05
  His lips parted with delight, disclosing his scarlet tongue. The sounds continued and
• 48:13
  ceased after a few moments, as casually as they had begun, apparently half
• 48:20
  through a bar and upon the subdominant. Thanks so much, What was that?
• 48:29
  Asked Fielding. I will explain in detail. It was a religious song.
• 48:37
  I placed myself in the position of a milk maiden. I say to
• 48:44
  Shri Krishna, come come to me. Only the God refuses to come I
• 48:51
  grow humble and say, do not come to me. Only multiply yourself into
• 48:59
  a hundred Christians, and let one go to each of my hundred companions.
• 49:05
  But one, O, Lord of the universe, come to me. He
• 49:10
  refuses to come. This is repeated several times. This song is composed in
• 49:19
  a raga appropriate to the present hour, which is the evening. But he
• 49:25
  comes in some other song. I hope, said Missus Moore gently. Oh
• 49:32
  no, he refuses to come, repeated God Ballet, perhaps not understanding her
• 49:39
  question, I say to him, come, come, Come, Come,
• 49:46
  Come. He neglects to come. Ronnie's steps had died away, and there
• 49:54
  was a moment of absolute silence. No ripple disturbed the water, no leaf
• 50:02
  stirred. End of Chapter seven.