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Begum Rokeya |
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A Mission to Boligorto (continued) |
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Back Page |
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Mr Khatkhat� was definitely religious minded. He spent his time with the Koran, Hadees, Tafseer, and Tasbih. Although he did not shirk his duties as a landlord, he spent minimum time in worldly affairs, only as much as was unavoidable. |
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Not only did this make the latter plump with pride but he even expanded upon the theme of these two lines and had an 8-10 pages monograph printed. In order to distribute these books among his acquaintances he even absented himself from office for a couple of days.
He kept on telling everybody, "Magistrate? He is after all a petty officer! Commissioner? He is only an insignificant servant. I don't care about them. They on the other hand should honour me, for nowadays I am on letter-writing terms with the "Lat Bahadur himself, " and so he would go on. |
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In Islam, both giving and taking of interest were considered sins. So the poor peasants instead of taking loans from other people borrowed from him He charged exorbitantly high interests because the scriptures prohibited interest against loans. Since he was forfeiting his religion by helping the poor they had to pay a good price. Religion after all could not be so cheaply bartered away. |
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Mr Forfor� deemed it necessary for men to have four wives; all other customs of Hindustan he held in contempt. Yet when it came to considering the re-marriage of his thirteen years old widowed niece he dissented, saying, "Since we are living in a Hindu country we should respect their customs and regulations. No widow of an aristocratic family is re-married," and so he went on |
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Everyone in his household even the maids and servants were devoutly religious. They believed in even the most unintelligible legends of the Hadees and moulded their habits accordingly. Some kafer in times long past was said to have cleaned his tongue with a tongue-scrubber, so they never used that implement. |
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The Khan Bahadur himself had taken up the duties of looking after three wives; the fourth place had been reserved for the extremely beautiful daughter of a certain zamindar. Unfortunately it so happened that one day he ran about on the streets of Guptapur, intoxicated and with the bottle in hand. |
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In order to obtain the rewards of Jihad, the Khan would tyrannically beat his maids and his tenants. The reader would be surprised to know that even during this British rule in some places there were maids who were slaves; not bought in the open market though, but captured by might or wile from the homes of the poor tenants. |
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Some malicious persons went and related the incident to the wife of the said zamindar with the result that his marriage plans fell through. So the post of his fourth wife lay vacant up till then. Since he was now ridden with ill health and not even able to move on his own, not a single bloke was willing to give him his daughter in marriage. |
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Thus the mistresses of his household and the master himself got the opportunity to obtain the religious benefit of jehad by beating slaves and tenants. If once in a while it so happened that some slave girl somehow managed to escape through the gutter in the loo then the Khan Bahadur would be lucky to obtain the rewards of granting azad, or liberty. |
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The Khan Bahadur Khatkhat� was a man of multiple virtues the principal among which was his capacity to manage things. Because commodities became scarce during the monsoons he would make advance procurements of huge quantities of rice, pulses, and other provisions. He would horde so much rice that ultimately paddy would grow out of the old rice and by and by his entire granary would become a paddy field. All the rooms along the corridor would become jam-packed with onion plants and coconut trees. The potato creepers would creep and climb up to the first floor of his house. |
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The God fearing Khan Bahadur was staunchly opposed to the custom of confinement. Once he had to go to Guptapur with his family for medical treatment. His widowed young sister and a niece coaxed him into letting them go round by car to see the city of Guptapur. He readily agreed and ingeniously had the entire vehicle draped in a thick cloth through which the poor damsels saw only a vague shadowy impression of the place and a minor hint of the shining sun. |
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Even so Mr Khatkhat� said to them, "Look here, by going out by car you beheld the faces of innumerable men and so you have to perform Taoba (penitence) before me and promise never to indulge the desire to go our by any motor car." |
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Our sister Dalimkara's (Mrs Forfora) description of the W.C.(toilet) of Boligorto was too offensive to refined taste and therefore not worth wasting ink and paper on. |
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Mr Khatkhat� was under the treatment of a certain hakim called Ajrail. The hakim saheb got paid a fee of rupees two hundred. Due to this it was said that the Khan Bahadur was fast moving upwards to the Mokam Mahmuda (the highest region of Heaven). After expressing our heartfelt wishes for his speedy recovery we took our leave of Mrs Forfora. |
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Since Mr Jaherdar Forfor� was the brother of the Khan Bahadur Khatkhat� he too was extremely dedicated to religion. He observed the most trivial customs of the Shariat. He believed it was a great sin to take photographs of human beings. By becoming the secretary of an orphanage in Guptapur he was earning a lot of grace (the lowly called it money) We came to learn that once he had invited the Governor of Bengal to come and visit his orphanage. |
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While getting into the car Kamala didi said, "Listen dada, wait a bit. If there is no way on earth to reach Boligorto, then we shall soon travel by air and land on the roof of Mr Kashai-ud-din Khatkhat�'s palace. |
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After His Highness had left, one of Jaherdar's friends regretted not having got the opportunity of having a group photo taken with the dignitary.
Upon this Mr Forfor� made the following remark, "Yes indeed dear brother, why didn't you remind me about it earlier? So much was arranged yet this most important detail was overlooked. I can't make you understand how I regret it." |
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Hearing this, a witty person from among those assembled there stood up and said, addressing the entire assemblage, We had so far known that our friend Mr Forfor� was of the opinion that it was an unpardonable offence to take photographs of human beings. But now our same friend seems to think that there was no sin in photographing the Governor. On the contrary, in this action there appears to be the hope of obtaining the grace of God. (general laughter). |
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This story is excerpted from Harvest Volume II (2002), which covers a wide range of Bengali short stories by women writers (from both Bangladesh and India) from 19th century till date and it was published later on in Parabaas. The author Begum Rokeya was a early champion of women's liberation, whose story is excerpted here, is also the earliest author represented in this volume. |
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Before he left the place the Governor even expressed his satisfaction by writing two complimentary sentences praising Mr Forfor�'s work. |
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Translated from Bengali by Tapati Gupta |
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Notes and Glossary |
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Bhaisaheb: Respectful and affectionate address for brother (Urdu)
Boligorto: a compound of `boli'= ritual sacrifice, and 'garto'= hole; the name suggests a sacrificial pit
Bubu: lder sister (muslim)
Dada, Dadababu: literally elder brother; often used as a reverential form of address to denote one of superior station.
Didi: elder sister
Diwan: Land Revenue officer
Hakim: a physician with deep knowledge and wisdom
Mamarbari: maternal gradparent's home; literally, maternal uncle's home |
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