Land of Five Rivers by Khushwant Singh Read Free Book Online

case before the judicial court. After a tiring day, I was standmg on the road, waiting for some conveyance when I saw a cycle-rickshaw slowly approaching. Beside it hobbled an old woman with a stick. When the rickshaw came nearer I recognised Boota sitting in it. He was wearing near khaki shorts and fine leather shoes. His shirt and turban were new. He greeted me with a smile and the driver halted the rickshaw.
    â€˜How are you, Boota?’ I asked.
    â€˜By God’s grace and your kindness I am quite well, thank you,’ he replied. ‘His Highness is away at Chail, his summer place. As soon as he comes back, I will be granted an interview. My name is at the top of the list... I hear an athletic team is going to London in the autumn. I hope to be selected...’
    I looked at him and asked why he was riding in a rickshaw.
    The old woman heaved a sigh and moaned, ‘Oh, my son! My Boota was a free bird. Eternal sitting on a watchman’s stool has been hard on him. Blood has curdled in his thighs and has gathered in his knees. Look, how swollen they are! Oh, my heart!’
    She beat her breast with her fists and wailed, ‘Now I am taking him to the hospital to have his knees treated.’
    I looked at Boota. His once shield-like knees were now puffed and bulging.
    He looked at me with his animal eyes. His lips opened like a freshly ploughed furrow and he said, ‘The doctor is treating me with electric instruments. In a week my knees will be healed and I shall be able to run. Then sir, I’ll go to London and run a hundred miles race...’
    The rickshaw slowly crawled along and I stood there watching the mother and the son till they were lost in the distant curve of the road.

t he night of the full moon

    Kartar Singh Duggal
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  N o one believed that Malan and Minnie were mother and daughter; they looked like sisters, Minnie was quite a bit taller than her mother. People said, ‘Malan, your daughter has grown into a lovely woman!’ They never stopped gaping at the girl. She was like a pearl and as charming as she was comely.
    When Malan looked at her daughter she felt as if she was looking at herself. She too had been as young and as beautiful. She hadn’t aged much either. And there was somebody who was willing to go to the ends of the earth for her even now.
    Why had her mind wandered to this man? He must be a dealer in pearls because every time she thought of him pearls dropped from her eyes! Her daughter was now a woman; it was unbecoming of her to think of a man. She had restrained herself all these years; why did her mind begin to waver? She must hold herself in check. Her daughter was due to wed in another week; she must not entertain such evil thoughts — never! never!
    â€˜My very own, my dearest,’ he had written only yesterday ‘do not forget me.’ But every time he came to the village she sent him away without any encouragement. She shut her eyes as fast as she shut her door against him. He had refused to give her up. She was his life; without her he found no peace. He had spent many years waiting for her, pleading with her, suffering the pangs of love and passion. An age had passed and now the afternoon shadows had lengthened across life’s courtyard.
    Malan knew in her heart that he would come that night. Every full moon lit night he knocked on her door. And tonight the moon would be full. The night would be cold, frosty and still. She had never unlatched her door for him. Would she tonight? She recalled a cold, moonlit night of many years ago. She was dancing in the mango grove when her
duppatta
had got caught in his hand. She had come to him bare-headed with the moonlight flecking her face with jasmine petals. He had put the
duppatta
across her shoulders — exactly the way it lay across her shoulders now. A shiver ran down Malan’s spine.
    Minnie came down the lane, tall and as slender as a cypress. Fair and