Pages 358 & 359

Sameer didn't linger in the yard, walked away and said to the tenant with Ratno in the front room, "Aunty, I am hungry."

    "Puttar, I'll give you tea first.  Ratno aunty and I will have some too and we can let your father and brother Jaggi have some if you say so," Kamini said  prompting a smile on Sameer's face.

    Ratno saw a bit of Jaggi in Sameer's smile; she had already seen some resemblance between Shiv and Jaggi.  If she could see it, so could everyone else; she didn't know that Seeto had already detected a resemblance between Shiv Ram and Jaggi.  Deliberately interrupting her own thoughts she said,"

    "Hey Sameer yours is a very nice name;  Who chose it? I bet it was your mom."

    "Actually it was dad, after his comrade who died for independence."

    In many ways she and Jagat were strangers, Ratno felt.

    "Godaan is great book.  Its depiction of poverty wreaks misery upon the soul," Ratno heard Jagat say as he walked over to them.  The two men had been talking about the influence of literature on life.  Seeing his mother prompted Jaggi to ask,

    "Uncle, did you know my father?"

    "No, uncle didn't know him though he was much like uncle; and uncle is like your father, too, because for him you're no less than his other," said Ratno stopping herself from completing the sentence with "three sons".

    "But mom I'm asking because I want to know who I am."

    "Well then my eldest child, your mother has ordained that I be your father.  So from today on I am.  Wonder no more.  Let this specimen supplant the creature in your imagination."

On the weekend, leaving Jaggi in Chajjuwara with Sameer, Ratno and Jagat returned to Qaadian.  In the morning the khooh's dog was clinking away, Gamma walking behind the oxen driving the Persian Wheel.  The tinds brought up water and went down again to come up filled with water.  Returning to Delhi or staying close to Jagat was churning in her mind while she stood with Jagat chewing a kikar twig.  She was torn.  She knew her Jaggi secret was safe in the anonymity of Delhi but she was tired of being alone and lonely; she wanted to remain close to Jagat.

    "I'm exhausted being Jaggi's sole counsel.  Exile even a self imposed one is corrosive to the soul through I've survived," Ratno said.

    "Far better than surviving , you've actually thrived and become a headmistress."

    "Yes, but I'm done running.  I need to be with my son and you; he needs you too and I need a job."

    "Yeah it'll be hard separating again but remember Qaadian, even Chajjuwara can prove quite claustrophobic.  Job, no question, there's a good chance we can find you a job," said Jagat.

A few days later Sukhia passed away in his sleep.  Jagat embraced and comforted a distraught Ratno in the cremation grounds in the presence of many other Qaadian wale; had they known their secrets they would have probably lynched them and thrust them on Sukhia's still burnt pyre.  After his funeral they drove back to the bungalow where Khela Singh, the President of the Army College Board was waiting for them.  Jagat had told him about Ratno's qualifications and he had come to offer her the Principalship of the new Arya Middle School in Chajjuwara.