Banquet on the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

the air and stared into the distance, his chest still heaving. ‘She does have a point, you know. She does. Look at Swami. Not married, no job, does no productive work. Look at me—I am in no position to be independent. I’ve always been dependent, and I always will be. I suppose you could say Venkatram is the most “normal” among us, but then you should see how he dances at the call of his wife! And his so-called agriculture in the village. Hah! Believe me, we haven’t ever seen a paisa come out of that land, and he’s been at it for thirteen years. No, sir, none of us is any good. Karuna has that right.’
    ‘And your sister?’ Hamid Pasha murmured.
    Another line of smoke left the tip of the cigarette. The voice mellowed. ‘My sister,’ he said, and sighed. ‘What should I tell you about her? She was the only one among us who would have amounted to anything, going by what we were like as kids, you know. She would come first in class, learn her lessons, be the teacher’s pet, you know, that sort of thing. There’s always one of those in the family.’
    ‘You speak of her as though you pity her, miyan.’
    ‘What’s not to pity, bhai? These bookish people, the intelligent ones, you know, they never understand the world. They spend too much time worrying about how the world should be—not what it is like, you know. She is like that. So is that son of hers. Anyone with his practice would have at least two mansions in the city, sir.’
    Inspector Nagarajan, keen to bring the conversation back on track, asked, ‘Have you ever been near the well, Raja sahib?’
    The man in the chair frowned. ‘The well? No, that has been an unlucky well for us, you know. Two deaths, it has seen, and one near death. I suspect this will be the last.’
    ‘Why do you think your mother went to the well that day, sir?’
    Raja reached into his pack for a new cigarette, lit it with the one already in his mouth, and closed his eyes at the first drag. Then he said, sighing, ‘Why does anyone do anything, Inspector? Maybe someone called her there.’
    ‘Did you see her leave the house?’
    ‘Not through this door, for sure. But she could have left by the back door. Besides, I was not home.’
    Hamid Pasha considered the tip of his cigarette for a second, then flicked it free of the overhanging ash with a deft tap. He asked slowly, ‘You were saying this is not the first death in that well?’
    ‘Oh no, second. Prameela’s other daughter died in it too.’
    ‘And that was an accident?’
    The grey lips parted in a smile, and dark, yellowish teeth showed themselves. ‘Yes, sir, I suppose it was an accident.’
    Nagarajan asked, ‘You say you suppose. What does that mean?’
    ‘People always talk, Inspector. How can anyone say anything for sure? A kid is learning to swim, a harmless snake swims by—the kid is rescued, but she contracts a fever and dies a week later. Is that an accident? Some would say yes.’ His hands stayed still for a moment. ‘But some would say not.’
    Hamid Pasha got up and said to Nagarajan, ‘Let us go to the well, miyan.’
    ‘All I can tell you, bhaisaab,’ said Raja, ‘is that I had nothing to do with any of these deaths.’ He pointed at his legs. ‘I cannot, you see.’
    Hamid Pasha smiled sweetly at him. ‘Of course, sir.’ And he made his way to the entrance, Nagarajan following suit. Just as they were about to close the door, they heard the man inside mumble in a faint, tired voice, ‘Close the door. I don’t like the outside air.’
    Kauvery Bhavan was composed of two wings with a common front room into which the main door opened. A gravelly path made its way out from the bottom of the concrete platform on which the building was raised, and curved away to the right before it reached the main gate and disappeared between a thicket of touch-me-nots. Hamid Pasha and Inspector Nagarajan took this path after they came out of the building. When he reached the point where the trail bent,