1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:06,599 The skeleton by the bindunatigore in the room next to the one in which we 2 00:00:06,719 --> 00:00:10,960 boys used to sleep. There hung the human skeleton. In the night, 3 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:15,240 it would rattle in the breeze which played about its bones. In the day, 4 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:20,039 these bones were rattled by us. We were taking lessons in osteology from 5 00:00:20,039 --> 00:00:24,000 a student in the Campbell Medical School. For our guardians were determined to make 6 00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:28,359 us masters of all the sciences. How far they succeeded, we need not 7 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:31,960 tell those who know us, and it is better hidden from those who do 8 00:00:32,039 --> 00:00:37,920 not. Many years have passed since then. In the meantime, the skeleton 9 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:41,799 has vanished from the room, and the science of osteology from our brains, 10 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:48,119 leaving no trace behind. The other day, our house was crowded with guests, 11 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:52,159 and I had to pass the night in the same old room. In 12 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:57,320 these now unfamiliar surroundings, sleep refused to come, and as I tossed from 13 00:00:57,359 --> 00:01:00,880 side to side, I heard all the hours of the night chimed one after 14 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:07,319 another by the church clock near by. At length, the lamp in the 15 00:01:07,359 --> 00:01:11,439 corner of the room, after some minutes of choking and spluttering went out altogether. 16 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:17,599 One or two bereavements had recently happened in the family. So the going 17 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:22,280 out of the lamp naturally led me to thoughts of death in the great arena 18 00:01:22,359 --> 00:01:26,120 of nature. I thought, the light of a lamp losing itself in eternal 19 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:30,439 darkness, and the going out of the light of our little human lives by 20 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:36,000 day or by night, or much the same thing. My train of thought 21 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:40,040 recalled to my mind the skeleton. While I was trying to imagine what the 22 00:01:40,079 --> 00:01:42,719 body which had cloaked it could have been like, it suddenly seemed to me 23 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:48,680 that something was walking round and round my bed, groping along the walls of 24 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:53,959 the room. I could hear its rapid breathing. It seemed as if it 25 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:57,159 was searching for something which it could not find in pacing round the room with 26 00:01:57,239 --> 00:02:02,040 ever hastier steps. I felt quite sure that this was a mere fancy of 27 00:02:02,079 --> 00:02:06,799 my sleepless, excited brain, and that the throbbing of the veins in my 28 00:02:06,879 --> 00:02:12,400 temples was really the sound which seemed like running footsteps. Nevertheless, a cold 29 00:02:12,439 --> 00:02:15,800 shiver ran all over me. To help to get rid of this hallucination, 30 00:02:16,479 --> 00:02:23,680 I called out aloud, who is there? The footsteps seemed to stop at 31 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:29,280 my bedside, and the reply came, it is I I have come to 32 00:02:29,319 --> 00:02:34,639 look for that skeleton of mine. It seemed absurd to show any fear before 33 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:38,919 the creature of my own imagination. So clutching my pillow a little more tightly, 34 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:43,919 I said, in a casual sort of way, A nice business for 35 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:46,199 this time of night. Of What use will let skeleton be to you? 36 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:53,319 Now? The reply seemed to come almost from my musquito curtain itself. What 37 00:02:53,439 --> 00:02:57,560 a question? In that skeleton? Were the bones that encircled my heart? 38 00:02:58,159 --> 00:03:01,560 The youthful charm of my six and twenty years bloomed about it? Should I 39 00:03:01,599 --> 00:03:07,080 not desire to see it once more? Of course, said I, A 40 00:03:07,199 --> 00:03:13,280 perfectly reasonable desire. Well go on with your search while I try to get 41 00:03:13,319 --> 00:03:19,120 a little sleep, said the voice. But I fancy you are lonely all 42 00:03:19,199 --> 00:03:23,680 right, I'll sit down awhile and we will have a little chat. Years 43 00:03:23,719 --> 00:03:25,960 ago I used to sit by men and talk to them. But during the 44 00:03:27,039 --> 00:03:30,800 last thirty five years I have only moaned in the wind in the burning places 45 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:34,199 of the dead. I would talk once more with a man as in the 46 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:39,560 old times. I felt that someone sat down just near my curtain. Resigning 47 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:44,560 myself to the situation, I replied, with as much cordiality as I could 48 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:47,840 summon. That will be very nice. Indeed, let us talk of something 49 00:03:47,919 --> 00:03:53,240 cheerful. The funniest thing I can think of is my own life story. 50 00:03:53,960 --> 00:04:00,400 Let me tell you that the church clock chimed the hour of two. When 51 00:04:00,479 --> 00:04:03,560 I was in the land of the living and young, I feared one thing, 52 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:09,080 like death itself, and that was my husband. My feelings can be 53 00:04:09,159 --> 00:04:12,919 likened only to those of a fish caught with a hook, for it was 54 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:15,360 as if a stranger had snatched me away with the sharpest of hooks from the 55 00:04:15,399 --> 00:04:19,399 peaceful calm of my childhood's home, and from him I had no means of 56 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:25,319 escape. My husband died two months after my marriage, and my friends and 57 00:04:25,399 --> 00:04:30,680 relations moaned pathetically on my behalf. My husband's father, after scrutinizing my face 58 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:34,560 with great care, said to my mother in law, do you not see 59 00:04:34,879 --> 00:04:40,360 she has the evil eye? Well? Are you listening? I hope you 60 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:45,759 are enjoying the story very much. Indeed, said I, the beginning is 61 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:51,079 extremely humorous. Let me proceed. Then I came back to my father's house 62 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:56,439 in great glee. People tried to conceal it from me, but I knew 63 00:04:56,439 --> 00:05:00,519 well that I was endowed with a rare and radiant beauty. What is your 64 00:05:00,519 --> 00:05:05,480 opinion? Very likely, I murmured, which you must remember that I never 65 00:05:05,519 --> 00:05:12,600 saw you. What not seeing me? What about that skeleton of mine? 66 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:17,560 Ha ha ha, Never mind, I was only joking. How can I 67 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:21,759 ever make you believe that those two cavernous hollows contained the brightest of dark, 68 00:05:21,959 --> 00:05:27,480 languishing eyes, and that the smile which was revealed by those ruby lips had 69 00:05:27,519 --> 00:05:31,199 no resemblance whatever to the grinning teeth which you used to see. The mere 70 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:35,120 attempt to convey to you some idea of the grace, the charm, the 71 00:05:35,279 --> 00:05:40,439 soft, firm, dimpled curves which, in the fullness of youth were growing 72 00:05:40,439 --> 00:05:45,480 and blossoming over those dry old bones makes me smile. It also makes me 73 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:49,079 angry. The most eminent doctors of my time could not have dreamed of the 74 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:55,480 bones of that body of mine as materials for teaching osteology. Do you know 75 00:05:56,199 --> 00:06:00,680 one young doctor that I knew of actually compared me to a golden chumpuck blossom. 76 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:04,199 It meant that to him the rest of humankind was fit only to illustrate 77 00:06:04,199 --> 00:06:10,319 the science of physiology. That I was a flower of beauty? Does anyone 78 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:15,120 think of the skeleton of a chumpuck flower? When I walked, I felt 79 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:19,399 that, like a diamond scattering splendor, my every movement set waves of beauty 80 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:25,480 radiating on every side. I used to spend hours gazing on my hands, 81 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:30,759 hands which could gracefully have reigned the liveliest of male creatures. But that stark 82 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:34,639 and staring old skeleton of mine has borne false witness to you against me, 83 00:06:35,079 --> 00:06:39,959 while I was unable to refute the shameless libel. That is why, of 84 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,759 all men I hate you most, I feel. I would like, once 85 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:46,000 for all to banish sleep from your eyes with a vision of that warm, 86 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:51,000 rosy loveliness of mine, to sweep out with it all the wretched osteological stuff 87 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:56,439 of which your brain is full. I could have sworn by your body, 88 00:06:56,879 --> 00:07:00,040 cried I, if you had it still, that no vista of osteology has 89 00:07:00,079 --> 00:07:03,279 remained in my head, and that the only thing that it is now full 90 00:07:03,319 --> 00:07:09,199 of is a radiant vision of perfect loveliness glowing against the black background of night. 91 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:15,160 I cannot say more than that I had no girl companions, went on 92 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:18,879 the voice. My only brother had made up his mind not to marry in 93 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:23,480 the Zenana, I was alone. Alone. I used to sit in the 94 00:07:23,519 --> 00:07:27,600 garden under the shade of trees and dreamed that the whole world was in love 95 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:30,839 with me, That the stars, with sleepless gaze were drinking in my beauty. 96 00:07:30,879 --> 00:07:34,319 That the wind was languishing in size, as on some pretext or other 97 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:38,839 it brushed past me, And that the lawn on which my feet rested, 98 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:44,079 had it been conscious, would have lost consciousness again at their touch. It 99 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:46,920 seemed to me that all the young men in the world were as blades of 100 00:07:46,959 --> 00:07:50,959 grass at my feet and my heart, I know not why used to grow 101 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:57,839 sad. When my brother's friend Shaikah had passed out of the medical college, 102 00:07:58,079 --> 00:08:01,519 he became our family doctor. I had already often seen him from behind a 103 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:05,680 curtain. My brother was a strange man and did not care to look on 104 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:09,879 the world with open eyes. He was not quite empty enough for his taste, 105 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:15,439 so he gradually moved away from it until he was quite lost in an 106 00:08:15,439 --> 00:08:20,600 obscure corner. Shaikah was his one friend, so he was the only young 107 00:08:20,639 --> 00:08:24,319 man I could ever get to see. And when I held my evening court 108 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:26,800 in my garden, then the host of imaginary young men whom I hat at 109 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:31,039 my feet were each one as Shaikah, are you listening? What are you 110 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:35,799 thinking of? I sighed as I replied, I was wishing. I was 111 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:41,879 Shaikhah, wait a bit hear the whole story. First, one day in 112 00:08:41,919 --> 00:08:46,840 the rains, I was feverish. The doctor came to see me. That 113 00:08:48,039 --> 00:08:52,000 was our first meeting. I was reclining opposite the window so that the blush 114 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:56,480 of the evening sky might temper the pallor of my complexion. When the doctor 115 00:08:56,600 --> 00:09:01,919 coming in, looked up into my face, I put myself into his place 116 00:09:01,279 --> 00:09:05,799 and gazed at myself. In imagination, I saw, in the glorious evening 117 00:09:05,879 --> 00:09:11,320 light, the delicate wan face lathe like a drooping flower against a soft white 118 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:16,559 pillow, with the unrestrained curls playing over the forehead, and the bashfully lowered 119 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:22,720 eyelids casting a pathetic shade over the whole countenance. The doctor, in a 120 00:09:22,759 --> 00:09:28,039 tone bashfully low asked, my brother, might I feel her pulse? I 121 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:31,720 put out a tired, well rounded wrist from beneath the coverlet. Ah, 122 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:35,759 thought I as I looked on it, if only there had been a sapphire 123 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:41,679 bracelet. I have never before seen a doctor so awkward about feeling a patient's 124 00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:46,559 pulse. His fingers trembled as I felt my wrist, he measured the heat 125 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:50,679 of my fever. I gazed the pulse of his heart. Don't you believe 126 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:56,200 me? Very easily, said I. The human heartbeat tells its tale. 127 00:09:56,679 --> 00:10:01,759 After I had been taken ill and restored to health several times, I found 128 00:10:01,799 --> 00:10:05,279 that the number of the courtiers who attended my imaginary evening reception began to dwindle, 129 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,000 till they were reduced to only one. And at last, in my 130 00:10:09,039 --> 00:10:15,399 little world there remained only one doctor and one patient. In these evenings, 131 00:10:15,399 --> 00:10:20,519 I used to dress myself secretly in a canary colored SADDI twine about the braided 132 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:24,559 knot into which I did my hair, a garland of white jasmine blossoms, 133 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:28,039 and with the little mirror in my hand, betake myself to my usual seat 134 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:33,480 under the trees. Well, are you perhaps thinking that the sight of one's 135 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:37,840 own beauty would soon grow wearisome? Ah? No, for I did not 136 00:10:37,919 --> 00:10:41,879 see myself with my own eyes. I was then one, and also two. 137 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:46,279 I used to see myself as though I were the doctor. I gazed. 138 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:52,240 I was charmed. I fell madly in love, But in spite of 139 00:10:52,279 --> 00:10:56,679 all the caresses I lavished on myself, a sigh would wander about my heart, 140 00:10:56,279 --> 00:11:01,399 moaning like the evening breeze. Anyhow, from that time I was never 141 00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:05,600 alone. When I walked, I watched with downcast eyes the play of my 142 00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:09,399 dainty little toes on the earth, and wondered what the doctor would have felt, 143 00:11:09,399 --> 00:11:13,679 had he been there to see. At mid day, the sky would 144 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:16,840 fill with the glare of the sun, without a sound save now and then 145 00:11:16,919 --> 00:11:22,519 the distant cry of a passing kite. Outside our garden walls, the hawker 146 00:11:22,519 --> 00:11:28,080 would pass with his musical cry of bangles for sale, crystal bangles, and 147 00:11:28,159 --> 00:11:31,919 I, spreading the snow white sheet on the lawn, would lie on it 148 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:35,000 with my head on my arm, with steadied carelessness. The other arm would 149 00:11:35,039 --> 00:11:39,720 rest lightly on the soft sheet, and I would imagine to myself that some 150 00:11:39,799 --> 00:11:43,440 one had caught sight of the wonderful pose of my hand, that some one 151 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:46,480 had clasped it in both of his and imprinted a kiss on its rosy palm, 152 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:50,960 and was slowly walking away. What if I ended the story here, 153 00:11:52,519 --> 00:11:58,960 how would it do not half a bad ending? I replied thoughtfully, it 154 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:01,879 would, no doubt remain little incomplete. But I could easily spend the rest 155 00:12:01,879 --> 00:12:07,039 of the night putting in the finishing touches. But that would make the story 156 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:11,200 too serious. Where would the laugh come in? Where would be the skeleton 157 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:16,720 with its grinning teeth? So let me go on. As soon as the 158 00:12:16,799 --> 00:12:20,480 doctor had got a little practice, he took a room on the ground floor 159 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:24,759 of our house for a consulting chamber. I used then sometimes to ask him 160 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:28,120 jokingly about medicines and poisons, and how much of this strog or that would 161 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:33,600 kill a man. The subject was congenial, and he would wax eloquent. 162 00:12:33,399 --> 00:12:37,840 These talks familiarize me with the idea of death, and so love and death 163 00:12:37,879 --> 00:12:41,799 were the only two things that filled my little world. My story is now 164 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:46,440 nearly ended. There is not much left. Not much of the night is 165 00:12:46,519 --> 00:12:52,200 left, either, I muttered. After a time, I noticed that the 166 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:56,320 doctor had grown strangely upsent minded, and it seemed as if he were ashamed 167 00:12:56,360 --> 00:13:00,000 of something which he was trying to keep from me. One day he came 168 00:13:00,159 --> 00:13:05,799 in somewhat smartly dressed and borrowed my brother's carriage for the evening. My curiosity 169 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:09,279 became too much for me, and I went up to my brother for information. 170 00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:13,240 After some talk beside the point, I at last asked him, by 171 00:13:13,279 --> 00:13:16,600 the way, thada, where is a doctor going this evening in your carriage? 172 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:22,000 My brother briefly replied to his death, Oh, do tell me, 173 00:13:22,159 --> 00:13:28,720 I importuned. Where is he really going to be married? He said a 174 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:33,480 little more explicitly. Oh, indeed, said I, As I laughed long 175 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:39,799 and loudly, I gradually learned that the bride was an heiress who would bring 176 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:43,480 the doctor a large sum of money. But why did he insult me by 177 00:13:43,559 --> 00:13:46,200 hiding all this from me? Had I ever begged and prayed him not to 178 00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:50,240 marry because it would break my heart? Men are not to be trusted. 179 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:54,840 I have known only one man in all my life, and in a moment 180 00:13:54,879 --> 00:13:58,200 I made this discovery. When the doctor came in after his work and was 181 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:03,120 ready to start, I said to him, rippling with laughter, the while, 182 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:07,919 well, doctor, so you are to be married to night? My 183 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:13,519 gayety not only made the doctor lose countenance, it thoroughly irritated him. How 184 00:14:13,639 --> 00:14:16,360 is it? I went on, that there is no illumination, no band 185 00:14:16,399 --> 00:14:22,360 of music. With a sigh, he replied, is marriage then such? 186 00:14:22,399 --> 00:14:26,799 A joyful occasion, I burst out into renewed laughter. No, no, 187 00:14:26,919 --> 00:14:31,879 said I, this will never do. Whoever heard of a wedding without lights 188 00:14:31,879 --> 00:14:35,440 and music? I bothered my brother about it so much that he at once 189 00:14:35,559 --> 00:14:41,000 ordered all the trappings of a gay wedding. All the time I kept on 190 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,639 gaily talking of the bride, of what would happen, of what I would 191 00:14:43,639 --> 00:14:48,080 do. When the bride came home and doctor, I asked, will you 192 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:52,919 still go on feeling pulses? Ha ha ha. Though the inner workings of 193 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:58,720 people's, especially men's minds, are not visible, still I can take my 194 00:14:58,759 --> 00:15:03,879 oath that these words were piercing the doctor's bosom like deadly darts. The marriage 195 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:07,840 was to be celebrated late at night. Before starting, the doctor and my 196 00:15:07,879 --> 00:15:11,240 brother were having a glass of wine together on the terrace, as was their 197 00:15:11,279 --> 00:15:16,000 daily habit. The moon had just risen. I went up, smiling and 198 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:20,840 said, have you forgotten your wedding? Doctor? It is time to start. 199 00:15:22,159 --> 00:15:26,559 I must here tell you one little thing. I had meanwhile gone down 200 00:15:26,559 --> 00:15:30,720 to the dispensary and got a little powder, which, at a convenient opportunity, 201 00:15:30,759 --> 00:15:35,200 I had dropped unobserved into the doctor's glass. The doctor, draining his 202 00:15:35,279 --> 00:15:39,919 glass at a gulp, in a voice thick with emotion, and with the 203 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:43,320 look that pierced me to the heart, said, then I must go. 204 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:48,120 The music struck up. I went into my room and dressed myself in my 205 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:52,919 bridal robes of silk and gold. I took out my jewelry and ornaments from 206 00:15:52,919 --> 00:15:56,639 the safe and put them all on. I put the red mark of wifehood 207 00:15:56,639 --> 00:16:02,120 on the parting in my hair. Then under the tree in the garden I 208 00:16:02,159 --> 00:16:07,159 prepared my bed. It was a beautiful night. The gentle south wind was 209 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:12,320 kissing away the wariness of the world. The scent of jasmine and bella filled 210 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:18,440 the garden with rejoicing. When the sound of the music began to grow fainter 211 00:16:18,519 --> 00:16:22,000 and fainter, the light of the moon to get dimmer and dimmer, the 212 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:26,720 world, with its life long associations of home and kin, to fade away 213 00:16:26,759 --> 00:16:33,320 from my perceptions like some illusion. Then I closed my eyes and smiled. 214 00:16:34,679 --> 00:16:38,240 I fancied that when people came and found me, they would see that smile 215 00:16:38,279 --> 00:16:42,200 of mine lingering on my lips like a trace of rose colored wine. That 216 00:16:42,279 --> 00:16:47,320 when I thus slowly entered my eternal bridle chamber, I should carry with me 217 00:16:47,399 --> 00:16:52,960 the smile illuminating my face, But alas for the bridle chamber, alas for 218 00:16:53,039 --> 00:16:56,879 the bridal robes of silk and gold. When I woke at the sound of 219 00:16:56,879 --> 00:17:02,679 a rattling within me, I found three urchins learning osteology from my skeleton, 220 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:07,240 where in my bosom my joys and griefs used to throb, and the petals 221 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:11,680 of youth to open one by one. There the master with this pointer was 222 00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:15,200 busy naming my bones. And as to that last smile, which I had 223 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:21,960 so carefully rehearsed, did you see any sign of that? Well? Well, 224 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:26,960 how did you like the story? It has been delightful, said I. 225 00:17:29,599 --> 00:17:33,400 At this point, the first crow began to call, are you there? 226 00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:38,640 I asked. There was no reply. The morning light entered the room 227 00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:42,480 end of the skeleton.