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Speaker 1: The skeleton by the bindnatagre in the room next to

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the one in which we boys used to sleep. There

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hung the human skeleton. In the night, it would rattle

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in the breeze which played about its bones. In the day,

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these bones were rattled by us. We were taking lessons

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in osteology from a student in the Campbell Medical School.

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For our guardians were determined to make us masters of

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all the sciences. How far they succeeded, we need not

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tell those who know us, and it is better hidden

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from those who do not. Many years have passed since then.

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In the meantime, the skeleton has vanished from the room,

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and the science of osteology from our brains, leaving no

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trace behind. The other day, our house was crowded with guests,

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and I had to pass the night in the same

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old room. In these now unfamiliar surroundings, sleep refused to come,

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and as I tossed from side to side, I heard

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all the hours of the night chimed one after another

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by the church clock near by. At length, the lamp

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in the corner of the room, after some minutes of

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choking and spluttering went out. Altogether. One or two bereavements

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had recently happened in the family. So the going out

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of the lamp naturally led me to thoughts of death

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in the great arena of nature. I thought the light

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of a lamp losing itself in eternal darkness, and the

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going out of the light of our little human lives

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by day or by night were much the same thing.

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My train of thought recalled to my mind the skeleton.

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While I was trying to imagine what the body which

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had cloaked it could have been like, it suddenly seemed

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to me that something was walking round and round my bed,

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groping along the walls of the room. I could hear

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its rapid breathing. It seemed as if it was searching

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for something which it could not find, and pacing round

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the room with ever hastier steps. I felt quite sure

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that this was a mere fancy of my sleepless, excited brain,

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and that the throbbing of the veins in my temples

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was really the sound which seemed like running footsteps. Nevertheless,

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a cold shiver ran all over me. To help to

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get rid of this hallucination, I called out aloud, who

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is there? The footsteps seemed to stop at my bedside,

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and the reply came, it is I have come to

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look for that skeleton of mine. It seemed absurd to

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show any fear before the creature of my own imagination.

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So clutching my pillow a little more tightly, I said,

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in a casual sort of way, A nice business for

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this time of night. Of What use will let skeleton

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be to you? Now? The reply seemed to come almost

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from my mosquito curtain itself. What a question? In that skeleton?

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Were the bones that encircled my heart? The youthful charm

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of my six and twenty years bloomed about it? Should

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I not desire to see it once more? Of course,

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said I, A perfectly reasonable desire. Well go on with

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your search while I try to get a little sleep,

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said the voice. But I fancy you are lonely all right,

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I'll sit down awhile and we will have a little chat.

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Years ago I used to sit by men and talk

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to them. But during the last thirty five years I

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have only moaned in the wind and the burning places

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of the dead. I would talk once more with a man,

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as in the old times, I felt that some one

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sat down just near my curtain. Resigning myself to the situation,

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I replied, with as much cordiality as I could summon.

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That will be very nice. Indeed, let us talk of

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something cheerful. The funniest thing I can think of is

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my own life story. Let me tell you that the

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church clock chimed the hour of two. When I was

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in the land of the living and young, I feared

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one thing, like death itself, and that was my husband.

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My feelings can be likened only to those of a

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fish caught with a hook, for it was as if

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a stranger had snatched me away with the sharpest of

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hooks from the peaceful calm of my childhood's home, and

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from him I had no means of escape. My husband

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died two months after my marriage, and my friends and

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relations moaned pathetically on my behalf. My husband's father, after

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scrutinizing my face with great care, said to my mother

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in law, do you not see she has the evil eye? Well?

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Are you listening? I hope you are enjoying the story

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very much. Indeed, said I, the beginning is extremely humorous.

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Let me proceed. Then I came back to my father's

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house in great glee. People tried to conceal it from me,

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but I knew well that I was endowed with the

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rare and radiant beauty. What is your opinion? Very likely,

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I murmured, But you must remember that I never saw you.

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What not seeing me? What about that skeleton of mine?

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Ha ha ha, Never mind, I was only joking. How can

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I ever make you believe that those two cavernous hollows

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contained the brightest of dark, languishing eyes, and that the

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smile which was revealed by those ruby lips had no

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resemblance whatever to the grinning teeth which you used to see.

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The mere attempt to convey to you some idea of

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the grace, the charm, the soft, firm, dimpled curves which,

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in the fullness of youth were growing and blossoming over

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those dry old bones makes me smile. It also makes

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me angry. The most eminent doctors of my time could

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not have dreamed of the bones of that body of

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mine as materials for teaching osteology. Do you know one

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young doctor that I knew of actually compared me to

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a golden jumpuck blossom. It meant that to him the

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rest of humankind was fit only to illustrate the science

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of physiology. That I was a flower of beauty? Does

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anyone think of the skeleton of a jumpuck flower? When

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I walked, I felt that, like a diamond scattering splendor,

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my every movement set waves of beauty radiating on every side.

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I used to spend hours gazing on my hands, hands

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which could gracefully have rained the liveliest of male creatures.

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But that stark and staring old skeleton of mine has

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borne false witness to you against me, while I was

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unable to refute the shameless libel. That is why, of

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all men I hate you most. I feel. I would like,

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once for all to banish sleep from your eyes with

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a vision of that warm, rosy loveliness of mine, to

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sweep out with it all the wretched osteological stuff of

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which your brain is full. I could have sworn by

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your body, cried I, if you had it still, that

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no vista of osteology has remained in my head, and

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that the only thing that it is now full of

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is a radiant vision of perfect loveliness glowing against the

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black background of night. I cannot say more than that

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I had no girl companions, went on the voice. My

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only brother had made up his mind not to marry

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in the Zenana, I was alone. Alone. I used to

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sit in the garden, under the shade of trees and

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dream that the whole world was in love with me,

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That the stars, with sleepless gaze were drinking in my beauty.

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That the wind was languishing in sighs, as on some

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pretext or other it brushed past me, And that the

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lawn on which my feet rested, had it been conscious,

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would have lost consciousness again at their touch. It seemed

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to me that all the young men in the world

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were as blades of grass at my feet, and my heart,

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I know not why, used to grow sad. When my

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brother's friend Shaika had passed out of the medical college,

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he became our family doctor. I had already often seen

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him from behind a curtain. My brother was a strange

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man and did not care to look on the world

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with open eyes. He was not quite empty enough for

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his taste, so he gradually moved away from it until

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he was quite lost in an obscure corner. Shaikhah was

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his one friend, so he was the only young man

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I could ever get to see. And when I held

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my evening court in my garden, then the host of

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imaginary young men whom I had at my feet were

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each one. Ashika, are you listening? What are you thinking of?

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I sighed as I replied, I was wishing. I was

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shakud wait a bit hear the whole story. First, one

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day in the rains, I was feverish. The doctor came

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to see me. That was our first meeting. I was

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reclining opposite the window so that the blush of the

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evening sky might temper the pallor of my complexion. When

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the doctor coming in looked up into my face, I

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put myself into his place and gazed at myself in imagination,

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I saw, in the glorious evening light, the delicate wan

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face lathed like a drooping flower against a soft white pillow,

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with the unrestrained curls playing over the forehead and the

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bashfully lowered eyelids casting a pathetic shade over the whole countenance.

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The doctor, in a tone bashfully low asked, my brother,

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might I feel her pulse? I put out a tired,

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well rounded wrist from beneath the coverlet. Ah, thought I

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as I looked on it, if only there had been

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a sapphire bracelet. I have never before seen a doctor

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so awkward about feeling a patient's pulse. His fingers trembled

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as I felt my wrist. He measured the heat of

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my fever. I gaged the pulse of his heart. Don't

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you believe me? Very easily, said I. The human heart

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beat tells its tale. After I had been taken ill

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and restored to health several times, I found that the

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number of the courtiers who attended my imaginary evening reception

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began to dwindle, till they were reduced to only one.

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And at last, in my little world there remained only

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one doctor and one patient. In these evenings, I used

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to dress myself secretly in a canary colored Saudi twine

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about the braided knot into which I did my hair,

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a garland of white jasmine blossoms, and with the little

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mirror in my hand, betake myself to my usual seat

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under the trees. Well, are you perhaps thinking that the

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sight of one's own beauty would soon grow wearisome? Ah? No,

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for I did not see myself with my own eyes.

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I was then one, and also two. I used to

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see myself as though I were the doctor. I gazed,

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I was charmed, I fell madly in love, But in

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spite of all the caresses I lavished on myself, a

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sigh would wander about my heart, moaning like the evening breeze. Anyhow,

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from that time I was never alone. When I walked,

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I watched with downcast eyes the play of my dainty

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little toes on the earth, and wondered what the doctor

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would have felt had he been there to see. At midday,

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the sky would fill with the glare of the sun,

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without a sound save now and then the distant cry

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of a passing kite. Outside our garden walls, the hawker

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would pass with his musical cry of bangles for sale,

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crystal bangles, and I, spreading the snow white sheet on

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the lawn, would lie on it with my head on

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my arm, with studied carelessness. The other arm would rest

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slightly on the soft sheet, and I would imagine to

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myself that some one had caught sight of the wonderful

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pose of my hand, that some one had clasped it

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in both of his and imprinted a kiss on its

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rosy palm, and was slowly walking away. What if I

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ended the story here, How would it do not half

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a bad ending? I replied thoughtfully, It would, no doubt

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remain a little incomplete. But I could easily spend the

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rest of the night putting in the finishing touches. But

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that would make the story too serious. Where would the

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laugh come in? Where would be the skeleton with its

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grinning teeth? So let me go on. As soon as

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the doctor had got a little practice, he took a

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room on the ground floor of our house for a

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consulting chamber. I used then sometimes to ask him jokingly

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about medicines and poisons and how much of this strag

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or that would kill a man. The subject was congenial,

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and he would wax eloquent. These talks familiarize me with

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the idea of death, and so love and death were

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the only two things that filled my little world. My

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story is now nearly ended. There is not much left.

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Not much of the night is left, either, I muttered.

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After a time, I noticed that the doctor had grown

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strangely ups and minded, and it seemed as if he

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were ashamed of something which he was trying to keep

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from me. One day he came in somewhat smartly dressed

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and borrowed my brother's carriage for the evening. My curiosity

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became too much for me, and I went up to

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my brother for information. After some talk beside the point,

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I at last asked him, by the way, Dada, where

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is a doctor going this evening in your carriage? My

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brother briefly replied to his death, Oh, do tell me,

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I importuned. Where is he really going to be married?

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He said a little more explicitly. Oh, indeed, said I,

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As I laughed long and loudly, I gradually learned that

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the bride was an heiress who would bring the doctor

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a large sum of money. But why did he insult

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me by hiding all this from me? Had I ever

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begged and prayed him not to marry because it would

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break my heart? Men are not to be trusted. I

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have known only one man in all my life, and

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in a moment I made this discovery. When the doctor

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came in after his work and was ready to start,

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I said to him, rippling with laughter, the while, well, doctor,

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so you are to be married to night? My gayety.

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Not only may the doctor loose countenance? It thoroughly irritated him.

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How is it? I went on, that there is no illumination,

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no band of music. With a sigh, he replied, is

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marriage then such a joyful occasion, I burst out into

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renewed laughter. No, no, said I, this will never do.

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Who ever heard of a wedding without lights and music?

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I bothered my brother about it so much that he

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at once ordered all the trappings of a gay wedding.

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All the time I kept on gaily talking of the bride,

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of what would happen, of what I would do. When

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the bride came home and doctor, I asked, will you

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still go on feeling pulses? Ha ha ha. Though the inner

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workings of people's, especially men's minds, are not visible, still

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I can take my oath that these words were piercing

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the doctor's bosom like deadly darts. The marriage was to

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be celebrated late at night. Before starting, the doctor and

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my brother were having a glass of wine together on

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the terrace, as was their daily habit. The moon had

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just risen. I went up, smiling and said, have you

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forgotten your wedding? Doctor? It is time to start. I

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must here tell you one little thing. I had meanwhile

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gone down to the dispensary and got a little powder, which,

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at a convenient opportunity, I had dropped unobserved, into the

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doctor's glass. The doctor, draining his glass at a gulp,

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in a voice thick with emotion, and with the look

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that pierced me to the heart, said, then I must go.

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The music struck up. I went into my room and

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dressed myself in my bridal robes of silk and gold.

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I took out my jewelry and ornaments from the safe

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and put them all on. I put the red mark

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of wifehood on the parting in my hair, and then

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under the tree in the garden I prepared my bed.

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It was a beautiful night. The gentle south wind was

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kissing away the wariness of the world. The scent of

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jasmine and bella filled the garden with rejoicing. When the

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sound of the music began to grow fainter and fainter,

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the light of the moon to get dimmer and dimmer,

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the world, with its life long associations of home and kin,

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to fade away from my perceptions like some illusion. Then

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I closed my eyes and smiled. I fancied that when

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people came and found me, they would see that smile

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of mine lingering on my lips like a trace of

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rose colored wine. That when I thus slowly entered my

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eternal bridle chamber, I should carry with me the smile

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illuminating my face, but alas for the bridle chamber, alas

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for the bridal robes of silken gold. When I woke

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at the sound of a rattling within me, I found

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three urchins learning osteology from my skeleton, where in my

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bosom my joys and griefs used to throb, and the

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petals of youth to open one by one. There the master,

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with this pointer was busy naming my bones. And as

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to that last smile, which I had so carefully rehearsed,

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did you see any sign of that? Well? Well, how

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did you like the story? It has been delightful, said I.

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At this point, the first crow began to call, are

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you there? I asked. There was no reply. The morning

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light entered the room end of the skeleton.