ee x: v 1 ye Ue The curtain goes up on an empty stage, with a lullaby dronin; offstage, till the Bayen enters, Singing. She looks utterly exhausted and despondent, at the end of her tether, dragging her reluctant feet like some condemned ae entry into human society. She draws in with her a string with @eanister tied to its end, rattling and clanging along the floor. The whistle of a train from a distance. She wears a filthy red sari without the customary border, her hair disheveled; she wears no jewellery. BAYEN (sings). Come, sleep, come to my bed of rags, My child god sleeps in my lap, The elephants and horses at the palace gates, The dog Jhumra in the ashheap.. = The Bayen enters singing. BAYEN. The dog Jhumra sleeps in the ashheap, in the ashheap. (Places the canister on the ground, brings down the pitcher of water from her head, ad stops for a while, before addressing an unseen dog.) Why don’t you wait for a while, my dear, and let me fill the pitcher? Tch, Tch, Tch, come dear, come, come, don’t run away, child, stay for a while, my > dear... (Dips the pitcher in the water, and sings.) My child god sleeps in my lap... in my lap . . . (Stops singing.) |don’t ha > more, nobody. When I hadn’t become a Baye: ly. down the pitcher, and rocks an imaginary Tused to rock him like this, suckle him, all that milk,a real flood, the milk from 7 the breastspitt orrthe floor, and that’s why... (puts a hand to her knits her brow, broods for a while, and then suddenly comes back to her senses. Addressing the dog again.) Hungry, Jnumra? They give me my ration on Saturday, with a little rice. Out of that I give you a little, the rest I eat myself. (With a sad smile.) A Bayen shouldn’t eat too much. Yet hunger gnaws. (Listens eagerly.) There, there comes Gangeputta. Jhumra dear, let’s move out of his path. (Sourids hurt.) 1’! tell him everything today, everything, all the wrongs | suffer. Just a little rice, the salt all mixed with dirt, worms in the lentil—why id | take it? G s to the side, turns her head away. Biagirath ard Malindar enter, ing intimately. 4. I’m sure I'll win the scholarship. But will you promise to to high school? Teacher tells me, I’m sure to win the district . Isn’t it a lot of money, father? Z la76 / MANASWETA DEVI MALINDAR. A lot. You think you're going to get the eae BHAGIRATH. Yes, father. Vy MALINDAR. You have to ride the train to get to high school. There’s no other way to get there, and now there’s a spate of train robberies. This place has grown evil. They pile uj bamboos on the track to stop the train, and then they raid it. em! BHAGIRATH. How does that matter? I’ll be going by the day train. MALINDAR. True, you'll be on the day train... still... BAYEN. Gangaputta! Gangaputta! (She stands with her back to them. Malindar stops in his tracks, and instinctively covers his eyes. He i covers his son’s eyes too, and draws him closer to himself.) Gangaputta! I’m not facing you. What's there to get scared about? MALINDAR (in panic). O holy mother! You had to call me at this hour of th day when the wind goes crazy? BAYEN (@ tired voice, she is tired of the superstitious terror that she carrie with her). Tie knots in your hair and in what you're wearing. (Malindar ties knots in his hair and his dhoti.) Spit on the head of the child. Tell me when you've done it. MALINDAR (spits on Bhagirath’s head). | have now. (Bhagirath raises his to steal a glance at the Bayen, but Malindar checks him in time.) your eyes, Bhagirath. BAYEN (turns around, in yearning disbelief). Bhagirath? My Bhagirath? _ Bhagirath? IDAR (ferocious in his fear). Stop it, you bitch! Turn your face away dutifully turns away.) You want to kill me? Is that why re? Eh? her eyes, shivers and cries). No. No. Ng. Why have you come then? Eh? a 9 oil for my hair, it’s all matted, and I can’t comb it. There’s ne at home to light a lamp. ‘ou mean to say that the Bayen’s scared of the dark? o rice since Thursday, I've been living on water, I’m water. ? Don’t you get your ration on Saturday? Don’t they ou every Saturday—rice, salt, lentil and oil? Don’t they e chhatim tree for witness and leave the hamper for youRAlronatit, w eo D Curis woe dwdifenns mole iis erie BAYEN. What do they give me in their hamper? It’s only half a kilo of rice, a fistful of lentil, fifty grammes of oil and a pinch of salt, is that enough for a week? MALINDAR. Those bastards . . . I’ll look into it. BAYEN. I didn’t know when they left it; when I found it, the dog had toppled it over. MALINDAR. Will you take money? Money? BAYEN. Who'll sell me anything? *MALINDAR. I'll buy for you, buy everything for you today, pick it up at the foot of the tree. ne now. fee YY BAYEN (a dry, plaintive wail). I can’t bear it alone through the night, — MALINDAR. Then why did you have to become a Bayen? Go away, go away, at once. Otherwise I'll strike you. (He picks up clods from the ground and hurls them viciously at the Bayen.) c. BAYEN. Please, dear, don’t hit me, dear. (Raises the pitcher to her head, holds the siring with the canister in her hand, and starts moving.) I’m leaving, I'm off, tch, tch, tch, tch, come along, doggie, come Jhumra, otherwise they'll strike you too. ‘MALINDAR. Where's Jhumra? (Scared) Whom do you call? He's right there. Can’t you see him? R. Don’t you remember, Jhumra’s long dead? SN (surprised). Is that so? (As she leaves.) Then how do I see him yering about me all the time? Is it all illusion? Come dearie, come leaves.) R (covers his face with his hands, and cries bitterly). How could I urled stones at her body? It used to be a body soft as butter. uld I be such a beast? (He cools down after a while, lights a ks more calmly.) Go home, Bhagirath. I'll go to the the things that she needs, and leave them at her house. ing since Thursday. It’s Saturday today. (Bhagirath Don’t tell your stepmother anything about what , what you heard. Hey, why don’t you go? a faint strain of the !ullaby—‘Come sleep, come to my bed in, receding into the distance at the same time. hasn’t forgotten a thing. ... you spoke to the Bayen?78 / MAHASWETA DEVI % MALINDAR (smiling mysteriously). So what, son? BHAGIRATH. Isn’t the living man who speaks to the Bayen doomed to die? My second mother tells me, Bhagirath, come back straight from school, and run whenever you hear the canister clanging. Otherwise she'll suck your life-blood. And you spoke to her? Won't she kill you off? MALINDAR. No, dear, she won't kill me. (He strokes Bhagirath’s head, lovingly, slowly.) She's a Bayen now, but .. . but, Bhagirath . . . she’s your mother. BHAGIRATH. My mother? The Bayen’s my mother? What sort of a mother? MALINDAR. You were born of her womb, my son. There was no one as beautiful as she, no one with such grace. BHAGIRATH. Then why did you tell me my mother died while I was a baby? Why did you tell me that? MALINDAR (miserable). There's the rub, my child, why I have to lie. She held you in her womb, she showed you the world, she suckled you, "and then she became a Bayen. BHAGIRATH. But why did she become one? MALINDAR. Our bad luck, hers, yours and mine. Once a Bayen she’s no _ longer human. So I tell you, you don’t have a mother. Couldn’t you see she’s no longer human? RATH. My mother? Without clothes? Without food? Without oil in her hair? She had everything. When she was your mother, my wife. I her striped saris to wear, and silver-nickelled jewellery. I fed I rubbed oil in her hair, her body. (Sighs.) She came from a great mily. You've heard of Harishchandra. Who gave him shelter when ‘his kingdom and became a 2 Kalu Dome. en Harishchandra became king again, he had gifts for all . Then it was Kalu Dome who shouted at him: Hey, King, things to give to all those who never cared for you when ~ me gave you food then, I gave you clothes. What ? We are the Gangaputtas. What are you going to, ’ This is how he shouted. (He comes to the centre of th to the audience, raises his face and shouts.) What or my community?BAYEN/ 79 cremation grounds of the world are yours. All the cremation grounds of the world are yours, yours, yours. MALINDAR (smiles, as he explains to his son). Yes, that’s how it peppery } Bhagirath. Then Kalu Dome danced, like this. (He raises his arms, an dances, screaming continuously.) The Brahmans, the sadhus, the sanyasis get cattle, land and gold, and we get all the cremation grounds of the world. All the cremation grounds of the world for us, for us, for us, for us only. (Stops, turns around, pauses, then in a different tone altogether.) Your mother was a descendant of Kalu Dome. Her name was Chandidasi Gangadasi, she used to bury children. BHAGIRATH. She buried children? | MALINDAR. You wouldn't know, son. The rules have changed now, now | there are new laws laid down by the government, to burn all bodies. But in those days, in the villages, children were buried. Your mother j buried them. lama Gangaputta, a Dome. It was my job to light the logs, and keep the pyre burning. But I had learnt to write, and sign my name. So they gave me a job in the morgue. It was then, on Holi day, that I saw her first. (Pause. Pleadingly) Why don’t you slip out fora hile, child? Your father and mother will meet now, fall in love, get married, and then you'll be born. (Shoves him out.) You shouldn't be watching this. (Bhagirath leaves the stage.) Let me walk back to twelve years ago. (Walks. As he walks, hewuses his fingers to rearrange ae Rages 5 ir dance. C a The lights change to yellow, with Malindar dancing in drunken frenzy. Chandidasi, also drunk, enters dancing. (CHANDI (singing): _ It’s black | love! Krishna’s black, the tamal tree's black, 's why it’s black I love. black I... (noticing Malindar.) are you dear? My dark, dark lover? Haven't you had your 2? Aren't you drunk enough? (singing) 's fair, the lotus is fair, liove. at, darling, great! (Sings.) time for holi, colours?Oe ae , 80 / MAHASWETA D Ww 1 ETA EVI Cel we gle \« , MALINDAR (sings): haw T'll steal the colours off your heart, dear, ot e j And pour it all over you. eo CHANDI (sings). | won’t let you, I won't. © y MALINDAR (sings). I won’t let you go, I won’t. THE TWO TOGETHER (singing and dancing): ' Drunk with colour, Our bodies too are drunk. ' The heart's ‘ull of colour, Let the colour spill over the body Let the colour flow all over. They stop, and stand facing each other: Chandidasi shuts her eyes, staggers a little, then opens her eyes. CHANDIDASI (in control of herself, her tone a bit remote now). Who are yo MALINDAR. Who are you? Tell me that first. CHANDIDASI. I’m Chandidasi Gangadasi. My father, the late Patitpaban Gangadas. I bury dead children and guard the graves. MALINDA. I’m Malindar Gangadas, used to be at the cremation ground, "now an attendant at the morgue. (Beats his chest.) It’s a government job, and permanent. I do my duty, and pocket my salary, ha! (Pause.) Anyone at home? CHANDIDASI. It’s me for myself. INDAR. No. DIDASI. What do you mean by No? R. You have me. I wasn’t there, now Iam. What did you say? Didn’t you hear me? I. D’you know my forebears? Kalu Dome’s my forefather. I’r the Domes here. I danced with you, and you think you heap? With me? one to talk cheap, wasn’t born a bastard. I'll marry me? ry you. on them staring at each other. Aon,BAYEN/ 81 2 A part of the stage is lit up, with Chandidasi rocking her son in her lap, singing. CHANDIDASI (sings): Come, sleep, come to my bed of rags, My child god sleeps in my lap, The elephants and horses at the palace gates The dog Jhumra in the ashheap. He's asleep, my darling one. (She puts the child to bed.) Bhagirath, your father hasn’t two minutes to spare to listen to my woes. Won‘t b you listen to all that hurts within me? (She strokes the sleeping child.) Before you were born, I never knew I'd feel like this. Now it hurts so bad when I bury the little ones under the banyan tree.,O my son, do you feel your mother’s woe? Men in general are so insensitive. Their children die. I bury them. And they say I have the evil eye; if I stare at a child, it’s sure to die. (Smiles sadly.) The other day in the dark someone hurled a stone at me . . .! (Malindar enters.) You! _ MALINDAR. Who was it that hurled the stone? _ CHANDIDASI. Now, now, what're you going to do, beat him up? MALINDAR. Who dares stone the wife of Malindar Gangaputta, and hopes to get away with it? sNDIDASI. Now will you stop raising a row over it, and sit here for a nile? / Oh, oh, oh! s1. Where's the shirt for Bhagirath? got all about it, wife. I'll bring it tomorrow for sure. ou can be! It’s something for your son, and Chard hearted, wnraynpol hele hin). Oh yes, a red shirt for the son, a red sari and e son’s mother. or me. It only makes people envious and they t? At the primary school, they were always 2 learnt how to sign my name, and they were82 / MAHASWETA DEVI all envious. I landed a government job, more envy. I married a golden doll of a wife, a descendant of the great Kalu Dome, still more envy. 1 built a new hut, and had two bighas of land for share cropping, how could they help being envious? Hey, where's the fan? (Chandidasi brings in a palmyra fan and fans him.) Bastards, get as envious as you can. I can take it all, I, Malindar Gangaputta. I'll send my son to school—over there, beyond the railtracks. CHANDIDASI (laughs). And what else? MALINDAR. I'll make a real gentleman of him. (Chandidasi, even as she fan: him seems to be lost in her thoughts.) What are you thinking? CHANDIDASI. Gangaputta! MALINDAR. Yes? CHANDIDASI. It hurts to do the job these days, the job handed down to me by my ancestors, my hands rebel, and yet I have to go on doing it. Can you tell me what I should do? oe MY, OG MALINDAR. That's one thing you have, to harp on. Now, did Felu bring th mutton? I bought a piece the moment they had slaughtered the goat. CHANDIDASL Yes, he did. MALINDAR. Have you cooked it? CHANDIDASI. Yes.. Yes. Listen to me, if I don’t do it...Oh, why did God have to throw me into such a quandary? Pop) wv) wv Awe MALINDAR. Quandary? What's the quandary? When a child dies, can anyone keep it in the house? The job you do is a useful one, but the é _ bastards won't recognize that. CHANDIDASI. They say I have the evil eye. The little ones die of summer ‘ye _ heat, winter’s cold, and small pox, don’t they? And is it any fault of mine? R ‘Khey ‘e doomed, these fools. Ignorant idiots, is there anyone them who can sign his name? Is there anyone With a » ent job? Idiots, all of them. DIDASI. Why can’t you see it, Gangaputta, why I think of throwing the job againand again? When | guard the graves through the it, my breasts bursting with milk ache for my Bhagirath back all by himself. I can’t, can’t stay away from him. ning himself). Now stop whining. I can’t stand it all t u don’t feel like carrying on, why don’t you just throw ioo BAYEN/ 83 THANDIDASI. | can’t get over the scare. Whenever I seem to have madc up So” my mind that I won't go back to the job ever, T seem to hearsay fathers e woice roaring like thundes: If you opt out, it’ be my beat again, that what you desire? Would you like me back on the job guarding the graves from the predatory jackals? I can almost hear him chasing the jackals away, thundering all the while, hoi! hoi! hoia! | MALINDAR. Oh, stop it, please. CHANDIDASL. Your own cousin, Pakhi! You know how much I love her Gaughter Tukni, Before Bhagirath was born, I had fed her, bathed her, given her a pair of silver-nickelled anklets foo. Now Tukni has small pox. | asked Pakhi: how’s the child? And imagine what she had to Say! She said: Begone, you witch! , MALINDAR. Who? That Pakhi? She has a venomous tongue, and that’s why her husband refuses to live with her. So it’s Pakhi who a witch? (Laughs alow ish! i CHANDIDASI (screams). What's that you said? So you call me a Bayen? Me, a Bayen? That's what you said, didn’t you? So you say I dig up the graves and raise the dead babies? Kiss them? Suckle the dead children? How could you say it? MALINDAR. I wes joking, darling, it was a joke. Can’t you take a joke, dear? CHANDIDASI. What a joke to crack at the expense of a mother with a Iittle child! Take back your words, else I’ll beat my head against the floor till I die. (Starts beating her head against the door.) MALINDAR. Gone mad, or what? CE OFF. Chandi! Chandi bou? (Chandi collects herself.) DAR. Shashi’s voice, isn’t it? . Shashi? Which Shashi? Shashi, my brother-in-law, Pakhi’s husband . Brother-in-law! Tukni’s father? | Gourdas enter the stage. Shashi wails inconsolably. it a thing to do, Chandi bou? How could you do it? vhat’s heppened, brother-in-law? : ah! She has small pox, so Lt soaked her in the holy ponent eae waters of the sacred84 /MAIASWETA DEVI water-hole there, smeared her all over with the sacred mud, made her drink the sacred water, and then, after all that, my little darling was dead even before the evening star was out. Bou! Why did you ask, ‘How's Tukni’ and strike her with the secret arrow? CHANDIDASI. Tukni . SHASHI. Oh, how could you do it? CHANDIDASI. Me? What did I do? GOURDAS (to Shashi). Didn't I tell you? Now you can see it? CHANDIDASI. What are you hinting at, Gourdas? What have you seen? GOUuRDAS. I’ve nothing to say. MALINDAR (mad with rage). So? It seems Shashi has an adviser now in Gourdas. Gourdas! When a neighbour's house is on fire, would you pour kerosene over the fire instead of water? Is that what you’d do? One can see Shashi’s mad with grief. But you've not gone mad. What are you trying to suggest? GouRDAS. Malindar, you fight with me in vain. I’m here only to stand by Shashi and take Chandi away. MALINDAR (grips Gourdas by the shoulder). What are you trying to put into Shashi’s head? OURDAS (releasing himself with an effort). Ah, ah... ah! A R. My wife won’t go with you. What? ++ -4won’t... go? . is... no more? ck to his senses). She won't? eeping in grief and from a sense of injustice). No, no, no. ody else to do it for you. you say that? (In control, repentant.) Have you daughter you are? Your ancestry? If you do not bury is remain hovering far from their destination. You're a u Kalu Dome .. . you are the destination, you Ganga ... denied your service, the dead child the mother. Haver mercy on us, mother, forgive us” and touches her son's head). 1 swear upon the T've never never wished any ill on Tukni,BAYEN/ 85 nor on any child. (Majestically proud.) You all know who my forebears were. I carry out my obligations as a sign of reverence for them. I guard the graves that hold your dead children. I pull out thornwood to cover the graves, chase away the jackals. But all that’s over now. I'll never serve you again. If my forefathers resent it, 11 plead for their forgiveness. (Looks at Malindar.) If you are a man, it’s ywoP for you to avenge this injustice. You'll find a home in the city, and w take me and Bhagirath away from here. Else, before your very eyes. I'll jump before the running train with Bhagirath in my arms. Don’t dare forget, it's Chandidasi speaking. yV XX) sHasut (folds his hands in fear). Mother, forgive a man mad with grief. You're a progeny of the great Kalu Dome. There’s none placed above | you in our community. (His voice breaks with sobs.) You've sworn an oath on the head of your son, mother. I pray you, for a last time, please do the last rites for Tukni. CHANDIDAS! (with queenly dignity). Go. I’ll come. And let the community know that this will be the last time that I'll do this job. didasi, stick in hand, squats in a dimly lit patch downstage; her eyes mit, she rocks rhythmically. A lantern glows beside her. DIDASI. Gangaputta? Hey, Gangaputta? Shall we run away in the irk of night? To any place whatsoever? Anywhere? You, me and pirath? Somewhere where nobody knows us? (Overcome with head lolls, she shakes off her sleep with a jerk, and opens her e’s Gangaputta? Eh? I’m here, keeping guard over Tukni. ge dream it was! village enter the stage one by one, stand in silence in a , held by Gourdas. His eyes gape in disbelief and ains oblivious of their presence. her sleep and breaks into laughter to the lagers who look at one another). O, holy mother! it am I dreaming of, sitting here all by myself? grave. With great affection.) There’s i dear. I've loved you, little mother of Thad Bhagirath in my womb. (Caresses the e mother. You needn't get scared. I’ve ound you, the jackals won't come at you, ‘s the lantern burning. The jackals shy ughs.) They’re all scared of me, every one86 / MANASWETA DEVI of them. (The villagers, lined up upstage, nod their heads. Now they are convinced. This is all the assurance they needed.) s CHANDIDASI (yawns, shuts her eyes, dozes off to sleep again). Tv all scared of me (in a sleepy drawl). But why did I get a gente tos Gangaputta? Why this fear of a curse that would befall me because I've defied my forefathers and refused to carry on with their profession? I never had such a fear, But today . . . there's the greater fear... God won't let me see you and Bhagirath ever again. Why don’t you come closer to me, Gangaputta? (Wakes up with i and laughs.) What rubbish, really! There's no one here but me! Tukni there under the banyan tree, and me on guard . . . and all the dreams. You've nothing to fear, little mother Tukni. (The screech of a night bird.) Aah! It’s nothing, a little bird only, but sounds go like a child crying! (Rubs her eyes.) My breasts ache, at bursting point, with all the milk, and the suckling child at home. Ah, this cursed sleep. | feel so heavy and drugged. (Looks upward.) | can go home only when that star reaches the western sky. Bhagirath, my dear, are you crying for your mother? I’m coming, son, coming. I'll sprinkle water from the Ganga all over my body and then? I'll gather you in my arms and suckle you. lll sing you a lullaby then. (Sings.) My child god sleeps in my lap, My child god sleeps in my lap, My child god... The mob advances towards her. Chandidasi, aware of their presence for the first time, rises to her feet, in panic. CHANDIDASI. Who's there? Who are you? GOURDAS (savage). See for yourself, Malindar, you bastard. It’s your wife, the Bayen, that’s been killing our children. Why don’t you ask her yourself? Who was she talking to? Whom was she fondlin ig? DIDASI. So you're all here? You too, Bhagirath all alone at home? NDAR. Chandi? Why did you leave your bed and come here? ASI. I heard the jackals tugging at the thornbushes, scratching at ve. | heard them and came out (to Shashi, with a nervous smile), Tukni’s sake, brother-in-law. tuck, they point their fingers at her). You're a Bayen. *r eyes wandering from face to face, in sheer bafflement). 1 the grave. Gangaputta? And you’ve left ve their awe to savage violence). Yes, you're a Bayen, «Bayven/ 87 CHANDIDASI, No, no, I'm no Bayen. MALINDAR, Then who was it with whom you were s« voice mounts.) Why is your sari dri ping with mil suckling? For whom was the lullaby? CHANDIDAS!I (pleading for mercy). I'm no Ba that’s why my breasts ooze milk all the it’s true, Why don’t you tell them? Malindar comes closer to her, He takes up the lantern and peers into her face. They stand face to face for a time. Malindar’s eyes have a fre look. Chandi stares at him, terror-stricken. Trembling uncontrollably, Malindar puts the lantern down. Then he mimes a wild drum dance, beating at the air with both his hands, as he runs in a circle and screams: ‘Ha-ri-ri-ri-ri-ri . . .’ He rushes off stage and returns almost instantly with a dhol. MALINDAR (shouting at the top of his voice, crying heartrendingly at the same time). 1... Malindar Gangaputta .. . strike my drum (beats the drum frantically) . . . to declare that my wife has turned into a Bayen, a Bayen! CHANDIDASI (overlapping). Save me. Gangaputta, save me! MALINDAR (overlapping). Turned into a Bayen! CHANDIDASI. O my Bhagirath! My little darling . . . my life! (The villagers try to drag her away in savage fury.) No, no, oh no, my Bhagirath . . . They drag her away, One of them carrying the dhol away with him, leaving Malindar alone on the stage. He rearranges his hair back to the way it was at the beginning of the play, rearranges his dhoti too back to the earlier manner, and moves towards the wings. AR. Bhagirath? Bhagirath enters. Now I've told you everything. Your mother’s been a Bayen . They’d have burnt her ce if she had been a witch, a Bayen’s not for killing. ails Bayen, and the d ildren (Frowns, speaks haltingly.) They set up a hovel for her railway track, every Saturday they leave a hamper of food. ‘doorstep. Once a year they give her two saris and two so lovey dovey? (His 1k? Ve you yen. I've a suckling child, and time. Gangaputta, you know 1 was in a daze. It was Pak! Then I married your step hi, Tukni’s mother, who” mother, then you had your( 88 / MAHASWETA DEVI two sisters. Your stepmother took care of you. If she has not been affectionate, she has not been negligent either. BHAGIRATH. And then? MALINDAR. She couldn’t stand loneliness, wouldn't let me out of sight for i a moment. But now she’s been all alone for all these years. There, listen, it’s the Bayen singing her lullaby. A faint drone of a lullaby wafts in from far away, the words lost in the distance, a weary keening. : oe The stage is su d in an afternoon glow. The whistle of a train from the ee distance. Bi stands in a corner, waiting. The lullaby and the clanging canister approach closer. Bhagirath is all ears. BHAGIRATH (to himself). I'll not look on her face, I'll just see her face in the water. There can be no harm if I don’t look on her face. I’ll look at the reflection in the water. The other day I didn’t. The Bayen enters the stage, singing the lullaby. She puts the canister on the ground, stops singing, fills the pitcher from the pool, lifts it, puts it back on the ground. She cups her hands, dips them in the water, lifts her hands to her face, then, with her hands covering her face, she turns her back on Bhagirath, aware of his presence. TH. Don’t you have another sari? (The Bayen does not reply.) fould you like to have a whole sari, not in shreds? Want my dhoti? iN (clearing her choking throat). Let the Gangaputta’s son go (his eyes riveted on the reflection of the Bayen in the water). school now. I'll compete for the district scholarship . . . I'm bidden to talk to us... I’m a Bayen. ing to the reflection. “t the Gangaputta told his son, there's poison in the air ithe, there’s poison in my touch? And the school- sn’‘t he know it? no fear. very words the Gangaputta had once spok once again, ‘I have no fear’. He said it too.BAYEN / 89 But then he panicked, I gave him a fright, ke didn’t rovoke hi community,. . . (to Bhagirath) Let the son’go home. (Her voice cracks with sobbing.) It’s evening. No child should be straying so far from home at this hour. BHAGIRATH. You are scared to live alone, isn’t it so? THE BAYEN. Me? (Tries to laugh it away.) No, no. I know no fear. Why should a Bayen be afraid to live by herself? BHAGIRATH. Then why do you cry every evening? THE BAYEN. Who says so? BHAGIRATH. I’ve heard you. THE BAYEN. The Gangaputta’s son has heard me crying! She is about to turn around. Bhagirath notices the reflection in the water wavering. He raises his face, and for one long second they stare into each other's faces, before the Bayen turns her face away. Bhagirath stares on. _ THE BAYEN (her voice quivering with sobbing). The Gangaputta’s son has heard me crying? .GIRATH (bolder now). Yes, every day. But why? What's there to be afraid of? I stand there for a long while, every day. What're you scared of? IE BAYEN. Oh, my God! What do I do now? (Her voice chokes with sobs.) _ What do I do? (She wipes her tears away, takes a deep breath, hardens elf to speak with greater firmness.) The Gangaputta’s son should iin come to the tracks in the evening. I promise, I won't cry *t him go home at once. Let him go home and swear that he'll come here again even to look upon the Bayen’s shadow. Has there ever been another boy here? there be another boy? he shouldn’t ever come here. I'll tell the Gangaputta away, snatching her pitcher and trailing her agirath stares after her for a while, before roken by the whistle of a train from far away. '@ grim red. The Bayen enters the stage from the corner. She puts down thg pitcher and the oie Behe duals, ever , gone? The mirror? (In a wondering mirror, holds it up before her face, and90 / MAHASWETA DEVI sighs.) My looks are gone for ever. (Puts down the mirror.) Haven't used a comb for I don’t know how long. (Tries to untangle her matted hair with her fingers, to no effect.) No oil for such a long time, it’s all ina mess. There was a time when the Gangaputta loved to stroke my hair. (Thoughtful.) But why did the boy ask me about a whole sari? He can’t be remembering anything. A clean sari, good looks, silver- nickelled bangles, a coloured spot between the eyebrows—he wouldn’t remember! (In anger.) The Gangaputta’s to blame. Father of a son, a government servant, a permanent worker at the morgue, and you can’t keep an eye on your son! The boy comes here in the evenings, stands there. What if a snake bites him? Or if an evil wind’s blowing? If anything happens to him, whose loss will it be? (Shudders with the realization that it,has been the mother in her that spoken.) God! What have I said! (She spits on the ground.) Have a long life, darling, live long! (Broodingly.) I'll go to the railway line now, and tell the Gangaputta when he’s returning from work. She goes into the wings, to return with a lantern, lights it up, and leaves the stage with the lantern in her hand. Pause broken by the | rumble of an approaching train. Engine flashlight on the backdrop, the Fe thundering wheels on the soundtrack. A few people enter the stage with bamboo poles and spread them out over the stage. The lights suggest that they have piled bamboo poles on the railway track to obstruct and stop the train so that they can then attack and loot it. The Bayen enters from the other end as they wait for the train to come. THE BAYEN (comes to a halt). What's going on here? THE MOB (petrified with fear). The Bayen! THE BAYEN (raises the lantern). Gourdas! Tushtu! Isn’t that Chhidhar? Banamali’s son? __ THE Mos. The Bayen! (They run away in panic.) THE BAYEN. So you've obstructed the railroad, you'd stop the train and rob it: that’s the plan, isn’t it? And then you run away in fear of me? her voice, calls out.) Come back! Take away the bamboo poles st, there'll be disaster else! (Shakes her head.) No, it’s not in you. can K the track, but [avert ‘more and more restless a train approaches closer, rumble louder.) But what can I do? I must do something. O if I’m truly a Bayen, then all the creatures of the nether world follow my orders. Why don’t they? Why can’t I then stop that to the audience, breaks into a heartrending cry.) Why? ¢ op that train? (She raises the lantern, and waves it, as” the pile of bamboo poles, and screams.) Stop the train,BAYEN/ 91 don’t come any nearer. There’s a mountain of bamboo ee here. The train’ll jump the track, and it'll be disaster. Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! She goes on screaming till the roar of the train drowns her voice and the train's lights swallow her up, followed by sudden darkness. Pause. The flashlight of the engine comes up to reveal Chandidasi lying dead, with the villagers all around, all talking together in a low hum, till the voice of the Train Guard silences them. GUARD (flashing the torch). Who's she? D’you know her? THE MOB. She’s .. . GUARD. What's her name? SHASHL. Chandidasi Gangadasi, Sir. GUARD (hands his torch over to a colleague, and begins taking notes). She’s been brave. A brave woman. A brave deed. The Railways are sure to award her a medal, posthumous of course and a cash reward too . . . Who's she? SHASHI (looks around at everyone, clears his throat). She's a Dome woman, sir, one of us. (Bhagirath, in hurt wonder, looks at Shashi first, then at his father.) MALINDAR (steps forward, humbled tone). May | cover her up, sir? (His voice chokes.) ‘ GUARD. Who are you? Does she have any near of kin? The government won't hand the body over to just anyone, nor the award. LINDAR. Sir, 1... I’m. . . (He breaks into weeping.) \TH (steps forward). Let me tell you all. You can write down. . Who are you, boy? nH (gathers courage). She’s my mother. ther? sir (The Guard takes it all down.) My name Bhagirath -.. My father, the revered Malindar Gangaputta .. . i, village Daharhati ... My mother (pauses fora ry distinctly) ... my mother, the late Chandidasi Id breaks into loud weeping)... my mother, the late si, sir. Not a Bayen. She was never a Bayen, my,