Page 97 - Train to Pakistan

Pigeon—kabootur, oodan—-fly
Look—dekho, usman—sky

Do you know this?’
‘No. Didn’t he teach you the alphabet?’

‘The A.B.C.? He did not know it himself. He knew as much as I do:

A. B. C. where have you been?
Edward’s dead, I went to mourn.

You must know this one?’

‘No, I don’t know this either.’
‘Well, you tell me something in English.’

Iqbal obliged. He taught Jugga how to say ‘good morning’ and ‘goodnight’.
When Jugga wanted to know the English for some of the vital functions of life,
Iqbal became impatient. Then the five new prisoners were brought into the

neighbouring cell. Jugga’s jovial mood vanished as fast as it had come.

By eleven o’clock the rain had dwindled to a drizzle. The day became brighter.
The subinspector looked up from his cycling. Some distance ahead of him, the
clouds opened up, unfolding a rich blue sky. A shaft of sunlight slanted across

the rain. Its saffron beams played about on the sodden fields. The rainbows
spanned the sky, framing the town of Chundunnugger in a multicoloured arc.
The subinspector drove faster. He wanted to get to the police station before his

head constable made an entry about Malli’s arrest. It would be awkward to have
to tear off pages from the station diary and then face a whole lot of questions

from some impertinent lawyer. The head constable was a man of experience, but
after the arrests of Jugga and Iqbal the subinspector’s confidence in him had
been somewhat shaken. He could not be relied on to handle a situation which
was not routine. Would he know where to lock up the prisoners? He was a

peasant, full of awe of the educated middle class. He would not have the nerve to
disturb Iqbal (in whose cell he had put a charpai and a chair and table). And if he

had put Jugga and Malli together in the other cell, they would by now have
discussed the murder and dacoity and decided to help each other.
As the subinspector cycled into the police station, a couple of policemen
sitting on a bench on the veranda got up to receive him. One took his cycle; the

other helped him with his raincoat, murmuring something about having to go out