Short Story
A Winter Night*
art work by amina
Halku came into the house and said to his wife, "The moneylender's man has come. Give him the money we have; let's get him off our backs." Munni was sweeping. She turned round and said, "We have only three rupees. If you pay him, how will we buy a blanket? How will you spend the winter nights in the fields? Tell him we'll pay at harvest, not now." Halku stood still for a moment, uncertain what to do. Winter was here, and there was no way he could sleep in the field without a blanket. But the moneylender's man would not listen; he would threaten and abuse them. If he were paid, one disaster would be averted, and Halku could deal with the other, the cold, later. With this thought, he took his heavy body (that belied his name, which meant 'lightweight') close to his wife, and said coaxingly, "Come on, give it, I have to get out of his clutches for the moment. I'll think of some other way to get the blanket." Munni stepped away from him, and said, rolling her eyes, "Sure, you'll think of another way! Let's hear what you have in mind. Is anyone going to give you a blanket for free? God knows how much we still owe--it never seems to get paid off. I keep saying, why don't you give up farming? Work yourself to death, give up a share of the crop, and that's it. We were born to pay debts for ever. Why don't you work as a labourer? That will bring in enough to survive. This kind of farming is not worth it at all. I won't give the money--I won't." Halku said sadly, "Then should I put up with his abuses?" Munni said, indignant, "Why should he abuse you? Does he rule our lives?" But even as she said this her anger seemed to ebb. The harsh truth in Halku's words glared at her like a ferocious beast. She went to the niche in the wall, took out the money, and put it in Halku's hand. Then she said, "You give up farming now. As labourers, we'll at least be able to eat one roti in peace. We won't have to live in fear of anyone. This farming is a nuisance! You toil so hard, have to give up your earnings, and still end up being bullied." Halku took the money and went out, feeling as if he were giving away his heart. With great difficulty, he had saved these three rupees, one by one, from his earnings. Today, he was losing them. With each step, his head seemed to droop lower with the burden of his poverty. 2The darkness of a winter night! Even the stars seemed to shiver in the sky. At the edge of his field, Halku lay shivering on a bamboo cot, wrapped in his old sheet of coarse cotton, under a thatch of sugarcane leaves. His companion, the dog Jabra, lay under the cot, his face buried in his stomach, whimpering with cold. Neither of them was able to sleep. Bringing his knees up to his chest, Halku said, "Well, Jabra, are you cold? I told you to stay home and sleep on the straw. What did you hope to get here? Now put up with the cold, what can I do? You thought I was coming to eat halwa and puris here, so you ran ahead of me. Now cry all you want." Jabra wagged his tail as he lay, ended his whining with one long whimper that merged into a yawn, and fell silent. Perhaps his canine mind realized that his master was being kept awake by his crying. Halku put out his hand and stroked Jabra's cold back, saying, "From tomorrow, don't come with me, otherwise you'll die of cold. This bitch of a west wind is icy as hell. I think I'll get up and have a smoke. The night will pass one way or other. I've already had eight smokes. These are the joys of farming! And then there are the fortunate ones, who lie so warm at home that the cold runs away in fear if it goes near them. They have thick mattresses, quilts and blankets. There's no way the cold can survive there. It's all the play of fortune! We work hard so that others may enjoy life." Halku got up, took out a coal from the pit and filled his pipe. Jabra too sat up. Smoking his pipe, Halku said, "Will you have a smoke? It doesn't help with the cold, but it's a distraction." Jabra looked at him with eyes brimming over with love. Halku: "Bear with the cold today. Tomorrow, I'll spread straw here. You can snuggle inside it, and you won't feel cold." Jabra put his paws up on Halku's knees and put his face close to his. Halku felt his warm breath. After his smoke, Halku lay down with the resolve that he would go to sleep, whatever happened, but in a moment, his very heart seemed to shiver with cold. He would lie sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, but the cold, like a demon, seemed to sit astride his chest. When he could bear it no longer, he gently picked Jabra, and, patting his head, put him to sleep in his embrace. The dog's body smelled bad, yet he experienced greater comfort holding him close than he had experienced for months. Jabra probably thought he was in heaven, and Halku's pure should felt no disgust towards the dog. He would have embraced an intimate friend or brother with the same eagerness. He was not embittered by the destitution that had brought him to this point. No, this unusual friendship seemed to open all the doors of his soul, so that its every atom grew radiant and shone. Suddenly, Jabra heard the sound of an animal. This special intimacy had awakened a new energy in him, enabling him to disregard the cold gusts of wind. He jumped up, came outside the thatch, and began to bark. Halku called him coaxingly many times, but he wouldn't come back. He kept running around the field, barking. He would return for a second, before running off again. Duty leapt in his heart, like a powerful longing. 3
Another hour passed. The night began to rekindle the cold with gusts of wind. Halku sat up and buried his head in his knees that were folded against his chest, but he remained jus as cold. He felt as if all his blood had frozen, and ice flowed in is veins instead of blood. He bent down to look out at the sky and assess how much of the night remained. The Seven Sages were not yet halfway up the sky. When they reached the zenith, day would dawn. There was still more than a third of the night left. There was a mango orchard not far from Halku's field. The leaves had begun to fall and lay heaped up in the orchard. Halku thought he would go gather leaves, get a fire going and earn himself. If anyone saw him gathering leaves at night they would think he was a ghost. There might be a wild animal hiding there, but he couldn't bear to keep sitting here any longer. He went into the nearby lentil field, pulled up several plants, made them into a broom, and, taking a smouldering dung cake in his hand, set out for the orchard. Jabra saw him coming, ran up, and wagged his tail. Halku said, "I can't bear it any more, Jabra. Let's go collect leaves from the orchard and warm ourselves. When we're warm, we'll come back and sleep. There's still much to the night left." Jabra expressed his agreement by whimpering, and ran ahead to the orchard. Darkness lay think in the orchard, and in the darkness, the cruel wind crushed the leaves. Dew showered down from the trees on to the leaves. Suddenly a gust brought them the scent of henna flowers. Halku said, "What a nice perfume, Jabru! Can you smell it?" Jabra had found a bone lying on the ground, and was worrying it. Halku put the fire on the ground, and began gathering leaves. Pretty soon, he had a large pile of leaves. His hands were trembling and his bare feet felt as if they were dissolving. Yet he kept building a mountain of leaves. He would burn the cold in this fire and destroy it. In a short while, the fire flared up. Its glow touched the leaves of the tree above and ran ahead. In that flickering light, the mighty trees of the forest looked as if they held up the boundless darkness on their heads. The light floated and bobbed like a boat in the joyful ocean of darkness. Halku sat before the fire, soaking in the warmth. The next moment, he took off his double-folded cloth, kept it by his side, and lay down with both legs spread out as if challenging the cold to do its worst. He could not hide his pride at having won a victory over the boundless power of the cold. He said to Jabra, "Well, Jabra, you're not cold any more, are you?" Jabra whimpered as if to say, "Why would I be cold now?" "If I'd thought of this earlier, we needn't have suffered so much in the cold." Jabra wagged his tail. "All right, come on, let's jump over the fire. Let's see who wins. If you get burnt, though, I can't get you any medicine." Jabra looked at the fire with fearful eyes. "Don't tell Munni tomorrow, or she'll fight with me." So saying, he jumped and went clean across the fire. The flame touched his feet, but that didn't matter. Jabra ran round the fire and came to stand by him. Halku said, "No, no, that's not right! Jump over the fire." He jumped again and reached the other side of the fire. 4
The leaves were all burnt. Darkness spread once more through the orchard. There was a little fire under the ashes, which flared up a bit when a gust of wind hit it, but then closed its eyes again the next moment. Halku wrapped himself in his sheet once more, and sat by the hot ashes, humming a song. The warmth had entered his body, but as the cold increased, he sank into an indolent state. Jabra barked loudly and ran towards the field. Haldu sensed that a large herd of animals had entered his field. Perhaps it was a herd of antelope. Now he could clearly hear them jumping and running, and then it seemed that they were grazing in the field. He began to hear the crunching sounds of their chewing. He told himself, "No, no animal can enter the field while Jabra is there. He'll tear it to pieces. I'm imagining things. Where? I don't hear a thing. How could I be so mistaken?" He shouted aloud, "Jabra, Jabra!" Jabra kept barking and did not return to him. Again, he heard the sounds of the crop being eaten. He could delude himself no longer. The thought of moving was bitter as poison. How warm and comfortable he was, sitting here! To go to the field in this freezing cold and chase the animals seemed intolerable. H didn't move. Again, he called out, "Hillo! Hillo! Hillo!" Jabra barked again. The animals were destroying the field. Halku got up with firm resolve and took a couple of steps; but suddenly a gust of such cold, sharp wind hit him like a scorpion's sting that he came back to the dyig fire, sat down, scratched the ashes, and began warming his cold body. Jabra grew hoarse with barking, the antelope continued to consume the entire crop, and Halku sat peacefully by the hot ashes. Inactivity, like a network of ropes, held him fast on all sides. He lay down, wrapped in his sheet, on the warm ground near the ashes, and fell asleep. When he awoke in the morning, the sun was up and Munni was saying, "Do you plan to sleep all day? You sat here, while the whole field was destroyed." Halku got up and said, "Have you been to the field?" Munni said, "Yes, it's a complete wreck. How can anyone sleep so soundly? What was the use of your staying under the thatch here?" Halku began making excuses. "I nearly died, and you are worried about the field. I had such a terrible stomach ache--only I know how horrible it was." They walked to the edge of the field. The whole field lay trampled into mud, and Jabra lay flat beneath the thatch, as if lifeless. They surveyed the field. Munni's face was marked by sorrow, but Halku looked happy. Munni said anxiously, "Now you'll have to work as a labourer to pay the revenue." Halku said, cheerfully, "At least, I won't have to sleep here in the cold at night." *From Premchand: The Co-Wife and Other Stories, (Penguin India, 2008) reviewed below.
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