Sheesha Ghat (Part II)
By Naiyer Masud
In those days, as on other days, Parya appeared at the ghat unfailingly at dawn. She stopped her boat in front of the shed and talked to Jahaz for some time. Occasionally she would call me out to the shed, and if Jahaz left us alone, she would start talking to me. Her talk was somewhat childish-mainly about her cats and dogs, or why Bibi had reprimanded her the previous day. Sometimes she would ask me something so abruptly that I had to try to open my mouth to answer her rather than simply shaking my head. This would have her in splits, and bibi would admonish her once again. After that she would push out to the distant corners of the lake. At noon Bibi would call out loudly and her tiny dinghy would be seen proceeding towards the boat. Then on, one could hear her constant laughter issuing from the boat followed by Bibi's reprimands. Late in the afternoon she would set out again and stop by the ghat. If Jahaz was not there she would talk with me about him. Everything about Jahaz made her laugh- be it his tobacco smoking, his clumsy dress or the sail fluttering atop his house.
One day when she was telling me some story about Jahaz, I began to suspect, and then I was convinced, that she didn't know that only eight years ago, Jahaz performed as a clown in bazaars. On that day, for the first time, I tried for quite some time but she didn't understand a thing. Nevertheless, she didn't laugh, and listened to me carefully just as my father had begun to do lately. Just then Jahaz came to the shed smoking his tobacco. He eased matters for me by telling Parya what I meant to tell her. To make things clearer, he even resorted to a few of his mimic acts that seemed to me crude initiations of his old ones. But Parya had such a spasm of laughter that her dinghy began to rock in the water. She wanted to see a few more of his acts, but by then jahaz overcame by a bout of coughing. Parya waited for him to recover, but Jahaz asked her to leave with a movement of his hand. Still laughing, Parya turned her dinghy around and said while leaving, “Jahaz, Jahaz, you would make even Bibi laugh.”
On the following morning, she arrived earlier than usual, but Jahaz had gone somewhere. She began to talk to me about Jahaz and described his acts of the previous day as though I had not seen him perform them that day, or ever before, and that I had no idea that he did them at all! I tried to tell her that Jahaz used to perform in bazaars tying a sail on his back, and that he used to imitate the sinking of ships. But I couldn't manage to tell her, by words or by gesture. Eventually, I fell silent.
Tomorrow, I said to myself, I'll certainly tell you, anyhow.
I saw her retreating.
Tomorrow, I repeated in my mind, anyhow.
The same evening my foster-father arrived at Sheesha Ghat.
He had grown so much older in the past one year, older than Jahaz had grown in the eight years before I came to Sheesha Ghat. He wobbled on his feel, and Jahaz supported him as he brought him up. He clutched me to his chest the moment he saw me. Jahaz separated me from him, eased him on his seat, and then turned to me. 'Your new mother has died,' he said to me and began coughing.
I had no opportunity to talk to my foster-father. Jahaz took him off somewhere just after he arrived and returned alone late at night. By that time I had gone to bed. Jahaz, too, probably fell asleep after smoking for a while. I kept wondering how my foster-father could have grown so old so fast. Then I was reminded of my new mother who had died without seeing me talk, and probably without going crazy. I also recalled the past year spent at Sheesha Ghat. At first I used to get bored by the overwhelming silence that prevailed there, broken only occasionally. But I now realized that the place was filled with voices. Faint sounds would come from the glassworkers, fishermen, and from other ghats. And water birds chirped on the lake. But I had never paid any heed. Now, when I pricked up my ears a little I heard the halting sound of the waves returning after touching the shore on the side of the shed, and the faint creaking of the planks of Bibi's boat.
I decided that Sheesha Ghat was the most suitable place for me to live, and that I had been born to live in Sheesha Ghat.
I'll tell Jahaz tomorrow, I said to myself and fell asleep.
In the morning I woke up, as usual, to the sound of Jahaz's coughing.
Then I heard Parya too. Both were talking, much as they did every day. Jahaz could not see Parya's boat from the place where he was sitting, and so he had to speak loudly, which made him cough again and again.
I got up and went beneath the shed. There was Parya, standing in the middle of her boat. She chatted a little more with Jahaz. Bibi's name figured in their conversation. Then Parya went back to the other end of the boat that made a half-circle by the light movement of her feet. Now Parya's back was towards the shed. For the first time I took a close look at Bibi's daughter, from head to toe, and was surprised than before at the thought that a woman like Bibi could be her mother. Just at that moment her body twisted a little and the boat began to move further away from the shed. Then the boat halted with a jolt. Parya looked at the vast expanse of the lake spread before her. She also looked to her right and left. The boat swayed again but Parya straightened her body to adjust the balance. Another light push by her feet and the boat made a semicircle once again. Now I could see Parya from head to foot from the front. I was afraid that she might not like my viewing her in this way. But she was not looking at me. She was gazing closely into the still water of the lake, as though seeing it for the first time. Then she walked haltingly to the end of the boat facing the shed. She bent down a little and once again gazed at the water intently, stood up, stretched her body upright and calmly placed one foot on the surface of the water just as one does on land. Then she lifted her other foot from the boat. She took one step forward, then another.
'She's walking on water!' I exclaimed to myself, in surprise tinged with fear. I turned towards Jahaz who was smoking tobacco at a little distance, and then looked back at the lake. Between the shed and Parya's empty boat there was only water, concentric circles of waves spreading on the surface. After a few moments Parya's head popped up amidst these circles. She thrashed about a couple of times as though to come to the surface. The water splashed around noisily and I heard Jahaz's voice, 'Parya, don't mess with the water.'
Then a noose of smoke gripped his throat and he doubled up, coughing and coughing. For a moment my eyes turned to him. He was having some sort of a fit and needed help. I looked at the lake to see circles of waves spreading on the still water.