Once a deputy collector decreed in his court in favor of a Brahmin called Gobinda Panda. The Brahmin, overjoyed, blessed him, “O

Deputy babu, may you become a police inspector.” We believe you have gotten the point; for intelligent people hints usually suffice. Take another example: Moti Sila is now one of the rich-est businessmen in Calcutta. He began by selling empty bottles.

A country liquor merchant once lamented, “Look at how strange are the ways of the world! Moti Sila became a man of crores by selling empty bottles; I sell full ones, and I’m a beggar.” We fearthat some babus with B.A. and M.A. degrees might say, together with this merchant, “Alas, Ali Mian, who could not even hold a pen properly, became a zamindar just by writing his name. Even though we can write long essays and hold a pen correctly, we starve.” Dear babus, don’t you know that it is one’s fate which ul-timately prevails, not one’s wisdom or character.

Ali Mian had only one son, Sheikh Dildar Mian, alias Chhota Mian. The daroga took every care to ensure his son would become a properly qualified and accomplished man. To teach him Persian, he engaged a private tutor for many years, and by the time Chhota Mian was fifteen, he had already mastered the al-phabet and elementary spelling. Now he was twenty-two; what would people say if they saw him still sitting, bent over his books, in front of a tutor? Besides, it was unbearable to keep his friends waiting, while having to do his lessons. Even more painful was the tutor’s claim that alcohol turned men into beasts. That was the last straw.

One afternoon the tutor was enjoying a nap after his midday meal. His white flowing beard covered his neck and chest like the straw bundles local fishermen lay out when they weave their nets.

Suddenly a live ember fell on his beard and soon burned into his chest. He scrambled out of bed shouting, “Horror, horror,” and tried to put out the fire. The ember broke into pieces and sparks fell on his clothes. The burning beard now glowed like a sparkler, and the tutor jumped about the room, shouting and trying to blow out the fire. The great sage Valmiki has not left us an ade-quate description of how the monkey god Hanuman’s face looked when it caught fire as he was setting the kingdom of Lanka aflame. Therefore it would be improper for us to even contem-plate comparing the face of Chhota Mian’s tutor with that of

Hanuman. The Shastras say: “When wise men face the danger of losing everything, they choose to part with half.” Acting perhaps on this, the tutor sacrificed half his beard, and thanking Allah, saved the rest. He bolted the door of his room, stayed inside all night, and no one ever saw him in Midnapore again.

When Ali Mian learned of this, he remarked, “No matter; my Dilu has already gained all the knowledge he needs. I have acquired all my wealth and property simply by being able to write my name. As for Dilu, he is so much more learned than that: the other day I set him a test, and he reeled off not only his own name, but words such as Calcutta, Midnapore, elephant, horse, farm, garden, and so on. The district magistrate will surely make him a daroga if he finds out how much he has learned. But I have kept his talents a secret because I will not let my Dilu work as a mere servant of the government. He is but a child; he could not take the strain.” Later Ali Mian called in his son, sat him down, and gave him much advice on the management of his property. Mian cautioned his son to be particularly alert as regards the zamindari in Orissa: “Be careful son, the Mohantys of Orissa are thieves. It is only because I pay close attention to my accounts that they have not been able to outwit me. Let me give you an example of how they cheat: one, two, three, four—that’s how everyone counts.

But do you know how the Mohantys count? One times one is one, two times two is four. See, they mention one, two and four; but where did three go? It’s the three rupees the Mohantys steal.” But all this is about the past. We were forced to retell it in order to introduce the present zamindar.