Grish Chunder heard me, nodding from time to time,
and then came up to my rooms where I finished the tale.
and then came up to my rooms where I finished the tale.
Kipling - Poems
"You are not well," he said.
"What is
there in your mind? You do not talk. "
"Grish Chunder, you've been too well educated to believe in a God,
haven't you? "
"Oah, yes, here! But when I go home I must conciliate popular
superstition, and make ceremonies of purification, and my women will
anoint idols. "
"And bang up tulsi and feast the purohit, and take you back into
caste again and make a good khuttri of you again, you advanced social
Free-thinker. And you'll eat desi food, and like it all, from the smell
in the courtyard to the mustard oil over you. "
"I shall very much like it," said Grish Chunder, unguardedly. "Once a
Hindu--always a Hindu. But I like to know what the English think they
know. "
"I'll tell you something that one Englishman knows. It's an old tale to
you. "
I began to tell the story of Charlie in English, but Grish Chunder put
a question in the vernacular, and the history went forward naturally in
the tongue best suited for its telling. After all it could never have
been told in English.
Grish Chunder heard me, nodding from time to time,
and then came up to my rooms where I finished the tale.
"Beshak," he said, philosophically. "Lekin darwaza band hai. (Without
doubt, but the door is shut. ) I have heard of this remembering of
previous existences among my people. It is of course an old tale with
us, but, to happen to an Englishman--a cow-fed Malechk--an outcast. By
Jove, that is most peculiar! "
"Outcast yourself, Grish Chunder! You eat cow-beef every day. Let's
think the thing over. The boy remembers his incarnations. "
"Does he know that? " said Grish Chunder, quietly, swinging his legs as
he sat on my table. He was speaking in English now.
"He does not know anything. Would I speak to you if he did?
there in your mind? You do not talk. "
"Grish Chunder, you've been too well educated to believe in a God,
haven't you? "
"Oah, yes, here! But when I go home I must conciliate popular
superstition, and make ceremonies of purification, and my women will
anoint idols. "
"And bang up tulsi and feast the purohit, and take you back into
caste again and make a good khuttri of you again, you advanced social
Free-thinker. And you'll eat desi food, and like it all, from the smell
in the courtyard to the mustard oil over you. "
"I shall very much like it," said Grish Chunder, unguardedly. "Once a
Hindu--always a Hindu. But I like to know what the English think they
know. "
"I'll tell you something that one Englishman knows. It's an old tale to
you. "
I began to tell the story of Charlie in English, but Grish Chunder put
a question in the vernacular, and the history went forward naturally in
the tongue best suited for its telling. After all it could never have
been told in English.
Grish Chunder heard me, nodding from time to time,
and then came up to my rooms where I finished the tale.
"Beshak," he said, philosophically. "Lekin darwaza band hai. (Without
doubt, but the door is shut. ) I have heard of this remembering of
previous existences among my people. It is of course an old tale with
us, but, to happen to an Englishman--a cow-fed Malechk--an outcast. By
Jove, that is most peculiar! "
"Outcast yourself, Grish Chunder! You eat cow-beef every day. Let's
think the thing over. The boy remembers his incarnations. "
"Does he know that? " said Grish Chunder, quietly, swinging his legs as
he sat on my table. He was speaking in English now.
"He does not know anything. Would I speak to you if he did?
