Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06of disrepair), and a dwindling group of lesser characters ambling alongthe bund in the evening. Nick kept declining the offers firmly andexplaining with calm authority that we were pilgrims and that meantsleeping outside; this only served to heighten the rhetoric that accompaniedthe invitations. Eventually Mr. Teewali dropped off with thebike, and Mr. Singh disappeared. We strode into the dusk looking for atree to camp under, not very far before Mr. Singh returned solo withredoubled pleas—it was his duty, he must perform his duty, otherwisehe would be a disgrace. But we were bound to homelessness. Nick’sploy was adept and delivered squarely and with majesty. “You havedone your duty! We are very grateful. You have offered us your hospitality.You have done your duty very well! We thank you! Now we mustgo.” Turning back to the path and striding on he seemed to havestopped the show.Until the next morning, as we passed through a village: Mr. Singh wasat the gate of his house, ecstatic and calling us in with siren songs offood. The love of solitude and homelessness capsized with the first fewbars of the song. After all, we were alms mendicants, and our duty wasto receive offerings. On the veranda in the front yard of the large housewas a group of Mr. Singh’s associates, fellow thinkers and philosophers,and a pot of milky tea. Here was Mr. Singh’s nephew, voluble but bitter—acommentator on the political scene. Another seemed to be dozingin a chair until Nick began inquiring about plants, and he reeled off,in a monotone, the name of every species in the surrounding landscape.Then entered the smiling wife (“We have great affection for each other!Great affection!”) bustling in from the kitchen area with two plates ofhot, tasty parothas and mango and lime pickles (“She is very cunning!”)—enoughto give any homeless wanderer serious doubts aboutthe alleged unsatisfactoriness of the household life. Down went thoseparothas four apiece, and as the plates emptied before our appetites, thedaughters, correctly interpreting the feebleness of our protests,appeared, to top them up with more even fresher and more succulent1 4 2