Chapter 152 "Lost Money"

(India) Tagore 1 After the death of his father, Bedyanad settled down on the government debts bequeathed to him.It never occurred to him to find a job to do.His way of passing the time was to chop off the twig, and grind it into a walking stick with great patience and dexterity.The neighborhood kids and youths were the ones who were going to get the canes, and there was never a glut of his canes. Blessed by the God of Harvest, Bedyanad had two boys and a girl who was married at the age of marriage. But his wife Sandali was dissatisfied with her lot, for her husband's fortunes were not as prosperous as their cousins ​​across the street.She felt that God was unnecessarily flawed in distribution, for example, that she couldn't have the same shiny gold utensils in the room, nor could she turn her nose upside down like her neighbor.

The situation in her own home gave her endless troubles. Those things were not only inappropriate but also very embarrassing.Her bed frame, she must have known, was not honorable enough to carry a dead body.The little bat, unaccompanied for seven generations, would not accept the invitation to live in this shabby house; and as for the furniture, alas, even the most indifferent ascetic would shed tears at the sight.There was no way for a cowardly male to refute such over-the-top words, so Bedyanad retreated to his corridor and sharpened his cane redoubledly. But barriers of silence are not the most effective self-defense tool.Sometimes while he was working, his wife came in suddenly, looking away, and said, "Please tell the milkman to stop the milk."

After Bedyanad was too scared to speak, he might barely utter: "Milk? The supply has stopped, how are you doing? What do the children drink?" His wife would reply, "Rice soup." Sometimes she would use the opposite method of attack, running into the house out of the blue and announcing: "I can't do it anymore, you mind your own house." Bedyanad muttered helplessly, "What do you want me to do?" His wife would reply: "You will go out shopping this month." Then she would make a list that was enough for a group of gluttonous people to hold a feast.

If Bedjanad had dared to muster up the courage to ask, "Why do you need so much?" he would have gotten the answer, "It would be much cheaper if you starved the children, and me, It’s good to be starved to death.” One day after breakfast, Bedjanad was sitting alone, preparing the string for the kite, when he saw a dervish who could turn iron into gold.It immediately occurred to him that this was the cheapest and surest chance of making a fortune.He took the dervish home.When the guest agreed to pass on the alchemy to him, he took great pride in his cleverness. After devouring a staggering amount of meals and much of Bedyanath's father's inheritance, the ascetic finally gave Bedyanath and his wife hope that tomorrow their dreams would come true.

No one slept that night.Husband and wife began to build a golden castle in the air with great extravagance, and carefully discussed the style of the building.There was an extraordinary harmony between them that night, and although there were some differences of opinion, they were willing to make some compromises in their plans. The magician mysteriously disappeared the next day.The golden mist in the atmosphere of their lives also disappeared.The sun also seemed dimmed.Houses and furniture are four times more disgraceful to the housewife than ever before. From then on, whenever Bedjanad dared to express his opinion on the most trivial household matters, his wife lectured him with sarcasm that frightened him, telling him to be careful not to waste money. What little energy I had left was wasted.

At the same time, whenever there are palm readers passing by, Sandali asks them to read palms and tell fortunes for her.They told her she was blessed with children, that she would be full of sons and daughters.But the prospect of a growing family did not cheer her heart. Finally, one day, an astrologer said that if her husband did not get a fortune within a year, he would leave fortune-telling and go begging.He spoke so decisively that Sandali had no doubts about his prophecy. There are some recognized ways to make money in the world, such as farming, being an official, doing business, and those legal and illegal occupations.But none of these points in the direction of the treasure.

So the more his wife pushed him, the more embarrassed he was to decide which knoll to dig, or which spot in the riverbed to hire a diver to salvage. At this time, the Durga Festival is approaching.A week ago, many boats were loaded with guests returning home with goods, and they stopped on the village ferry: baskets full of vegetables, lead iron boxes full of new shoes, umbrellas and clothes for children, Incense and soap, new storybooks and balms for my wife. The autumn sun fills the cloudless sky with festive frenzy, the ripe rice fields glistening in the sun, and the rain-washed willow leaves swaying in the cool breeze.

The children got up very early and went to the neighbor's yard to watch the statues being made.When it was time to eat, the maids came and dragged them away.At this moment Bedyanad was there mourning, amidst the joy of the neighbors, his own life was so miserable. He pulled the child from the servant's hand to his side, and asked the older child, "Okay, Uub, tell me what present do you want for this holiday?" Uub replied without hesitation, "Give me a boat, Father!" The younger child, not wanting to lag behind his older brother, said, "Oh, Father, give me a boat too!"

At this time, Sandali's uncle came to her home from Benares, where he was a lawyer, and Sandali often spent a lot of time running to see him. Finally, one day, she said to her husband, "Well, you must go to Benares." Bedjanad immediately thought that it must be his wife who had heard the fortune-telling prophecy that his death was imminent and hoped that he would die in a holy place so that he could have a luckier next life. Only later did he hear from her that there was a house in Benares in which treasure was said to be hidden.Needless to say, he was destined to buy the house and acquire the treasure.

Bedyanad suddenly desperately tried to be independent and said, "My God, I can't go to Benares." Two days passed, during which Bedyanad was busy working on the two boats. He put up the mast, tied the sails, hoisted a small red flag, and then installed the rudder and oars, so that even the boatman and passengers did not forget.Even in this modern age it is hard to find a child who would be so haughty as to despise such a gift.When Bedyanad gave the two boats to the two children on the eve of the festival, they were mad with joy. Hearing the children's laughter, Sandari ran in. When she saw these gifts, she became very angry, grabbed them and threw them out of the window.

The little child began to cry in disappointment, and his mother slapped him loudly, saying, "Don't cry stupidly." Seeing his father's sad face, the older child forgot his own disappointment, pretended to be happy and said, "It's okay, Father, I'll go out and pick it up when I get up tomorrow." The next day Bedyanad agreed to go to Benares.He took the children in his arms, kissed them good-bye, and left home. This house in Benares belonged to a client of his wife's uncle, and perhaps that was why it was expensive.Bedjanad bought it and lived in it himself.The house was right on the bank of the river, and the water lapped at the foot of the wall. At night, Bedyanad began to feel a sense of timidity, and he couldn't sleep even if he pulled up the quilt and covered his head.When the night was deep and still, he suddenly heard the sound of tinkling in horror.The voice was small, but very clear—as if the treasurer of the God of Wealth was counting gold coins under the underworld. Bedyanad was terrified, but tinged with curiosity and hope of success.He carried the lamp with trembling hands and walked from house to house, investigating the source of the sound all night. It was not until morning that the sound was mixed with the bustle of the city and could not be heard. He heard the sound again in the middle of the night the next day. Bedjanad was like a traveler in the desert who only heard the sound of water but didn’t know where the sound was coming from. He hesitated to take a step for fear of making a mistake. The road was farther from the spring. Many days were spent in a state of worry, until his usually peaceful and contented face became haggard and wrinkled.His eyes were deep-set and greedy, and they shone like hot sand on a desert floor in the midday sun. Finally, he came up with a brilliant idea one night. He locked all the doors and beat the floor of each house with a sledge.There was a hollow sound coming from under the floor of one of the huts.He started digging.It was almost daylight when he finished digging. Looking through the dug opening, Bedyanad saw a small room below, but it was pitch black, and he dared not jump into this unknown place.He put the bed over the hole and lay down.morning came.This day, the sound can be heard in the daytime as well.He chanted Durga's mantra and dragged the bed away from the hole, and the sound of splashing water and clanging metal became clearer.He looked in terror through the hole into the darkness, and saw that the room was filled with running water, and probing it with a stick, he found it only a foot or two deep.He took a box of matches and a lamp, and jumped into the low and shallow room without any difficulty. But because he was afraid that his hope would be dashed in an instant, his hands trembled, and he could hardly light the lamp. He had struck nearly the whole box of matches before he lit the lamp. In the light he saw a large copper pot attached to a large iron chain.As the river poured in, the chain kept hitting the wall with the metallic clang he heard. Bedyanad emptied the water hastily and walked towards the copper pot, but found it empty. He couldn't believe his eyes, he raised the copper pot with both hands and shook it violently.He turned it upside down again, but also to no avail.He saw that the mouth of the jar was broken, as if it had been sealed before, and someone knocked it open. Bedyanad started groping in the water.Something touched his hand, and when he picked it up, it turned out to be a skull.He lifted it to his ear and shook it vigorously, but it too was empty.He dropped it. He saw that the wall on the water side of the house was cracked, and the river water came in through the gap, and he must have known that it must have been opened by someone who was more lucky than himself. At last, having lost all hope, he let out a long sigh, which seemed to be mingled with countless sighs of despair from the hell of eternal failure. He was covered in mud and crawled into the house.To him, this world full of disturbing human beings is like a broken can, chained to a meaningless chain of fate. To pack things, buy tickets, get on the train, go home, quarrel with his wife, and endure the days of anger, all these seemed extremely unreasonable to him.He wanted to roll into the water, like a collapsed bank rolling into a river. But he still packed his things, bought a ticket, got on the train, and went home one winter night. After entering the door, he sat in the courtyard like a comatose person, not daring to go into the house.The old maid was the first to see him, and at her exclamation the children came running to see him, and his wife called him. Bedyanad woke up as if from sleep, and he returned to his original life.With a sad face and wry smile, he pulled a child and carried a child into the house.The lights had just been lit, and although it was not yet dark, it was a cold night, and everything was as quiet as if night had come. Bedyanad was silent for a while, and then asked his wife in a soft voice: "how are you?" His wife didn't answer, just asked him: "How is it?" Bedyanad didn't speak, just patted his forehead.At this moment, Sandali's face became grim.Seeing the shadow of misfortune, the children slipped out quietly, and ran to the maid and begged her to tell them a story. Night came, but neither husband nor wife said a word.The whole atmosphere of the home seemed to throb with the silence.Sandari's lips were tightly shut like a miser's purse.She got up, left her husband, walked slowly into her room, and locked the door.Bedyanad stood silently outside the door, and the voice of a passing watchman came from outside.The weary world is sunk in drowsy slumber. In the middle of the night, the older child woke up from his dream, climbed out of bed, walked to the porch and whispered, "Father." But his father wasn't there.He went outside his parents' closed bedroom door again and called "Father" in a slightly raised voice, but there was no answer either.In terror he went back to bed. Early the next morning, the maid prepared the master's tobacco leaves as usual, but she couldn't find him everywhere she looked for him.