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PARTISAN REVIEW
"Why didn't you stay with me?" 1 asked.
"Why make your wife work so hard? I'm staying at the Dasprakash
Hotel. I'm flying back home this evening."
So, not only does he travel in taxis, he roams around in airplanes.
How about that? I didn't ask him what he was doing, and he didn't tell
me. He asked me what I did for work and how much 1was paid. 1 told
him without hiding a thing. He didn't speak. He looked at my house.
He met my children. When my wife offered him some coffee, he excused
himself by saying he had just had some, and got out of having to drink
any. (There was no coffee and probably no milk in the house anyway.
How did she think she could serve him any? I don't understand these
women's games.) She told him to stay for a meal and then go-that was
a good way to scare him.
"I eat around one o'clock," he said. "In the meantime, there are ten
places I ha ve to go."
For half an hour we chatted about things that happened ten years
ago. Afterwards, when he was trying to leave, he said, "Get dressed.
We'll roam around together for a bit."
Without asking him why or where, 1 buttoned a shirt over the under–
shirt 1was already wearing. "Ready," 1 said. He was a person who trav–
eled in cars and planes-never mind that he was my very own aunt's
son. If he told me to jump in the river, I would jump. If 1went with him,
it would only be a half day of playing hooky from the bookshop. That
doesn't even count; the store would still be there tomorrow. But Par–
vatheesam would be back on his plane that night.
The taxi was waiting outside. When I climbed inside and sat down, I
saw that there were five rupees on the meter. More than my daily wage!
If
that taxi hadn't gone straight to the house of the proprietor of
Saraswati Publishing Company, then Parvatheesam wouldn't have
appeared in this story. My story isn't wandering around without any
sense of direction-Parvatheesam has entered it for a good reason.
The son-in-law of the proprietor of Saraswati Company and Par–
vatheesam were good friends. They had both flown in on the same air–
plane and were leaving on the same flight, too. As soon as we arrived,
Parvatheesam introduced me to the son-in-law, who introduced me to
the father-in-law.
"He's a very close relative of mine, sir," Parvatheesam said. "He's
keeping everyone honest at some bookstore. Is there an opportunity
available at your institution for a person like this? His father operated
a press, and he should know that type of work very well. Maybe that's
half the reason he began working at the bookstore. The smell of the
