The Hindu Lear and Hamlet: A Short-Story
From a small town in India comes the story of three sons in a Hindu joint family and the recollection of Hamlet, Lear’s grandson.
Trudging while holding the corner of his loin cloth and waving his hands towards the farther end of the garden, Hamlet saw Lear mutter inane, feeble words.
“ Come inside at once!” howled Mahesh, Lear’s eldest son and Hamlet’s father.
Hamlet saw Mahesh rub his eyes in irritation. The phone call from Suresh, second in line, had disturbed his afternoon nap.
“ Baba has gone out again, said Suresh.” “He hits me when asked to stop!” “ I can’t handle him.”
These days people hardly sleep and get a moment of respite. Since Lear’s descent into delirium, the once ‘quiet abode’ has turned into a madhouse.
“ Want to go to the asylum? Do you want me to contact them? Come inside! A step towards the main gate and you will see the consequences. Have you thought of our house’s repute? The women and children? Our lives have been disrupted. I wish you were dead already.”
Hearing this angered Lear. Turning back his mummified frame, the glare in his jaundiced eyes made his eyeballs pop out.
“ You wretched vermin…You are standing on my land,” bellowed Lear. “ Thankless rots!”
Suresh moved forward to guard him against the gate. He threw his hands wide-open to pacify rattled Lear shaking in anger. He slapped Suresh and grabbed his hair.
“ Leave him!’ shouted Mahesh.
Hearing Mahesh’s hurried footsteps towards the stairs leading to the garden, terrified Hamlet followed him .
“ Are you here to poison me! Do you want me to die? All my life ….all my life! I gave all my life to this family…. O, God! O, God! My head’s going to burst. There’s a fire… see, it’s spreading. Why aren’t you putting it out? It will engulf me. Can’t you see?, shouted Lear.
“ All your life? I had to fill in your shoes for being an absentee father. All you did was huddle in a corner with a newspaper to blind yourself with the affairs of the home, while I fought tooth and nail to keep us together.” raged Mahesh.
‘ I don’t see any fire,’ exclaimed Suresh in irritation. ‘ Baba, you are seeing things that aren’t there! Hurling accusations that aren’t true. What has gotten into you?’
“We have to send for the nurse for tranquillizers else we won’t get any sleep tonight too,” reasoned Mahesh.
“ I will sit here, I won’t move, this is my house. I won’t go anywhere,” said Lear in protest
“ Nobody is sending you anywhere Baba!” sighed Mahesh in exhaustion
Bursts of pity and sympathy cracked in Mahesh’s voice as Lear called out a country folk passing by in his hallucinating stream of thought.
“Hey, you! Yes, you! Do you have a stock of good fish? I have to have the land measured for this festival. These cockroaches have taken me lightly. I will show them. Do you know? Do you know…. the land stretches from the east to the west of the river! Oh, the taste of mangoes.” reminisced Lear
The gates opened, and all turned to see Riteish, the third and the youngest, return from the office on his motorcycle. His hapless look didn’t seek any explanation of the drama that had been unfolding.
“ Look at him! Lord Governor on the motorcycle that I got for him. Ride on it again and you will die.”
Riteish’s wife and teenage daughter gasped and shrieked in anger to have their husband and father cursed by a lunatic.
Mahesh threw a discomfiting look at them and asked them to go to their rooms.
“ You all will die… I want the mangoes…Oh, listen to the songs sung in the temple nearby. The village headman is going to be there. I am going to get ready. I will wear a suit from America. Let them have a look at my degree.”, said Elder Lear proudly.
Lear’s progenies gave each other an understanding look to have him escorted inside. They all neared. But Lear threw his slippers at them.
“ What has become of me!”, Lear cried
“ Indeed, what has become of him!” Hamlet sighed while twitching the end of a cigarette in his pocket. Stealing glances, he rushed to the terrace. Lighting one, as smoke devoured the bawl, he looked deep into the setting sun
The memories of Lear and Hamlet sitting together- exchanging notes on literature and politics- with their backs facing the winter sun crossed his mind.
“ Grandpa, have you read Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’?”, Hamlet asked
“ Oh! That poor old man!” lamented Lear “ A kingdom fraught with intrigue and greed.”
“ You are lucky, aren’t you? To be surrounded with love and laughter?”, guessed Hamlet.
“ Oh, yes! I very much am,” said Lear feigning a cough to hide his obvious disappointment.
Mahesh overheard their conversation and sneered in derision.
Hamlet caught the tension lurking in the air and changed the route of the conversation.
“Grandma had expressed her frustration of you being away from the homeland for five long years. America in the 60s! It must be terrifying for her to have faced a lack of proper means of communication.” said Hamlet out of concern.
“ Ah, America!” Lear’s voice picked up." The sky-scrapers! What development! It’s a pity to see India lagging behind. I have eaten pork and beef too,” Lear said in a hushed tone.
“You know India has so seeped in superstition and orthodoxy that it has stunted its growth. I ate beef, did I die? Does anyone die of eating what’s banned in your religion? Did Americans die? No, they wouldn’t die. But they will certainly die living in restriction.” complained Lear.
Mahesh had always deplored Lear’s haughty Englishness. The latter had bartered his values for tattered books, liquor and coats. But, deep down, Mahesh aspired to be an Englishman minus the haughtiness and blamed Lear for failing in giving him a better life despite his proud education. He had his own share of resentment. He was the father that his younger brothers never had. He set aside his own life to look after the lands and men tilling it. He wished for the best things in life. At least, an English tongue to land him a better job.
His frustrations take better of him when Lear continues his barrage on India’s ineptitude:
“You should have had the guts to stay among your pork-eating friends. Not only India but we would have worked fine without you too,” said Lear snarkily.
“Don’t take that tone with me. You weren’t a bright seed,” said Lear beratingly.
“Oh! really, is this what you think?! Tell me do you or your other sons know the debt we were in or the land that had been grabbed or the proceedings of the court cases? None! They know nothing. I have kept our lands safe from encroachment. Furthermore, you emptied your coffers for a nobody while I feed you.
“You don’t feed me! I am pensioned,” added Lear
“Then why does Riteish feeds off from my ration?” corrected Mahesh while slamming the magazine on the table.
“ Then separate. I have nothing to do with you,” said Lear nonchalantly.
Mahesh’s anger knew no limit. His face beamed with anger as he moved towards Lear:
“ After looting me for half of my salaried life, you have the galls to deprive me of my inheritance? I fed your good for nothing youngest son, yet here you are showing me my place. I will show you yours. You will wither away. That very son whose coffers you filled will leech you.”
Earlier, Lear had witnessed Mahesh’s wrath and had been sure of it to wane; again the dust would settle like always.
But this time, Mahesh was adamant to take a step. Behind him lay two scores and a year spent slavishly meeting the order of the society that looked down upon the idea of a divided Hindu family.
“What a sham!” sneered Mahesh
Since then, Mahesh maintained his distance but couldn’t look away. He resented him deeply. He wished him to be dead but he missed the father he never had.
As the smoke settled, Hamlet saw Mahesh following delirious Lear heading towards the gate.
IMAGE: MANISHMOHANDAS