The Cloud-Capped Star Page #2

and drawn

What are your plans?.

I'm looking for a scholarship

to do doctoral research

Monkey!

- For a D. Sc?

- D. Phils are all too common

Swine!

What's the subject of your thesis?

The Reynolds number of the Supersonic

vibration of the Lower Gangetic Plain

Ape!

Not you, I mean Shankar.

I was comparing you two

He's done nothing

Son, have a bite to eat

So you're immersed in studies?

No other way out in life

What a lovely place

I haven't time

Give Sanat some tea

Is Sanat here?

What are you staring at?

Take this, I'm late

How do you manage to sit indoors

all evening?

Drink the tea. I'll go late for

tuition, as you're here

Let's go for a walk

A walk, I said. Miles away,

weren't you?

Where is everyone?

What's this? Get out at once!

Dear me, what's going on?

Come inside

You know the guru I told you about

When was that?

Bring home all the vagabonds!

Can't feed yourself...

Beginning's a bit troublesome

Such a lovely voice.

You'd be spellbound

If you bring such a nuisance again...

Quick, bring some money

Don't tell your mother. We're busy.

Lessons to be taught

We're going out. I'll do the tuition

on the way back

It won't work. I can't manage

without a job

No, you mustn't

But I can't get a scholarship

After so much work

Just a few more months

And then?

Then I'll get a job

And with your earnings...

It makes no difference

You're so gifted

- That picture in my room...

- The two kids?

Me and Brother

Once we went up to the hills

We got up before dawn to see the

sunrise from a peak. How hard it was

But when the sun came...

I can't explain the thrill

Brother used to tease me:

"She wants to catch the moon"

He still teases me

Neeta, you're just not cut out

to endure all this

Then keep me in a glass case,

like a wax doll

I'll be late for tuition

That's why I come to you,

you make my worries vanish

No cause for alarm, just a broken bone

Neeta, a word with you

Such an injury in old age...

it'll take long to mend

You'll have to run the household

from now on

I'll give a sedative,

it'll last until morning

What brings you here? Weren't you

finishing your studies this year?

I couldn't. I've had to take a job

You'd better spin a new yarn

about your rent

- I said yesterday...

- "You'll get it as soon as I do"

Do you take us for your benefactor,

to rest on our shoulder?

Why not get a job. Settle down in life

You'll never understand suffering

for an ideal

I asked your friend Saroj

what could be done about it

What did he say?

National Chemical, Joy Engineering,

Jagat Hosiery

Three jobs just waiting for you...

...and you're researching hot air

in the atmosphere

Sir, the lady's here

Your ideal is here

What a time I've had.

Luckily, I got a job

The way things are after

Father's accident...

I can't say I like it.

Why abandon your studies?

What can I do?

So many at home, all counting on me

Walk me to the station

Praise to the Goddess of Learning,

bestower of perseverance

And four annas for me, for a shave

Goddess of Learning,

Mother of the Universe

It will be unbearable if I do research

while you work

I'll work and you study.

I can easily get a job

Then our wedding...

Can't happen now

How can it? If I leave the household...

My father, brothers and sister...

Shankar's a rascal, why support him?

You don't understand him at all

One day he will be big,

and you will, too

I pin my hopes on both of you

Then my time will come

That means, until then...

We must wait

Why should we wait?

Don't be silly

I'll drop by in a day or two

I have a question

Come along

A singer can certainly afford a shave

Have you shorn off your sense

of shame, too?

What shame?

The lot of you living off one sister,

destroying her future

Everyone's talking about it.

Aren't you the elder brother?

Banshi, just because you give credit

it doesn't mean you can criticize

I call Neeta "Sinbad the Sailor"

They're all on her shoulders,

like the old man of the sea

That'll be her fate until

she drops dead

Wasting all my days

I've come to the river at a bad time.

I don't know your name, boatman

Who shall I call out to?

Who will row me across?

The boat is here, but no boatman

Not a soul to be seen

Sir, I've finished the lesson

It's late. You'd better go home, son

Montu has skipped college for a month.

I heard today that he's failed

He's been struck off the roll because

he couldn't pay the fees

What good would college do him,

anyway?

It's just as well that girl has a job

Father, do you know about Montu?

No need to tell me. Bad news

travels fast

Everyone knows you're the happiest

to see us harmed

You and your young man

Wife!

Because he's known as a sportsman,

Montu's been given a factory job

He was frightened to tell you.

He's brought home his first pay

Everything's kept secret from me,

as if I were an enemy

Like father, like children

I won't touch this money. You can

run the household and face the music

A job in a factory? Labour!

So what?. These jobs have better

prospects nowadays

See what the middle classes

have sunk to?.

Help me into the next room

You all think I just pick fault

Time has taken a heavy toll

of my mind and spirit

Something's come over me

You needn't explain, Ma

I can't take the burden of this

household any more. Set me free

If Shankar had been a man, you

wouldn't have to shoulder the burden

Brother is very nice

Don't count on your father any more.

Maybe he will stand and walk again

But I think his mind is

becoming confused

He won't be able to earn again.

I've known him since I was seven

Don't worry, Ma... I'm here

You, too, have your hopes...

lots of things, I expect

Anyway, you're all I have

Yes, but I can't help thinking

You're my sole support...

that's the truth

But even you scare me

My own daughter, yet I don't know you

What if you go away, too?

I still don't know you

- Oh, it's you

- Just listening

- What is it?

- Come and eat, it's late

- Why haven't you eaten?

- Because you haven't eaten

I bother you all the time, don't I?

- How sentimental

- Not really

Your whole future... your marriage...

People are turning nasty

It hurts your manhood?

- Haven't you an ego?

- Something much bigger: my music

Right now I'm exploiting you

But deep down it really disturbs me

Are you serious?

I love you all to distraction

We all love each other,

but we shy from saying so

If anyone else loves me,

he'll surely wait for me

It doesn't worry me

I won't marry right now

I'll marry when you become

really famous

Won't I survive until then?

All my suffering will vanish then

Don't you vanish, too

Will you take me to the hills then?

"She's such a Khuki, mother"

I will. You're such a child

Banish sadness and poverty,

bring happiness to all

Sadarang makes a plea

O Being! I shall worship You,

Supreme Being

What have you done to yourself?

Don't fall. I spoke like Father

Why haven't you come for so long?

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