PROSE LESSON - 3 A PINCH OF SNUFF @ MANOHAR MALGAONKAR

A PINCH OF SNUFF

Manohar Malgaonkar

MANOHAR MALGAONKAR (B- 1913) Is a well known novelist and short story writer with over 25 Publications to his credit. His important works include Distant Drum, The Princes, A Bend in the Ganges and Bombay Beware. The present short story  A PINCH OF SNUFF, taken from Contemporary Indian Short Stories in English, is full of wit and adventure. The reader's excitement is built  up through the accuracy and the profound comedy of Malgaonkar's narrative.

 A PINCH OF SNUFF

1. Mother's announcement shook me. "Nanukaka is coming," she said. 
2. "Oh, my God!" I said. "Couldn't we send him a wire saying we are leaving-that I am transferred or something?"
3. "No, dear,"Mother said. "He must already on the train. Besides," she added reassuringly,"he says he cannot stay here for more than two or three days." 
4. "What is he coming to Delhi for - in this heat?"
5. "He wants to see some Minister."
6. "What! That means he will be here for weeks! Ministers don't see people for weeks....months! Oh, my God!" 
7. "If your Nanukaka wants to see a Minister, I am sure he will manage to see him,"Mother said,"any time of the day or night."
8. Mother has always been very loyal to her side of the family, and, after all, Nanukaka is her brother. I, on the other hand, may have something of a complex about Ministers. I am an Under-Secretary, on probation, and as such trained to regard Ministers an being two steps higher than God; The Secretaries being just one step higher. 
9. I was waiting on the platform when the train came in. Nanukaka stood in the doorway of a second class catriage; a striking figure, white haired, with an impressive moustache. He still wears the old-fashioned knee-length black coat and the red silk pugree of the Deccani Brahmin, and drapes a white angocha round his shoulders.
10. As I went up, he handed me a basket. "Take this out, quick, "he whispered. "I' II join you outside the station."
11. I asked no questions. I tucked the basket under my arm and turned, only to bump into an enormous Marwari women who had her head coverd in a burka. But My apologies were drowned by the strange sounds emanating from the basket: the protests of an outraged kitten."Spitts..strupst...meow...meoow...meoow!"
12. I ducked and ran, and mingled with the crowd and squeezed through the gate in the wake of a Sikh marriage party.
13. Nanukaka was long time coming.The station yard was nearly empty and the last tonga had gone when he emerged,escorted by a fawning ticker inspector.
14. "No room in the third class,and they wouldn't issue second class tickets without reservation,"Nanukaka explained as he came up to me."Had to travel second on a third class ticket!But it was all arranged quite amicably. Such a nice young man,the TC. You saw how he even came right out with me, so that there should be no trouble. The kitten बिल्ली का बच्चा , of course, travelled free. How is it?"
15. "Very quiet,"I said. Perhaps it is dead, I thought hopefull.
16. We got into the car, and even before I had changed into second gear, Nanukaka asked:"When have you arranged for the minister to see me? Can't stay here for more than two days-three the most."
17. It was a time for frankness." Look uncle." I said."I am merely an Under-Secretary, on probation, and it is more than my job is worth to go asking for interviews with Ministers."
18. "Oh!" Nanukaka said."I had rather hoped....oh, I see.Well,never mind."He took a pinch of snuff,brushed his fingers delicately on his angocha, and sat back,closing his eyes and puckering his eyebrows as through in deep thought. He also clucked his tongue several times in a typically Deccani way,registering pity.
19. Mother was waiting on the doorstep, her face wreathed in smiles. She went into squeals of delight over the kitten and made a lot of fuss over Nanukaka. I also found that she had installed him in my bedroom, so that I had to put a charpoy for myself in the back varandah.