Bholi “Yes, yes, it will be very easy. You just come to school everyday. Will you come?” Bholi nodded. “No, say it aloud.” “Ye-Ye-Yes.” And Bholi herself was astonished that she had been able to say it.
“Didn’t I tell you? Now take this book.” The book was full of nice pictures and the pictures were in colour — dog, cat, goat, horse, parrot, tiger and a cow just like Lakshmi. And with every picture was a word in big black letters. “In one month you will be able to read this book.
Then I will give you a bigger book, then a still bigger one. In time you will be more learned than anyone else in the village. Then no one will ever be able to laugh at you. People will listen to you with respect and you will be able to speak without the slightest stammer.
Understand? Now go home, and come back early tomorrow morning.” Bholi felt as if suddenly all the bells in the village temple were ringing and the trees in front of the school-house had blossomed into big red flowers. Her heart was throbbing with a new hope and a new life. • Why do Bholi’s parents accept Bishamber’s marriage proposal?
• Why does the marriage not take place? Thus the years passed. The village became a small town. The little primary school became a high school.
There were now a cinema under a tin shed and a cotton ginning mill. The mail train began to stop at their railway station. One night, after dinner, Ramlal said to his wife, “Then, shall I accept Bishamber’s proposal?” “Yes, certainly,” his wife said. “Bholi will be lucky to get such a well-to-do bridegroom.
A big shop, a house of his own and I hear several thousand in the bank. Moreover, he is not asking for any dowry.” “That’s right, but he is not so young, you know — almost the same age as I am — and he also limps. Moreover, the children from his first wife are quite grown up.”