Whence it is easy to see that mere men of the flesh who would create a
tumult must fare badly at the hands of the Supreme Government. And they
do. There is no outward sign of excitement; there is no confusion;
there is no knowledge. When due and sufficient reasons have been given,
weighed and approved, the machinery moves forward, and the dreamer of
dreams and the seer of visions is gone from his friends and following.
He enjoys the hospitality of Government; there is no restriction upon
his movements within certain limits; but he must not confer any
more with his brother dreamers. Once in every six months the
Supreme Government assures itself that he is well and takes formal
acknowledgment of his existence. No one protests against this detention,
because the few people who know about it are in deadly fear of seeming
to know him; and never a single newspaper 'takes up his case' or
organises demonstrations on his behalf, because the newspapers of India
have got behind that lying proverb which says the Pen is mightier than
the Sword, and can walk delicately.
So now you know as much as you ought about Wali Dad, the educational
mixture, and the Supreme Government.
Lalun has not yet been described. She would need, so Wali Dad says, a
thousand pens of gold and ink scented with musk. She has been variously
compared to the Moon, the Dil Sagar Lake, a spotted quail, a gazelle,
the Sun on the Desert of Kutch, the Dawn, the Stars, and the young
bamboo. These comparisons imply that she is beautiful exceedingly
according to the native standards, which are practically the same as
those of the West. Her eyes are black and her hair is black, and her
eyebrows are black as leeches; her mouth is tiny and says witty things;
her hands are tiny and have saved much money; her feet are tiny and have
trodden on the naked hearts of many men. But, as Wali Dad sings: 'Lalun
_is_ Lalun, and when you have said that you have only come to the
Beginnings of Knowledge.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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