Summary
Chapter 3
As he walks to Babban Jan’s, Mir Nihal reflects on his mistress’s place in his life, and how she provides him with a place to forgot his daily worries and sorrows. He has been seeing her for five years, and feels they have developed a deep bond over the course of that time. He overhears an old man singing a song about death, and has a premonition that she has died. When he arrives, Babban Jan’s mother is crying, and he knows she has passed. He tries to comfort her, but knows he can do little to soothe a grieving mother. He gives her some money. He once again feels old and weak.
The next morning, he goes to check on his pigeons, but sees that he had forgotten to close the door on the way out the night before, which allowed some cats to get in and feast on his birds. A few survived by flying out, but when they see their master, they greet him in hopes of being fed, and Mir Nihal feels as though his heart will burst from pity. He notices one of the cats asleep in the loft, resting after her feast, and he attacks, taking his revenge. With a few blows from his stick, the cat is dead. As he reflects on Babban Jan’s death, he realizes that he no longer needs to work; his children are no longer dependent on him, and he had mostly continued working in order to provide for his mistress. He decides to retire.
Chapter 4
Dilchain inquires about Mir Nihal’s pigeons, having spotted another cat that had brought some remains inside the house, and he informs they have died. As he takes his breakfast with the family, he begins to cry thinking of Babban Jan. His wife, thinking he is grieving his pigeons, suggests he purchase some new ones. He says he has decided to stop flying pigeons.
Later in the evening, he goes out and sees the cat he had beaten still alive, having somehow recovered from his attack. He reflects on the fickleness of fate, and no longer feels hatred toward the cat. He is merely indifferent, and peacefully accepts that one day death will come for him too.
He decides to visit a friend, Nawwab Puttan, to ease his pain. A group is there, and they are discussing poetry. They notice Mir Nihal is looking unwell, and inquire about him, but he dismisses their concern, and joins in on their conversation. Then, his friend asks about Babban Jan. He confesses that she has passed away from typhoid. His friend reassures him by telling him he can find another mistress. Though the response bothers him, he doesn’t let on, instead saying he feels he should retire and live out the rest of his days in peace, concerned with God rather than women.
After prayers, Nawwab Puttan asks Mir Nihal about the family’s plans to match Asghar with Bilqeece. Though he has not been privy to this information until now, he has been aware that his wife had been making marriage preparations behind his back. He gives a diplomatic response, telling him he would have informed him of the news himself but did not think to do so since the marriage is far off. He had put Asghar out of his mind since he moved to Bhopal and got a job. He realizes that it is not of importance to him if Asghar decides to ruin himself by marrying a lower born woman, and that he might as well give his consent to the marriage to avoid the scandal it would surely cause him. He would rather lose a son and live out the rest of his days in peace than continue to fight him for no reason. He goes home and gives Begam Nihal his consent for the marriage.
Analysis
Babban Jan's death signals to Mir Nihal that he is growing older, that an aspect of his glory days as a younger man is now gone, but it is also a moment of emasculation for him. After he is unable to offer his mistress's mother much comfort beyond giving her money he feels not only old but weak, which shows that he lacks the prototypically manly strength which he displayed when slaying the snake earlier in the novel. The emasculation is also, in some sense, more literal, in that his sex life has now come to an end. Though his friends suggest that he find another mistress, he feels he can longer hold back the tide of old age.
The moment with the cat also provides an interesting contrast to the earlier scene in which Mir Nihal kills the snake. Here, he again asserts his dominance over an animal, not so much protecting his flock and avenging them. But whereas his previous show of dominance over an animal made him feel powerful and self-satisfied, this time his grief is so great that he is unable to regain his dignity and composure through the act. Rather than replenish his flock, having killed the animal that threatened it, he chooses to retire. Unsurprisingly, then, the cat returns in the next chapter, somehow still living, symbolically suggesting how, unlike the snake, the problem which the cat represented cannot be so easily cast away.
Begam Nihal confusing her husband's grief over the death of his mistress with grief over the death of his flock provides an interesting way to read Babban Jan's character. It is telling that it is more socially acceptable for Mir Nihal to cry over the loss of his pigeons than to cry over the loss of another human being. Of course, revealing the true nature of his sadness would be admitting infidelity to his wife, but it still indicates the nature of the dancing girl's uncertain position in the social world of Delhi—in some ways, she is lower than an animal in the society's hierarchy.
Devastated and broken, Mir Nihal is now in a place where he can accept his son's desired match. Again, this decision is connected to a kind of emasculation; just before his hand is forced, he tells his friends that he will no longer seek the services of dancing girls and will instead live out the rest of his life concerned with God. So, the traditions and culture which he was defending by refusing to allow Asghar to marry Bilqeece is connected with his archetypal masculinity, and the loss of one naturally leads to the loss of the other.
