Chapter 7
When Parvati returns back to Dak Bungalow, she calls him out through the window to meet Sahab. He is surprised and asks her what happened. She warns him about the curry that Mali bought and tells him not to eat as it is poison, possibly may affect his health. Sahab doubts her. She explains herself that she comes back halfway just to warn him about the food. Sahab immediately thinks that perhaps she just wants a favour from him to make money. He tells her that she may have a problem with Mali and she is turning him against Mali. Then Parvati gets angry but she tells him that he can do whatever he likes, the curry is made from a rat and he can it.
Sahab is shocked after her statement. Parvati tells him that she has seen people catching a rat to cook and the villagers eat it with relish, comes easily with low price and the one who cooks also makes it good. Dashrath has no intention of killing him but since it will take time to cook mutton curry, he bought this rat curry from outside which is already available. He is shocked after the statement and he asks if the entire villagers eats the rat curry. He tells her that he is also a human being and he can eat the rat curry. Parvati is shocked as he is the first one not to deny the food while Memsahib and others complain about the rice and invoke their upper class status to justify their excuses.
Parvati tells him that he can eat but Sahab tells her that he isn’t going to eat the curry Dashrath will give him. He is thankful of her but Parvati tells him not to tell Dashrath about it as Dashrath will fight with her. Sahab starts to think about her kindness that generally people from lower class do anything to get money but Parvati is different as she cares for others life as well.
Chapter 8
Parvati returns back home and she sees Nando boiling a rice. Nando tries to ignore Parvati despite knowing she has come. He thinks of punishing Parvati by closing the door and making her knock the door before she has returned. He thinks that she is speaking confidently so there is nothing really happened to her. She decides to handle the food from Nando and Nando sits back telling her that he could have managed even if she comes late. Parvati taunts him about his inability to manage cooking but his ability to serve the officers. Nando addresses her as the queen and not the maid.
Nando asks her question about what happened at Dak Bungalow to show false concern towards his. She knew he didn’t have any concern for her so she asks him why he didn’t come see her at Dak Bungalow. Nando makes an excuse angrily that he didn’t have time to see her there. She taunts him that his stomach is more important than her safety. Parvati tells Nando that Dashrath was not there and she was entertaining Sahab by answering his queries just to tease Nando. She starts praising Sahab about his physical appearance which made Nando to envy him. She taunts him that it is better for her sell herself to Sahab and giver him the love than the man who has no concern for her and eats the food of a cheating wife.
After hearing it, Nando becomes angry and am he throws a spoon at Parvati missing the target. She picks up the spoon and taunt him again that he still has humanity left in him even after boot licking the officers that may have turned his blood to water. He threatens her if she continues to utter such statements. She tells him that the world is growing in social and economic spheres and her audacity is growing as she has received a favour from Sahab. Nando tell her to keep quiet but she insists on teasing him. All of a sudden, he loses his temper and goes out.
As he walks to the office, he thinks the he is a fool and it is Parvati’s nature to tease him. Nando though gets angry at Parvati’s flirtatious nature but he likes her personality and a habit. He thinks that since they don’t have a child, there is no responsibility for her. If the child arrives, she will have the responsibility and she will not look at other Sahab giving peace to Nando.
Chapter 9
Nando sleeps on a charpoy outside the house during the summer due to humidity. He comes late as usual due to overtime at work and if he comes early then he will smoke as well as order Parvati for tea, fritters and sometimes a massage. As usual, Parvati engages in embroidery work if Nando comes late. On evening, she was sitting on the charpoy sewing buttons, wearied physically and mentally. As usual she watches the people and the vehicles passing by from the front road near her home.
People thinks that Parvati is a lovelorn because she looks depressing. She thinks about her past life when she was still unmarried. She used to be a Tom boy busy in fishing and climbing trees, having the characteristics of a male gender. She played with boys back then and she was chided by her mother for not helping in the household chores. Her father loved her very much and supported her back then, having closer affection to her father than her mother. This bond made Parvati to marry Nando to repay his debt despite having no feelings for him.
Some make a critical comments on Parvati sitting all by herself while others show pity as she is childless and married to an alcoholic who arrives late at night. Sahab arrives in a red car and calls her out. He thanks her for saving his life as he didn’t eat the curry Dashrath made. Sahab comes out of the car and she insists him to take her advice. She demands him to bring Memsaheb quickly. He asks her if she is asking to get a job but it is not the case and she becomes angry for she looses her dignity.
She asks Sahab if he has ever encountered anyone having a talk without any intention. She tells him that he hasn’t met any worthy person to talk. He apologises for his behaviour and he is amused after meeting her as he wonders that she may belong to a poor class yet she has a human dignity and self respect. He notices a difference between her civilised behaviour and her social status.
Parvati mentions about the general perception of poor class mindset but Sahab is of the opinion that there are high class who also have a poor mindset. Suddenly, I’m Parvati sees some shadow behind a tree. She sees an anger in a shadow and she knows. She laughs suddenly which Sahab find it weird. She tells him that anyone else would have invited her to Dak Bungalow at night and Sahab loses his temper at Parvati. She apologizes and clears the misunderstanding that some will offer cheap beautiful woman for him in absence of Memsaheb. There are also gang whose leader is Nando Raut. He leaves to the car and he vividly remembers the name of Nando Raut but is unsure.
He suddenly realises Parvati introduces her name along with Raut before and she also mentions the leader of the gang as Nando Raut. He becomes suspicious that Nando is her husband and he doubts that Nando may have kidnapped her or bought her.
Chapter 10
Nando comes out from behind the tree. She is still standing here and he pulls her hair. Nando accuses her of flirting with Sahab and doubts her. He orders her to go inside the house. She goes inside the house and she pulls the shawl while Nando starts beating her. He asks her what she was talking about with Sahab but Parvati keeps it confidential between her and Sahab. He threatens her that he will kill her. She tells him that she is already dead. She starts to tease Nando by creating false information and using the situation of Memsaheb’s absence. He feels that they were talking dirty things and asks many queries. She threatens him to leave the house.
Parvati tells him why he is still inquiring her since he was standing beside the tree. He didn’t hear it properly. Nando tells that he will get angry if Sahab is having a conversation with his wife under his presence but Parvati tells him that if it is so then why he felt the need to hide beside the tree. She blames him for coming late at night giving opportunity to his wife to cheat on him. She teases him that since he comes early today, he has caught her red handed trying to cheat on him.
She teases her so to make her husband comes home early out of jealousy. He becomes jealous of his wife creating a different meaning out of it. He tells her that he has water inside his body and it is the reason why he has the government job, money and the house. She still teases him that if she is in his place then she would have gouge out the eyeballs with a stone of Sahab. He tells her not to say anything harsh against Sahab but Parvati sees Sahab as just an ordinary person despite his status.
Nando tells her that he is always tortured by his suspicions and tensions and she tells him that he is insecure as well as nobody is going to her husband. Nando realises his guilt for not respecting her feelings before marriage and he feels helpless since they are married. She tells him that times have changed and even marriages can break apart. Nando tells her that she is planning to get rid of him. Parvati tells him that it is better for her to leave than live a life with an abusive husband. Nando tells her that she only sees his bad side and not his good side. She gives rice to him and he keeps it aside to see her reaction but she doesn’t. He taunts her that he doesn’t even get a chappati at home and only rice but she tells him that he didn’t give her an answer back then about the food. They have an argument about the food and it continues.
Chapter 11
The chapter exposes Dashrath’s past experiences with Memsahab. She scolded him whenever they were dissatisfied with his cooking. Memsahab also chided Sahab for not scolding his servants. Sahab never engaged himself in a conversation with his servants but only commands or order in the presence of Sahab. Mukherjee Sahab never complain about Dashrath’s cooking and eats whatever is being served to him. He denies eating meat anytime anywhere as an excuse since Parvati had told him what Dashrath was going to serve him before. Dashrath didn’t know that Sahab didn’t eat meat so he didn’t suspect anything about the curry in relation to Parvati.
Suddenly, Sahab keeps his book on the table and he asks Dashrath about Nando Raut. He tells him the every villagers knows him and he is the husband of Parvati. He questions Nando Raut and his marriage to Parvati since Parvati is young but Nando is physically fragile and old. Then Dashrath tells him that it is Parvati’s unfortunate luck. Sahab becomes curious to know about their marriage. Dashrath tells him everything how she is an honest woman who do her duty well but her husband abuses her constantly. Then he continues to tell him the history of their marriage.
Sahab continues to eat his food while Dashrath continues to expose Nando Raut and his relationship with Parvati without asking Sahab if he wants to know. Dashrath dislikes Nando because Dashrath cannot even have a conversation with Parvati as Nando glares at him and starts abusing her. Nando doubts her that she could be cheating on him. Dashrath tells him of one incident when Memsahab came here to Dak Bungalow with her baby and she needed Parvati’s help. Parvati catered the child and she needed to stay at Dak Bungalow for four nights with them. So Nando brings his portable bed to Dak Bungalow and slept near Dashrath to check upon him and Parvati every night. Memsahab on the other hand became happy with Parvati’s work and she wanted to take Parvati to the city. Memsahab even promised to give her allowances and a salary of ₹ 100 per month with accommodation and timely vacation. Nando denied the promises of Memsahab because he didn’t want her to go and there would be no one to cater his needs.
So Parvati denies a request or Memesahab since her husband values and respected her. Nando accuses Dashrath that he is the one who provoked Memesahab to take Parvati to the city and she shall be safely away from Nando. Sahab didn’t respond but he continues to read the book. Dashrath finds an excuse to meet Parvati. He pleads her to come to Dak Bungalow regularly and cook for Sahab as Sahab doesn’t like his cooking. Then Parvati informs Nando that Sahab’s wife had divorced him because he is busy travelling here and there and she works in a city which is also important. Nando reasons that Sahab has a loose character and he may have done something wrong and he tells Parvati not to go to Dak Bungalow anymore. He threatens her to cremate her alive if she goes there.
Parvati tells him that Nando can stop her from going to Dak Bungalow but she tells him if Sahab comes here to their house.then Nando tells her that Sahab cannot come to the house as he will murder him and he wants to see how she can cross the limits of visiting Sahab. She tells him that Nando has no emotional sympathy for Sahab whom she kept praising but Nando tells her that she has a lot of emotions of Sahab. He assures her that he will surely kill Sahab. Parvati tells him that he will be hanged if he kills Sahab that provokes Nando as she has no concern for him. Nando reminds her of Ganesh Das who was killed in an accident and her wife was bought by Sahab. Parvati tells him that his wife had to go with Sahab because she didn’t have a choice. She also reminds him that Nando is the one who took Ganesh’s wife to Sahab. Nando becomes angry because he believes it is a lie and he didn’t participate in selling Ganesh’s wife to Sahab.
Nando assures her that he will not give any reason for her to cross her limits to get to Sahab as he is going to murder him. She tells him to kill Sahab secretly. Nando tells her that he will go as an assistant and he will make sure that Sahab dies in a car accident. She asks her about Nando’s plan to kill Sahab. He denies telling his plan to Parvati because he believes that she will tell Sahab and try to save him from the tragedy.
Chapter 12
Parvati becomes anxious to what Nando has said earlier about the car accident. The next morning, she asked Nando not to act like a fool. Nando is surprised and Parvati tells him that he made a plan to kill Sahab at the car accident but Nando assures her that he just said it out of anger. After Nando sees Parvati’s concern for Sahab, he becomes provoke and he wants to kill Sahab now. She felt that she has put Sahab’s life in jeopardy. After Nando leaves, she sees a red blood and a dead body in her mind which is of Sahab, shocked and she sits down on the ground.
The Distant Window Chapter 13-17 Summary
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