A BREACH OF PROMISE

By R. K. NARAYAN

.SANKAR was candidate 3,131 in the Lower Secondary Examination and he clearly saw this number on a typed sheet, announcing the results, pasted on the weather-beaten doors of the Government Middle School. That meant he would pass on to a High School now. He was slightly dizzy with joy.

He shuddered at the recollection of the same scene the year before when he had looked at the notices and found his number missing. He had thought he would never survive the failure and sit for another examination. Two of his closest friends had also passed this year, having failed with him the previous year. For them life had now acquired a new richness. There was a ring of joy in their voices and overflowing good-fellowship in every word they uttered to each other.

Sankar invited his friends to share with him a happy evening and went home to announce his success. He dinned the happy news into the ears of every person in the house, from his father down to the cook. He demanded from his mother five rupees .as a reward for passing the examination, and went out.

He joined his friends. Their success was celebrated in a fitting manner. They first went to a restaurant, dragged chairs noisily about, thumped and roared and guffawed, and ate everything that the waiter suggested. They stayed in the restaurant till about six and then went to the Gaiety House, which was presenting to the public of Mysore the masterpiece Blue and Black. Sankar and his friends sat in the four-anna class. When Georgie Lomb knitted his brow and said huskily to Vivian Troilet, " Three years ago you did not want me; now I don't want you," the boys nodded approvingly, but it was more from habit than from a full appreciation of Georgie Lomb's talent. For even Georgie Lomb occupied only a secondary place to the Lower Secondary results. The glow of success made the lights of ordinary life a little dim.

Next morning they met at four and started for the temple on the hill. It was by the grace of Goddess Chamundi that they had passed the examination and they must take offerings to her., .

It was still dark when they reached the foot of the hill. All talk gradually. ceased and their breathing became audible as they reached the two-hundredth step. They sat down for a while gazing at the twinkling lights of the City below. They rested till their breath came at more reasonable intervals and less noisily. Foot by foot they dragged themselves up a thousand steps—rugged granite steps which have acquired smooth- ness with the tread of a million pilgrims. They reached the top. An old woman sitting behind a heap of coco7 nuts beckoned to . them, " Masters, won't you buy some offerings for the Goddess ? " They stopped before her and bought • coconuts, plantains, flowers and incense.

They entered the temple and circled. the corridor thrice. A priest wrapped in a green shawl held a plate before them, and they placed their offerings on it. They followed the priest into the shrine.. He broke the coconuts at the altar, lighted .the camphor and held up the flame before the image of the Goddess. .

The, diamonds on. the image sparkled in the camphor light. Sankar and his friends closed. their eyes and murmured, " Mother, we have passed our examination through your grace.' Bless us with success in all the examinations hereafter." The priest brought them the camphor flame on a plate ; they touched it. They then received the holy water and the vermilion. Their coco- nuts and plantains, after they had been offered to the Goddess, were returned to them.

They went to the pillared hall outside and fell full- length on the floor before the Goddess. It was at this moment that a dreadful memory returned to Sankar's mind : the previous year on the evening before the examination he had come to the temple and prayed for success. He had prostrated himself before the Goddess and vowed secretly that if she made him fail in the examination he would destroy himself. He did fail that year, was miserable for some time, and passed the exami- nation this year. He might pdssibly have- remembered his vow if two of his best friends had not failed with him, if he had not gone away, after the resultt, to his sister's place for a month or two and spent a most exhilarating holiday there, and if he had not passed this year. Now as he lay before the Goddess he suddenly remembered his vow.

He rose and left the temple with his friends. His soul was troubled. A vow to God was a vow. Goddess Chamundi was not a mere idol but a living presence in the City. Did she not trample the evil demon Mahisha -under her foot and tear his entrails out when he (as Sankar thought) defied her ? Wherever one went in the city one saw the pictures of this Goddess, with her hair untied and her hands blood-covered, driving a spear into the body of the demon under her foot. She was not a Goddess to be trifled with.

The next thing to do was to enjoy the plantains and the coconuts they had offered to the Goddess. They repaired to a secluded spot on the hill, shelled the coconuts and peeled the plantains. Sankar received his share, laid it beside him, and suddenly got up, saying, " shall go and get some jaggery. We cannot eat plain coconut."

He ran towards the temple and entered the First Portal. No one was about, and he hopped on to a stone platform on the right side of the portal and slipped into a cave-like room. It was the entrance to the tower of the temple. The tower, visible for miles around, started as the broad gate of the temple, and going up, pile on pile, ended in an immense carved Monster with a red lolling tongue and bulging eyes.

Sankar climbed an ancient ladder and reached a narrow room above. There was another ladder there and it led on to another room above. There were ten flights of ladders, the rooms becoming narrower and darker at every stage.

Sankar reached the topmost room. It was stifling and musty. Bats whirred about. A narrow beam of light came in through an aperture in the wall. He put his body through the aperture, rested his feet on some figures carved in relief on the outside of the tower, and reached the Monster on top. Its eyes were as big as his head. He could lie curled up in its mouth. Its red, lolling tongue was like a platform. Sankar sat on it. The world below him was a splash of sunlight. The plains, over a thousand feet below, looked like patches of grass. He looked down and said to himself that he would be unrecognisable when he reached the ground. . . He closed his eyes and prayed, " Great mother, now I shall jump off from here and thus fulfil my vow. Forgive me for the delay." He suspended his prayer, disturbed by a violent smarting at the elbow. He touched it. There was blood. Some- where, probably while heaving himself up, he had skinned his elbow. It was raw. Blood was oozing. It smarted. He groaned. He prayed now, " Great mother, you must forgive me. I cannot throw myself down. Instead, for a year I will come here every Friday and offer two coco- Mits." He rose very carefully, held his breath, and cliinbed down, resting his feet on carved images. His legs trembled. A look below made his head reel. He reached the aperture, slid through it into the top room, and sat down for a moment and closed his eyes.

* * * The moment Sankar appeared, his friends cursed him for taking such a long time to return and. demanded, " Where is the jaggery ? " Sankar turned round without a word and ran at full speed towards the shop beforc the temple where jaggery was sold.