The Crescent Moon | Page 8

fly away?
Would you shake your finger at me and say, "What an ungrateful
wretch of a bird! It is gnawing at its chain day and night?"
Then, go, mother, go! I will run away into the woods; I will never let

you take me in your arms again.

VOCATION
When the gong sounds ten in the morning and I walk to school by our
lane,
Every day I meet the hawker crying, "Bangles, crystal bangles!"
There is nothing to hurry him on, there is no road he must take, no
place he must go to, no time when he must come home.
I wish I were a hawker, spending my day in the road, crying, "Bangles,
crystal bangles!"
When at four in the afternoon I come back from the school,
I can see through the gate of that house the gardener digging the
ground.
He does what he likes with his spade, he soils his clothes with dust,
nobody takes him to task if he gets baked in the sun or gets wet.
I wish I were a gardener digging away at the garden with nobody to
stop me from digging.
Just as it gets dark in the evening and my mother sends me to bed,
I can see through my open window the watchman walking up and
down.
The lane is dark and lonely, and the street-lamp stands like a giant with
one red eye in its head.
The watchman swings his lantern and walks with his shadow at his side,
and never once goes to bed in his life.
I wish I were a watchman walking the streets all night, chasing the

shadows with my lantern.

SUPERIOR
Mother, your baby is silly! She is so absurdly childish!
She does not know the difference between the lights in the streets and
the stars.
When we play at eating with pebbles, she thinks they are real food, and
tries to put them into her mouth.
When I open a book before her and ask her to learn her a, b, c, she tears
the leaves with her hands and roars for joy at nothing; this is your
baby's way of doing her lesson.
When I shake my head at her in anger and scold her and call her
naughty, she laughs and thinks it great fun.
Everybody knows that father is away, but if in play I call aloud
"Father," she looks about her in excitement and thinks that father is
near.
When I hold my class with the donkeys that our washerman brings to
carry away the clothes and I warn her that I am the schoolmaster, she
will scream for no reason and call me dâdâ. [elder brother ]
Your baby wants to catch the moon. She is so funny; she calls Ganesh
Gânush. [Ganesh, a common name in India, also that of the god
with the elephant's head.]
Mother, your baby is silly, she is so absurdly childish!

THE LITTLE BIG MAN
I am small because I am a little child. I shall be big when I am as old as

my father is.
My teacher will come and say, "It is late, bring your slate and your
books."
I shall tell him, "Do you not know I am as big as father? And I must not
have lessons any more."
My master will wonder and say, "He can leave his books if he likes, for
he is grown up."
I shall dress myself and walk to the fair where the crowd is thick.
My uncle will come rushing up to me and say, "You will get lost, my
boy; let me carry you."
I shall answer, "Can't you see, uncle, I am as big as father. I must go to
the fair alone."
Uncle will say, "Yes, he can go wherever he likes, for he is grown up."
Mother will come from her bath when I am giving money to my nurse,
for I shall know how to open the box with my key.
Mother will say, "What are you about, naughty child?"
I shall tell her, "Mother, don't you know, I am as big as father, and I
must give silver to my nurse."
Mother will say to herself, "He can give money to whom he likes, for
he is grown up."
In the holiday time in October father will come home and, thinking that
I am still a baby, will bring for me from the town little shoes and small
silken frocks.
I shall say, "Father, give them to my dâdâ [elder brother], for I
am as big as you are."

Father will think and say, "He can buy his own clothes if he likes, for
he is grown up."

TWELVE O'CLOCK
Mother, I do want to leave off my lessons now. I