My Mother — Page 18
18 a few days. My grand father kept in good health for some months after his return and then fell ill of it. Within a few days his con- dition became serious. My father became anxious and began to visit him every evening. The road from Sialkot to Daska, a dis- tance of sixteen miles, was not metalled. He rode to Daska every afternoon after court hours, and rode back to Sialkot early next morning. The time was February and the return journey during the early hours on horseback was both uncomfortable and trying. His father’s condition continued to deteriorate and on the last day he stayed with him all the time. When news of my grandfather’s death arrived by telegram, with her three children—two boys and one girl—left Sialkot immediately and drove to Daska. Her father-in-law had all through been most kind and gracious towards her, and his death shattered her with grief. Relatives, friends, admirers, and sym- pathisers in large numbers converged on Daska and there was a very large attendance at the funeral. He himself had been much averse to the customary Hindu mourning rites and bewailings some of which were current among rural Muslims also, but now that he was not there to admonish and to restrain, the women of the family, including , gave free vent to their grief in heart-rending bewailings. Death calls for self-restraint, dignity, and steadfastness; but, at that time, the demands of custom were rigid and ineluctable. A short while after his death saw my grandfa- ther in her dream. He took her along, as it were, on a sightseeing trip and showed her first a scene of Hell in which some women were being subjected to terrible torment. He told her that these were women who had indulged in bewailing for the dead. He