Following that intense altercation and quarreling of the morning, a heavy silence reigned inside the room. Rupanjan was still sitting in a corner of the room with a grave face, his eyes closed, making desperate attempts to manage his rage and self-respect. Right then, toward the afternoon, the sound of violent knocking was suddenly heard upon the heavy wooden door of the room— knock, knock, knock!
The moment the sound upon the door was received, the three women present inside the room—that is, the two elderly women and that supremely beautiful, enchanting maiden—rushed toward the door together in massive enthusiasm. As the door opened slightly, it was revealed that the guards of the royal palace had brought emitting-smoke, extremely delicious, and luxurious food upon a beautiful royal silver platter. In reality, that beautiful girl and the two old women knew very well beforehand, under the command of the Maharaja, that they did not possess the right to even touch this food; the King had strictly forbidden them. This grand platter of food was dispatched solely for Rupanjan, because this was precisely the test of his patience.
Taking the platter by extending her hand from the front of the door, the beautiful girl looked toward Rupanjan and called out in a sweet melody, "Ogo Rupanjan! Look, the royal midday food has arrived for you."
Leaving his seat and stepping forward, Rupanjan took the food platter from the girl's hands and placed it upon that wooden table of the room. Placing the food platter down, he was about to address the guard standing on the other side of the door. He wished to say, "Ohe guard brother, an elderly mother in the corner of this room has been writhing in the pangs of hunger for the past two days, can another single platter of food be kindly dispatched for her?" But before Rupanjan could express the words from his mouth, the guards hastily locked the heavy chain and padlock of the door violently from the outside.
Witnessing such an abrupt and irresponsible behavior of the guards, Rupanjan grew thoroughly annoyed in his mind. Soliloquizing to himself, he thought, "Dhur! They didn't even grant the opportunity to speak an important word to the guards! They closed the door instantly. Perhaps the rascal thinks I am plotting some scheme to escape out of the room using this opportunity! Truly, the guards of this kingdom are each absolute screwballs! They should be caught and delivered two slaps squarely on their cheeks with a loud thwack, thwack!"
Forgetting his rage upon the guards, Rupanjan now gazed toward that fragrant platter of food kept on the table. Due to the stroke of hunger, a fire was burning inside his own stomach as well. But he thought to himself, "I at least put a little something into my mouth this morning, but that elderly mother sitting in the corner hasn't put even a single grain of food into her mouth for the past two days. Keeping her starved in such a dilapidated, elderly condition, it will not be right in any manner on my part alone to gulp down this royal food. Granting her to eat first is my supreme duty."
Pondering this, Rupanjan lifted the platter with both his hands and sat down with slow steps before that first ailing, helpless elderly mother. He said in an extremely polite and supremely affectionate tone, "Dida, take this, you eat this delicious food first, look here. You have felt very hungry."
Witnessing this compassion of Rupanjan, the elderly mother shook her head with surprise in her pale eyes and said, "No, no re child! What are you uttering? This has been sent by the King for you. You are laboring so hard in this foreign land, you eat child, it won't be required for me."
Showing a bit of artificial rage, Rupanjan said in a stern voice, "Dida, do not speak too many words at all! I told you to eat, you quietly consume it. If you do not eat with your own hands, then I will force you and feed you with my own hands!"
Witnessing such devoted service and drama of compassion of Rupanjan, from the middle of the room, that beautiful maiden twisted her mouth in an odd manner and spoke out in a pampered voice, "Oma go! I am utterly speechless! You could never feed me with your own hands with such supreme care, Rupanjan Babu? Did all the affection overflow solely for that witch of an old woman?"
Before the beautiful girl's words could even conclude, that second quarrelsome, irritable old woman swayed her waist and screamed in a harsh voice, "Arrey yes lo wench! Why would he feed you, re? If he comes to feed you, it seems he will deliver two kicks to your back and only then feed you! He is a devil lad of the highest order!"
Looking toward the two old women and the beauty now, Rupanjan folded both his hands and said in an extremely grave and rebuking tone, "Haven't I forbidden the two of you from speaking too many words? Right now, the concern here is about the food of a starving human being. This is no amusing game or mockery, this is a question of life and death for this elderly mother! Will you people kindly keep your mouths shut? I am folding my hands before you, silence!"
Hearing that tiger-like roar of Rupanjan and witnessing the muscles of his hands, the beautiful girl and the quarrelsome old woman became completely spellbound for a moment. Growing afraid, they shut their mouths and stood in their own places.
Turning back toward the first old woman, Rupanjan said in an extremely soft voice, "Eat it down, Dida. Because of your not eating for two days, your body is feeling terribly bad, your head is spinning. My sweet Dida, eat it down." But even then, out of fear of public shame, the elderly mother did not wish to lift the food to her mouth under any circumstances. In the end, having no alternative, Rupanjan mixed the food from the platter with his right hand and, with supreme tenderness, began to force morsels into the mouth of that elderly mother.
Witnessing such divine compassion, selfless sacrifice, and maternal devotion of Rupanjan, torrents of tears indeed gushed incessantly from the eyes of that first Dida inside the room, and even that shrewd spy of the Maharaja hiding outside the window could no longer restrain his own tears. Standing behind the concealment of the wall and wiping his eyes with his veil, he thought in his mind, "Blessed is this youth! Whatever this lad from Junagarh may be—within him, just as there is patience like a mountain, there is also compassion like an ocean. His character is truly spotless, like pure gold!"
After feeding the entire food with supreme care, Rupanjan placed the empty platter back upon the table and said to the first Dida, "Dida, is your stomach full now? Now you do one thing, do you see that beautiful royal bed in the corner of the room? Go there, lie down, and sleep comfortably. You will see that after waking from sleep, your body has become completely energetic."
Gazing toward the bed, the elderly mother said, "But child, the way that quarrelsome old woman and that wench are clamoring, will sleep even come to me, re?"
Lifting that vial of sleeping medicine from the table into his hand then, Rupanjan said, "You have no worry, Dida. The kind of filthy deeds this second Dida and this beautiful girl have commenced, it doesn't appear that your normal sleep will occur. You rather swallow one cap of this royal sleeping medicine, then you will sink into a deep sleep in a single instant, and none of their shrieking and clamoring will reach your ears." Saying this, Rupanjan fed a tiny amount of sleeping medicine to that elderly mother with supreme care and laid her down upon the bed. The moment the medicine entered her stomach, within a few minutes, that exhausted elderly mother became immersed in a deep sleep.
The moment the first Dida fell asleep, the trapped devilry inside the room woke up with double the force, as it were. Securing this golden opportunity, that quarrelsome second old woman and the beautiful maiden combined and rolled up their sleeves to enter the field together to torment Rupanjan.
Casting a magical gaze at Rupanjan and blending her voice in an extremely romantic and pampered melody, the beautiful girl said, "You indeed did not perform this correctly, Rupanjan! I had contemplated with so much hope in my mind that you would bring this platter of royal delicious food and sit to feed me with supreme affection, that too by seating me upon that broad lap of yours! But what did you perform? Leaving a supremely beautiful youth like me, you fed that devil, bone-dry old woman? My pride has been terribly hurt, go!"
Before this tantrum of the girl could even conclude, that irritable, angry Dida swayed her broken waist and stepped in a single leap to stand before Rupanjan, saying, "Arrey yes re Roop! No matter how many filthy, filthy abuses I hurled at you all this time, I had contemplated in my mind that you would love me more than that wench! You would seat me upon your lap, no no... straight upon your neck and feed me this royal pulao and meat! But you did not feed me even a single morsel, re? Why re Roop? Why did you perform such an act with me?"
While speaking these words, that quarrelsome old woman suddenly extended her dry hands, clamped Rupanjan's two ears tightly in her strong fists, and began to shake his head extremely violently— shake, shake, shake!
Unable to bear the intense pain in his ears any longer, Rupanjan released the old woman's hands with a violent jerk of his two hands. Backing away slightly to a distance, he said in a stern voice, "Dida! What obscenity is this you are performing? Has your head gone completely out of order in this old age? Go, sit quietly in your own place! Just because I am enduring with my mouth shut, will you perform whatever you like with me? And that girl... I will burn that beautiful, beautiful face of that girl to absolute ashes if she advances even another step!"
Hearing this fierce form of Rupanjan and his terrifying rebuke of burning her face, that beautiful girl grew extremely frightened. Holding the pleats of her saree with her hand, she cut a massive leap straight a cubit away and fled backward!
Witnessing such turning into a sheep and frog-like leaping of the girl, that spy hiding outside the window of the room could no longer restrain his laughter. Concealing his face behind the window, he began to giggle uncontrollably, bursting into laughter. He thought in his mind, "Oh dear father, oh dear father! So what if she is beautiful, everyone has fear for their own life! Hearing a single rebuke of Rupanjan, look how she fled in a single leap, lifting her saree! Oh dear father go, this is like a strange zoo! What a laughter is catching me!" Laughing continuously, the spy almost began to roll over while placing his back against the wall of the royal palace.
On the other side, hearing Rupanjan's rebuke, the fierce form inside that quarrelsome old woman woke up again. Screwing up her face and eyes in rage, she advanced with the speed of a storm, gripped Rupanjan's hair tightly in her rough hand, and shaking his head violently, said, "You lad! Because I haven't said anything to you for a long time, you have mounted terribly upon my head, re? You have received a lot of indulgence, haven't you? You are uttering such inverted, filthy words regarding my beautiful Binodini granddaughter?"
While attempting to release the grip upon his hair, Rupanjan said, "Uh! Release it, Dida! I say, from when did that Binodini become your granddaughter? What such bad thing did I speak regarding your granddaughter, yeah?"
Grinding her teeth in rage, the old woman said, "Assume this beautiful girl is my very own granddaughter! You will speak whatever you like in her name, you possess such immense audacity? Wait you devil, I am straightening you out today by delivering three kicks to your backside!"
No sooner said than done, that bone-dry old woman truly raised her leg and delivered three-three violent kicks squarely to Rupanjan's backside! Not content merely with delivering kicks; she performed a fiendish deed, suddenly bared her teeth, and bit tightly into Rupanjan's rear, that is, his backside! Biting him, she delivered a slap squarely upon his cheek with a loud thwack, and catching the roots of his hair, slammed him violently to throw him onto the floor!
Falling onto the floor, Rupanjan turned blue in agony. While rubbing his rear with his hand, he began to think in his mind with supreme surprise, "Oh dear father, oh dear father! From where did such physical strength arrive inside the body of this decrepit old woman, re father? She is a pure ogress! I can no longer survive the pain! Is this Maharaja truly taking a test of my patience, or has he sent me to wrestle a bout with some wrestler? Whatever he is performing, God alone knows!"
Meanwhile, from outside the window, the spy, and from inside the room, that beautiful girl—both of them, witnessing this business of biting and kicking by the old woman, began to collapse upon each other's bodies out of sheer laughter.
Standing upon the floor and looking toward Rupanjan with her hands on her waist, the old woman said, "Look lad! Because nothing has been spoken to you for a long time, I will chew you down completely raw today, you devil boy! I will thrash you with a broom today, thrash you with a stick, and holding these two legs of yours, I will hang you upside down from the roof of the royal palace!"
Rupanjan now sat upon the floor itself and began to burst into loud giggles. Laughing continuously, he said, "Dida! Are you completely mad or what, go? Out of nowhere, you are arriving to play like a child with me, out of nowhere you are making useless fun, and out of nowhere, arriving in your old age, you are speaking romantic words, wishing to romance me! And right at the very next moment, you are suddenly flying into a rage, biting me, showing fear of killing, or uttering nonsense! All the screws of your head have become loose, Dida! You do one thing, once this test concludes, show a good head doctor, you are a pure psycho!"
The moment the word 'psycho' was heard, a massive thunderbolt seemed to crash upon the head of the quarrelsome old woman! Her two eyes rose to her forehead in rage. Unable to restrain her anger any longer, she commenced a terrifying dance of destruction inside the middle of the room itself, flinging her hands and feet! Dancing violently while spitting saliva from her mouth, she began to utter, "What! Such immense audacity of yours! You addressed me as a psycho, re insect of the drain? May rot fall into your mouth, rot demands! May worms fall into your mouth! May lime-and-ink fall upon the faces of your entire fourteen generations simultaneously, re lad! You address me as a psycho? What are you yourself, re? You are a devil, an unworthy boy of the horse lineage! The people of your house are each absolute beasts! You yourself are a pure lame cow, your own mother is a bitch dog, your own Dida is a filthy cat, your future daughter will be a heavy-set elephant, your future wife will be a cobbler rhinoceros, your own birth-giving father is a pure pitch-black male buffalo, and your grandfather was a ferocious beast of the forest! Your Dida was a thrashing-eating goat of the highest order, your future son will be a pure cattle thief, and you... you are the greatest girl thief of this world, girl thief, girl thief! You only roam around stealing the hearts and beauty of girls!"
Panting heavily, the old woman further added, "I know very well re lad, those backsides of yours are completely red-red! For that reason, I know that if one performs girl-stealing, the backside of a man becomes completely red!"
Hearing this strange and hilarious logic of the old woman, Rupanjan now held his stomach and, laughing continuously, began to thud his head against the wall of the bed. Laughing continuously, he said, "Ha ha ha! What all nonsensical words are you uttering, Dida? In which book of the world is it written that if one performs girl-stealing, a man's backside turns red? And the greatest matter—when did you see my backside, he? Have you seen my backside with your own eyes, or what? Without seeing, on the strength of what courage are you making such a claim? Oh dear father, oh dear father, I see my very life will depart today out of sheer laughter!"
The old woman had contemplated in her mind that upon hearing such filthy words, Rupanjan would fly into a rage, come to strike her, and fail the test. But witnessing Rupanjan laugh in that crazy manner instead, the old woman's rage rose to the highest pitch. She shouted, "O you filthy-faced lad! Do not laugh so much! I will scoop those two eyes of yours out from their sockets this very instant and stuff them into my pocket! Cutting that mouth of yours from your body, I will stuff it inside your very own rear, re! Removing your two legs, I will make gloves with my own hands and wear them! Cutting this arrogant head of yours, I will throw it to the ground, then it will roll around as a football near the feet! And aren't you uttering whether I have seen your backside or not? Yes, I have seen with my own eyes that your backside is absolutely glowing red!"
While speaking these words, the old woman rushed toward Rupanjan with a fiendish ferocity and, before Rupanjan could comprehend anything, caught the pants of his waist and pulled them off forcefully with a violent yank!
The moment the pants were pulled off, the old woman clapped her hands and, giggling uncontrollably, said, "Look at that! All of you look! Didn't I state that the color of this girl thief's backside is absolutely glowing red? Look at that, how red it is!"
Witnessing this extreme obscenity and abrupt act of the old woman, that beautiful girl, out of shame and fear, pressed her eyes and face absolutely tight with her two hands, went to the corner of the room, turned her face away, and stood there. On the other side, the old woman laughed continuously while dancing, pointing her finger toward Rupanjan's red rear.
But in reality, a massive shrewdness lay hidden here, which that old woman did not know! Rupanjan was an extremely clever boy. When he knew that he would have to spend an entire day and a single night inside this closed room with two old women and a young girl, for his own safety, he had arrived beforehand by adopting safety or caution, wearing another red-colored tight underwear or short pants beneath his trousers! And since that quarrelsome old woman had aged, due to possessing low vision in her eyes, she mistook that red-colored inner pant for Rupanjan's actual skin of the rear and was thinking that his backside was truly red!
Pulling his pants up to adjust them and flying into a rage, Rupanjan said, "Dida! Are you human at all or a pure madwoman, yeah? What all filthy and obscene acts are you performing, arriving at this old age? Wait, I am concluding this smartness of yours this very instant! If I do not tie your hands and feet, the peace of this room will not return!"
Saying this, Rupanjan did not waste another single moment. Rising with the speed of a storm, he took that strong rope from the table into his hand. Thereafter, before that quarrelsome old woman could comprehend anything, Rupanjan tied her two hands and feet absolutely tight with the leg of the bed!
After tying the old woman's hands and feet, Rupanjan gazed with sharp eyes toward that beautiful girl. The girl removed her hands from her eyes then and sensed danger. Advancing toward her, Rupanjan said in a stern voice, "And you! You are a devilry of the highest order! Yourself you were dancing and inciting this old woman! Take this, I will no longer tolerate this drama of yours." Saying this, Rupanjan tied both the hands and feet of that beautiful girl as well securely with the table's rope and seated her in a corner.
After tying both of them securely, a supreme peace finally descended inside the room. Rupanjan adjusted his attire absolutely well. He saw that the first elderly mother was immersed in a deep sleep, and the remaining two were writhing within the bonds of the rope. Rupanjan now walked with slow steps, leaned against a corner of that royal bed, and lay down calmly. Standing on the other side of the window outside the room, witnessing this unbelievable self-defense, sharp intelligence, and this extreme hilarious twist of the red pants of Rupanjan, that spy almost became on the verge of fainting while holding his stomach out of sheer laughter. The strange test of the first day thus moved toward its conclusion through an ultimate theatricality.