Glory at Twilight
by Bhabani Bhattacharya
Rapid Learn 2-Minute Revision
Perfect for last-minute revision
2-Minute Revision Video
Video coming soon
Satyajit, once a triumphant banker who rose from a humble village clerk to Managing Director, has been ruined overnight by the sudden collapse of his bank; all his assets, house, cars, equities, are gone, and his young wife, away at Delhi with their newborn son, does not know the full extent of the disaster. Seeking escape from his despair, he accepts an invitation to the village wedding of Beena, a daughter of his old neighbour Uncle Srinath, who still believes Satyajit is a millionaire. In the village Satyajit is welcomed as a returning hero and showered with homage he knows he no longer deserves, he feels an 'impostor', wrapped in 'the lingering twilight splendour of departed glory'. Trapped by Srinath's flattery and unable to confess his ruin, he is manoeuvred into providing the cash dowry of Rs 2001. To pay it he mortgages the only possessions he had saved for his wife, his ancestral house and fish-pond, to the moneylender Harish. His glory has truly set into twilight. The story recalls an earlier episode of a desperate forger to comment ironically on crime, pride and the turning wheel of fortune.
Detailed Summary
Detailed Summary Video
Video coming soon
The story traces the fall of a self-made man from wealth to ruin, and the false 'glory' he is forced to enact one last time at a village wedding. Its dominant note is irony, the hero worshipped as a millionaire on the very day he has become a pauper.
The ruined banker
Satyajit, once a brilliant banker who rose from clerk to Managing Director, has been ruined by the sudden collapse of his bank. All his private assets are gone. His wife, away at Delhi with their newborn son, does not know the full extent of the disaster. Haunted by the question 'What now?', he travels by a slow village train, rationing even his cigarettes.
The wheel of fortune
On the train Satyajit recalls how his rise began: as a young clerk he once caught a trembling forger who had signed a false cheque to buy medicine for his dying wife. Satyajit's alertness won him promotion, but the memory now troubles him, the forger was jailed, and Satyajit himself now lies 'prostrate in the wreckage' of his own overreaching ambition.
Welcomed as a hero
He accepts Uncle Srinath's invitation to the wedding of his daughter Beena, seeking relief from the suffocating city. In the village he is received as a returning hero, garlands, speeches, women washing his feet, his old schoolmaster boasting of his genius. Satyajit knows he is now an 'impostor', enjoying homage that is no longer his due, and resolves to savour this last twilight of departed glory.
The dowry trap
Srinath, still certain Satyajit is a millionaire, manoeuvres him into providing the cash dowry, Rs 2001, that the groom's father demands. Too proud and too trapped by flattery to confess his ruin, Satyajit cannot refuse. He offers an excuse about having no cash on hand.
Glory sets into twilight
The only person in the village who can produce the cash is the moneylender Harish, the very 'shark' whose sixth sense makes him refuse Satyajit's mere signature and demand security. To save Beena's marriage, Satyajit mortgages away his ancestral house and fish-pond, the last possessions he had saved for his wife. The deed signed, he walks alone under the fig tree, lights his last cigarette, and murmurs again, 'What now?', his glory finally extinguished.