Henri Rousseau The Snake Charmer painting

Henri Rousseau The Snake Charmer paintingHenri Rousseau The Sleeping Gypsy paintingHenri Rousseau The Dream painting
That night, Salahuddin forced Nasreen and Kasturba to sleep comfortably in their own beds while he kept watch over Changez from a mattress on the floor. After his midnight dose of Isosorbide, the dying man slept for three hours, and then needed to go to the toilet. Salahuddin virtually lifted him to his feet, and was astonished at Changez's lightness. This had always been a weighty man, but now he was a living lunch for the advancing cancer cells . . . in the toilet, Changez refused all help. "He won't let you do one thing," Kasturba had complained lovingly. "Such a shy fellow that he is." On his way back to bed he leaned lightly on Salahuddin's arm, and shuffled along flat-footed in old, worn bedroom slippers, his remaining hairs sticking out at comical angles, his head stuck beakily forward on its scrawny, fragile neck. Salahuddin suddenly longed to pick the old man up, to cradle him in his arms and sing soft, comforting songs. Instead, he blurted out, at this least appropriate of moments, an appeal for reconciliation. "Abba, I came because I didn't want there to be trouble