Chapter 4
…
The evening shadow of the
guava tree was falling on the bamboo gate. “Please have a seat here, Anna.”
Ratnavel picked a brick and sat on it as he called out to Rasokkiyam while
taking out his shaving kit from his armpit. His frame looked frail, yet he was
capable of drinking a mug full of arrack in one gulp and keeping the mug down
without any sound. The only good habit he cherished in his profession—if he was
drunk, he would never touch his shaving razor.
Ratnavelu immensely respected
Rasokkiyam. There were many in the village who, out of frustration when they
couldn’t find any good barber, were critical of his work and would pass
derisive remarks behind his back: “Go to him. He is very skilled in giving you
a smooth shave.” But Rasokkiyam had never judged him for his work. He had never
attempted to demean Ratnavel’s work by telling him to try his hand on his face
while leaving for another village to attend a funeral. Rasokkiyam was so
indifferent to his stubble that he wouldn’t shave it for days, as he believed
that the hair would prove of no worth when the humans as such were indolent. He used to get his stubble
shaved off only when Ratnavelu would chance on the way, extending his service
with an assurance, “Anna, I’d come to your house.” If it failed to happen, it
was Panjalai who would make it happen with her shouts, the way she did that
morning. “Hey… Ratnam, you won’t lose anything if you spare a minute to shave
his stubble off. Will you? See how horrible he looks, like a rabbit hunter with
his thick beard.”
Rasokkiyam took off his dhoti
from his shoulder, kept it on the stone mortar, pulled a wooden stool lying
near the hut, and sat on it. Panajalai was washing the utensil to boil the
rice. A sharp pain radiated for a second in her waist the moment she stood up
after washing the utensil, causing her face to wrinkle a moment before she
slowly became normal. She tilted the can to pour the water into the utensil.
Beyond the fence, Ambujatchi
was blowing air into the stove she had lit under the shade of a tree. Any
innocent question thrown at her to know where Kanagaraju had gone would invite
an unsympathetic reply from her: “You are asking me this question as if he is
such a nice chap who would tell me everything before he goes somewhere.”
Kanagaraju would be busy on Wednesdays at the Viruthachalam market. On Fridays,
Madapattu market. On Saturdays, Chettyanthangal market. He would be busy all
day in these markets. He was skillful in assessing the profit and loss in his
business with the mere moves of his fingers under the towel. Working in the
fields and looking after his family chores did actually play a secondary role
in his life.
Ratnavel scooped up a handful
of water from the brass bowl and rubbed it gently over Rasokkiyam’s face.
Softly rubbing his back with the back of his hand to remove the ants crawling
on there, Rasokkiyam remarked sulkily, “Water hasn’t been filled yet in those
two canals in the groundnut field. I thought of doing it in the evening when
the sun gets less harsh. But you have caught me and made me sit here as if I am
leaving to find a girl for me.”
“You had better find someone
like that. Let those canals remain unfilled for some time. You can do it in the
morning when the dews fall” Panajalai said as she was lighting the stove.
“What my akka says is
correct, Ratnam. She is also physically drained these days. Even if she could
manage her days with a simple porridge at home, the lady coming to this house
would take care of the fields and family chores.” Ambujatchi, sitting beyond
the fence, commented with a smile.
“You are right. We have to
find a girl for my thambi to get him married to her as you wished. He isn’t
a worthless drunkard. Is he?” Everyone turned their attention to this voice
that erupted suddenly. Ratnavel, who was shaving the stubble, also stopped his
work and looked around. Karivaratha Padachi was coming in through the gate. He
had come with a simple loincloth without his usual red soil-stained headscarf.
His body, with the streaks of red soil all over, resembled a pangolin that was
pulled out of its sand mound. His legs and hands were covered with the layer of
sand. A small leaf roll containing ‘nose powder’ was dangling from the thread
that ran around his waist. As his name suggested, he was a dark-complexioned
man and remarkably taller. Though his skin had begun to wilt due to age, his
voice still remained orotund.
If Kari Padachi walked on the street,
it would wear a cheerful look. “Hey lady… Your husband comes to me with a
complaint that the leaves in the bundle of weeds don’t have any leaves.”
The women around him would
also reply in a similarly lighter vein that matched his wits. “That man suffers
from a weak stalk. How would the leaf sit on a weak stem, Mama?”
Innocent boys would never be
able to escape his teasing words. Holding their penile area tightly, he would
tease them, “Do you know a cat and rat were wrestling last night at your home?
“I don’t know, Grandpa,” the
boys would reply innocently.
He wouldn’t leave them and
tease them more. “Go to your mother; tell her that the old man Kariyan was
asking about it. Go…run to your mother.” Those innocent boys would inform their
mothers what Kariya Padachi had told them, which, in turn, would force those
women to blush with shyness and rebuke Kariya Padachi, obviously faking their
anger. “Mama, you have nothing to do other than this?” They would reproach him.
Karaiya Padachi, though known for such innuendos, was a man of different stuff.
If he happened to witness street scuffles, he would be the first person, just
like Rasokkiyam, to jump into the scene to mediate between the parties to go
amiably. “Leave this petty matter. These women are toiling every day in the
fields and looking after the families. It is natural that they tend to get
annoyed at petty provocations. It is we who, supposed to be responsible, must
bear with them without getting angry,” he would say.
“Mama, find a very good girl
for him. Please make it sure that my aunt Muthukannu also accompanies you when
you go to find a girl. She is very skilful in finding a girl who is perfectly fit
in all ten matching elements” Panjalai remarked with a smile.
The moment he heard the name
of Muthukannu, all his enthusiasm and high-spirited mood took a beat, forcing
him to sound a little dull. “Why are you throwing me into a furnace? That old
corpse will cut me into pieces and take the dung out of me.” He took out a
pinch of nose powder from the leaf roll and sniffed it once.
Muthukannu was very much
attached to her husband, Kariyar, probably because they did not have children.
She never preferred a second to leave him alone. She would become restless if
she couldn’t see him around even for half an hour. She would then stop everyone
on her way, posing them a repeated question: “Did you see that old fellow?”
They owned no land, except a house. They just depended on a pair of bullocks
and a cart for their sustenance. At times, he would go for ploughing or
carrying sand for wages. He would do menial work for wages whenever he couldn’t
find jobs to use his bullock cart.
“If your teasing and overtones
remain unbridled even in the presence of such an aunt, what would have happened
if you had gotten a woman who cares for you little?” Ambujatchi said as she was
carrying the vessel with boiling stew.
“Leave her aside. What is the
matter, Anna?” Rasokkiyam asked him, wiping off his buttocks to get rid of the
ants.
“Our Kanakkan Chetty has
dismantled his hut and started building a brick house. I went there to dig a
hole to plant the ‘kadaikaal.’ On the western side, the surface is hard.
Hardly had he completed his words, Rasokkiyam gently pushed Ratnavel’s
razor-wielding hand aside, grew curious, and asked, “What are you telling Anna?
Almost everyone in the village is living in their houses without even getting
it partitioned with dried leaves and keeping their roof as leaky as a broad
beans trellis with holes, fearing the Neyveli men who would take away their
land anytime. Here, you are telling someone is digging a hole for planting a
kadaikaal.”
“This is what everyone who had
gone there to see is asking. The super confident Chetty is ready with a reply
that it is a matter of concern only when it actually happens.” Telling this,
Kariyar said, “Give me your crowbar. My crowbar has become blunt due to its use
since morning.”
Ambijatchi, hearing his words,
passed a witty remark from that side: "Muthukannu aunt complained about
you yesterday.”
“Complaint? What complaint?”
Kariya Padachi asked her, with a tinge of suspicion.
Trying to control her
laughter, she said, “Your crowbar has become fully blunt like this
crowbar. No use of it anymore.
“May I leave the moustache a
little thin?” - Ratnavel’s usual words of endearment every time he shaved his
stubble. Rasokkiyam replied as usual, “If only I had a moustache, people would
come to know that I am a family man. Wouldn’t they?” Knowing that this would be
Rasokkiyam’s reply, Ratnavel had already shaved off the right side of his
moustache.
“Aththai…” Panjalai and
Rasokkiyam, without turning their heads, just rolled their eyes towards the
doorway facing the street from where the voice came. It was Devaki, Vadivelu’s
wife. Getting no reply from inside, Devaki crossed the veranda and walked in.
She came straight to where
Rasokkiyam was getting his shave and started placing her grievances. “Mama, do
you know about the scene that happened yesterday? You can get it confirmed with
Aththai if you like. He is scolding me as if he had never come across a dirty
dog. Let me be a piece of shit, not even worth holding a quarter of an acre.
Let him be a big landholder owning a lot of land. But he has no right to push
me away from the house by my neck. Even if I go out of the house, will my
brothers deny me entry into their house?”
A worn-out sari had been
wrapped around her well-toned body, obviously to offer it a poverty-stricken
look. An unfriendly countenance due to persistent scuffles at family. She kept
adding up her grievances against Vadivelu.
Vadivelu, son of Pakkiri
Padaiyachi, owned more than ten acres of land. Though he lost his mother when
he was very young and was brought up by his father, he remained a responsible
man without getting into unnecessary brawls. Devaki, who hailed from the nearby
Vellur village in the south, came there for weeding. As she was looking
beautiful in her youth, Vadivel fell for her and started speaking to her
lovingly. Their talk that grew slowly had later become an inevitable passion in
their life. She then brought people herself for weeding and began looking after
the harvest. Later, she became the owner of that ten acres of land. It had been
nearly ten years since the day she became the owner of the land. Not a single
day, since her arrival, was left without a quarrel between the couple. Despite
these quarrels, she could, somehow, become a mother of two children. By no
means could she be rated an ordinary soul. A simple existence with her weeding
spade was the life she was actually leading until the day she stepped into that
house. After that, everything changed. Her complaints about the hot sun and
itchy coarseness of grains did drive Vadivelu nuts. All his efforts to forget
his inexcusable mistakes of having brought a petty woman like her into his life
went in vain due to her frequent teasing, which would then result in him
furiously smacking her. ‘There must have been a good round of a show
yesterday.’ Rasokkiyam could guess what might have happened.
Panjalai, while letting the
water flow away from the utensils she had just washed, said, “You are not going
to take his advice earnestly to run your family. Are you? Your complaint is a
thousand and one times old. You had my ears burnt with it.”
“I haven’t come to you. You
have the habit of finding no mistake in his behaviour. You better mind your
business. I am speaking to Mama.” Devaki responded rudely and turned to
Rasokkiyam. He rose from his seat when Ratnavel made a brief sound, ‘mm,’ to
mark that he was done and told her brusquely without asking her the details of
complaints, “It is alright. Let me speak to Vadivelu about it in the evening.
Now you leave.”
“Mama, keep him informed about
what I am up to. I just worry about my two children, who would be standing on
the street if I am no more. Or else…” As soon as Devaki left after spewing out
her words, Panjalai, standing in the veranda, let out a thick thrust of
contempt. ‘Mkkkmm.’ Devaki opened the gate amidst that broken sound of contempt
and strode out with a murmur: “If those Neyveli men, who keep everyone on
hooks, take steps to acquire the lands immediately, things will be set right in
a day. Only when those men snatch away all his ten acres of land from him the
way the tooth is extracted, he would understand where he actually stands. Till
then, I need to keep coming to them with complaints and get insulted
repeatedly.”
***
Hardly had she been aware how
fast she hung her school bag on the nail on the wall, Bhooma paced fast to the
entrance and asked her mother, “Can I get the rice now?” With the same urgency,
Vairam, Thangam, and Kasappu were holding their plates in their hands, vying
with each other, demanding rice at Ambujatchi’s house.
Panjalai was grossly annoyed
at seeing her. “You useless girl! You are an adolescent girl. It is expected of
you to wash your hands and legs, change your dress, and clean up the house
after coming from the school. But you stand here demanding rice to eat. It
seems that you were thinking of only rice in the school. Hell with your
studies.”
Unable to bear her harsh
words, Ratnavel said to her as he was packing his shaving kit, “Periyayi,
why are you throwing such harsh words at this hungry child? If it is available,
ask her to serve herself. If not, just tell her to wait till it is made.”
“I have a handful of rice. I
thought of giving it to you and your wife, Muthal. Now I will give it to this
girl, and you may leave empty-handed. Will I be bothered with it or what?”
Panajalai remarked as if she was speaking to her enemy.
Ratnavel stood aghast at what
Panjalai had told. “Oh…no…give it to me. She is such a young girl. She can go
hungry for some while. Muthal would be eagerly awaiting something from me if
she knew where I had gone to work.”
“Akka, look here. If it got to
evening, Periyamma would start her rants like this” Thangam extended her hand
with a plate of rice from the other side of the fence. Bhooma received the
plate, scooped a morsel of hot cooked rice from it, stuffed it into her mouth,
and sat on the doorway.
“Can’t you wait a little till
it turns cold? You are swallowing it as if you had never seen rice.” Letting
her rants go in one ear and out the other, Bhooma was busy eating as though
proving hunger blunts the taste buds.
Wagging its tail, the
‘naughty’ came near to her and stood by her legs. His eyes were filled with
craving. This dog came to her as a newborn puppy without even its eyes opened
when she was studying in fifth grade. Since that day, it had become her dearest
companion. Wagging its tail, it used to be in her company every time brushing
her legs. She took out a handful of rice and placed it down on a stone.
Ratnavel collected the trimmed
hair strewn around on the floor, threw it away over the fence, and asked
Rasokkiyam, “Anna, what about planting seedlings?”
“How can I brave it? The water
in the wells keeps disappearing every time the Neyveli fellows move south. Even
if I am ready to dig a bore well, this uncertainty is forcing me to postpone it
like other villagers. What will I do if those Neyveli men suddenly appear in
front of me and order me to get out of my land? He got up, heaving a sigh, as
his voice grew thin. “I am planning to plant the seedlings tomorrow in a
quarter acre of land just to meet the needs of family.”
“Don’t be bothered. Who has
told you all these, Anna? I understand that the mines are not planned for this
side, the Kammapuram area. It will be opened in the east and west Melur and
Vanalavaram. You better pay your attention to digging a bore well rather than
getting unduly worried about all these.” Ratnavel exuded confidence that he was
good at international news despite being a simple worker in the village.
Rasokkiyam too felt that there must be some elements of truth in what Ratnavelu
had told. The lands around South Melur, lying in the east, and Vanathirayapuram
were lying barren after they were emptied of their residents. If the mining
project extended towards the east, leaving the south side, it would be for
everyone’s good. He prayed to the local deity Ayyanar and left for washing his
face.
Holding the bowl that Panjalai
gave him, Ratnavel bid her goodbye and opened the gate. Bhooma was throwing out
the water in the front yard after washing her plate.
“Are you going to your field?”
Bhooma turned, hearing Ratnavel’s voice.
“Yes, Ratnavelu.” Sikamani was
walking along the road beyond the fence. She plunged into an unbearable
happiness, and the sparrows that were tickling her for the last one week had
now started flapping their wings. As she felt that the same sparrows were flying
away from his eyes at the moment he turned his eyes towards her, she too sent
her sparrows back to him, making sure that no one watched her doing it.
***Ended***
