This is an English Translation of “Kanagambaram”,
s short story written by Ku. Pa. Raja Gopalan (Ku.Pa.Ra). Translated
from Tamil by Saravanan Karmegam.
***
“Mani,” Ramu called out, standing at
the entrance. He was doubtful whether his friend was at home or not.
“He has gone out somewhere. May I know who you are?” Mani’s
wife asked him in a thin voice, standing near the door.
Ramu was shocked, mildly though.
Both Mani and he studied together at the university. He was
not much aware of Mani’s wife. He hadn’t even met her to date. It had just been
one month since she came to Chennai to start her family with her husband. Ramu
was not in Chennai all through that month. Saratha hadn’t met him earlier.
Ramu also had progressive thoughts like Mani. He had also
impressed upon frantically the need for women to mingle with men equally and
the importance of women's emancipation in all university discussions and
debates. But when his progressive thoughts were tested at the altar of real
life, he was unduly perplexed. He was completely astonished to see Mani’s wife
talking to him despite being unfamiliar to him. He didn’t expect it at all. ‘If
Mani is not at home, no reply would come. So let me wait for a moment and give
a call’, he thought and gave out a call.
Saratha, Mani’s wife, was also not an educated woman. She was
a typical village girl. She was a daughter of a local landlord from a remote
village lying nearly twenty kilo metres away from the railway track from all
directions in the Chola Kingdom. In her walk, dress, and demeanour, he couldn’t
find any unusual sign during those decisive minutes of his meeting with
her.
She had worn a costly Bangalore silk saree, neatly leaving
the ‘pleats’ and an old-style blouse in a matching colour. She had parted her
hair in the middle and was plaiting it. Unlike the ones in vogue in modern
life, the plait was not hanging loose, covering her ears. She was tying her
plaits. One big vermillion was shining on her forehead like a full moon. The
diamonds on her body were sparkling like blossoms. She had a nose ring too. He
could understand from her appearance that she had come out urgently to appraise
the visitor standing outside when she was busy with her household works. A
woman of such qualities talking to him had actually left Ramu disconcerted.
He was not embarrassed at the fact that a woman had spoken to
him. He was familiar with many educated women both in the university and
everyday life. It seemed nothing new to him. But an uneducated woman talking to
him had left him confused. ‘It is difficult for even educated women to talk to
strangers. Isn’t it’? Then, how could a woman, who hailed from a region that is
not aware of anything called ‘modern lifestyle and getting mingled up with
men,’ speak up to an unknown man?’ It seemed like something extremely awkward
to him. But her words sounded indeed mild. She didn’t even look at his face
while speaking. She held her head down at that time. Despite being genteel in
her manners, his mind was not convinced.
“I…I…Mani’s friend.” He couldn’t speak more, visibly gagged
up with words.
“He’ll come at any time. “Please come in and have a seat,”
Saratha told him.
After hearing these words, Ramu was seriously astounded. His
head started spinning. He looked around as if he had done something wrong. ‘In
a small separate house, a lonely young woman is asking him to come inside the
house and sit.’ He couldn’t make anything out of it.
“No….I’ll come later,” he spoke halfway and left from there
swiftly without turning his head.
2
In five minutes, Mani entered home after buying banana leaves
and vegetables. “Someone came to meet you. He told that he was your friend.
Saratha went in front of him, jumping with joy. He felt that her body and voice
had such an effect of invasion of an army on him. Mani enjoyed and found
comfort in such waves of pleasure that came to leave an effect on him amidst
all the troubles of having a separate, nuclear family.
“Who was that?” he asked her, pinching her cheeks lovingly.
She feigned as if having pain and said, “Haa… I didn’t ask him
who he was.”
All of a sudden, Mani’s face got reddened; anger went up high
through his skull.
“How many times have I told you? What the heck is your
problem in asking who it was? Nothing big would be lost if you could use one
more word. He won’t drag you out holding your hands. Will he?’ He was spewing
out the words.
Just a week ago he got very angry with Saratha for such
a similar incident.
“In this town my friends might come to our house in search of
me. It is impudent to close the door without giving them a proper reply. You
must behave in such a way to suit the requirements of this town.” He advised
her a lot on this matter. Due to this incident, both of them were not talking
to each other for two days.
But this time, thinking that the reply she was going to give
him would make him happy, she remained silent till he spoke out as much as he
wanted. Once his anger got settled down, she spoke softly.
“I asked him who he was. He told that he was your friend. He
didn’t tell his name. I told him that you would be here at any time and asked
him to come inside the house. But he went off saying he would visit later.”
Saratha was watching his face eagerly. Her face fell at once
after seeing his sullen face, which carried no sign of happiness. She went
inside swiftly.
Mani never expected such a reply from her. Firstly, he felt
that her reply was kind of a slap in his face. Further, he was annoyed with her
for behaving more than the required limits that his advice had specified. Then
why did she behave like that? ‘ Was it just a plain obedience to my advice? Or
else will it be something...? His mind seemed to have started losing its
balance. All his thoughts combined together got his mouth shut for one and all.
Saratha too didn’t try her part to assuage his worries nor tried to pull him
towards her through talks. She was also angry. Until he went out after having
his meals, he didn’t utter a word to her. Walking along the street, he was
thinking about it randomly. His heart was aching with an immeasurable agony. He
never expected that Saratha would go that far. ‘ This matter wouldn’t have
become a matter of concern had it been an educated girl. A village girl
inviting an unknown man to the house and asking him to sit was nothing less
than a height of indecency. What would my friend have thought? He might have
thought about her: “What sort of a nerve does this girl have? Or what a stupid
girl she must be! Or…else…’
He was walking, preoccupied with the thoughts of such
possibilities.
On the way, Ramu, who was coming back from somewhere, saw
Mani coming in the opposite direction. On seeing him, he became overly
embarrassed. He was hesitant, doubtful even, to stop and have a word with Mani.
‘Should I tell that I had gone to his house or not? Should I
tell him what his wife had told me?’ A lot of such apprehensions arose. The
matter would have had no impact had she spoken to me freely at the behest of
Mani’s insistence. If she had done it without his permission, whatever I am
going to tell him would make him believe that his wife was ignorant and stupid,
which might further infuriate him. Wouldn’t it? What if it causes a
misunderstanding between them? Who knows? Human temperament is so fickle that
it could think any nonsense. I shouldn’t become a cause of such misunderstanding
between them. Where is the guarantee that she had told everything on her own to
Mani without omitting anything? Had she not told everything, her stupidity
would cost her very dear. Wouldn’t it? Thinking about all these options, Ramu
took a turn into a lane and escaped Mani’s eyes. However, he couldn’t get rid
of the events that had occurred in the morning from his mind. Her fresh,
childlike face with an innocent look in her eyes…her lucid words without
hesitation, shock, and fear. She told, ‘He would be here at any time.’ There
was an honesty in it. Wasn’t it? What respect those words carried! Further, a
trust was evident in her call to ask me to come in! That trust was due to the
fact that I am her husband’s friend. Wasn’t it? Che…che… With those four simple
words, she had placed every meaning in it. Hadn’t she? She believed me too. How
could she be a stupid lady? It was only because of that I got all those
confusions. I have to meet Mani and tell him everything. Ramu was walking,
preoccupied with these thoughts. But he decided to have a firsthand
assessment of the situation before he would initiate his talk on this matter.
He thought that Mani would be at his home if he went to his house at seven in
the evening.
3
It was evening six ‘O clock. After completing her household
work, Saratha was combing and plaiting her hair. Near her, she had a plate full
of loose, unstrung Kanagambaram flowers, a face mirror, ribbons, a comb, and a
fragrant oil bottle. When Mani entered the home, he became furious at seeing
all these arrangements.
“You call this rubbish as a flower; you buy it and wear it on
your head daily. Do you?” He scolded her on the pretext of using that flower
while having a lump inside, which he couldn’t swallow.
But Saratha thought that he was talking only about the
Kanagambaram flower. She decided to depreciate his urban culture in front of
him at that juncture.
“Why not? Everyone in this town wears this flower. Don’t
they? Even in music concerts, people come wearing this flower, making their
head hang with its weight. Don’t they?” Saratha told him.
“Who has told you to do everything that the people of this
town do? Is there any necessity for it? This Kanagambaram flower is also
exactly like those women of this city who wear it on their head. Will anyone
wear a flower that doesn’t have fragrance? The taste of women who wear blue pea
flower on their heads would just be nothing more than this.”
“It was you who told me that I must behave like urban women.
Or else it will be shameful for you. Didn’t you say that?” Saratha told this as
she was carefully watching the facial expressions of Mani.
“Does it mean that you can bring a third person into the
house and ask him to sit here?” Mani poured out his heart in words, in anger.
Saratha’s face changed. Even though she was a village girl,
after all, she was also a woman. With an immeasurable indignation, she looked
up at Mani’s face for a minute. She could see that his thoughts were clearly
reflected on his face. A deep sign of disgust appeared on her face as she
understood the insult he had just inflicted on her—on her femininity. She
loosened her half-plaited hair, tied it up, picked those kanagambaram flowers
along with the plate, kept them in the almirah, and went into the kitchen.
Mani was stunned at this display of magnificent wrath. He
went inside the room like a beaten dog, sat on a chair, picked up a book, and
pretended as if he was seriously reading it.
When the clock struck seven, Ramu came there. Despite Mani’s
earnest efforts to be jovial, the situation remained grim. Immediately upon his
arrival, Ramu asked him, “Mani, I came to meet you in the morning. Where had
you gone?”
“Was it you who came in the morning?” Asking this, Mani
delved into silence.
“Mani, as I was seriously surprised, I even forgot to tell my
name.” Ramu’s throat seemed to have got choked up. Mani was sitting, with his
head looking down. He couldn’t speak anything. Both the friends remained silent
for minutes. Ramu could understand the situation. He got up quickly.
“Mani, let me take leave. I just came here to tell you this.”
“Why can’t you have your meals with us, Ramu?”
“No…not today.”
4
The dinner went off without any conversation. Looking at the
moon, which came in through the windows, Mani was sitting there yearning for
her. Saratha came with a glass of milk and gave it to him silently.
He didn’t have the courage even to look into her face.
He lifted his head and looked up. He was traumatised to see
the sign of sorrows on her face. He got up and held her shoulder tenderly.
“Saratha”—he was unable to speak more and caressed her face
endearingly.
“What I have told is…” Mani started expressing his heart out.
“Actually, I do not like Kanagamabaram flower. There was
nothing wrong in what you have said.” Saratha changed the topic with a gentle
elegance, which women are adept at.
***End***
