*This is an English Translation of “Isaikkatha Isaithattu”, a short story written by Thangar Bachan, a famous Tamil film maker. Translated from Tamil to English by K. Saravanan. This is 33rd English Translation in the Classic Tamil Short stories Series.
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| Thangar Bachan |
Kodipavunu had come to her mother’s house. As the
village she settled down after her marriage was nearby, she would reach her mother’s
home within half an hour from the very moment she made her mind up, carrying
her one child on her waist and holding the other in hand, going past the lake
bund, entering the hill locks, walking through the streams and passing through
the cremation ground.
While going past the cremation ground, an ineffaceable
fear would sit in her mind. But now, her legs too tottered each time, instead.
Despite that, she was unable to opt for different route other than this.
She couldn’t take her child to the doctor as it had
already become dark when Kodipavunu arrived in her mother’s home. Her elder
daughter had diarrhoea and was suffering from stomach ache all through the
night without sleep.
As the very first task in the dawn, Kodipavunu took
her child to Control’s mother. Actually she should be addressed as ‘Aranganathan’s
mother’. But no one called her so.
Since it was raining incessantly previous
night, water was found stagnated in pools where ever one stepped on. Unable to
find food, the chickhens were standing, curling their bodies, unable to flap their
wet feathers. Both mother and daughter reached her house, holding a winnow each
above their heads in place of an umbrella.
Control’s
mother had kept some utensils on the floor where the rain water was falling
inside the house seeping through the tiles. The sound of every drop of rain
water seeping through the ceiling falling down in the utensils reminded her of
her son. Not bothered to replace the utensils filled with water she was lying
in a corner of the house with her body curled inwards. She got up on seeing
Kodipavunu and sat. It was a sort of
solace for her as she met her younger brother’s daughter for the first time
after a long interval.
When she stepped into the house, she couldn’t remain
indifferent to the thoughts about her ‘Mama’ control. The suffocation
that had filled in the house started filling in her heart too. Her aunt,
Thailammai, stroked her back reassuringly.
The field of medicine has solution for every petty
thing under the sun. But, there was no known medicine for this intussusception.
Whoever suffered from this derangement of intestines in the village, they had
to come only to Thailammai. Within five minutes the treatment would be over. Even
those who were suffering from stomach ache for up to four days with diarrhoea
would be able to start eating their next meals.
While playing the child got her intestines
invaginated. Kodipavunu brought water in
a small brass bowl, kept aside, and grabbed her child’s hands tightly, not
allowing it move. Dipping her fingers in the water, Thailammai kept tapping the
intestinal area in child’s abdomen gently with her wet fingers uniformly from
top to bottom. The child was writhing in pain.
It was raining consistently. Some old phonographs were
found inserted covering the gaps in tiles in the roof so as to prevent rain
water from seeping through those gaps. Kodipavunu noticed those old phonographs
lying in sun light and rain which were once played incessantly those days.
Many of the phonographs were found broken; and the gaps in the roof were found
filled with those broken pieces of phonographs. On seeing them, she couldn’t
help thinking about Control.
Thailammai brought up her only son, Aranaganthan, who
had lost his father at his very young age with a lot of pampering. Even during
the admission into the first grade, he entered the school with a pompous fanfare.
Control’s maternal uncle Rajamanikkam arranged that fanfare with Nagaswaram
and Dhavil, insisting the musicians compete with each other and
giving prizes, at times, to them.
When he went to the senior school located just
opposite to the junior school for his sixth grade, he was stubborn that he
wouldn’t enter the school without the same fanfare. Rajamanikkam didn’t fail in
his duties that time too in fulfilling his desires. He took his daughter
Kodipavunu along with him to the senior school with much of fanfare. Since he
couldn’t pass in his fifth grade for two years, he had to study in the same class
with Kodipavunu who was two years younger to him.
While taking group photograph in the fifth class he
was adamant that he would stand only next to her and stood beside her too. Be
it the Golden beetle laying eggs in the match box or making a hand fan with palm
tree leaves or catching fish in the stream or ripening mango or custard fruit in
a pot with neem leaves, he used to give them first only to Kodipavunu. In
addition to this, his maternal uncle’s frequent cajoleries ‘Mapla…Mapla’
(colloquial term for Son-in-Law) made him nurture a strong belief that
Kodipavunu would be married only to him. He wouldn’t allow her to play with
anyone in the school. To him, Kodipavunu appeared as a stunningly beautiful
damsel.
When he was in his seventh grade, the science teacher formed
different teams by grouping the students. Control and Kodipavunu were in
the same team. The fantasy and happiness he experienced due to her presence in
his team increased his interest in attending the school regularly. When it was
announced that both of them together should plant a sapling, nurture it till they
reach their eleventh grade till it became a tree, he dug a pit immediately in
five minutes which would have otherwise taken at least half an hour time. The
teacher announced “Here is the sapling for the next team of Aranganathan and
Kodipavunu” and gave them a Portia tree sapling. When both of them received it
together, Kodipavunu couldn’t tolerate when she saw his sixth finger brushing
her fingers. The very thought of nurturing a tree along with him made her
repugnant. Controlling her anguish, she planted the Portia sapling in the pit.
While closing the pit with sand, she saw his sixth finger with a shrunken nail dangling. She took her hands out of the pit at once, and got up. Control,
who was till then fantasising her, pulled her hands towards him. Unable
to bear this, she shouted at him, “Remove your hands”. Even though no one had
noticed her scolding, Control was completely heart-broken.
It was simply unbearable for him to see Kodipavunu
refusing everything he gave now and hating him instead, who otherwise accepted
the gifts which he used to give her with love in earlier occasions. That day
too, they were watching a movie sitting on floor in the village talkies,
he bought ‘Murukku’ for her with love. When he passed it on to the other side to
her where women were sitting, the same agony of rejection again.
“Why are you after my life? I am going to kill myself
just because of you”- she yelled at him in front of every one. Even at that
time, Control didn’t take that insult to his heart as he considered her very
important in his life.
As the time passed with all its vagaries,
Rajamanikkam, her father too disliked Control the way Kodipavunu
disliked him. He didn’t like to call him as his son-in-law who had packed up
all his education with eighth grade. Rajamanikkam thought that his daughter was
his first priority. He warned Control that he shouldn’t meet his
daughter anymore. It became a big issue for Control that the woman he
was supposed to own had decided to move away from him. He told everything to
his mother and wept.
When they celebrated a pompous ‘yellow water pouring
ceremony’ after she attained puberty, as a maternal uncle Control was not
invited. He didn’t pay heed to his mother’s words that he shouldn’t go to the
place where he was not respected. To compete with loud speakers engaged there,
he purchased a loud speaker for himself and tied it on to a canopy post, and increased
its volume to its maximum. A tug of war started between the loud speaker
operator engaged by Rajamanikkam and Control. In the ear-splitting noise
of those two loud speakers, they couldn’t look after the affairs of the ceremony
properly. Unable to withstand this tussle, Rajamanikkam’s operator ran away
even without demanding the charges of his loud speaker. It was extremely
embarrassing for Kodipavunu to come to dais to attend the ceremony. Control
repeatedly played a song in the loud speaker. “Ennai vittaal Yaarumilla
kanmaniye unnai kaiyanaikka…unnai vittaal veroruththi ennamillai naan
kathalikka” (There is no one else other than me to embrace you…There is
no one else other than you for me to fall in love with). It was at that
time the movie with that song had been released. But to everyone’s dismay, he
didn’t play that song fully…only those first two lines…he played it repeatedly
with repeated pause. No one dared to ask him. If anyone dared, he would pick up
fights with them. Everyone knew that convincing him was just impossible. Control
also expected someone to come forward to ask him.
Kodipavunu, sitting on the podium, didn’t even turn
her face towards the direction he was sitting. He kept on staring at her. He presumed that he
was singing those two lines of the song by himself. She also felt that it was
he who was shouting into her ears.
For how long would he be able to sustain this
gimmicks? He also got tired soon. Once Kodipavunu went inside the house after
the ceremony, he paused the loud speaker for a while and went to loo. He came
back and prepared to play that song once again. But the phonograph was not
there. Missing. He kept on searching, searching it everywhere and finally worn
out without finding it. He stood vexed on whom he should show his anger.
Notwithstanding the pride he was holding till then, he pushed the people on his
way aside, entered the house straight away and searched Kodipavunu’s room.
This action of Control looked funny for those
who were sitting in a circle, and giving Thamboolam to the attendees of
the ceremony. If they laughed it out loud and showed their mirth out, they knew
what would happen to them next and hence hushed their mirth up among
themselves.
Finally he entered the deity room. Kodipavunu and her
sister alone were sitting in that room. She didn’t get up on seeing him. The
women who were watching all his enactments till then, were now eagerly waiting
in the front yard to watch the drama that was waiting to be unfolded. Control
was burning with anger. He was walking towards her as if he was going to
smack her down and then retreated and then again doing the same like a bull
attached with Kamalai (a traditional system used in wells to take water. Bulls
will be used to pull the water basket from below), yelling at her, “What
the heck you and your parents think of me? You blokes planned to conduct this
ceremony without inviting me? Didn’t you? Now you have seen what song I played
and how I played it. Haven’t you? This is what I am. If your father hides my
phonograph, do you think that I will leave this matter as such? I have one more
song with me. See …. Here it is. See. Now have you understood everything?
Haven’t you?
She despised to even look at his face. She felt his
behaviour as an affront. Standing at the very close proximity, Control felt
that she looked very beautiful. Her appearance in sari for the first time
induced his desire to speak to her more.
Rajamanikkam, who was till then sitting at the back
yard entrance watching all, lost his patience. Kodipavunu’s mother came on his
way, obstructed him. But he seemed to have lost his control. As soon as he
encountered Rajamanikkam face to face, all his anger dwindled soon and changed
to pleading. “Mama…why didn’t you invite me for this ceremony? You too hate me.
Don’t you? Just for your sake, I am leaving now without making fuss out here”
After that, somehow Control was settled down. He
was waiting for the eleventh grade to be completed. Kodipavunu got the first
mark in the school that year. Control came to know that Kodipavunu’s
parents were looking for a bridegroom for her. He didn’t like to plead anyone
anymore. “You don’t need a girl who doesn’t love you. I will find a girl more
beautiful than her and get her married to you” his mother tried to convince him
with all her might. But, he was very firm in his decision that it was only
Kodipavunu who he loved so much could become his wife.
He went to the printing press, gave the details as
much as he knew and came back home with wedding invitation cards in hands. His
mother, Thailammai was awestruck seeing his stubbornness. Control was
immensely happy and proud to see his name and her name printed on the wedding
invitation card. He dreamt that he was living with her.
Upon knowing all these developments, Rajamanikkam got the
shock of his life. He knew very well what would happen if he raised his voice
against control. He tried every means and tricks with him to convince
him; he even begged him, holding his hands. All the relatives were called upon,
and it was unanimously decided that the marriage could be solemnised on the
fixed day if both of their horoscopes matched with each other. Without knowing
how to counter this argument, Control accepted this offer.
Kodipavunu didn’t come out. She kept on crying seeing
the weeding cards. Whenever his thoughts came over her mind, it was yet another
incident, other than his six fingers, that never went out of her mind,
continued to haunt her and increased her hatred for him.
It was a holiday. Kodipavunu was studying in seventh
grade. She was on her way to the field where her father was ploughing the land,
carrying food for him. Ear-splitting chirping of birds. They were flying around
the fully grown pearl millet field waiting for harvest, pecking the grains from
each straw every second. When Kodipavunu was walking through the pearl millet
stalks grown to the height of humans, singing a movie song, she stood stunned
at seeing a scene at a curve of a ridge. She couldn’t turn her eyes aside. With
his usual assumption that no one would be coming by that way, Control was
sitting along the ridge of the field and defecating in open. On seeing her, he too
got astonished, not knowing how to respond to that situation, he was sitting
immobile. Since Kodipavunu didn’t like to go back on seeing this, she turned
her face away from him on the other side and went past him. Control,
blinking, visibly shocked, got up holding his half trouser with his one hand.
This incident which had got deeply imprinted in her
mind, made her develop a sort of repugnance and strong dislike for him.
Control declared
categorically that even a drop of water wouldn’t go into his throat till he
came to know about the result of horoscope scrutiny. An astrologer was called
upon and the horoscopes were examined at his house entrance itself in front of
villagers. The astrologer announced firmly that he would die if he tied nuptial
knots with Kodipavunu. Control’s mother pleaded her brother and brought
a different astrologer. Control was not ready to accept it. As he
thought that the new astrologer too wouldn’t speak in his favour, he himself
went to Vadalur and brought an astrologer. The new chap also recited the same
of what the previous astrologer had told.
Control wasn’t the same as he used to be before. He
avoided meeting fellow villagers. Stopped working in his field too. Even his
regular visits to Cuddalore and Panruti for watching movies also stopped. He
kept himself indoor.
That night, Rajamanikkam came there along with his
wife with Thamboolam plate in his hands. He gave it to his sister. All
what he could do was just crying on seeing her. Control didn’t look at them
till they left. He kept looking at the ground, hanging his head down.
Rajamanikkam couldn’t come out with anything that could convince him. He just
told him if he had waited for another three or four years, he would get him
married to his younger daughter.
The car had come from the bridegroom’s house to give
send off to the bride. They called Thailammai also for sending the bride off.
Every instance that occurred there got Control lose his mental balance.
He climbed on to the loft, took out the pesticide kept in a sack for sprinkling
on cashew trees. He came down after drinking it.
Since he knew that Kodipavunu would leave the village only
after paying respects at the temple, he went to the village temple and lay down
there. Within a short while, his limbs started convulsing. He yelled
“Kodipavunu….Kodipavunu…” The villagers took him to the Naduveerapattu hospital
despite his vehement resistance.
On hearing the news, Kodipavunu was totally heart
broken, and cried inconsolably thinking about Control who loved her more
than his life. She wanted to visit the hospital as it was on the way to bride groom’s
house. But her relatives didn’t allow her. When the car approached the
hospital, she yelled at everyone to stop the car. Paying no heed to anyone’s
words, she ran into the hospital in her bridal attire. Control was kept lain
nude on a cot, as an effort to save his life. On seeing him, Kodipavunu wept
more. Even in that condition, Control was mumbling, “let me die…let me
die”, staring at Kodipavunu in his semi-conscious state. Unable to bear this
scene, Thailammai and Rajamanikkam assuaged Kodipavunu, took her to the house.
During her visits to her mother’s house, Kodipavunu
didn’t go to Control’s house. Even when her mother showed him a child,
telling him that it was Kodipavunu’s child, he didn’t like to show affection
towards it. Brazen faced, he just took out some auxiliary items related to loud
speakers he bought recently, cleaned them. He had gained an expertise of
driving bicycle carrying Welcome Board, Standing Light wooden poles, and tube
lights together. As he didn’t like to work in the fields, he had made arranging
lighting and sound system for marriage and functions alike as full time
profession for himself.
His unshaven beard and moustache on his face for four
years, indeed, terrorised the children who happened to see him. The villagers
from nearby village had given him a contract to play songs at Kodukkan Palayam
Mariyammam Temple during the whole month of Margazhi and finalised it with
symbolic gesture of giving advance money and areca nut. He would leave for work
at half past four in the evening with Ragi Dosai made by his mother for his
dinner. From half past five in the evening to eight in the night he would play
devotional songs and sleep in the temple. He would get up at half past four in
the morning and play the songs till eight. After returning home by bicycle, he
would sleep throughout the day. He knew that Kodipavunu was living in that
village. All through those thirty days, Kodipavunu was listening to all songs
played by him. She could very well ask him to come to her home to sleep instead
of sleeping in the temple. But didn’t call him as she knew that he wouldn’t
listen to her.
Since it was Friday, she had come to the temple along
with her children. It was painful for her to see the unidentifiably unkempt
appearance of Control. He was sitting, holding his hands across, with a
blank look at the wall. She wanted to talk to him by any means; but couldn’t.
The phonograph which Control lost during the ‘Yellow Water Pouring Ceremony' was
now in the hands of Kodipavunu. She threw it out to his side when no one
noticed, kept it on the wooden plank and went back.
The absence of phonograph that had been troubling her
for such a long time had actually troubled her more now.
…
Thailammai asked Kodipavunu’s daughter to jump down
from the veranda thrice. The rain didn’t stop as yet. Kodipavunu was watching
those phonographs that fell silent, found imprisoned amidst the tiles above. It
was the house where she should have lived. She was unable to leave Thailammai.
While leaving, she took out fifty paise coin from her younger daughter and gave
it to her aunt. It was a symbolic amount Thailammai used to charge customarily
for the treatment she gave. She refused it telling that she treated none other
than her grand-daughter.
The clouds that formed somewhere became water
droplets, fell onto the ground, losing its original colour and merged with
everything on its way. The reddish rain water mixed up with the red sand was
running down without knowing where it was actually flowing.
Now, Kodipavunu didn’t hold the winnow above her head.
She drenched in the rain. Her two daughters, holding a winnow each above their
head were walking behind their mother, enjoying the rain.
The manner in which he got the stolen phonograph back
and the place from where he had found it raised a lot of questions in Control’s
mind. In a while, he got the answer too. It gave him a sort of boundless
ecstasy. He thought that his life was meaningful. On the very next day, he
shaved off his beard and looked like a new bridegroom. No one could figure out
the reason for his behaviour. Thailammai was in eleventh heaven to see the change
in her son. He didn’t come to eat food even after she called him. He just
closed the door of his room, played the same song again and again, and kept
listening to it.
At one point of time, he felt that happiness and
sorrows were all just illusions. Happiness disappeared from him. They brought
him dead, laid him outside, after he killed himself by hanging in the same room
where he wanted to live. No one could understand the reason for his happiness
and sorrows. In the letter with spelling errors found in his room, he had
written that all his properties should be given to Kodipavunu’s daughters and that
phonograph should be handed over to Kodipavunu.
Whenever Kodipavunu remembers him, she takes out that
phonograph that had fallen silent and looks at it blankly. She doesn’t have the
courage to play it.
***End***
Translated from Tamil by K. Saravanan
Source: Thangar Bachan’s short story “Isaikkatha
Isaithattu”
