This is an English Translation of “Kanagambaram”,
s short story written by Ku. Pa. Raja Gopalan (Ku.Pa.Ra). Translated
from Tamil by K. Saravanan. This is 38th English
Translation in the Classic Tamil Short stories Series.
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| Ku. Ra. Raja Gopalan |
“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 in the university.
He was not much aware of Mani’s wife. He hadn’t even met her till 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 of women mingling with men equally and
the importance of women 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 land lord 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 Bengalore silk saree, neatly
leaving the ‘pleats’ and an old styled blouse in 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 house hold 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 which is not aware of anything called ‘modern life style and getting
mingled up with men’, speak up to an unknown man?’ It seemed 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. You 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 asking him to
come inside the house and sit’ He couldn’t make out anything out of it.
“No….I’ll come later” he spoke half way, 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 I have told you? What the heck is your
problem in asking who it was? Nothing big would be lost if you could use one
word more. He won’t drag you out holding your hands. Will he?’ He was spewing
out the words.
Just a week ago
he got very much 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 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 the she was
going to give him would make him happy, she remained silent till he spoke out as
much 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 on his face. Further, he was annoyed
with her for behaving more than the required limits which his advices had
specified. Then why did she behave like that? ‘Was it just a plain obedience to
my advices? 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. Till 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 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 on 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
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 an
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 child-like face with innocent look in 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 a 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 that confusions. I have to meet Mani and tell him
everything’. Ramu was walking, preoccupied with these thoughts. But he decided to have a first-hand 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 works, Saratha was combing, and plaiting her hair. Near to her, she
had a plate full of loose, unstrung Kanagambaram flowers, a face mirror,
ribbons, comb, and a fragrant oil bottle. When Mani entered home, he became
furious at seeing all these arrangements.
“You call this rubbish as 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
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 hung with its weight. Don’t they?” Saratha told him.
“Who has told you to do everything which 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 which doesn’t have fragrance? The taste of women who wear blue
pea flower on their head 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 to Mani’s face for a minute. She could see that his thoughts were
clearly reflecting on his face. A deep sign of disgust appeared on her face as
she had understood the insult he had just inflicted on her- on her femininity.
She loosened her half-plaited hair, tied up, picked those
kanagambaram flowers along with the plate and kept 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 thee yearning
for her. Saratha came with glass of milk, 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, 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***
Note:
1.
Kanagambaram:
(English Crossandra, Fire cracker Flower) a type of flower used for worship and
wearing on head.
Source: Ku. Pa. Raja Gopalan’s short story “Kanagambaram”
Translated from Tamil by K. Saravanan.
