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Authors: Jose Thekkumthala
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the clay oven fought to dispel the darkness in the room.
He approached her.
What happened next still stays in her memory as a bundle of jumbled events. To the best of her memory, the next thing Chettiar did was to bend down to get hold of her long hair and stand her up by pulling her by hair. Then he beat her so hard that she reeled. She dropped the sickle and tapioca. The force of the beating landed her against the wall. She recoiled and collapsed on the floor, crying pitiably and screaming for help. There was no help coming, since the neighbor, Bhavani was out. Ann was alone in her kitchen with a dangerous man.
He dragged her over the floor, pulling her by her hair and standing her up again. Ann had by this time gotten hold of the fallen sickle and she did something unimaginable. She swung the sickle at him in desperation. Chettiar started bleeding from the forehead. He cursed and beat her again, this time on the head and so hard that sheblacked out. This time, she did not get up from where she fell.
When she regained her consciousness, she was alone. She was lying on the kitchen floor, legs spread apart, totally naked. Her
chatta
and
mundu
were on the floor. They were ripped so badly that she had to wrap herself in a bath towel until she retrieved a new pair of clothes. The violation of her body by a cruel man filled her with disgust and humiliation. At a time when female dignity was of paramount importance, she was concerned if anyone would have known of the rape. Fortunately that remained a secret between her and Chettiar.
She took a quick bath and dressed in fresh clothes and finished cooking in time, prior to the arrival of her children and Thoma. Her biggest worry was if Thoma so much as even suspected what happened. If Thoma knew what happened, there would be a funeral at Chettiar’s home. She prayed to God Almighty for Thoma for what Thoma did not know, because Thoma was one of God’s most dangerous creations and he would have stopped at nothing to seek revenge.
There was someone watching the entire scene other than God. That was Subashini in the cage hung from the kitchen ceiling. The poor thing had tried to fly out of the cage and defend Ann any way she could. She had been unable to fly out and so had to stay put. She had squawked loudly while the atrocious incident was taking shape, to attract someone from the street—the best she could do under the circumstances. But her efforts were of no avail.
When Ann’s near and dear ones started arriving home in the evening, Subashini broadcast, “Ann attacked Chettiar” reversing the subject and the object of the sentence, displaying bad grammar. Ann’s curious children and Thoma were puzzled that a saint-like woman would attack anyone and therefore ignored the bird’s talk.
The next day, during the few minutes of freedom that Subashini was accustomed to getting daily, she flew out two houses down the road and settled down on the ceiling fan of Chettiar’s house. The fan was just outside the main door of the house. When he came out in a few minutes, Subashini was ready.
She flew down like a speeding kite and started pecking on his left eye relentlessly, braving his arm-swings directed at her. She ducked his blows, danced around and out of his attacking arms, and doggedly went after him. She went after his left eye, and boy, did she ever get what she wanted! Chettiar became one-eyed from that day onwards. Subashini lost a few feathers, but she refused to get her feathers ruffled.
“Next time, other eye will be lost,” Subashini warned the landlord, delivering a grammatically correct sentence this time. She then flew back to Ann’s kitchen.
Ann would give birth to a baby boy nine months later, and she insisted on naming him Disgust. This was such an outrageous name that she was asked by the Mannuthy parish priest to consider renaming. She eventually settled for Jaygust, an unusual name for a human being. She felt that justice was done by the fact that
He approached her.
What happened next still stays in her memory as a bundle of jumbled events. To the best of her memory, the next thing Chettiar did was to bend down to get hold of her long hair and stand her up by pulling her by hair. Then he beat her so hard that she reeled. She dropped the sickle and tapioca. The force of the beating landed her against the wall. She recoiled and collapsed on the floor, crying pitiably and screaming for help. There was no help coming, since the neighbor, Bhavani was out. Ann was alone in her kitchen with a dangerous man.
He dragged her over the floor, pulling her by her hair and standing her up again. Ann had by this time gotten hold of the fallen sickle and she did something unimaginable. She swung the sickle at him in desperation. Chettiar started bleeding from the forehead. He cursed and beat her again, this time on the head and so hard that sheblacked out. This time, she did not get up from where she fell.
When she regained her consciousness, she was alone. She was lying on the kitchen floor, legs spread apart, totally naked. Her
chatta
and
mundu
were on the floor. They were ripped so badly that she had to wrap herself in a bath towel until she retrieved a new pair of clothes. The violation of her body by a cruel man filled her with disgust and humiliation. At a time when female dignity was of paramount importance, she was concerned if anyone would have known of the rape. Fortunately that remained a secret between her and Chettiar.
She took a quick bath and dressed in fresh clothes and finished cooking in time, prior to the arrival of her children and Thoma. Her biggest worry was if Thoma so much as even suspected what happened. If Thoma knew what happened, there would be a funeral at Chettiar’s home. She prayed to God Almighty for Thoma for what Thoma did not know, because Thoma was one of God’s most dangerous creations and he would have stopped at nothing to seek revenge.
There was someone watching the entire scene other than God. That was Subashini in the cage hung from the kitchen ceiling. The poor thing had tried to fly out of the cage and defend Ann any way she could. She had been unable to fly out and so had to stay put. She had squawked loudly while the atrocious incident was taking shape, to attract someone from the street—the best she could do under the circumstances. But her efforts were of no avail.
When Ann’s near and dear ones started arriving home in the evening, Subashini broadcast, “Ann attacked Chettiar” reversing the subject and the object of the sentence, displaying bad grammar. Ann’s curious children and Thoma were puzzled that a saint-like woman would attack anyone and therefore ignored the bird’s talk.
The next day, during the few minutes of freedom that Subashini was accustomed to getting daily, she flew out two houses down the road and settled down on the ceiling fan of Chettiar’s house. The fan was just outside the main door of the house. When he came out in a few minutes, Subashini was ready.
She flew down like a speeding kite and started pecking on his left eye relentlessly, braving his arm-swings directed at her. She ducked his blows, danced around and out of his attacking arms, and doggedly went after him. She went after his left eye, and boy, did she ever get what she wanted! Chettiar became one-eyed from that day onwards. Subashini lost a few feathers, but she refused to get her feathers ruffled.
“Next time, other eye will be lost,” Subashini warned the landlord, delivering a grammatically correct sentence this time. She then flew back to Ann’s kitchen.
Ann would give birth to a baby boy nine months later, and she insisted on naming him Disgust. This was such an outrageous name that she was asked by the Mannuthy parish priest to consider renaming. She eventually settled for Jaygust, an unusual name for a human being. She felt that justice was done by the fact that
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