Read Online One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan - Free Book Online Page B

went in.
    After that, it became a routine for Uncle Nallupayyan to run away every two months or so. The moment anyone said anything even remotely hurtful, he ran away. No one knewwhere he went and what he did. ‘Where will that wretched dog go? He must be outside some restaurant, feeding on leftovers,’ his father would say. Once Uncle gained the reputation for being unstable, no one was willing to offer their daughter in marriage to him. Even after all his younger brothers were married, they could not find a girl for him. ‘I don’t want to earn the sin of wrecking a girl’s life,’ said his father and abandoned the search for a bride for his son. But his mother never stopped ranting.
    Uncle himself did not care for marriage. When he shaved off his beard and moustache, his mother sang a dirge and made such a scene as though someone had died:
    Your first shave,
    your becoming a bridegroom,
    I thought these eyes would see and tear up.
    This is no first shave,
    and you are no bridegroom,
    you roamed aimlessly
    and have tired, dark eyes.
    What do I do? What do I do?
    But Uncle was not the kind to be moved by such dirges. He hugged his mother, wiped away her tears and said, ‘What did you accomplish by getting married? You spread your pallu for a worthless husband, gave birth to so many children, and you are suffering till today. Drop the matter. I don’t need to go through the same hell.’
    Kali, lying on the cot in his farm and listening to these old stories, said, ‘Where all did you go, Uncle? Look at me. I am reluctant even to leave this spot and go to the fair in Tiruchengode once a week. I feel it is good to be contented with this barnyard and the field. Where did you go for three or six months at a stretch?
    ‘Kalippa,’ Uncle replied, ‘the world is endless. It stretches on and on. On my way, if I got lost and wandered a bit, it would appear that I was returning to where I started from. In those moments, I hated our village. When the money in hand was all spent and I had nowhere else to go, I would come back home very reluctantly.’
    He was the not the kind to open up and give words to his feelings. But the barnyard made even Uncle Nallupayyan say, ‘Kalippa, when I lie here in your farm, it feels as comforting as lying in my mother’s womb.’ That was exactly the way Kali felt about his barnyard.
    He always slept in the farm. Even in summer, he laid his cot out in the open. During the monsoons and in winter, the cot would lie inside the shed. His was a home in the village complete with a porch, a wide entrance, a courtyard, a granary—all constructed with his own labour. He left the courtyard for his mother. In the early days of his marriage, he tried sleeping at home. But the darkness of the four walls and the thatched roof were not for him. He had to see the stars when he opened his eyes. The moon had to shine down on him. He needed to hear the occasional sounds from the cattle shed: a cow clearing its throat, a goat bleating sweetly.How could he lie around inside the house without any of these? So he made the barnyard his spot again.
    He always went back home for dinner. Whenever he felt like being with Ponna, he stayed back after dinner. Whenever he woke up, he went back to the farm. On some nights, he’d go to the barnyard just to sleep. He would come back home as soon as he woke up. All he needed to do was tap on the door gently. Ponna let him in. Initially, it was difficult for Ponna to get used to his habits—this going to and fro between the house and the farm, which was at some distance. She was also scared about the night insects on the farm. But he said, ‘For me, night is the real afternoon.’
    This was the land in which he was born and raised. This was where he had roamed about. There was no place here that he did not know. Also, Aanangur was not a large place where you could easily get lost. What was called the village was just a section of twenty Gounder houses. Four or five of those