One Part Woman Read Online Free PDF Page B

So, it was only Kali, Ponna, his mother, mother-in-law, and his brother-in-law and his wife. But there was still a lot of food left over even after the priest had eaten. They had to finish all the food before they left. The priest went out of the forest and brought in a few beggars who lived in the pillared halls there. They were happy to have their plates filled with food.
    When they finally climbed down the hill, Ponna felt very satisfied.
    Kali visited the shrine whenever he was on the hillside. For several months, no one changed the cloth they had offered Pavatha. The priest had not taken even a penny from him. Kali felt that the curse of the tribal girl would have lifted by now.
    Ponna, too, was full of hope after praying to Pavatha. Her expectations were heightened in the months that followed. After every twenty days, she prayed, ‘God, please fill my womb at least this month.’ Even if there was a day’s delay in her menstrual cycle, she was filled with excitement: ‘This is it!’ But if her cycle began the next day, the house looked as though someone had died in it. She didn’t eat properly and just lay around. Kali had to go to his mother for food. Even after cutting open a rooster and satiating Pavatha’s thirst for revenge, nothing changed.
    Whenever he went to the temple, he stood at Pavatha’s feet.
    ‘Has your thirst been unquenched through the ages? It is not up to me to make you pull in your revenge-thirsty tongue. I am an ordinary man. For several births to come, Iwill do what I can. Please save me from being the talk of the town. I am unable to answer everyone’s wretched questions. Ponna is wasting away. I am the one who is born in this useless lineage. Why are you avenging Ponna for that?’ Saying this, he broke down in front of her.
    But nothing quenched Pavatha’s anger.



SEVEN
    Sleep eluded Kali even after he had finished eating the snack. He lay on the cot in the cool shade of the portia tree, his eyes closed as he savoured the gentle breeze. He could hear the sounds of cooking from inside. After tossing and turning for a while, he sat up, and the cot creaked under him. The fast for the chariot festival and the snack that had followed—neither had given him any joy. Instead, his mind was flooded with all sorts of thoughts that confused him.
    Kali thought he might feel better if he went out for a stroll into the forest with Muthu. Where was Muthu? Was it a workday in the fields? Muthu was good at finding or creating new secret spots—havens that were unknown to anyone else.
    Kali remembered that the last time he visited, Muthu took him to the well. There was very little water in it.
    ‘How can we swim in this, machan?’ Kali asked.
    ‘You have known me for all these years, and yet how little you know me! Would I take you for a swim in this? Come,come and see. You will be amazed,’ said Muthu, climbing down the stairs into the well.
    It was a deep well. All rock. Kali wondered at the difficulty people must have faced in bursting so much rock and digging so deep. The steps went straight down, flattened out at a point into a landing, and then continued further down. Standing on that landing, Muthu looked up. In the light that streamed in, he could neither see anyone’s head nor its shadow. ‘Mapillai, be careful!’ he shouted. Then, reaching out and gripping a rock on the other side of the downward staircase, he suddenly vanished into a gap in the wall. Although Kali was very used to roughing it out, he hesitated to follow Muthu into the dark hole.
    Muthu peeped out from the hole and said, ‘Hold on to that rock that is sticking out. Do you see that little groove wide enough just to place your foot there? Don’t be scared. Even if you fall, it will only be into the well. And there is water enough to not get hurt.’
    Moving like an iguana that clutches tight even the smallest of surfaces, Kali entered the opening in the rock. Only then did he realize that it was not just a hole but