She Fastened her Chastity with a Hearty హొపే


An excerpt from Vemula Ellaiah’s Kakka: A Dalit నోవెల్

Once Ellaiah had visited Kalemma’s house as usually. Agamaiah noticed him. He thought it’s the right time to accuse them of having an illicit affair. Ellaiah called out Rammallaiah, and said, ‘Look, my sister-in-law is a whore; she sleeps with Ellaiah. Go and see it for yourself. He is very much in her house at the moment.’ He took him to her house, and showed Ellaiah at Kalemma’s house. ‘You being the chief of the caste, listen to me! We have to decide and settle the matter. Why is he visiting her?’Agamaiah brought the matter to the rachabanda, stone-pedestal for the public resolution of the disputes. Rammallaiah, the chief of the caste, gave them a week’s time setting the conditions, ‘To settle what kind of a man he’s, and what kind of a woman she’s, each one has to choose four representatives for arbitrating the issue.’Thursday. As the sun rose scorching, both of them deposited a thousand rupees each, and gathered at the tree of Mysamma, the folk-deity.Kalemma who didn’t have a male-support, deposited her contribution of thousand rupees by selling a plate and a glass. Agamaiah and Ellaiah called for Kalemma to the rachabanda, where the caste folk assembled, ‘Under this tree of ours – as Pochamma, the folk deity stands witness – tell us precisely what exactly had taken place. There should be nothing to hide. Rei, you caste folk, Agamaiah! You are the one who knows the fact; come to the fore, and tell us what had happened,’ they asked.‘Oyya, you the elders! I don’t ever lie. Let me tell you the truth. Blinded by smugness, she’s whoring herself to Ellaiah. She has lowered the status of our family; it’s no sin even if she is killed. Having spread the end of her sari to sleep with Ellaiah, the wretch seems naïve. If she claims that she is not sleeping with him, she should prove herself by swearing; she must place her hands in the cauldron of simmering oil; she should hold a blazing crowbar in her fists. Ask her if she agrees to these conditions,’ Agamaiah challenged.The representatives of Kalemma asked, ‘Do you yourself agree to the conditions set by you?’‘I am ready for everything. If I do them all myself, would you get her head tonsured? Would you draw lime-designs on her scalp, and parade her in the streets seated on a black-donkey? (meanest forms of punishment) She should be driven out of the village. Are you ready for the conditions? I swear by my wife and children. I swear by deity Muthalamma. I swear…’ Agamaiah poured a pot of cold water on himself making the atmosphere tense.The representative of Ellaiah got up to say, ‘My client might be going to her house! Don’t you ever go to anybody’s house? Is that the reason why you had lived in the towns? Aren’t we humans? Are we animals? How could one manage without ever going to others’ houses? What has he done there, and how? Speak with conscience. We consider it a sin if at all we happen to witness the mating of the crows. Have you ever seen while they had met? Don’t ever indulge in sinful talk; you will lose your eyes. Stop speaking lies! We are ready for anything if it’s proved that our client is guilty.’‘Oho, is that so? Why does he visit the house of a lonely woman? What else do they have to do together? In that case, if I were to visit your house in your absence, will you ignore it?’ Agamaiah questioned back.‘Aha, you are the one possessing a house in the village, and do you venture visiting my house ra? O.K, then; visit my house! Let me see how you would! I’ll pierce you with a knife and garland you a wreath of cattle-meat. You whoreson!’ the representative of Ellaiah fulminated.They had fisticuffs with each other. Agamaiah’s dhoti and the banian were torn and soiled; the man seemed like a lump of clay. Having been humiliated, he said, ‘Look, do you all understand now? You must tell me now. The caste folk are all one; they all plotted to kill me. She would certainly get me killed. Isn’t she a whore? Aren’t there men who carry the cot yearning for the cunt, as the saying goes! Such a big altercation has taken place just because of an utterance; all of you can see it. Is it for nothing that he visits her, if it’s not for sleeping with her?’ Agamaiah dusted the soil off his clothes, and began to cry rubbing his eyes.‘Ei, stop for a while,’ another representative among them said. Standing up, he continued, ‘What’s the issue we have assembled here for? What’s this awkward talk about? Do you keep quarrelling among yourselves without examining the tussle? Will you keep quiet or not?’ Every one kept quiet.‘The dispute is not going to end this way but…’ another representative intervened, ‘Arey, O Irrigation-Eeraiah! Keep ready twigs of tamarind tree for beating her. She would speak out the facts only when thrashed. Is it going to be settled when we discuss the matter this way? Drag out that woman, Kalemma, ra.’ Then, Irrigation-Eeraiah dragged Kalemma into the public by her hair.The representative of Ellaiah said, ‘You must let us know if what all your brother-in-law had told us is true.’ Some of the elders spoke that Kalemma’s not guilty.Rising up with pleading-hands, Kalemma said desperately, ‘Ayya, I am not guilty of any wrongdoing; why’s it that I am harassed in this manner? I don’t know anything about it. You have insulted me amid so many men; you have called me a raw-whore. I am not going to swear, since you all have insulted me and dragged me by hair.’Then, the elders in the crowd discussed among themselves, ‘What’s this! How come she is speaking like that? She seems to have really slept with him. That’s why Agamaiah might have planned for the public resolution of the dispute deliberately.’An old man among the elders said, ‘Let her sleep with him. But let’s settle the matter by asking her to pay penalty for the offence she had committed.’‘Are we men or women? If we settle the matter this way, would any woman be scared of us in future? Keep quiet if you don’t know!’ they got irritated.They placed ready the canes of tamarind tree, a cauldron of simmering oil and a crowbar. Kalemma, who had noticed them all, got a wrench in her innards. She went to the heap of soil, and tossed it all over herself. She rolled around in the garbage, and behaved hysterically mad and foolish. She shouted, ‘Arey! You are all the men with a fistful of manly moustache, aren’t you? A thousand rupees each that we have deposited is not meant for drinking toddy and liquor. O.K! You may drink! You are accusing me that I had slept with Ellaiah. If I really slept with him, does it shame you? You all have your wives and grownup daughters at home. Did they also sleep with him? Tell me if it’s an insult to you. If anything, it’s me, who is ashamed!’ Kalemma screamed at the top of her voice.Getting up, Ellaiah said, ‘Ehe, did I sleep with you? No, I didn’t; I’m not of that sort. What’s this, Kalemma?‘Wait, you are anyway a man! Why are you worried? It’s me who should be ashamed. Why do you worry? Ehe, keep quiet!’Some of the elders pacified Ellaiah.‘My son is not young among the youth and not an elder among the grown ups; he’s of eighteen years old. I swear by my lad. I’m not going to leave this village. Let me see how you’re going to send me out of this village. Wasn’t it in this village that my husband died; wasn’t it here that he was buried? Wasn’t it here that I had given birth to my lad?’ Kalemma spoke out composed.Irrigation-Eeraiah whipped her on her back with canes of tamarind tree. Having developed cold sweat, Kalemma shivered, and urinated dripping past her legs. Irrigation-Eeraiah kicked on the bosom of Kakka, who tried to rescue his besieged mother. Kakka got tossed up, and fell down with a thud. They tied the lad with a damp rope as he was writhing in pain on the floor like a sacrificial goat at the deity of Mysamma. ‘Are you coming to shield your mother who shamed herself?’ they called him names.Both the mother and the son stood thunderstruck being unable to speak as the caste folk uncoiled their talk against them. Though they knew it for sure the one who was in fact at wrong, the elders from each of the Madiga families looked at their face, spitting on them.‘Chi, wretchedness! When we seem nauseating to them all, why should we live in this village? We’ll go somewhere from here,’ Kakka thought to himself.This is the village where Kakka’s ancestors lived as members of the caste. Kakka continued to think to himself, ‘If not this village, which we had considered our own till the death of the ayyamma, where else can we afford to live? Whichever village we might leave for, we may not have the Madiga entitlements. There may not be our rights among the caste folk near the Madiga-well. There’s no question of leaving this village, why should we?’ Kakka, who was deeply engrossed in these thoughts, was alerted when the chief of the Madigas spoke, ‘Arey, Irrigation-Eeraiah! Make a garland of sandals and marking-nuts, and hang it on the neem-tree in front of Kalemma’s house; raise a fence of thorny-twigs around her house. Make a tom-tom with dappu, a drum in the surrounding villages that they have been excommunicated,’ commanded the chief.Having shaken hands with the elders, her brother-in-law, Agamaiah chased Kakka and Kalemma from the rachabanda to her hut. Then, they all pissed in a row around her house as a mark of insult.Having scolded them untiringly, everyone had left the place. The mother and the son entered into their hut, and closed the doors; they wailed and cried wildly. The house and the street seemed reverberated by their screaming, which sounded like a cyclonic wind.Kalemma thought, ‘The adversity of the kinfolk is so powerful. It’s all just for not sleeping with my brother-in-law, a good-for-nothing fellow! He is so vengeful. My son has grown up enough to work as a field-labourer. Ehe, we can survive working hard somehow or the other. I’m a pure woman; if they label me a whore, do I become one?’ thinking so, Kalemma fastened her chastity with a hearty hope.Yet, it’s a life that’s blamed. It pierced their heart having become a cactus. She’s withered and singed having been greatly agitated. There’s none to speak to her. No one offered her work in accordance with the caste-accord. ‘What am I going to do?’ Kalamma endured a lot of persecution.She was not allowed access to the public water. She was not permitted to fetch fire for lighting her hearth. Her house was completely isolated from the Madiga-wada. All those coming from the neighbouring villages to attend weddings and functions labeled her house as the one belonging to a whore.‘She is that kind of a woman; hence, a thorny-fence had been raised around her house,’ everyone commented. Wherever a few people gathered, Kalemma’s episode became a big tale. His mother suffered so much just on account of deciding to stop her son from attending to the field-labour work. Her agony is un-narratable. She thought, ‘The grown up lad has been subjected to so much of humiliation right in front of my eyes.’In the meantime, her son, about whom she’s worried a lot, could become a senior field-labourer. ‘My son, who’s detested by Papi Reddy patel, has now grown to be trustworthy to the same patel.’ Who knows about the steaming of a pot that’s full to the brim?Just that very year, the fields yielded a wonderfully rich crop. The patel asked Kakka to process the grains, stuff it into the gunny bags, and get it by the bullock cart to the grain market in the town. Then, the patel left for the grain market early by his bicycle. The patel made a survey of the heaps of grains in the market finding out the price the government offered. Then he waited for Kakka looking in the direction of the track of the carts.The cart arrived. Kakka stopped the cart, and supported it with the wooden poles. He set off the bullocks, and tethered them placing some fodder in front of them.Every time he came to the grain market, Kakka befriended one Potter-Mangaiah who keeps selling pots at the market. Mangaiah, who noticed him, said, ‘Hei lad! You seem gloomy today. What’s the matter?’Kakka, who had always disclosed to him his pains and pleasures, began to narrate him in detail all that had happened. Kakka broke down holding his hands.‘The people are like crows, my lad. Since you are in trouble, I’ll let you know something, do you oblige me? Hope you don’t mind. You must assure me.’‘I swear by my mother; do I say no if you offer to lessen my sorrow?’‘You’re a grown up man now; you can survive somehow. When someone offers you a bride, you would lead a conjugal life. I can understand the suffering of your mother in your village. Why don’t you think of your mother, my lad? You’re my dear one; don’t think otherwise. There’s a Madiga by name Bolguri Kondaiah in my village. He’s young by age; he’s the only son of parents. His parents died soon after his marriage. His wife died at the time of her first labour. He owns a wide courtyard. His life and caste-occupation are perfectly alright. Let me know your decision if only you would consent, my lad. Human beings endure suffering more than the cattle. We’ll get him remarried. What do you say? Let me know, my lad!’‘What’s this? You’re speaking in such an awkward way! Ehe, keep quiet! You…, damn with your suggestion,’ agitated, Kakka.Having narrated to Kakka numerous problems and episodes, he said, ‘Keep pondering about your mother.’ Potter-Mangaiah narrated the problems that a single-woman would face in the society. He could convince Kakka at last by narrating the problems like knitting one bead after the other.Then, the patel who decided on the price of the grain shouted, ‘Arey Kakka! Unload the grain for the dealer; the price has been fixed ra.’ Kakka got alerted. Having handed over the bags of grain to the dealer, Kakka set the bullocks to the cart, and started for the village. Potter-Mangaiah hollered asking Kakka to think and decide on his suggestion.‘Fine, I’ll come back to the market next Saturday taking permission from the patel.’‘Alright then, you may take leave,’ Potter-Mangaiah waved to him.He led the bullock cart back to the village. Having tethered the bullocks in the shed, Kakka went home by night. Soon after reaching home, he said, ‘Mother, I am feeling hungry; serve me some food.’ She served him a plateful of food in haste, as her son had been out daylong. She served her son to his fill. Having eaten, he relaxed on the cot thinking, ‘Whether to disclose the matter to her or, not?’ Kakka felt pained in his heart.‘Come what may,’ thinking so, he called out, ‘Amma, mother O amma!’ he addressed her so endearingly.Kalemma, who heard him call out, came out, and said ‘What’s the matter, my son, what’s the matter?’ she soothed the legs of her son, who got tired working the whole day.‘O amma, I’ll say something; swear by me not to think otherwise.’‘What’s it… what’s it about?’‘Amma… when am I going to be married off?’‘Why not my son? When we get a good bride, I’ll certainly get you married off? Shouldn’t we search for a girl matching our family?’‘That’s what! I too desire the same as you are struggling all alone.’‘Yes, that’s right; I can toil to any extent for your sake.’‘Really so? Then for my sake, you must get married again, amma! You have to live with another man! You have to say yes, somehow.’‘What’s this, Kakka? Whoever might have told you this? Does the society spare us if one’s son gets one’s own mother married off? Arey, do you advise me to get married again?’ Kalemma thrashed him on his back with a worn-out broomstick.The neighbouring women of the village learnt about Kakka’s proposal. They said one after the other, ‘If there’s no man at home, you’ll be blamed like this in future too. If a husband dies in our families, does the wife stay homebound? The bodily desires would surface one day or the other. You are anyway not old. The lad has grown up enough to cook his own food. Kalemma, you would face similar hardships if you don’t have a husband. You have to but live with someone for your own sake.’The near and the dear of the caste folk convinced her diligently. Even before his mother was awake, Kakka got up early in dark, and went on foot to the village of the new groom. Having gone to the house of Bolguri Kondaiah, Kakka took a look at the house and the surroundings.Then he went to Potter-Mangaiah, who proposed the match for his mother. Kakka said, ‘I’ve seen the groom you had proposed. Everything is alright. I’m convinced. You have to convince Bolguri Kondaiah. I’ll arrange for the second-marriage of my mother to be performed on the next Thursday in the shrine of Muthalamma in my village.’Kakka returned home from Potter-Mangaiah. Having washed his hands and feet at the water-trough, he went to the mother, and sat beside her. Kakka said, ‘Amma, I’ve gone to the village where you would live after your remarriage. The man, Bolguri Kondaiah seemed a good man – the man who would be my father. He is excellent. He’s not a man of anger. I’m fixing your re-marriage precisely for what you had been humiliated. It should be like spitting with a clunk on the faces of all those who had humiliated you in the village!’The following day was Thursday. She ground the millets on the grinding-slab, and cooked gatka with fermented-liquid that prevents staling. She mixed the gatka with onion, and fed her son handfuls. Mixing the rest of the gatka in water, she poured it into an earthen-pot, and placed it in the sling hanging to the roof-beam.Kalemma told her son, ‘Eat the gatka whenever you feel hungry, my son. You can have some of it tomorrow too. I’m going to belong to someone else by next week. I’ve to label myself with the surname of a fellow of another village. From a day after tomorrow onwards, keep cooking a small measure of rice, and eat. Don’t worry about me, my son.’‘Me? I’ll look after myself very well. Let’s go then. I’ve brought the requirements of the marriage. Come; let’s have a look at them. Betel nuts, dates, a sari, a shirt and a dhoti for father, blouse-pieces, waistcloth that forms a pouch, turmeric, kumkum and bangles – I brought them all. Let’s go to the shrine of Muthalamma. Father has already arrived there. He bought toe-rings, bangles and pusthe, bridal neck-string. We have no one for us worth calling our own. They have all rejected us. No one is going to attend the wedding. You will not fall short of anything. When you put on all these, you would look like Yellamma, deity Renuka.’Having accompanied his mother to the shrine, Kakka made Kondaiah knot the pusthe around his mother’s neck. While sending off his mother and father from the shrine through the village, they wailed holding each other. Kakka asked his mother to take care of herself, and his mother in turn asked the son to take care of himself. ‘Amma, let me take leave of you,’ as the son said, ‘Let me take leave of you, my son,’ the mother said. They consoled each other.Then, Kakka approached his stepfather, eyes streaming, and said, ‘Father, take care of my mother well. I’ll keep visiting her now and then,’ he broke down irresistibly holding the hands of the father. Turning back, Kakka banged his head hitting himself on a stone. ‘Why have you hit your head on the stone, my son? Having done so much for me, you have hurt your head; in that case I wouldn’t go.’‘O, amma, don’t worry. I couldn’t stand the grief, and therefore I did so. Amma, you may please leave.’ Having kept hand in hand – the hands of the mother and the father – Kakka led them to the pathway of his mother’s new in-law’s village, and began to go home.The mother said while looking back, ‘Ori Kakka, take care of yourself, my child.’ Kakka already walked too far to hear his mother’s yelling.‘This fellow is so great! Being a son, he got his mother married off,’ the village folk felt it an unusual event. Looking at the people, Kakka was reminded of the humiliating incident of the tamarind-tree, canes, marking-nuts, and the blistered fingers that were dipped in the cauldron of simmering oil – the same hands that his mother reared him enduring so many hardships. He thought to himself, ‘They had excommunicated my mother; accused her of being a whore; the people could say anything, but are they going to help us in troubled times?’ Kakka’s eyes flooded. Having sent off his mother in the pathway of eyes, he thought, ‘I’m the one born the wrong side up, and such a man is damned to suffer. The caste folk don’t belong to me; the mother left this village to lead a new life with another man. As she kept walking to her new in-law’s village, she seemed like seams of clouds that move away in layered sheets.’Kakka returned to his village from the outskirts; he reached home. The mother got remarried. He slept on a cot in the middle of the hut facing the roof. Then he looked at the sling hanging to the roof-beam. The knot of the bowl containing gatka seemed so cute. ‘Mother’s warmth is always like that. My mother, Kalemma should be happy always,’ thinking so, Kakka made the wick of the lamp smaller, and slipped into sleep.Translated from the original by K. Purushotham..........................................................................................................................................................................He can be reached at kpku62@gmail.com
Posted by GURRAM SEETA RAMULU at 9:58 AM

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