Four generations:
Three continents: Two world wars: One village
These are tales spanning four generations spread across three continents
in between and after the two world wars of people who set forth under different
circumstances from one small village called Agaramangudi.
The story line traverses through different time lines, locations or
incidents with no particular order. The only order being the
alphabetical one – A to Z meant purposefully for the A to Z challenge. These
posts can be read as standalone posts, but would be best comprehended if
you read them along with their prelude provided as a link.
Oppilliyappan Kovil – 1940
-1954
As the
daughter –in-law of the wealthy landlord
Kannammal was always expected to be draped in pure kanjeevaram silk. The nine yards that demurely draped her, would
slightly reveal her tender and shapely calf muscles, hovering just a little
above her anklets and the curve of her hips in a way that even women who
glimpsed at her would envy the tender and youthful sensuousness that she
emanated. Her hair, well oiled and drawn
into a thick long plait that fell well below her knees was always adorned with
jasmine flowers.
She was
barely 15 when she was married into the household of Sabesha Iyer in Oppiliyappan Kovil. Her father had left no stone unturned
to pull off a grand wedding . Her wedding trousseau consisted of the finest
silks and abundant amounts of gold jewellery in dowry, befitting the social and
economic status of the family that she came from and the family that she was
going to be married into.
Srinivasan,
her husband was studying Mathematics at the local college. He was aloof and
lived in a world of his own. It made Kannammal extremely nervous. In her days a woman’s happiness quotient was
determined by how she got along with her mother-in-law and how well her husband
treated her.
Fortunately
for her, her mother-in-law was reasonably kind to her. It was her husband that she was never able to
figure out. He would burst into fits of
rage without any provocation or sulk for
days and months together for something seemingly petty. If she got him his coffee, it was either too
hot or too cold. At times he would fling
a hot cup of coffee on her face scalding her skin, because
it was not to his liking. Her
skin or the coffee, she would not be very sure of. It left her baffled.
His
clothes that she was expected to maintain were too dirty, too crumpled or
misplaced exactly at the time and place he needed them. If he did badly in his exams at college, he
would accuse her of having mentally tortured him with her emotional drama just the
day before the exams.
But the
worst amongst them was when he would silently slip out of their bedroom under
some pretext after everyone else in the household fell asleep. If she begged him to stay, he would accuse
that she smelled like cow dung or snored like a circus lion which rendered it
unable for him to sleep with her in the same room.
It was
something that chipped away her sense of self-esteem and delivered the biggest
blow to her feminine self. When other
women complemented her on her sensuous beauty or her thick long hair of which
they were in awe of, she would feel they were belittling her. For the man she
expected to be adored by, never took notice of her sensuous beauty.
It was
too personal for her to cry out her woes to anyone in her marital home. She was too proud to speak about it to
anybody in her parent’s home. Neither
did she have friends to confide to.
As
years rolled by, women of her age moved on with marriage, they had children one
after the other. Her childlessness began to be discussed during social
occasions and by relatives who came visiting.
She
fasted, feasted, prayed and went on pilgrimages. Her husband reluctantly accompanied her to
pilgrimages. Fortunately for her, her
sister-in-law, Susee was also going through the same pangs of
childlessness for many years after their
marriage.
On
many occasions, Subbu and Susee would
accompany Kannammal and Srinivasan for a pilgrimage to a temple to pray for the
birth of a child. Astrologers would compete with each other to predict the
probability of birth of children in their horoscopes.
It was
ten years since Kannammal marriage to Srinivasan. She alone knew the misery that she was going
through and was convinced no one would understand, leave alone believe her if
she ever spoke about the strange ways of her husband.
And
moreover he was an extremely congenial host to visitors who came visiting,
generous to people who needed help and charming to elderly women who considered
him the apple of their eye.
It was
a battle that she was destined to fight alone.
And it was to no avail.
When
her sister-in-law Susee became pregnant the pressure mounted on her. She was now subjected to crude insensitive
remarks by the women of her own household.
Those who were not crude and insensitive to her pitied and sympathised
with her. They treated her like a
diseased woman. The older ones called her a barren bitch and cursed her right
on her face.
In all
this she would silently cry at the backyard while drawing water from the well
or under the pillow. In both these places her husband was never seen around. She
would contemplate jumping into the well and ending her life. Despite all the
doom and gloom in her marriage something always held her back.
She
clearly knew it was not her fault. She also knew that no one would acknowledge
that fact.
Sabesha
Iyer, her father-in-law was getting
impatient with Kannammal’s barrenness.
He summoned the family astrologer one last time to check the horoscopes.
The
stars in the horoscopes that seemed to match up during the process of wedding
now seemed to have taken a totally different turn. It was predicted that while Kannammal would never bear a child, her
horoscope had the stars juxtapositioned
in such a way that it would bring untold misery to her husband. The astrologer, paused, hesitated and added
that the marriage to Kannammal had brought about a ‘dosham’ (curse) that could
be fatal to her husband Srinivasan in the next few years.
It was a statement that left Sabesha Iyer
springing into immediate action. It was
almost 14 years since his son had married Natesa Iyer’s daughter. He shared a great deal of camaraderie with
the landlord from Agaramangudi. But that would not stop him from sacrificing
his son to the curse of a barren woman.
He sent
in a word to Natesa Iyer. He offered that, while his daughter could live in her
marital home all her life, it was only prudent for him to look for a second
wife for his son. A woman who could bear
him a child and carry on the family lineage.
The letter was carefully worded to convey that it was more a decision he
was conveying and not a permission that he was seeking.
The astrologers
were summoned and the horoscopes of eligible girls from all over were sought. Most families were reluctant to give their
daughters in marriage as the second wife unless they were really hard up on
money, could ill afford a decent dowry or if the girl was outright ugly or had
got herself into a scandal that had tarnished the family name.
The
women always knew that more often than not when a woman is considered barren,
the fault could as well be with the man. However in those days and time, a man
had his honour to behold. Unlike a woman’s menstrual cycle, private matters of
men were not discussed in public. For
that matter they were not even discussed in private.
It was
almost an year before the proposal from the family in Tiruchy came. The bride was an orphan and was raised by her
uncle who was a priest in the temple at Samayapuram. There was not much by way of dowry that they
could afford. Sabesha
Iyer, recognizing the dearth of potential alliances and the urgency with which
he wanted to fix the alliance agreed to the match.
It was when the families got together that Srinivasan, the groom-to-be spoke up for the first time in front of his father. He said he was clear he did not want to marry the second time. He offered that he would adopt a child from anyone in the extended family to carry his family lineage.
It was when the families got together that Srinivasan, the groom-to-be spoke up for the first time in front of his father. He said he was clear he did not want to marry the second time. He offered that he would adopt a child from anyone in the extended family to carry his family lineage.
Sabesha
Iyer was aghast. He had never expected his son to disapprove a decision that he
had taken. He was doubly hurt because his son never let out a whiff of his
disinterest in the second marriage all the while and when he did express he
spoke up in front of the bride’s family.
The Bride’s family did not seem to mind the disinterest the groom was
exhibiting towards the marriage. They
were equally in a hurry to get their niece married off at the earliest
opportunity.
After a
few weeks of dissent, Sabesha Iyer overruled his son’s protest and fixed up the date for the
wedding. The wedding preparations were on, although the pomp and flamboyance
that marked all other weddings in the family was missing in this one.
Kannammal
sunk into depression and cried silently into her pillow every night. What added to her woes, was that her father-in-law suspected that her
husband was acting on her advice, which she knew was far from the truth. Her
parents and her brother refused to
acknowledge the second marriage and insisted that she stay put in that household
and claim her rightful share as the daughter-in-law of the family.
Everyone
knew that it was only a matter of time. In other households, when a man married
the second time, the woman from the second marriage would adjust and
accommodate until such time she became pregnant and delivered a child. Once a child was born, the first wife’s barrenness would be proven
and she would be relegated to being a
domestic help and subjected to disgrace and taunt all her life. But that was a
better option than to go back to her parent’s home, only to be subjected to the
same treatment over there.
Kannammal
noticed that her husband was growing sullen and depressed through all the
wedding preparations. He exhibited his
disinterest and started to vociferously protest
against the second marriage.
Momentarily Kannammal would assume that it was his love or rather pity
for her that made him protest against marrying the second time. But she brushed aside all such thoughts, as
she knew that it had nothing to do with
her as much as it had to do with him.
Only
she could not articulate what it was. At that time.
One evening when the monsoons had just broken out in June 1954, three days before the scheduled date for his
second marriage, after a nasty fall out with his father, Srinivasan jumped into
the well at the backyard of the house and killed himself.
On the
tenth day after the death of her husband, Kannammal for the last time was
draped in a silk saree and all her wedding jewellery. Soon the women gathered
in the room, removed her ‘Thali’, the wedding chain, broke her bangles and tonsured her head. She resigned to the numbness that permeated
her soul as her waist long hair fell in one single swoop when the barber ran
the scissors over the back of her neck.
To be continued : P - Palo Alto -2000
This might have been a few decades back, but there is no dearth of people with similar mindset even today!! Beautifully written, Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anything ever changed for women, since then on… How I wish she could speak up, and someone could listen to her sorrows too.
ReplyDelete