Ayankunju voiced a suspicion with great humility, ‘He is a fisherman after all. So has he taken permission to buy a boat and nets?’
‘No! No! He didn’t!’
‘Well, what should we, the people of the shore, do?’
The Shore Master thought for a while and said, ‘He seems to think that times have changed.’
Ayankunju grunted ‘Yes’.
The Shore Master issued a command, ‘Let him bring his boat. However, no one is to go to work in it without letting me know first.’
‘Yes, of course, that’s how it will be,’ Ayankunju said. ‘However, there are some brash young men. I can’t speak for them!’ Ayankunju was thinking of Velayudhan.
The Shore Master dismissed that of no consequence. He knew for a fact that no one would dare to oppose him publicly. Not yet.
‘I’ll take care of that. Tell the rest of the fisherfolk that he doesn’t have my permission to buy a boat.’
Triumphant Raman Moopan and Ayankunju returned. They went from home to home announcing the Shore Master’s decree. However, Ayankunju was quite certain that Velayudhan alone wouldn’t comply. Anyway, how much can a pup’s bite hurt? He would discover it the hard way.
Chakki came to know of what had happened.
She had heard stories of how the Shore Master’s wrath had ruined lives. Of families who had to flee the shores and who didn’t even have the solace of knowing that they could be fisherfolk on other distant shores. Malicious gossip had feet that would reach any shore they went to. Then the only recourse left was to convert to another religion.
These days the power of such decrees didn’t hold. Hadn’t times changed? Nevertheless, if the Shore Master willed it, there would be no one to work their boat. No one would cross their threshold at a birth or death. Such ostracization could happen even these days.
They should have made an offering and sought permission before setting out to buy the boat and nets.
And yet, what crime had they committed?
The entire shore was abuzz with the news of the Shore Master’s ban. They were being punished for not marrying off a grown-up girl, the women said.
And Karuthamma wished she hadn’t been born. She was the cause of such troubles and sorrow for her parents. She hadn’t wanted to grow into adulthood, feel her breasts blossom. She hadn’t defiled the seashore. What harm was she doing by being as she was? However, none of these arguments, logical as they were, was any good.
Both mother and daughter awaited Chembankunju’s arrival with much trepidation.
A few women were at Kalikunju’s house. Chakki eavesdropped on their gossiping. One woman said that Karuthamma had a relationship with Pareekutty. She had seen them talking and laughing standing in the shadows of a beached boat. That’s why they were not marrying Karuthamma off.
Could any mother listen to such slander about her child? Chakki leapt out of her hiding place with the ferocity of a tiger to defend her daughter. And thus the long-slithering tongues of the women gathered there ran amok.
In Chakki’s youth, she too had ruined the shore, they claimed. In which case, who was the father of one of Kalikunju’s children, Chakki demanded. Wasn’t it one of those Muslim traders? The one who dealt in dry fish and went from home to home offering an advance for what he would buy. It seemed then that all the women gathered there and their mothers had secret stories of their own.
It was a battle – Chakki on one side and the rest of the women together against her. But Chakki fought fiercely.
Karuthamma stood by the fence, listening. She was astounded by the allegations. Had her mother too been in love in her youth? Have these women defiled the shores? Wasn’t there any sanctity to all the traditions mooted? Was it all just talk?
The western sea lay quiet and vast despite these women and their sordid pasts. To this day the boats went out to sea. The rains fell and fish were spawned. The fisherfolk lived and thrived. So what was the meaning of all those old dictates?
As the quarrel grew noisier, they began talking about Karuthamma again. Karuthamma clapped her ears shut. All tittle-tattle! She was Pareekutty’s mistress! Only someone like him, a brawny Muslim, could control and keep a lusty warhorse like her satiated. They were not marrying her off only because they were terrified of losing the income she brought in. Such gossip could only mean one thing: what the women had slandered her mother with and what her mother had thrown back into their faces were all falsehoods.
Unable to stem the flow of abuse from Chakki’s tongue, Kalikunju declared, ‘That’s it! You had it! Wait and see what’s going to happen! The Shore Master has decided what to do with you!’
Chakki wouldn’t budge. She was ready for battle. In fact, the need to combat only grew. The need to combat everything.
‘What is there to decide? What is the Shore Master going to do?’
At that point, Karuthapennu spoke, ‘The Shore Master knows how to deal with scum who have no respect for traditions!’
Chakki defended herself stoutly, ‘What can he do to us? We’ll become Muslims if need be or convert to another religion … What will the Shore Master do then?’
Another woman said, ‘Say it, say it, will you? That you set up your daughter with that Muslim man.’
Yet another woman said, ‘That’s probably what the mother and daughter wanted!’
Chakki asked, ‘So what’s wrong with that?’
Karuthamma experienced something that she had never known until then. Was it an ache? She wasn’t sure. Was it a great relief? She wasn’t sure of that either.
Karuthamma called out to her in a forlorn voice. Perhaps her tongue was beginning to weaken and so Chakki turned towards her daughter and went to her.
But Chakki kept muttering to herself even after reaching their hovel.
Karuthamma felt the need to ask her mother countless questions. But she didn’t have the courage. All she could hear was the throbbing echo of her mother’s claim: we will convert to Islam if need be. Her nerves quickened. An unbearable kindling of feelings. Wasn’t it but natural? Her heart had been abducted.
Since chaos and danger were part of their lives, her heritage had her locked in a fortress where traditional rules and dictates determined every breath. And here was someone actually pointing the way out of that fortress. All that was needed was a decision. And everything would fall into place.
Become a Muslim. What would happen then? She saw herself dressed in a tunic and heavy mundu with the curve of her ears pierced and adorned with gold and wearing a head scarf. Pareekutty would be delighted if she were to go to him dressed like that! And then he could gaze at her bosom as much as he wanted. Look at her bum. Even if she didn’t comprehend it entirely, this perhaps was the only means of escaping the tangled mess of their lives. She wouldn’t have to be a fisherman’s wife. If Pareekutty were to come there at that point, she would have said, ‘We are going to convert to Islam.’
And Pareekutty would leap with joy.
But had her mother meant it in all seriousness? She probably spoke it on the spur of the moment driven by her rage. And she was afraid to ask her mother if she had really meant it.
If she did so, her mother would assume that she wanted it to be true.
And so Karuthamma lived contained within her tormented thoughts.
Some representatives of the Shore Master arrived there. But Chembankunju wasn’t back yet.
A few days later, Chembankunju’s newly acquired boat docked at the shore. And it had nets.
It used to belong to Pallikunnath Kandankoran, a netsman. It wasn’t new any more but it used to be a rather celebrated boat once. During the season of the big catch at the Cherthala seashore even the people of this shore had seen it in its unvanquished glory.
So what if it was a little old. How did the Kandankoran netsman let go of the boat? He must really be in dire straits. And everyone knew that he was as big a spendthrift as he was famous.
All of them came to look at the boat. But not one of th
em said a thing. It was obvious that all of them were struck by the same thought – Chembankunju was fortunate to have acquired this splendid boat.
Achakunju said to a group, ‘It looks as if Pallikunnath’s prosperity has come away in the boat with Chembankunju.’
Ayankunju dismissed it airily, ‘Rubbish! How could that Kudummakaran’s prosperity attach itself to a mere fisherman? Haven’t you seen Pallikunnath Kandankoran when he stands next to the boat? That golden complexion and the slope of his pot belly. Have you seen how he dresses? In a white mundu and a black-lined cloth draped on his shoulder. So how can you even compare the two?
Raman Moopan had his own titbit to add. ‘In which case, that skinny black Chakki will soon resemble Kandankoran’s wife! Have you seen her?’
Ayankunju said, ‘Ah … you can’t look at her without a secret sigh! She is such a beauty…’
When Chembankunju returned home, he felt his head would explode. He had sailed into their shore with much excitement. He had been very fortunate to acquire this particular boat. And he had been to the Pallikunnath Kandankoran mansion, dined there – all of which he was aching to tell his wife about. And then there was Kandankoran’s wife…
He had come home wanting to share all of this and now it seemed as if someone had trampled all over him. He had never felt so downcast. Once, all he had was a dream. Now, even as it was shaping into reality, the dream was falling apart.
And his crime? That he hadn’t been to see the Shore Master before he set out to buy his boat and nets. Fine. He could understand that. After all he had violated an ancient code. But he had eked out the money for the boat and nets with great difficulty. And there just wasn’t enough to keep aside twenty-five rupees for this purpose. How could he have known that it would be considered such a great wrong?
Chembankunju asked his wife helplessly, ‘What did we do wrong? How have we hurt anyone?’
Chakki said, ‘Do we have to do anything? This is just envy!’
‘That’s true. But … if we had about twenty-five rupees to spare, all of this could be sorted out. And how are we to find that? We have to make some more money to stock the boat. All there is now is a mere mackerel net.’
Chembankunju voiced a list of his troubles. Who else could he express this to? And who else would listen to him?
Instead of comforting him, Chakki only railed at him, ‘Why did you have to drag this bloody bane onto our heads?’
Chembankunju didn’t speak. He too must have felt weighed down by the burden. All that he had was spent. And the community was against them.
Chakki continued, ‘If we had married the girl off with the money we had, would we have been punished so?’
But Chembankunju wouldn’t still speak. If you have big desires, you seldom find peace. Does that mean one has to be content with what one has?
It should have been a day of celebration. The day when his life’s greatest desire had been fulfilled. But that day the house was sunk in gloom.
Late in the night, Chembankunju spoke to his wife, ‘If we had thirty-five rupees, we could sort everything out!’
How is that possible, Chakki asked.
And so he laid his plan out to her.
‘Tomorrow morning I shall call on the Shore Master. All of this will be sorted out then.’
‘What about the sardine nets and support nets?’
‘That will happen too!’
Chakki had already raided her nest egg. Given him the money she had secreted away in a bamboo piece and buried in the ground. Now Chakki blamed Chembankunju.
‘Do you see the state we are in? If only we had put some money away in a piece of gold. We could have at least hawked that. But you dismissed my plea then!’
Chembankunju agreed. ‘There is a way, Chakki.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘That…’ Chembankunju was reluctant to voice his thought.
Chakki demanded again to know what it was.
Chembankunju said, ‘Well, if we approach that boy once again, things will happen.’
Chakki clapped Chembankunju’s mouth shut hastily. She wasn’t sure if Karuthamma was asleep or awake.
Chembankunju removed his wife’s palm from his mouth and asked, ‘Why? What’s wrong?’
‘Speak softly.’
‘Hmm? Why?’
There was much that Chembankunju didn’t know. Perhaps what no father should ever know. But words had to be spoken.
Chembankunju asked again. And so Chakki whispered in his ear, ‘Karuthamma says it isn’t seemly. If she discovers this, she will start a quarrel.’
‘What else can we do?’
‘That’s what I am thinking about too!’
A little later Chembankunju asked, ‘Is he there?’
‘Should be!’
‘I think I’ll go and check.’
Chakki didn’t speak. Chembankunju opened the door and stepped out.
Karuthamma was asleep. She didn’t know any of what was happening. Much later Chembankunju returned. His face had cleared up. It was evident that he had accomplished what he had set out to do!
‘He’s such a simple boy. A good boy though! He had thirty rupees with him and he gave it all to me.’
Even if Chakki was relieved, she felt a sense of unease. Tainted money! Chakki heard Karuthamma speak in her head.
Yes. Why had he always given them the money when they had asked for it? Was that even a moot question? Only because of Karuthamma. Why else?
The next morning, Chembankunju went to see the Shore Master. At first, the Shore Master was belligerent. Then he settled down. However, he was insistent that the girl be married off as early as possible. And demanded that his share of takings be sent to him on a daily basis.
Now it was Chembankunju’s turn. He voiced his protest at the clamour of envy he had to put up with.
The Shore Master promised to find a solution. And so troubles were alleviated, at least, for the moment.
But he needed five hundred rupees to be able to launch the boat with all its accessories. That too would happen.
But how? Chakki wanted to know.
Chembankunju said, ‘Pareekutty will give it to us.’
Chakki was astounded. Without Karuthamma’s knowledge, yet another battle took place there.
With the power vested in him as the husband, Chembankunju commanded, ‘You must ask him.’
‘I can’t…’
‘In which case, the boat won’t go out to sea.’
‘Good.’
But Chakki didn’t have the heart to stand her ground. And Chembankunju wouldn’t budge. It was as if he wouldn’t do anything more, Chakki thought.
And that was precisely what Chembankunju had hoped would happen.
Chakki asked, ‘Tell me, will you return all the money?’
‘Of course,’ Chembankunju said. And he would pay him interest, he claimed.
So this time Chakki was the one who approached Pareekutty. In the dead of the night, dried fish was sold to make money to buy the accessories for Chembankunju’s boat.
All was ready. Now what were left were the men to be hired.
The Shore Master quelled the protests of the older fishermen and made the arrangements. It had only been a minor obstacle, after all.
Once they had seen the boat, everyone longed to work in it. Achakunju had thought that Chembankunju would seek his counsel and invite him to work in the boat. In fact, they had quarrelled about this in his home. Achakunju had been even prepared to oppose the Shore Master’s dictates. They were childhood friends after all.
But Chembankunju hadn’t spoken to him despite running into him a couple of times.
Chembankunju chose twelve men. Achakunju wasn’t one of them.
There was to be a small ritual the day before the boat was put out to sea. They had to organize a feast. Chembankunju arranged to buy the provisions for it from trader Hassan Kutty. His guest list included a few relatives who lived at Kakkazhath and Punnapra. Chembankunju
sent Karuthamma to invite them for the ceremony.
Karuthamma walked along the shore immersed in thought.
‘Will you sell your fish to us?’
That gentle query made Karuthamma halt in her tracks. Pareekutty stood before her. How? Where? How had he sprung up there from the middle of nowhere?
Karuthamma didn’t speak. She didn’t even say what she once had – if you give us a good price, we will.
She wasn’t that Karuthamma any more.
Pareekutty asked this new Karuthamma who stood with her head bowed, ‘Are you angry with me, Karuthamma?’
She didn’t speak. She felt as if her heart would burst.
‘If you don’t want me to, I won’t speak any more.’
In truth, she had so much to say. So much to ask. In fact, she would even have liked to ask – shall I convert to Islam?
She stood silently in the shadows of a boat pulled onto the shore. She felt his gaze on her firm high breasts. But she couldn’t say either – Don’t stare at me so, my Bossman.
She raised her face to him, ‘I have to go, my Bossman.’
She needed his consent to leave. She couldn’t just walk away.
Suddenly, a frightened Karuthamma said, ‘Someone will see us!’
She walked on. She had walked only a few feet when she heard him call. ‘Karuthamma!’
There was something strange in that call, in his voice. A strangeness which she had never known or heard before.
She jerked back as if she had been snagged by a fishing line. He didn’t walk towards her. Perhaps she had paused expecting him to go to her.
Neither of them knew how long they stood like that. What could have been the emotions that churned in her?
The sea wasn’t angry; the wind didn’t rise. Little waves rose and broke into a froth of foam. The sea smiled. Had such a love story ever been played out on these shores?
All that Pareekutty had to say and ask emerged in one question. ‘Do you like me, Karuthamma?’
Unable to help herself, Karuthamma said, ‘Yes!’
Such greed to know more. ‘Do you like only me?’
And Pareekutty got his answer almost instantly.
‘Only you.’
Her own voice quaked in her like a clap of thunder. It was perhaps then she became conscious of what she had done. Of her admission. Her words appeared before her, frowning with censure. She looked at Pareekutty’s face. Their eyes met. All that had to be spoken was said. Their thoughts and desires revealed to each other.
Chemmeen Page 4
