Dewa was a woman who had the courage to change. For her, marrying into a different culture, a different community, held no fears. Her ideas were eclectic. Sri was different. He was, in a sense, timid, unprepared for the commitment that marriage entailed. He had lived, up to that time, in the sheltered environment of a tradition-bound Hindu enclave. His people had not mingled freely outside the enclave. And he was reluctant to face the enormous changes that were inevitable if he married outside his community.

Finally, though, he paid heed to Dewa’s suggestion. He did not make that pilgrimage to Kataragama and married Dewa against all opposition. Years of married life had given him the strength to live as a good husband and father. Now, many years later, he was making this journey to one of the most ancient temples in India, and he thought of it as a long deferred pilgrimage. Only this time his thoughts were not about staying on but returning here after fulfilling his responsibilities as a householder. Here perhaps he could spend his last days in peaceful meditation. But there was time enough for that yet. The presence of Dewa and Anna drew him back to the world. He would return once more with them to the island, to Sri Lanka, from where the journey had begun.

Anna, his daughter, was in between two journeys. She had returned from the States where she had been away for one year studying in a College in the sea port town off Maine. She had returned home but found that her sojourn had been incomplete. She could not settle easily into the life she had come back to and was going back. But before she re-embarked on that journey she had this most profound wish to go to India, as if she felt that she might move too far away from a world that she might never return to. But here, in this country, she needed a guide—her father. Both she and her mother needed him. They had to travel great distances, thousands and thousands of miles from city to city, from temple to temple, and Sri could speak, often, the language of the people; he could translate and interpret for them and make their passage easier. And when they wanted to be silent they could be silent, each with his or her own thoughts, retreating into their private chambers, their inner sanctums.