‘All of them, all of them …. I could choose if I want … but it’s only she, only she, really, Radha, whom I desire. The others mean nothing to me. They’re all collecting silk sarees for their weddings. Jewellery. Dowries. They wear nothing but pure sovereign gold jewellery. Their thalis will be heavy with twenty gold sovereigns at least.

‘These letters are proof that Radha is attracted to me. Perhaps I can approach her parents? No. Useless. It’s a vain hope and yet …. I’ve got news that things might not go too well with the marriage. I hear letters are going all over the city, to friends, to relatives and to the family from where the proposal was brought—the Vigneshwerans. Rumours of a secret love affair of Radha’s. I know the consequences only too well. They will bring everything to a standstill. Everybody is gossiping here and yet the Vigneshwerans want Radha so much as a daughter-in-law. I know what the letters contain …. “Radha is having an affair with Sivam. She is carrying on with him in secret. She sends him love letters. Think carefully before you proceed any further. She is not a suitable match for your son.”

‘Yes, I know the people who are responsible for sending out these letters. I don’t want to destroy her happiness. But what about my feelings? I desire more than anything else to sit beside her on the manavarai, to give her the vermilion silk koorai. I want so much to go round the sacred yaham with her. I want to clasp that thali round her neck.

‘It’s Renga’s sisters who are concocting all these anonymous letters, casting aspersions on her reputation. There’s not enough excitement in their lives. And there are distances too between Radha’s family and the families of Sashi and Kokila, Renga’s sisters …’

That was true. The two girls lived with their mother and unemployed brother Renga in another part of the city in a small house. One of their sisters, Shivarani, had married a lawyer and moved away. She had given birth to two daughters, Kamalini and Yogini, and died when the children were very young. The widower had re-married and had one daughter, Ragini, who was Radha’s cousin. The step-daughters lived in the same house together with their stepmother and step-sister but there was a great deal of conflict within the household. Ragini’s mother sent her step-children away as often as possible to spend days with their grandmother and aunts in Kotahena.