Until the day when she would be married, Radha was still free to sing and give performances at cultural shows. She was busy every day, practicing and rehearsing for special performances. Then the day arrived for her performance on Radio Ceylon. Her eldest brother and cousins were to accompany her in the family car. She never went out anywhere alone, unchaperoned. She had practiced the ragas she was to sing. She was prepared, her voice would be sweet and melodious as always. They entered the area where the Radio Ceylon building stood. As she turned the corner of the building, her brother carrying the veena, she saw him coming towards her. He was smiling, his face transformed by an air of expectation, sure of recognition and acceptance. She knew who he was. That man who passed by their house everyday, the bank clerk. She watched him, startled.

In his manner, in his bearing there was a sense of ease, complicity and familiarity as if they were old acquaintances. In his expression there was only pleasure at the dazzle of light on her perfect face. That face, which to him was like a jewel: gold, topaz, amber. His glance alighted on her face like a caress. He wanted her to greet him. He was confident that she would greet him. He did not fear rejection. She gasped at his sight, felt her heart beginning to thud. Her lips felt dry. A chill crept up her fingers, they were paralyzed.

‘How can I play the veena! How can I sing the ragas!’ she thought. ‘My fingers are stiff. I can only strike discords if I touch those strings.’

A feeling of great terror engulfed her, as if she were alone in a jungle. She wanted to cower among the leaves, hide from the footpad that came towards her. The thick, fecund growth stifled her, the thorns snarled her smooth hair.

She screamed at him, ‘What are you doing here?’

He stopped in his tracks. A look of stunned incomprehension arrested his smile. It was overtaken by despair.

‘Go away! Go away! Not here, I don’t want you here!’ she cried. How could she escape him? That smile ensnared her with threat and fear. It was a sunny day but she felt only darkness and gloom encompass her. The gold chain was a thick liana round her throat. Tightening. The silk of her saree rasped against her skin.

He was almost upon her. She had intercepted him in time but she had felt the touch of that strong, bare, unknown hand violating her body, her life. She did not want it.

The faces about her, her friends’ faces, her brother’s, were disembodied, part of the tricks of light and shade in the jungle. Couldn’t they save her? Their faces, shocked, spun, shining discs in the shattered light.