‘Govindappa, can we ever forget him or his kindness? I named my first son after him. How else could we show our gratitude?

‘Before we set off again, Kovaiyya sent his men in all eight directions to make sure that we were safe. Only after that were we allowed to step out of his front door.

‘We were not too anxious during the day. Only in the dark did we worry. There were bandits to fear on the way too.

‘Our hearts pined for our home soil and the people we had left behind. We would speak fondly about the cattle: the cows, the calves … every single living thing back home, as we walked.

‘Suddenly, your uncle would blurt out to my grandmother, choked with frustration, “Amma, did we ever hurt any soul? Why are we made to suffer like this?”

‘One evening, we could walk no more. But that was an area infested with thieves and bandits. Much farther ahead we could see a tiny gopuram. We set that as our target and walked down a mud lane. It was a fairly large Amman temple. Maybe the divine grace wanted us to spend the night there! We decided to stay there.

‘We washed ourselves in a brook close by. The water was so cool and soothing that we didn’t want to come out of it. The warm setting golden sun was very comforting. At that moment we heard a pleasant voice singing, almost like a forest fairy crooning. In a little while a young woman emerged magically from behind the temple. She was beautiful, like a tiny idol, and wore heavy traditional earrings and nose rings, her hair gathered into a thick bun and tucked on the side, a thick chain of coral beads on her neck, a large box, woven of palm with a lid, swaddled under her left arm, and a cane swirling in her right hand.

‘She walked towards us with a cheerful smile, stood on the shore, watching us prance about in the brook, humming softly.

‘After some moments, she chirped like a young parrot, “So, people … where are you from?”

‘We gave her our usual yarn that we were off on a pilgrimage. She looked up to the sky and laughed aloud.

‘We invited her to join us for dinner. But she gently refused saying that she’d be satisfied if we ate our fill. We settled down to spend the night in the temple compound. The sky was dark red. She sat along with us. Suddenly a horde of horsemen rode towards us, with spears. They looked a lot like the army that had chased us when we were escaping. When we rose, scared and distressed, she said softly, “People, you have nothing to fear. Go on, relax.” Her words calmed our nerves, but we didn’t know how to react to this attack.

‘The horsemen jumped off their horses and barged into the temple, searching every nook and corner; but they didn’t seem to notice us there, almost as if we were invisible.