22

THE ONE AT THE HEAD of the southern row is Sinner Chenganna. Of course no one called him so to his face! There were several Chengannas in the village and this is only for purpose of identification.

When the fields were shared among the families and they were dependent on collective labour almost all homes lived as joint families. As time passed large joint families became rarer. Cousins took their share and moved out. When Chenganna’s wealth was shared a mud pot was left. Unwilling to let his cousins take it, he broke it into chips and shared it too. Since then people have called him Sinner Chenganna.

The one slightly west of him is Butter Narasayya. Those who did not know him would assume he is fond of fresh butter. That’s not it. After a shave he’d soak his cheeks with fresh butter for some time before rinsing his face. As days went by he found this soft butter very nice and since then has been soaking his face in butter every day before his bath. He reeks of milk all the time.

It is Porai Bangaru Nayakkar who is beside Butter Narasayya. The oiled red ruby earrings look smart on his dark face. He collects cotton from the farmers and deseeds it. He owns thirty hand-worked cotton gins.

Though several homes in Gopalla village owned kai mannai and instruments to spin thread with, big families found it difficult to deseed their cotton themselves and so they hired Bangaru Nayakkar to do the job.

That season the oxen and cows and other animals were having a grand time as the harvest was good. He bartered three loads of cottonseeds for one load of cotton.

Once deseeded, he’d give both the cotton and seeds in separate loads in return for a few measures of grain.

Thirty women worked at his workshop from morning to evening. They had just two breaks in between. Two measures of millet were what they got as their daily wage. His was the first workshop in the village.

Once the cotton harvest was over, the thread spinning would commence. They would snip the cotton with a forked rod, spin it and spread it out.

Weavers from neighbouring villages came here to buy thread. The barter was a certain length of cloth for a certain load of thread. Some houses asked for saris or dhotis directly.

Weavers went away from their villages with head-loads of grain and returned with head-loads of cloth.

The one next to him is Astrology Engatrayalu.

In general men shaved their faces only on the day of their wedding; until then they went about with a thick beard. Engatrayalu was well past the age of marriage and so his beard was permanent. Akkayya was the only one to break this norm in those days. Of course no one else was as brave as Akkayya.

Next to him was his younger brother Chinna Engatrayalu, also with a beard, but he was married. His wife was now pregnant, and there was no rule which says that the husband should sport a beard when the wife was pregnant.