But it was a large mound. They had to be patient with it.

‘If you don’t stop, I will jump,’ she finally said.

He stopped without another word.

SEVEN

While they were walking uphill, pushing the bicycle, their sweat-drenched clothes sticking to their backs, he told her where they were going. To his grandfather’s place in Vairipalayam. His grandparents—his appucchi and ammayi—were still alive. He had four uncles. And since his mother was the only daughter, they had a special affection for her.

They had married Marayi to Kumaresan’s father Velayyan not only because he was known to be a man of good character, but also because he was a hard worker. Also, as he was distantly related to them, they felt that their daughter wouldn’t be going too far and they would be able to see her often. Even though Velayyan did not have much land and was not well-to-do even by their standards, they got Marayi married to him. They gave her several pieces of jewellery, and the wedding was a happy affair. For a short while after the ceremony, the couple lived in Velayyan’s ancestral house in his village. Then, because they thought they wouldn’t be able to manage living out there for long, they moved to the land next to the rock. All told, Velayyan and Marayi led a happily married life.

Whatever little job Marayi needed done, her parents would send someone right away. Whenever they cooked meat or made special snacks, they packed some for Marayi and her husband and sent it in a carrier. When Kumaresan was born, Marayi’s parents fussed over him a lot. Until he was one year old, he lived with his mother at his grandparents’ home. They even sent food for Velayyan three times a day. And would just any food do for their son-in-law? There was a fresh snack every day, and rice. The entire village said, ‘Now that he’s got a son, Velayyan gets to eat rice every day!’

They must really have cast their evil eyes on Velayyan because he was not blessed with a long life. He died when Kumaresan was two years old. He always woke up in the mornings the moment he heard the sound of the blackbirds. He had planted chillies inside a large enclosure, and fetched four or five cartloads of compost from Kundroor for it. As a result, the plants had grown huge and lush and taken over the entire space within the enclosure. Velayyan was confident that the plant would yield chillies for two years. He would pick the chillies in the evening, water the plants the following morning, and then carry the harvest to the market. It was a lot of hard work. Between taking care of the child and the chores at home, Marayi too had enough on her hands.

The first thing Velayyan did every day was irrigate the fields with water from the well. Early in the morning the soil around the well was still damp and, therefore, easier for the bulls to tread on without dust rising from the ground. If he started this work late, the ground would have dried and the dust kicked up would choke the animals. He had to run four counts of water for the field and one to be sprinkled on the land around the irrigation mechanism. If he tied the bullocks to the well sweep as early as possible in the day, he could finish the entire task before the heat intensified. The bullocks too did not become exhausted. There was enough water in the well to irrigate two fields. The braided bucket that was sunk low into the well would swell up with water like a pregnant woman and come back up. On one such day, when Velayyan was tying the bullocks to the bamboo poles, they protested and retreated, and Velayyan fell into the well.