‘Why are you dragging on, maama?’ grumbled one of the younger men. ‘Why can’t you just say it as it is? Look here, mapillai. Until we know which caste the girl is from, we are going to excommunicate your family. We won’t take donations for the temple from you, and you will not be welcome at the temple during the festival. No field labourers will come to work at your place. You cannot have any transactions with any of the houses in the village. If you violate these rules, you’ll be insulting the village. Let the festival end. After that, we will have you over at the meeting and talk about this again. That’s the decision we have arrived at.’

‘The girl’s parents and relatives should come here,’ someone pontificated. ‘They should name their caste in front of the entire village. If it turns out that they are from one of our castes, we can figure out what reparations must be made. But if they belong to a caste we cannot mix with, the controls will extend for the rest of your life. Perhaps you could go and live elsewhere. But we can talk about this once the festival is over. In the meantime, think about all this and make your arrangements. Don’t try to wriggle out of this by sweet-talking us. The village won’t listen. Already, there is some talk in the other villages.’

‘Mara, what can you do, you poor thing . . .’ a man said. ‘This is why we say that we should keep our children here with us no matter what. Once they go out of the village, this is what happens. Even if our boys are all right, do you think the girls in the towns will let them be? Things have not gone too far even now. If he takes her back and leaves her there, everything will be all right. We will think of this a bad dream and forget about it.’

The man was still talking when Marayi began sobbing loudly. ‘My whole lineage has been destroyed. What will I do? I went through so much hardship to raise him. Was it all for this? Now if the village pushes us away, what am I to do? I lie on this rock like an orphan. Impose all the controls you want on this dog! But please exclude me from them. Other than the sin of giving birth to him, what have I done? He won’t leave her. He enters the hut as soon as he comes back home, and he comes out of it only in the morning. How do you think he’ll leave her?’