The failures of his marital life proved to be conducive to Khader’s business. In an attempt to forget his domestic troubles, he started spending all his time at the store. He was like a man possessed, working with such tirelessness and frenzy that it looked like he was avenging himself. He started dreading the very prospect of free time and came up with constant work to stave off that possibility. Thanks to his drinking, he slept peacefully at night. Even though he was an unlucky fellow by his own estimate, he found some satisfaction in the fact that others considered him to be fortunate. He complained to his friends that the other merchants in the bazaar were jealous of him, but behind his guileless and anxious expression, he was secretly glad of it. He strove to achieve new successes that would stoke their flame of jealousy even more. He learned that some of his rivals had resorted to bad-mouthing him. “Wasn’t this Gopala Iyer’s investment originally?” they said, raking up his checkered past. Gopala Iyer had passed away by now, and Khader began to gift his family fifty rupees a month. On the first day of every month, without fail, he sent a boy to Mahadanapuram with the money. The opinion in the Brahmin quarter was that even if Gopala Iyer were still alive, there was no assurance his family would get that much money for their expenses every month. Even Gopala Iyer’s wife started singing Khader’s praises. Considering that no one who stole another’s business had ever done something so virtuous, Khader was, in a way, worthy of that praise.

Truth be told, the cigarette agency he obtained with his father-in-law’s help was the reason Khader had reached new heights. Gone were the days when, at temple festivals and fairs, free cigarettes had to be thrown from trucks at crowds to entice them and a long lecture delivered over a loudspeaker about the uniqueness of Camel-brand cigarettes. Now people were hooked, and all betel merchants from Parvatipuram to Anappalam had to jostle at Khader’s store to purchase their stock. Seeing so many people throng to his store made Khader arrogant. The poise that had characterized his speech and demeanor over the years now wavered. He started being dismissive of people who traveled three miles by bicycle just to come to his shop, offering lame excuses for not being able to attend to them right away and asking them to come back later. “If you want to get some gold, you need to be serious about it. You need to be patient.” This became a mantra he repeated a hundred times a day.