Sukumaran was my source of information about Dhamu’s and Chellappan’s lives; he was the youngest of Dhamu’s brothers and my classmate in school. Since I was obsessed with their family lives and wanted to learn more, I was close with Sukumaran. I still vividly remember going to their house one day on the pretext of borrowing a copy of Savarkar’s Volcano. Sukumaran’s sister-in-law—Dhamu and Chellappan’s wife—was incredibly voluptuous. She had an insane figure. Very healthy and thriving. Sukumaran said to me, “Both my brothers vie with each other to feed her by hand. She knows how to enjoy her food.” Apparently, both brothers were absolutely adamant that nobody else should watch her eating. Sukumaran also told me that his sister-in-law had become addicted to alcohol, a habit she’d picked up while recuperating after giving birth: “When Dhamu asked her if she knew Gandhiji had asked people not to consume alcohol, she said, ‘That’s only for men.’” Some of her children looked like Chellappan, and some looked like Dhamu. There were also children who looked like her, and so their father was a mystery. In school, I felt sorry for them. Imagine not knowing for sure who your father was! But now, with the wisdom of years, I know that the idea of chastity is not as entrenched as we imagine. A mother is the only irrefutable foundation of human birth. What else is a father but the sign of our trust in our mother’s testimony?

The success of Dhamu’s business was very well known. There was always a crowd in front of his shop. If the shop next door sold eight bananas for a panam, Dhamu sold six for the same price. No haggling was entertained. If anyone pointed out the price at the shop next door, both brothers retorted, “Well, go buy them over there then!” Neither of them cared how many customers there were, or how much of a hurry people were in. They had the same style of working; they took their own sweet time to take things off the shelves. But still, their shop was where the crowds went. The brothers attributed this good luck to their wife, even though neither of them would ever say it out loud.