Siva shakes his head in despair. ‘Your only fault, Rati, is that you love the wrong man. He is burnt, he is those ashes. You can hear him in the song of the birds, you can smell him in flowers, you can feel him as a soft breeze blowing over you, you can speak to him even in the air and you can see him in this lake of sharey. Go and take my pain along with you and remember, every moment you feel the pain, I feel it with you.’

Rati bends down, but as she touches those ashes, the small particles, a mix of Kamadeva and Ramani, rise and swirl and blow all around the forest, turning the trees red-gold-white again. The garland around Siva’s neck turns into fresh suryavamsi and swetasanchari flowers, glowing with love. The wind is sweet, the sky is a clear blue, as is the water. Siva smiles faintly and Parvati feels the warmth, the glow. She feels the need rising through her blood and clutches his hand.

Rati looks at both of them, her eyes slitting, her smile twisted. She doesn’t tell Siva but he knows. She hates him and, if she can ever do it, she will destroy him like he destroyed Kamadeva.

He bows his head. He is wrong. He should not have destroyed Kamadeva without a thought for anything but his own anger at being manipulated. He will atone for the crime he committed against Rati by giving half his body to Parvati. He will make a hole in his hair and let out Gange, the other woman he trapped as water from the skies into the well of his head. As for the beautiful mortal woman who died with Kamadeva … Siva bends down, takes the last bit of ash still on the ground and brushes it on the embers of the burning orb in his forehead.

21. Preparation for the Habba

21

PREPARATION FOR THE HABBA

he barber’s shop is a natural meeting point for the village now. It has a novelty – Kallayya has gone to the market town and bought a TV. It is like the film projector, only very small. It keeps flickering off into nothing, so Kallayya keeps turning this huge tree-like metal thing he has put on his roof, which Sundru calls an antenna. Even Puttaswamegowda does not yet have a TV. Kallayya is very proud of his new acquisition and shows it off to anyone who visits him.

Every day, Sundru takes the Kannada daily newspaper that his father gets to Kallaya’s shop and reads out bits of news to everyone. Sundru studied at the market-town school like Krishnegowda and Chandru, but unlike them, he does not continue to college. He comes back to work on his father’s fields and help out at the village school, which his aunt Thimmakka is now running.