One day, about two weeks after Nagegowda is born, Kumaraswamy comes home at last, on summer holidays from his final year of high school at the market town. He is bitter and furious. He fights with his mother and refuses to marry anyone at all now. How dare they do this to Gangi? Why didn’t anyone tell him before sending her to a temple? He would have come rushing back and saved her from that old man.

Kumaraswamy stands outside the headman’s house on the village’s main street and shouts at Sannegowda for his unutterable selfishness. He says all that Ajji and Ningamma have wanted to say to Sannegowda all these years, and throws in some choice swear words that he has picked up in the town. Ajji wants to learn those words to use on Sannegowda herself. Byregowda and Gowra listen in stony silence. What can they say or do now? Did anyone listen to them? No. But does Sannegowda care, does he care at all? Not as far as they can tell.

Gangi sees Kumaraswamy through dazed pain-filled eyes. He tries to talk to her, but Gangi is conscious of Annaiah hovering at the edge of her vision and the baby feeding at her breast. Kumaraswamy is the past and she has voluntarily given him up. Those days when they meant everything to each other are long over. Her life now is Annaiah, this stone temple and her baby. She turns away from Kumaraswamy and goes back to her household chores, sweeping, cleaning, cooking, feeding and caring for the baby and his old father.

Young Kumaraswamy however, does not go away. No, he loves Gangi and he is going to be with her, come hell or high water. So what if she has a baby? He will look after her and her child. How can she live with that awful old man who barely even speaks to her? An old man who only knows how to drink his saraayi and tell stories? Does anyone know or care that Gangi, his beautiful, bubbly, intelligent Gangi, spends her time talking to walls?

Secretly, he visits the Kamadeva temple every day and sits on the other side of the temple walls, talking to Gangi. Initially, she is thrilled. How nice, indeed, that her wall is talking to her in the voice of the boy she should have married.

Slowly she realizes that it is not the wall that talks. Kumaraswamy has not gone back to the market town. He is not sure if he wants to continue studying or stay back in the village to oversee his father’s fields. What does Gangi think he should do? She brushes her fingers over her little son’s soft hair and thinks awhile before replying.

‘It depends,’ she says hesitantly, ‘on what you want to do with your life. If you are happy looking after your father’s lands and doing what your family has done for generations before you, you really don’t need to study further. But if you want to know more about life and the world outside our village, you should continue in the market town.’