However, he does see the point of what Indramma has been saying about controlling the number of children. His father Byregowda has given away at least half their lands, but Puttaswamegowda can see that only one generation can live on the one-acre land plots that the poorer people got. If everyone keeps having children with no thought on how to sustain them, how much land will each child get?

Puttaswamegowda discusses it with Chenni, who laughs her heart out and teases him, saying that he rivalled his granduncle Sannegowda when it came to silly ideas. Chenni has been longing for a daughter and intends to have one. Her husband follows all the family-planning rules that the government has been talking of but somehow, Chenni has found a way to go around them and get pregnant.

This time, Chenni is different. It is as if some other energy has possessed her. As the pregnancy progresses, she doesn’t bother to talk and joke with him, but chatters away to herself and bustles all over the house without doing anything at all. Puttaswamegowda doesn’t understand what has happened to his Chenni and is feeling very alone. Chenni is not even looking after the boys, leaving that chore to Ajji. She rushes around, then sits by the closed-up well, like Ajji says Chikthayi used to so long ago, combing her hair, staring into space. She suddenly claims to hear water in that well, just like Thimmakka used to. Will he ever understand women at all?

The villagers have also noticed a new abstraction in Chenni. She laughs to herself, talks to the animals in the shed, the crows in the trees and the hens in the coop. When she gets down to cooking, she stirs the ragi mudde too fast or lays out in the sun her famous rice and sabbaki sandiges in weird, unwieldy shapes that cannot be fried.

When she hears about Chenni’s strange behaviour, it gives Thimmakka much food for thought. She has not forgotten or forgiven the intimacy between Chenni and Annaiah that she overheard at the Kamadeva temple on that full-moon night. She has been biding her time to act. Her anger is as strong as the love she had for Annaiah. Every word she heard that night is still a poisoned dart festering in her broken heart.

Thimmakka thinks that her sister-in-law has got the boon she herself had wanted: Annaiah’s child. Her brother has been preaching family planning to all and even told her about its methods, in the belief that she has a sex life and might want to know. But she has neither the man nor his child, nor anything else, while Chenni has it all.

Nowadays, for Thimmakka, it is a toss-up between Bangari and Chenni regarding whom she hates the most. Bangari is virtually the mistress of her house, though officially Thimmakka is in charge. Ramappa, Chandru, why, even the servants defer to Bangari and carry out all her wishes without a murmur. They all behave as if carrying out Thimmakka’s wishes is a yoke they have to bear.