There is a lot of talk about population control and he has heard of something called family planning in the market town. At a big rally there, a woman named Indramma Gandhi spoke some two years ago. People tell him that day that she is the prime minister of India, of which his village and his newly named Karnataka state is also a part. She speaks about why she and her son Sanjay want family planning. Apparently the number of people in the country is too much for the land to bear. Puttaswamegowda hears that Sanjay has forcibly made people not have children. He shudders. How can you do that? He is told that Indramma and her son put thousands of people in jail, beat up anybody who opposed their ideas. Not the way he would have dealt with things.

Of late, Indramma has visited the market town three times; apparently she is standing for election from somewhere here to become prime minister again. She lost to somebody in her own constituency, far away in the North, they say. There is a lot of talk he hears about Janata Party and someone called George Fernandes. Still, he and the village are not involved, as they are not voters in this election, and can concentrate on their own troubles.

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?