Transverse

This is a translation of the short story பூனை. This is part of the ஆனையில்லா collection. I wrote about the craftsmanship of this story here.

It was a panthirunazhi offering at the Ilanji Bhagavathi temple, sponsored by the Naladi Karunakaran Nair household. Twelve measures of raw rice, eight coconuts, jaggery, and nine full bunches of bananas. It was their daughter’s birthday.

Nathaniel had been watching from the edge of the paddy field ever since Mutthan arrived in his single-bullock cart carrying the uruli. He came straight over. He sat waiting outside under the coconut tree until the rituals were completed. From inside the temple came the hum of voices and the clatter of vessels. Then, the ringing of the bell and the blowing of the conch.

Narayanan Potri, the priest, stepped out and called, “Dei Nathu, come here, boy.” Nathaniel sprang up and took a seat on the temple’s outer veranda. A large banana leaf was laid out for him, piled with steaming white rice. To mix with it, there was tender coconut chutney.

Watching him eat with sheer single-mindedness, Potri said, “Hey, there’s payasam… drink some payasam.”

“I don’t want any, master,” he replied. The smell of ghee made him nauseous, and he didn’t care for jaggery either. But Potri insisted every time.

When he finally stood up, he had to push himself off the floor with his hands. The sudden, heavy weight in his stomach threw off his balance. “Hey, your belly’s so tight you could crack a louse on it,” remarked Sivan Pillai.

“Here are some bananas,” Potri offered.

Nathaniel took four or five bananas and held them in his hands. He stood there staring at them until his stomach settled down just a fraction. Immediately, he peeled and ate them. He felt quite happy looking down at his own stomach. Swollen around the navel, it looked like a large water pot.

“Did you see my belly? Like a rock,” he boasted to Kunjathi, who was walking by with a basket of leaves.

“The boy’s got a baby in his belly!” she teased.

He suddenly felt shy. “Get lost you lump of coal…” he muttered. He climbed onto the large temple veranda and sat down, staring out at the courtyard where the hazy heat of the sun was just beginning to rise.

That was when Kesavan Thambi of the Araikkal house came striding up. As usual, his long towel hung precariously off his shoulder, right on the verge of falling. He had hiked up the edge of his vaeshti and tucked it tightly under his armpit.

He came near, his mouth so full of betel leaves that he had to purse his lips tightly to keep the red juice from spilling out. “Is Potri inside?” he asked.

“He is,” Nathaniel said.

“Damn it, show a Brahmin some pity and they walk all over you,” Thambi grumbled as he walked in.

He had come for the tall brass kuthuvilakku lamps. They had been brought to the temple for the festival of lights two months ago and had simply stayed there. There was no one to take them back. Kesavan Thambi had asked around four or five times before finally showing up in person.

Hearing Thambi shouting inside, Nathaniel peeked in. “Why don’t you just weigh them, sell them as scrap, and be done with it! Acting like someone else’s property belongs to your mother or your uncle!” Thambi said.

Sreekariyam Kolappa Pillai replied, “Why the big talk? Here are your lamps. Take them.”

“You should have returned them before I had to come asking. That would have shown some dignity,” said Kesavan Thambi.

Potri and Velu Nair brought the lamps out from the storeroom and set them down. Twenty-four tall brass lamps in total. All the exact same size.

“Here is your wealth… take it away. We don’t make a habit of boiling and eating brass lamps here,” said Velu Nair.

“Count them carefully, Thambi-sir,” Sreekariyam Kolappa Pillai added. “Don’t come giving us different numbers later.”

“You had two hands and enough sense to keep your mouth and butt shut when you hauled them away, didn’t you? Who’s going to carry them back now?” Thambi yelled.

“I’ll arrange a cart and send them… You go on ahead, Thambi-sir… they’ll get there,” Sreekariyam Kolappa Pillai said. “Mutthan’s cart is heading that way anyway. I’ll load them up.”

“You’ll bring them and dump them in my courtyard. Who is going to haul them up to the attic? Me? In my old age? You want to kill me?”

Sreekariyam Kolappa Pillai looked around and spotted Nathaniel. “Hey boy, go with the master in the cart. Haul these lamps up to the attic for him.”

Nathaniel rubbed his head. Velu Nair said, “I’ll give you two rupees, boy… take it as your wages.” Nathaniel nodded.

“Next time you come asking for brass lamps saying there’s a festival or a gathering, I’ll tell you a thing or two,” Kesavan Thambi muttered, turning to leave.

Watching him go, Velu Nair spat, “Not a single child or heir in that house. Just two old hags and this fierce tomcat of a man… But they won’t let go of a single paisa. I swear to you, those old women wander the groves at the crack of dawn. Not a single coconut or fallen palm frond escapes them. They drag it all inside and hoard it… Like demons guarding a treasure!”

“Have you ever been inside that house, master?” asked Kunja Nadar. “It’s not a house, it’s a palace. They say it has fifty rooms. Those two old women sleep in one of them. He sleeps on a raised platform in the big front hall… then there’s the kitchen, and one locked strong-room. That’s it. Every other room is shut tight… Kali the cook said the darkness has gathered in there like thick black paste. What would it cost them to sweep it once in a while?”

“What for? If you sweep, the dust just settles again, doesn’t it? Dust doesn’t settle where humans live… it settles in the empty spaces, along with the cobwebs. It’s the mark of Moodevi. Word is there are evil spirits in those rooms…”

“Those rooms?”

“Where else? Think of how many people they must have killed in the old days. Where else would those souls go?” said Sreekariyam Kolappa Pillai.

They all helped load the lamps onto Mutthan’s cart. Nathaniel climbed in alongside the brass columns. They rolled along the dirt road. The Araikkal house sat far from the village, right in the middle of a massive grove. Next to it stood two towering jackfruit trees. Beyond their grove was Gabriel Peruvattar’s land, and beyond that rose the Bear Rock.

Nathaniel had been there once or twice before. The courtyard was massive, overgrown with creeping grass. The huge cattle sheds were empty. The paving stones were uprooted and covered in dust. Kali was washing vessels near the well.

Mutthan and Nathaniel unloaded the lamps into the courtyard. “Got work to do, master, have to get to the market. I’m off,” Mutthan said, and promptly left.

“Dei, bring them upstairs, two at a time,” Kesavan Thambi ordered.

Tying two brass lamps together and hoisting them onto his head, Nathaniel began to climb the stairs. Thirty-six steps in total. Halfway up, at the curve of the staircase, there was a wide landing. He stopped there to catch his breath.

Kesavan Thambi climbed ahead of him, holding a hurricane lantern. “Watch your step, boy. One of the boards is a bit loose,” he warned.

Just as he said it, Nathaniel stepped exactly on that board. Clack. He lost his balance and his right shoulder slammed into the wall. The bundle on his head struck the masonry with a loud ring.

“Hey, don’t drop them down… watch it!” Thambi barked.

Panting, Nathaniel reached the top and stood in the attic. He had never seen an attic that massive. It was dark, choked with cobwebs, and smelled heavily of dust. Huge earthen pots sat in rows like squatting goblins. Above them, various grain bins and pots hung from ropes. Tall, legged wooden chests sat coated in thick dust. They looked like small houses to him.

Standing below with her hands on her hips, Ammachi yelled, “Why are you counting your steps, boy? Put your feet down and walk!” Her head looked like a large, white Poovan rooster. Her arms dangled, and she was heavily hunched. Heavy gold ornaments stretched her earlobes down like the hanging roots of a banyan tree. Her withered breasts swayed like empty honeycombs.

Kesavan Thambi took the brass lamps from Nathaniel one by one and placed them inside a massive wooden chest. Nathaniel was panting. “Go get the rest quickly, boy… you’re young… what’s ailing you?”

Ammachi climbed the stairs one by one, hands pressing down on her knees. “Kesava, did they wipe the lamps clean before you put them away?”

“Returning these lamps at all was a big deal. Why would they clean the lamps? Ask them about it and they get furious, like I’m demanding their mother’s or uncle’s property.”

“Chase that cat away, boy…”

“Let it lie there… What’s it done to you? Why did you climb all the way up here anyway? You have breathing trouble, don’t you?”

“That cat stays up here making a racket all night… My room is right underneath this. It rolls pots and pans around… I couldn’t close my eyes.”

“What do you want me to do about it? If there’s an attic, there’s a cat. If there’s no cat, there are rats.”

“You don’t need to lecture me, you hear?”, and then turning to Nathaniel she said “Hey boy, if there are brass vessels or pots lying around up there, pick them up and put them in the chest like I said… Cat, go away! Shoo… The beast has grown massive.”

“Of course it’s grown. It’s an attic full of rats, isn’t it?”

At the conical fold of the roof, the woodwork was broken and open to the air. Sunlight spilled in like a spread cloth. Just outside it was the great mother-jackfruit tree. One of its thick branches stretched right over the roof.

“We need to cut that jackfruit branch, boy… The roof is covered in dry leaves. If the tiles rot, who can afford to replace them these days, tell me?”

“How many, boy?” Kesavan Thambi asked.

“Eighteen,” Nathaniel said.

“Go, go, walk briskly and bring the rest.”

“Hey Kesava, listen to what I’m saying… we only have a place on this earth as long as this house stands, hear me? In the old days, this was the second largest house in South Travancore… If the Maharaja visited, he stayed here… I remember the Maharani herself staying here.”

Ammachi picked up a small bronze pot. “Cat! Go away, cat…” She threw it. It rolled with a loud clatter.

“What are you doing?”

“Chasing the cat, boy… I gave it one good whack earlier, you should have seen it cower and run. Every now and then I come up and give it a whack… it just runs away.”

Nathaniel brought the last of the brass lamps. “That’s all of them, master.”

“Right… take this broom and give the place a quick sweep before you come down,” Kesavan Thambi said.

“How is he going to reach the cobwebs up here!” Ammachi scoffed.

“It takes eight men to properly clear the cobwebs… I just told him to sweep the ones that hit you in the face along the walking path…”

He took the lantern and walked downstairs. Ammachi said, “Sweep carefully, boy… the hanging pots are barely holding on. They’ll fall right on your head.” With that, she went downstairs too.

Nathaniel walked forward, swirling the broom. Near the broken, triangular edge of the roof, he saw a movement. The cat had come back. “Hey, shoo,” he said, stepping forward. And then he froze. It was a leopard.

His entire body erupted in goosebumps. Tears instantly welled in his eyes. Pointing a trembling finger, he stammered, “Sp… spotted tiger!”

It was yellow. It flattened its ears, flared its whiskers, and bared its teeth at him. To Nathaniel, it looked like it was smiling.

“Oh mother, spotted tiger! Oh mother, spotted tiger!” Nathaniel cried. Tears streamed down his face.

The leopard scrunched its face at him. It snapped its jaws at a fly buzzing near its ear, then stretched its front paws out, lay down, lifted one paw, and began to lick it. Only then did Nathaniel realize how terrifyingly long its tongue was. Something twitched independently at its rear. He jolted backward. It was the tail. When he moved, the leopard stopped licking, looked up at him, emitted a sound like a broken radio, and then lifted its other paw to lick.

Nathaniel climbed down the stairs, sobbing. Kesavan Thambi stood at the bottom with a one-rupee coin in his hand.

“What is it, boy? Why are you crying?”

“Ti… tiger… A spotted tiger… Up there,” Nathaniel pointed up, sniffling.

Kesavan Thambi let out a breathless, wheezing laugh, showing his stained teeth. “A tiger in the attic? Brilliant… Sister, did you hear? He saw a tiger, apparently… A spotted tiger!”

“He’s just a little boy… What does he know about tigers and cats? Give him his money and send him away.”

“It’s true… It’s a spotted tiger… I saw it.”

“It’s the tiger we raised to catch rats…” Kesavan Thambi mocked.

“The boy is terrified… He’s the kind to get scared of a housecat…” called the elder Ammachi from inside.

The other Ammachi said, “Kesava, that cat has gotten a bit big, you hear? It makes sense the boy is scared… You go take a stick and chase it out.”

“How many times do I have to hit it? If it goes out one way, it comes back the other… You just threw a pot at it yourself. Look, it’s come right back and scared the boy.”

Nathaniel ran all the way back to the temple in tears. Iyyappan from Mukkukaadu, Thangaiya Nadar, the Deacon, and Karadi Nayar from Vayakkaveedu had gathered there.

“Why are you crying, boy?” Iyyappan asked.

Potri said, “What is it? Hey Nathu, what happened child? Tell me.”

“Some brute must have smacked him on the head… motherless child,” Iyyappan muttered.

“He’s the boy who hangs around here… Who knows what disease he has… Hey, tell us. If you’re sick, we’ll buy you medicine,” said the Deacon.

Nathaniel choked out, “Spotted tiger up there!”

“A spotted tiger? On the way here? Where did you see it?”

“In their house. In the attic.”

“In the house’s attic? A tiger? Didn’t it meow?” Thangaiya Nadar asked dryly.

“No, it’s yellow… A huge tiger… It smiled at me and winked.” Nathaniel started crying again.

“The tiger winked at him… oh our Nathu has lost his honor,” the Deacon chuckled.

“Hold on… He’s a good boy. He has sense… Hey, what exactly did you see? Tell us.”

“A tiger,” Nathaniel said.

“What color? Tell me.”

“Yellow… The color of this yellow oleander flower.”

“Oh. How big?”

“This big…”

“Iyyappa, I think the boy is telling the truth.”

“Yeah, a tiger entering a house… What is the master saying?”

“No, he wouldn’t lie. The boy’s a solid one… Hey, it wasn’t a cat, right? Are you absolutely sure?”

“A cat would be red… wouldn’t it?” Nathaniel hissed defensively.

“Look at him, he’s hissing like a tiger when we ask,” the Deacon said.

“Let’s just go take a look,” Karadi said, standing up.

“You’re going there? That Thambi is a fierce tomcat himself… he’ll come biting.”

“Man, we’re going so the tiger doesn’t bite him… Come on, boy.”

The Deacon said, “You all go. It won’t be right if I come.”

As they walked, Thangaiya stopped, turned to Nathaniel and said, “Hey Nathu, it really is a tiger, right? Look here, we’ll lose all respect if it isn’t.”

“Don’t I know a cat when I see one?”

“And it winked at you, too,” Potri added, looking back with a smile.

Nathaniel started crying again.

“Hey, just come along… Listen, nobody scare him anymore…”

They reached the courtyard of the Araikkal house. Kesavan Thambi came out, squinting his eyes. He had gathered his vaeshti and tucked it under his arm. A line of betel spit stained his chin.

“Hmm? What is it? I can’t give any donations… no money.”

“We’ll come for donation later… This boy says there’s a spotted tiger in your attic.”

“Hey Iyyappa, do you have any brains? A spotted tiger in a house attic? The little boy saw a cat and is blabbering… Go away… Hey Bahuleya, what’s wrong with you?”

Karadi Nayar said, “No, let’s just take a look… The house is pretty isolated.”

“So what? Does a tiger come into a house, eat sour buttermilk and rice, and leave? Go mind your own business.”

“Let’s just look once… He’s swearing on it.”

“You have nothing better to do… Hey, it’s a cat. I’ve hit it with a stick a hundred times and chased it out. Even today, my sister threw a bronze pot at it… It’ll run away scared.”

“Threw a bronze pot at it?” Karadi Nayar asked.

“I’ll drag it down by the tail and show you. You want to see?”

“Alright, it’s a cat. But since we’re here, let’s just look.”

“So my word has no value to you?”

“No, Thambi-sir, we’re already here, let’s just see,” Karadi Nayar said, stepping inside. “Hey Iyyappa, come on.”

“Potri, have you lost your mind too?”

“If I had a mind, why would I be doing poojas in a temple?” Potri replied, sitting himself down on the veranda.

Ammachi came out, bending and swaying. “Hey Kesava, what is it?” she asked. “Is that Potri? Didn’t we just give him his dakshina when we did the pooja for the Yakshi?”

“They’ve come to turn the cat in our attic into a tiger,” Thambi scoffed.

“You listened to the boy’s nonsense? What a joke… Do you know how many times I’ve beaten that cat? It just lies there like a wet rag… No brains, any of you…”

Nathaniel climbed the attic stairs last.

“Where, boy?”

“There… in that corner.”

“That corner plank has fallen through. It climbed in through the jackfruit tree branch,” Iyyappan noted.

“Hold on, hold on, let’s spot the thing first.”

“Where is it, Nathu?”

“Here… over here.”

“Isn’t this just rat droppings?”

“Master, that’s bat droppings.”

“You saw it here?”

“Yes… right here.”

“You saw a tiger?”

“Yes, I swear on it.”

“Alright, we’ll see when the tiger comes… Iyyappa, come here.”

“Master, the boy is telling the truth… Look at these tracks.”

“What is it?”

“Look at the paw prints pressed into the dust.”

“They’re big… Could it be a wildcat?”

“Does a wildcat have paws this huge?”

“Then?”

“It’s a leopard…”

“Really?” Thangaiya Nadar asked.

“No doubt about it… That’s the beast.”

“Man, keeping a leopard in the house… three blind, stubborn old folks living here…”

“Maybe it’s lost its eyes and teeth too? Maybe an old leopard came here to retire?”

“Get out of here with your jokes.”

“No, Master. Judging by what he says, this thing has been living here for a while… The fact that he says he hit it with a stick and threw a pot at it must be true. It’s been taking beatings and just staying put.”

“Dei, I have a bad feeling about this… Look closely. It might just be a very old wildcat.”

“Master, I’m a man who farms in the forest… You think I haven’t seen a leopard?”

“There it is!” Nathaniel whispered.

“What, boy?”

“There it is.”

“What is?”

“It.”

Iyyappan looked in the direction he was pointing and gasped. “Mother! It’s the original beast!”

The leopard leaped onto the jackfruit branch and vanished.

“Look at the size of it,” Thangaiya Nadar murmured. “Its belly is sagging.”

“It was listening to us talk from right here,” Iyyappan said. “Damn it, an elephant could hide in here and you wouldn’t know.”

“What do we do?”

“We need to bring people to catch it,” Iyyappan said. “There’s a good man for setting traps… we’ll have to go all the way to Pechiparai.”

“What a house this used to be… Hey Iyyappa, in the old days, Kesavan Thambi’s father used to travel in a palanquin. I’ve seen it… Eight elephants standing in this courtyard.”

“Then the stench of elephant dung must have made the place unlivable.”

“Dei, that’s a blessing… You have to be a Nair to understand that.”

“Kali said that now, if they make lentil gruel for one meal, all three of them just drink it for three meals a day.”

Kesavan Thambi climbed up. “What’s going on here? Hey… what are you doing?”

“Let me tell you… come here.”

They went back downstairs. Kesavan Thambi said, “What did you take from up there? I told you, when you leave, all three of you have to open your vaeshtis and show me you haven’t stolen anything.”

“Right. Because there’s a demon-guarded treasure up there, isn’t there?”

“Whatever it is, it’s our property… Outsiders don’t need to lay hands on it… Show your waistcloths.”

“Kesava, these men have some other motive,” the elder Ammachi chimed in.

“I’ll tell you straight… There’s a leopard up there,” Karadi said.

“Ah, so that’s the trick… You’ll bring people to ‘catch the leopard’. Outsiders will climb into the attic and lay hands on everything… You think just because we’re old you can fool us… We don’t want it… As long as we have breath in our bodies, not a single man will trespass inside the Araikkal house… Ahaa, so it’s come to this, has it?”

“Thambi-sir, it’s the truth. I saw it with my own eyes.”

“I’ve seen enough of you… I don’t want to hear anymore. Go. All three of you, step off my property.”

“Kesava, file a police case, boy… call the police,” the eldest Ammachi started screaming, “Oh my Bhagavathi… Forest thieves have entered the house… Protect us, Goddess!”

“I’ve said my piece. If a single item goes missing, you are responsible. Bahuleya, you are a government man. I will call your office and report you,” Thambi threatened.

“Sir, you need to listen to what I’m saying… It’s a spotted tiger.”

“I feed lentil gruel to the spotted tiger and raise it! Hey, go… get out… get out, first of all… Potri, you get down from there too.”

“This dog is the one who started it… And he’s blind too… Hey, did you see anything, boy?”

“Yes, Ammachi, I saw it with my own eyes.”

Ammachi threw the steel tumbler that was in her hand at him. “Beggar, telling lies!”

The tumbler clattered across the floor. Nathaniel dodged it.

“Nathu, come on, boy.”

Once they were outside, Potri said, “Hey Karadi, what do we need all this for? Why should we unnecessarily get involved in this mess?”

“Well…” Karadi started.

“To you it’s a tiger, to them it’s a cat. Why should we try to turn someone else’s cat into a tiger? Tell me.”

“No, but what if it bites them?”

“Why, wouldn’t a cat bite?”

“That’s true.”

Kesavan Thambi peeked out and shouted, “Hey, listen! My sister just went up with a stick and chased that cat away… and you came here to argue…”

Iyyappan said, “Alright, fine, a mistake happened.”

“I know the root of this ‘mistake’… Don’t let a single one of you scheme to lay hands on the Araikkal house attic again… Go, go… get out!”

As they walked back, the Potri turned and said, “Nathu, my boy, I’ll give you a theraliyappam sweet when we get back. Tell me, what did you see in the attic?”

Nathaniel replied, “It’s a cat.”

“Aha, the boy has learned his lesson…” Potri laughed.