“Cauvery, here is the money you earned from stitching clothes and embroidering. I hope you get to put this skill into practice back in your hometown. My best wishes are always with you.” The kind-hearted jail warden, Lakshmi Amma, handed Cauvery the envelope with cash.
The middle-aged warden, who had assumed work in this prison five years ago, had a particular affinity towards Cauvery. Amongst all the other inmates of the prison cell Cauvery had been the most composed. Lakshmi Amma was well versed in kinesics. Cauvery’s facial expressions, gestures, posture, and her way of maintaining eye contact with Lakshmi Amma while conversing, told the experienced warden that Cauvery hadn’t committed a crime impulsively.
Though Lakshmi Amma tried several times to coax Cauvery to unwrap her agony, she failed to elicit any response. The compassionate warden eventually stopped discussing Cauvery’s past life. She was intrigued to see that while other prisoners, some of whom had committed heinous crimes due to inevitable circumstances, had people coming to meet them often, only Cauvery had no visitors.
Not sure what the future held for her, Cauvery collected the envelope and her belongings from Lakshmi Amma. With heavy steps she walked towards the prison’s exit gate.
After spending fourteen years in Puzhal Central Jail, Cauvery was to breathe free air. The delicate tendrils of her mental agony tirelessly combatted all forms of hostilities throughout her incarceration in the cell that hosted core criminals.
Cauvery’s family hailed from Sivalarkulam, a village in the Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu. Her mother, Mariamma, worked as a maid in a few houses, while her father, Vadivelu, was a full-time house help at Veluswamy Aiyah’s house.
Veluswamy Aiyah* was the most affluent and influential personality in Sivalarkulam. With acres and acres of fertile land, Veluswamy Aiyah had several people working on his field. People of Sivalarkulam and neighbouring villages looked upon him as Almighty. Aiyah had tactfully earned everyone’s reverence.
With many mouths to feed, Mariamma and Vadivelu struggled to meet both ends. Despite adversities and financial crunches, Cauvery and her younger siblings were happy and content with what they had. It sounded puzzling indeed that a happy, joyous girl was imprisoned for murder. Destiny often plays games beyond the realm of human beings to understand.
Cauvery stepped out of the prison to be welcomed by the fragrance of the petrichor accompanying the first rains of the season in Chennai. In her hand was a small bag with her sparse belongings, yet another vast bag with embroidered clothes she had made for everyone back home. Cauvery was still determining whether they would accept her gifts. Her siblings would have grown up and carved a niche in these fourteen years. Would they welcome her as one amongst them or harbour ill- feelings for a convicted criminal?
Cauvery had little or no expectations from anyone in Sivalarkulam to travel to Chennai on her release from prison. However, in some corner of her heart, as a mere human being, she nurtured small desires and yearned to see her husband, daughter, siblings, and parents all waiting anxiously for her.
Did her father still hate her for what she had done? More important than this niggling query was whether her mother could sustain the burden of the secret hidden in her heart?
Cauvery had cut all communication with her family once inside the prison. Mariamma’s younger brother, Muthu, had travelled from Sivalarkulam to meet her quite a few times during the initial months of her imprisonment. Cauvery knew that Muthu must have come at her mother’s behest.
The fear that her staunch resolution of keeping the truth buried in her heart might wane and she might blurt out the genuine reason for murdering Veluswamy Aiyah, thereby opening a can of worms, deterred Cauvery from meeting him.
If she did want to meet one person, it was her husband, Anbarasu, just to lean on his shoulders and cry, but he had disowned her, considering her deed of murdering Aiyah as most unscrupulous, thereby shutting all doors of hope in confiding in him.
Anbarasu, who worked as Veluswamy Aiyah’s driver, held his employer in high esteem. After all, he survived on the salary and petty tips Aiyah gave him. Anbarasu was infuriated with Cauvery when she accused Aiyah of making menacing advances. Unperturbed by his annoyance, Cauvery maintained her stance during the court proceedings that she had murdered Veluswamy Aiyah to save her virtue.
“Aiyah,” Cauvery addressed the judge with humility. “I went to Veluswamy Aiyah’s house to convey some message to Anbarasu. At that time Anbarasu had driven to the market with Veluswamy Aiyah’s wife in the car. Aiyah was alone at home. It looked like Aiyah was in an inebriated state. He called me in and,……..”
“Stop it,” The public prosecutor had thundered. “Doesn’t your conscience prick you to disparage someone as old as your father? As per the reports, Aiyah’s blood had no traces of alcohol.” The rigged report testified to Veluswamy Aiyah’s meritoriousness. It proved his invulnerability and authoritative power.
Cauvery had resolved to falsely testify in court that Veluswamy Aiyah had tried to outrage her modesty, knowing very well that the judge would discard any statement made degrading Aiyah as worthless. Even if that had been the truth, the prosecutor would have spurned it. Such was the power of Aiyah.
One could very well see the influence that Aiyah had from the fact that the court had fast-tracked Aiyah’s murder trial and had made all arrangements to wind it up within eight weeks while innumerable such cases were pending for ages.
“Taking into consideration that you have a three-year-old daughter, the quantum of punishment can be reduced if you could give us a valid reason for your brutal act. Your statements lack rationality. You vouch that you had carried the blunt knife to sharpen it, but no knife sharpener in Sivalarkulam claims to have honed it. The knife was already sharp. It has ruptured Aiyah’s stomach. It is evident that you had carried the knife with the sole intention of murdering Aiyah. And you are fabricating stories that Aiyah tried making menacing advances in an inebriated state.” The judge averred.
‘Valid reason!’ the words fell into Cauvery’s ears like molten lava. She wished to scream, ‘If I give the valid reason will you believe and acquit me?’ But she knew that she would be making a request to the deaf walls of the court, and the equally deaf people present there.
“From the verdict of others, it is evident that Aiyah was a man of high morality. Nearly a hundred families work on his farms. Have you got to say anything in your defence?” The judge had taken a brief pause to allow Cauvery to say something. However, Cauvery chose to be quiet.
“She deserves to rot for having murdered a noble soul and having made efforts to tarnish Aiyah’s image,” Anbarasu screamed from the public gallery.
Cauvery’s father, who had been serving Veluswamy Aiyah’s household for two and a half decades, was indebted to the family, as Aiyah often gave him loans to help meet financial crunches and had magnanimously waived the repayment of the loans. Vadivelu would hear nothing against Veluswamy Aiyah and accused his daughter in the court of daring to cast aspersions on Aiyah’s character.
Cauvery had extracted a promise from her mother, who was the only person other than Cauvery herself to know the reason behind her brutal act, that she would never divulge it to anyone. Bound by the promise given to her daughter, Mariamma unwillingly denied in court having any knowledge about whatever Cauvery had testified.
With fingers pointing at her, and bloodshot eyes glaring at her, Cauvery had nothing to say. She did not refute any of the charges the public prosecutor levelled against her.
The judge pronounced the verdict: fourteen years imprisonment. It was a long period of confinement. Though Cauvery was prepared for such a harsh verdict, the mother in her cried . Her life came crumpling down like a pack of cards. The heart-shattering feeling of not being able to see her three-year-old daughter grow brought fresh tears to Cauvery’s eyes.
However, Cauvery’s heart found solace in the fact that she had brought an end to a wolf in sheep’s skin.
Cauvery held her mother’s hands before the police led Cauvery away.
“I doubt Anbarasu would want to keep Selvi with him. I don’t have to implore you to care for my daughter. You will raise her without bias, fighting against all odds.”
Her mother nodded, bawling uncontrollably, and she suddenly fainted. Cauvery looked helplessly as other family members surrounded her mother. The police dragged Cauvery away.
Cauvery’s siblings were unable to comprehend that their elder sister, whom they had always placed on a high pedestal and whom they had wished to epitomize, had committed perjury.
‘Fourteen long years!‘ Cauvery sighed as she walked out.
The world outside looked so different. Cauvery’s gaze fell on a man standing outside the prison.
When she saw Muthu, she felt a mix of delight and bewilderment. He had come to take her back home.
At forty, Muthu looked several years older. His hair had turned into salt-pepper colour. But then, even Cauvery, at thirty-five, had aged, spending monotonous hours in prison.
Like Anbarasu and Cauvery’s father, Muthu survived under Veluswamy Aiyah’s beneficence. He had set up a modest tea stall on the highway, taking financial help from Aiyah.
Maybe because he was reeling under Aiyah’s so-called altruism, Muthu remained passive throughout the murder trial. He replied in monosyllables to all the questions that were asked.
Muthu was Cauvery’s consanguineous bridegroom. However, she had lost her heart to the handsome Anbarasu, her father’s distant relative, whom her father had helped acquire the driver’s job in Veluswamy Aiyah’s household.
Anbarasu would accompany her father home almost every evening, and Cauvery’s mother would offer him a humble portion of their modestly prepared dinner. He played cowrie shell games with her younger siblings while he eyed Cauvery sideways. Love had bloomed from both sides.
Muthu had fostered sweet dreams of spending his life with Cauvery as his partner since adolescence. Still, he tactfully camouflaged his wistfulness behind his charming smile when Anbarasu and Cauvery married.
He chose to remain a bachelor after that.
“Welcome back, Cauvery,” Muthu’s words made Cauvery feel light at heart.
“How is my little Selvi?” The question on the top of Cauvery’s mind spilled out. She bit her tongue in remorse for behaving so selfishly, not having first enquired about Muthu’s well-being.
“Little?” He laughed. “She is engaged to an extremely well-settled boy, and everyone is waiting for your return to conduct the wedding.”
Cauvery had forgotten for a moment that her daughter must have turned seventeen. Her heart beamed joyfully to hear about her daughter’s wedding.
‘Everyone is waiting for your return to conduct the wedding,’ the words sounded like tinkling bells to Cauvery’s ears. Cauvery was eager to know who was waiting for her. Did her father pardon her? Had Anbarasu realised that she was not at fault? Cauvery beamed momentarily at the thought of Anbarasu having pardoned her, but her heart twisted inside her chest the next moment. ‘Oh, that would mean Amma* has exposed the truth! ‘
Cauvery had so many things clustered in her mind to ask Muthu, but Muthu walked silently, and Cauvery followed him to the bus stop to take a bus to the Central Railway Station.
Cauvery had known Muthu since childhood. She guessed that he was quiet for a reason. The road was crowded and so was the bus. Muthu probably did not wish to talk while amidst so many people.
They could not converse in a crowded bus; they talked after they took their seats at the station, waiting for the train to Tirunelveli.
“Muthu, I know you have been a pillar of support to our family through thick and thin. Please tell me how Amma, Appa*, and my siblings are. Does Selvi know that her mother is a convict languishing in prison?” Cauvery tumbled upon the questions plaguing her mind. “And who all are eagerly waiting for me? I hadn’t expected anyone to look forward to my return.”
“Cauvery, it is rightly believed that justice may be delayed but not denied in God’s house. Everyone, including Veluswamy Aiyah’s household, is eagerly waiting to appreciate you for the tremendous grit you showed fourteen years ago. God has unveiled the deceptive side of Veluswamy Aiyah. Given the fact that a poverty-stricken family like ours could have never exposed Aiyah’s darker side approaching the law, everyone justified your move of killing him.”
Cauvery sat shell-shocked upon hearing what Muthu had just said. “Did Amma reveal the truth, breaking her promise?” Cauvery gasped.
“Strange are the ways of providence. Three months ago, when your youngest sibling, Kumeresh, born after your imprisonment, turned thirteen, Akka* had no option but to break the promise she had made to you.”
Cauvery creased her forehead trying to grasp what Muthu had just said. ‘Was her mother pregnant when Cauvery was imprisoned? Even if she was, how did that force her to break the promise she had made to Cauvery that too thirteen years after the kid was born?’
“Muthu, what are you talking about?” Cauvery asked holding her aching head.
“When Kumeresh reached the threshold of adolescence, there became open talk in the village about his resemblance to Veluswamy Aiyah. Sivalarkulam is a small place, and gossips spread like wildfire. Your father confronted Akka one day when tongues began wagging. It was then that Akka unravelled the truth that Veluswamy Aiyah had been sexually assaulting her in return for excusing the loans your father had taken from Aiyah and threatened to have him handcuffed if your mother did not oblige. That you had murdered him after knowing the truth.” Muthu placed his hands on Cauvery’s shivering shoulders.
“Does that mean all my sacrifices went down the drain? I did not want Appa to know that Veluswamy Aiyah was favouring him not because he was a loyal servant to Aiyah but because Aiyah was forcing Amma to satisfy his lecherousness.”
“Cauvery, the truth only garnered you admirers in your father, daughter, siblings, Anbarasu, and the villagers. Everyone realised your mother’s plight. Be grateful to the Amman* to whom you pray. She chose to expose Aiyah’s darker side through Kumeresh’s features.”
“Did the truth steer Appa’s anger towards Amma?” Cauvery’s voice choked. Muthu shook his head.
“Your father realised that Akka was not at fault. He hated himself for not standing by you but trusting Aiyah. Having loans to repay, the waiving of which stopped after Aiyah’s death, he accepted his diffidence in shamefully continuing as a servant in their household without knowing the truth. Your father has been distraught. Your homecoming today will alleviate his distress.” Muthu uttered words of hope.
Cauvery wistfully sighed.
Muthu told Cauvery that after the truth came to light, he and Anbarasu had proposed appealing in court for her release. However, they realised it would be futile as Cauvery had almost served her term, and the proceedings would consume time and money.
“I have no repentance for my act.” Cauvery sneered. “Muppudathi* Amman* gave me the strength to bring an end to the evil man. Taking advantage of our adversities, Veluswamy Aiyah made my mother, whose gracefulness and charming beauty had always been the talk of the village, a mere object to satisfy his lust.” Cauvery shook her head in disgust. “He summoned her to his house through his loyal gardener, Arul, citing some work in the house or back yard, tactfully on days when his wife would have gone to the market, Anbarasu driving the car. Aiyah’s children were away at school, and no one would be home. He sent my father on random errands, ensuring he was away for a long time.” Cauvery’s voice quivered in exasperation.
“Amma confided in me and wept out of agony, unable to endure the physical and mental torture anymore. I could sense her deep anguish, struggling to lead an everyday life as my father’s wife while Aiyah was sexually harassing her. Though Amma begged me not to take any step incautiously, overcome with anger and humiliation, I took her place on that day when Aiyah had called for her. I carried the knife with me.”
“Cauvery, your bold act has earned supporters for your family from all quarters. Now you know why an affable young man has come forward to wed your daughter, ignoring the verdict of your conviction for having murdered Aiyah.” Muthu said as they took their seats on the train.
Muthu asked Cauvery to pardon him for not standing by her and being indifferent during the trial. With a wave of her hand, Cauvery indicated all that was past.
Even after Cauvery coaxed Muthu, he would not divulge the details about Selvi’s bridegroom or tell her names of the people who would receive her at the Tirunelveli station.
“Let it be a pleasant surprise to you, a valuable gift for all your sacrifices,” Muthu remarked.
In eleven hours, the train screeched to a halt at Tirunelveli station. Cauvery’s eyes welled up as she saw Anbarasu waiting with a garland in his hand.
“Welcome, Cauvery,” he said, putting the garland around her neck. “I seek your pardon for my recklessness of having disowned you without delving into the matter. My respect for Aiyah had indeed blinded me.”
Cauvery was overwhelmed to say anything. She wiped her moist eyes and smiled at Anbarasu. She thought he still looked so young and handsome at forty-one.
Cauvery noticed a woman and a ten-year-old boy standing next to Anbarasu. It did not take much time for Cauvery to realise that Anbarasu had married after she went to prison. Cauvery could not help but admire Muthu’s prudence for not informing her about Anbarasu’s marriage judiciously. However, she felt happy that Anbarasu had come to welcome her. Cauvery gracefully smiled at Anbarasu’s wife and patted the cheeks of their son.
“Your parents are at home. Along with your siblings, they are making elaborate arrangements to welcome you,” Anbarasu said, sensing that Cauvery’s eyes searched for them. “Kumeresh is here.” Anbarasu introduced the young boy.
Cauvery warmly embraced Kumeresh, giving no room for speculations that she would not accept him as her brother.
The next moment, Cauvery sensed someone touching her feet. A beautiful girl stood before her, whom she realised must be Selvi. She had the same chiselled features and gracefulness as Mariamma. Cauvery turned towards the young man accompanying her—Selvi’s prospective bridegroom. Overwhelmed at the recognition of Nakeeran, the youngest son of Veluswamy Aiyah, who was eight years old when she was convicted, Cauvery gawked in awe.
His pleasant appearance, friendly demeanour, and kind-heartedness in accepting Selvi as his bride despite the vast disparity in the social and financial status of the families affirmed that Nakeeran was a gem of a person, unlike his father.
Seeking forgiveness for having killed his father became redundant as the young man touched Cauvery’s feet with reverence, seeking her blessings.
Tears of joy rose in Cauvery’s eyes as the whole of Sivalarkulam celebrated her return with pomp.
Author’s Note: The reference to Sivalarkulam village in the story is only for the writing of the fiction and is not intentional. The names of people mentioned in the story are all fictitious characters. Any resemblance to people, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The author does not intend to malign anyone’s name. This story is a pure work of fiction.
Glossary:
Aiyah————————-A term used to show respect
Amma————————Mother
Appa————————–Father
Akka————————–A term used to address an elder sister
Amman———————-A term for Goddess used in Tamil Nadu
Muppudathi Amman*—-A temple of Goddess in Sivalarkulam village.
This story was published in Hawk’s Return, an anthology by Room9 Artoonsinn.