Short Story!

Canadian Tamil Literature

AN END AND A BEGINNING!  -V.N.Giritharan -
Translation By: Latha Ramakrishnan

Slowly it was turning dark. The sun who was overwhelmed by the crimson color of the twilight horizon was embracing the horizon with swelling love and was losing his senses in a blissful communion. Widespread the pond bank remained all still. Birds were returning home in groups. Even at this time some kingfishes were greedily looking for their prey, lying in wait in a closeby tree- branch. In calm the wind was soothingly blowing.

With eyes on the water surface and hand on the child that was wandering and there on the lawn that lay spread on the pond-bank, there was

Yamuna clear sharp look… broad forehead… she had made her thick dense hair into a bun. In an ordinary cotton saree her rose skin and

shapely figure glowed splendidly. In those eyes which would be forever dreaming … that tinge of sadness…

‘Such a gloom should not have come over her’ so I told  myself. Anger and frustration against this damned and cursed society swelled in me.

For, it is the viewpoints and thought-process of this society that have turned her so.

I who was working in Colombo had come back to my native village after the exit of foreign battalions was so much disturbed by this sight of

Yamuna. Ina our childhood she had been always with me eating and playing together. My beloved childhood companion. She is older than me

by two years. Her astonishing beauty and brains… it is two years since she has got married. I couldn’t attend her marriage at all. It was during

that time when our country was full of war and bloodshed that the marriage took place and on that day many youths were taken into custody

on suspicion and I was one among them. So much had happened in these two years…. so many changes have taken place. Our very life is

but a warfare. A constant struggle to escape for our life… as like a warfare within a warfare and  a rum within the run for life… all those that

have taken place… all those unwanted happenings… Today, even after the rains have stopped there is still some drizzling…

Thiayagarajah - Yamuna’s husband. Tying the sacred yellow thread around her neck and taking  oath in the presence of the god of fire that

he would look after her as his very life and then not keeping his word and punishing her for no fault of her. Treating her with utmost disdain

and contempt at a time when his support and companionship were needed by her the most. At a time when he should be treating her with

utmost care and concern, he had discarded her with no second thought and left her, thereby losing his very manliness, to put it mildly.

Decrying her as unchaste and immoral he had gone his way. The condition of yamuna as the mother of a child caused a deep pain in me.

Already she had suffered a cruel assault at the hands of an inhuman scoundrel… and adding to that all-time pain, this unbearable treatment

by her better-half…. God, what is chastity… it is something more linked with the mind and heart and it is indeed unfair to use it as a whip to

inflict capital punishment on women.

Why Thiagarajah behave so?

“Ragendran, I’m no Bharathi to discourse on being progressive. The very thought that someone else had enjoyed my wife… kills me. How can I

continue living with her.. the very thought is unbearably repulsive…”

“Thiayagu… was it her choice? Please think it over.. did she willingly go to bed with that fellow? At a time when you should be treating her

with utmost care and concern, instilling in her confidence giving her assurance that everything is fine. How can you speak in this manner?

Think of your child for  a moment.. please…”

“Ragendra…. I’m prepared to undertake the responsibility of looking after my child and bringing it up. But,  I heard that Ymuna wouldn’t agree

to it. Please , place yourself in my shoes and think over… while going out with Yamuna what all catcalls would confront me. Bearing with all

those and continue my life with her would prove a shame on my very manhood.. can’t you realize that…?”

” A shame on your manhood…. god, manliness is not that, my friend… it is your deed of deserting her and leaving her in the lurch that is a

blot on your manhood…”

In a way… the society is also responsible for  Thiayagarah’s bent of mind. This society and it’s goddamn rules and regulations… customs,

taboos and what not. Caught in the web of all these Thiayagarah behaves so. He is unable to go past the social barriers and he is unable to

free himself from their hold.

Faraway, the sun had already lost half of himself. Darkness had turned more dense than before. Even those few Kingfishers who had been

keeping vigil for their prospective prey had left the place long before. Throwing small, little stones on the pond yamuna went on looking at the

surface of the water. In my heart too which was in a confused state a clarity came to be. I too arrived at a decision. And I told her of my

decision. She was shocked. For a while she remained deeply plunged in silence, born of her dumbstruck state.

“Ragendra…” tears swelled in her eyes. She couldn’t talk further. What can she say. The social- structure into which she is born is such. She

is a married woman. Having a child too. In this young age undergoing the trauma of rape at the hands of a cruel, two-legged animal she now

stands all alone, deserted by her husband.But, she is also a woman. And, her heart will also crave for love and as like any other woman she

too would long to have the feeling of being wanted.But, will this society give a thought to all these and more, before passing a verdict on her…

‘If they come to know that such a relationship exists between Yamuna and myself won’t my people, my mother and my kith and kin spit at us?

A man-eater, luscious female.. she has caught hold of an innocent youth by her feminine tricks… won’t they tear her to pieces with such

heartless observations..? None bothers if a man marries number of times. A sixty year old man is free to marry a sixteen year old girl. Not one

but he can as well have three or four secret marriages also. No one  questions him. But, a woman.. that too a woman in a hapless state like

Yamuna should live this ‘only once born’ life all alone, in a companionless state of exile, killing all her natural feeling and desires, just behave 

she has been born a female.  Sainthood is forced on her by the society.

This is the social norm. It is this that the society expects and demands of its female members. I have realized all these. And that is why I was

very much firm in my decision. But. Yamuna turned to look at her child playing on the lawns closeby. And then she looked at me miserably.

Again I continued. “yamuna, marriage is mainly a union of two persons. who understand each other well and decide to travel together through

thick and  thin. But Thaiyagarah’s bent of mind and behaviour has proved that he is no match for you. As for as I am concerned you need a

companion, a support in this hour of crisis. The closeness of one who can instil in you the feeling of security and sense of belonging. Why

can’t that be me who has been with you right from our childhood days?”

“Ragendra, you have said it all so easily. But, do you know how much of an enmity and hatred it would generate. Your mother, kith and kin..

your people.. all would curse on me only, you know. won’t they say that is was right on the part of my man to have left me? Why should you

waste your precious life for my sake…? Please leave my worries in my hands alone…”

Saying so Yamuna remained silent for a while. It is the discourse of womanhood that is so used to bear all its sufferings in silence… But, I

remained firm in my decision.

“Yamuna, I’m sure that  I can pacify my mother in course of time. All I want is your consent. Please say yes. That’s enough for me. And, I

care a twopence about those social norms that have brought you to this miserable state of being. Suffice it is if we understand each other.”

Uttering these words I looked into her eyes intently. But, she looked into my eyes in all silence. And, I could interpret her silence all too well. I

could realize those pure feelings, love, affection, hope and gratitude that swelled in her eyes and her voiceless worlds.

“Yamuna…” I take her in a tight embrace. And, she who gave her whole to me finding solace and shelter in my hands went into a blissful

amnesia wherein the world outside ceased to be. Faraway, the horizon was turning crimson all over with the Sun losing itself completely in the

wholesome communion.