Nobody had any idea if there were any marriage by elopements in the village. There were no such talks amongst the villagers either, so it is probably right to presume that it never occurred there until it actually happened one day, and as soon as it came to be noticed, the news spread with great velocity that early morning. Until such time there were a few hushed talks, rumours and gossips amongst mainly women in village ponds while bathing or during temple visits or close occasional small family get togethers; there were two or three permanent news mongers as well.
All these were centered red around topics such as someone was close to somebody or
following someone or someone was sighted here or there, some affair was going on in this house or that or in a particular school between this teacher and that music teacher and so on.
But that morning the village woke up with the news that the nearby Kailisseri Devi temple did not open and the early morning bell did not ring. A few of the regular women devotees were stunned to see the temple was still closed and the outside door lamps were not lit up, and the newly appointed young priest who could be some 17 years old did not turn up yet.
Krishnan Embrandhiri came from North Kerala and he was given the small house adjacent to the temple for stay. In the past too, whoever came there as priest lived in the same house until they left the temple job for one reason or other. The devotees rushed to the house to look for him, thinking he might
be still sleeping but the door was left open and he was not there, nor any of his belongings; the house was empty.
So all the women devotees rushed to the close by house of Narayani who was the temple help with her daughter Lavanya who was school going and was in standard eighth. Narayani’s husband was bed-ridden for several years. These two helped in temple work such as cleaning premises, collecting flowers and tulsi leaves for poojas, cleaning the small vessels, lamps and the general upkeep of the priest’s house.
But Narayani was still asleep as she was not keeping quite well for previous two days. She suddenly got up hearing noise outside and called Lavanya but there was no response from her little room. She wasn’t there; Narayani soon realised that she had left home with her belongings in the shoulder bag. Then the hell broke loose, other people
too joined and started searching here and there but all in vain. Some women started whispering and giving views that they have seen them hanging on here and there, smiling and talking which though aroused some suspicion at times in their minds, they did not take seriously or ever dreamt of such a thing would ever befall on the temple. Another group of people rushed in search of a priest to conduct the morning pooja and continue with it in the interim period, until an arrangement is done; missing pooja and prayers would invite curse from Devi to the people of the locality and such a thing or lapse never happened in the past either.
The news was brought to Kumar’s mother by the old women who comes early morning and evening to sweep the home yard which is a fairly large area and she had been doing this for years. She said” The Kalisseri devi Temple poojari Krishnan Embrandhiri ran
away with Narayani’s daughter previous night and many people have gathered there”. Lavanya studied in the same school but not in the same class – the girl was senior to him by a couple of years but was still in eighth standard as she repeated both sixth and seventh. Lavanya was tall, well complexioned, healthy, a bit fatty and every one around knew and seen her well for those attributes. When Kumar reached school he found everyone knew it- the students and the teachers for that was perhaps a meaty news and also was happening for the first time. This news went on and on for a long time in the village and then life became normal, though occasionally people did mention this but not with so much descriptions, zeal or fervour. Efforts to trace them did not meet with any success. Narayani and her bedridden husband had to bear the daughter’s loss, pain and embarrassment and
none came forward to alleviate them. They almost got isolated, the temple wok got terminated, and in about six months time her husband’s demise came.. After a few years when the neighbours smelt extreme foul smell and later found her highly decomposed body; they gave her a hurried silent cremation and they had no relatives either. Not that she was old enough to die, could be in her late forties, but the grief vanquished her. After two decades, it was reported that Krishnan Embrandhiri and Lavanya with their two grown up children were spotted in one of the vIllages not too far from this and he was the priest of a shiva Temple and they all looked to be well.
The second incident of this kind though slightly different, occurred after a lapse of ten years or more. Diwakar was a handsome young man of 22 years, the only son of an aristocratic ‘Kurup’ family. He was a
benevolent social worker, politician, wore khadi pants and full sleeves shirts, always of white colour. He wore his favour leuba watch on his right hand keeping inward, dark goggles, white shoes or white fashionable slippers, with several gold rings and thick gold chain around the neck. Everyone knew him in the village for he certainly had an aura, the kind of look and mannerism. Many thought and predicted he would eventually evolve as a good leader and politician. He was a good sports man, played football and basketball that too fairly well.
One evening while playing football, he was giving a good kick near the goal post but fell backward and fractured on the lower back. He was immediately taken to the Govt, tehsil hospital which was 8 kilometers away from the village. There weren’t any other hospitals in the village or around, except two Licenced Medical Practioners and couple of
Homeopaths and Ayurvedic ones. This hospital had 3 rooms, a general ward with one Medical officer, two nurses and a few assistants and helpers. It had one stretcher, a Jeep which was mostly used by the Doctor though his accommodation was within the hospital compound.
Diwakar got hospitalised and got a room for good care and they predicted a minimum three months stay and thereafter things could be reviewed. Doctor visited him once a day but a sister or assistant was always available and there were not many inhouse patients at any given time. Among the three hospital sisters one named Vaishali was more attractive and the youngest while other two were more elderly, married and had own families with children. Vaishali was of same age as Diwakar and for obvious reasons like she was single, house was just half kilometer away, an easily walkable distance and there
were others to take care of her house, parents and two elder sisters both unmarried and employed close to home.
Diwakar kept calling her once the Doctor was away for one reason or other and she was given or perhaps she preferred too the night shifts being new and junior. Thus Diwakar had the company of Vaishali, spoke more each other and they both liked that way. Everyone in the hospital came to notice this affair but ofcourse there was nothing to complain about it; the sister was good with all and quite sincere about the work. Diwakar’s parents occasionally visited the hospital, stayed for sometime and left after visiting hours. They never noticed anything special or uncommon and on the contrary they were too happy that the sister was taking good care of him and they profusely expressed their gratitude every time they came. They did not learn that he gave away
her golden chain to her in the first month itself and one of the rings a bit later.
Once the three months got over Diwakar requested Doctor to allow him to be there for another two months and Doctor sanctioned one month more. During these four months Diwakar and Vaishali became too close, they decided to get married and stay together somewhere away for rest of their life but without letting anyone know and there were good reasons for that; he had carried some money with him which he always did and then both could do some work and manage, that was the plan. Diwakar was from a very well respected family – an upper community and it was impossible to think that his parents would allow him to marry a hospital sister came from a lower social strata.
So when his father arrived the hospital along with a house help on the day of discharge,
Mr. Kurup was horrified to learn that his son was already discharged couple of hours before. Further investigation revealed that Vaishali had already resigned the job three days ago. By that time Vashali’s family reached hospital as she left home the previous night collecting all her personal belongings leaving a letter explaining the whole matter and asking them not to look for her and get worried. That day and subsequently Mr. Kurup did everything possible to trace his son; so did Vaishali’s people too, but nothing could yield any result.
The above incident was discussed in and around the village for a much longer period owing to the high social status and standing of the Kurup family. And then the talk got subdued slowly, things became normal once again, village moved on as if nothing had happened. Mr. Kurup stopped going out
from home unless for dire necessities. So did his wife, she discontinued her usual Shiv temple visits and also attending any festivities or social gatherings. Thereafter, some three years later the news came ‘Valiyaveetil Kurup passed away-he died in his sleep’. The lady lived alone in that big two storied house with her maid. Her only wish and prayer was to see her son once, or hear from him before her last breath but the God’s plan was different. Exactly after five years village woke up with news that ‘Valiyaveetil Karthyani Amma is no more’. She wasn’t old enough to die, neither the late Kurup for that matter. ‘The unbearable brief struck them’, Villagers all of them said the same thing. After a week or so their son Diwakar reached the village, collected the house key from the maid, stayed a week or so there alone and then left after making arrangements with brokers for selling the house and property. Some people
who chanced to see him later said ‘Valiyaveetil Diwakar Kurup had settled down in Coimbatore’.
The third one, that too happened during a night or perhaps early morning; it came to the notice of Janaki when she as usual got up at five in the morning, finished her routine work such as cleaning kitchen and sweeping the front portion of her small house yard. These things took a little more than an hour, she then moved to kitchen and made morning tea for them ie;her husband and teenage daughter Sathi. As soon as Janaki starts sweeping the yard, Sathi used to get up on her own and join the yard since a couple of years, when her mother developed pain on her lower back that eventually became very hurting, almost unbearable. But she had to endure this and leave home by 8:30 to work and cook food in a feudal family until 5 evening and many
times upto 8 in the night. Her husband kumaran did not have any particular or fixed work- perhaps he lacked skill, or the required interest or health or all the three. He had been paralysed partially for some time and got confined to his own small little corner of a room most of the time. Sathi did most of the other work at home, helping father to move around, preparing lunch and a little dinner as most evenings her mother brought home some food or special item from the home where she worked. Sathi studied upto tenth standard that too with lots of difficulties as she was bad in studies and repeated eighth once, ninth twice and did not try tenth standard exam after failing thrice. Appearance wise, she was very beautiful which was a concern and worry for her mother and she had instructed her not to go out of the house and whenever went out they were together, mostly. Mother also
did not want to send her anywhere out, though she could dance well and knew singing too and could have gone to some houses for giving coaching or training. So she learnt sewing and started receiving some ladies blouse stitching, altering used frocks and children’s dresses.
Kumaran was fond of drinking alcohol during evenings, an old habit which he did invariably when he worked daily and earned money, that was now reduced drastically because he no longer worked and had to be at the kindness of his wife. That was when an old friend almost of his age with whom he worked earlier and stayed ten minutes walk away from his place. The friend lived with his wife now fallen ill and mostly confined to the house and the twenty year old son Anand and daughter five years younger to him. Both Anand and his father were healthy but the latter was more healthy,
strong, tough and could take up any hard work. They normally worked in the paddy field but also took up any other work like ploughing, cutting down big trees and alike.
The friend started visiting Kumaran in the evening hours and sometimes spent more time drinking and talking together which he brought with him mostly. Kumaran was too weak so even drinking a little good gave him enough kick. The house had a few ducks and hen for egg laying; they ate a few eggs and the remaining sold for money. This part two was managed by the girl Sathi. Kumaran’s friend usually brought a little of fried groundnuts and black channa which tasted well with the drinks. Besides this, the mother and the girl made egg omelette, scrambles or egg curry; occasionally, the friend started eating dinner too there; these things grew and slowly evolved further. After taking food Kumaran got sleepy and soon withdrew to his usual
corner side bed; the girl too went to her tiny room and slept paving way for the mother to talk with the friend for some more time who started offering a bit of the liquor to her, maybe intentionally or planned that way, then talked until late night and sometimes relaxed and slept too.
People around these two houses started seeing and observing this and they started airing it. It became nearly a practice and Anand had to come and take him back home around midnight. This was more or less a mutually beneficial affair to the families involved because in both the houses there was a vacuum and to that extent that was quite fine – it was another issue that Kumaran’s family was superior in terms of community status; but then this was not a marriage alliance or living together. Anand, nor his sister or their mother ever quarrelled on this either.
Things took a slightly different turn when Anand had to stay or hang on a little longer in helping his father to wake up and stand on his feet, and to ease matters. Sathi came out of her room many times but by then her mother too went in deep slumber or fell under strong influence of liquor. So naturally, none would be able to blame or accuse anyone for that; Sathi and Anand became close, understood the circumstances, appreciated each other and might have fallen in love too. Obviously the neighbours must have noticed all this and it seemed, there were talks about it.
Janaki had almost finished her yard sweeping but Sathi did not join and that doesn’t happen usually or perhaps never happened in recent years as Sathi cared for her mother very much. So Janaki called out her a few times and not seeing her walked to the room to wake her; the worst followed. She wasn’t
there, her small umbrella, the shoulder bag which hanged there at the corner, the small mirror, tiny cutticura face powder, cloths all disappeared. It was shocking and unbelievable. Though she had sensed the affair between her daughter and Anand and at times warned her, she never expected such a thing would happen. Janaki rushed to Anand’s house, called her sister and told her to find if Anand had woken up. But Anand also was not there. He rolled up his bed neatly, collected his personal effects, other belongings and left with the small aluminium box in which he kept all his items. Then started loud talks, mutual blaming and abusing each other – Anand’s parents and sister blaming Janaki for everything, enticing their only son and hope while Janaki could not control anger and despair for having lost her pretty daughter.
Janaki’s only desire and wish was to send her after marriage as early as possible to someone from her own community who is a bit well educated, employed and could look after her daughter. She had already given her horoscope details to some agent’s, village astrologers were consulted and also saved some money for the same. However, the villagers gathered around by then tried to make peace between them, as shouting each other made no solutions, many of them commented in hushed voice ‘it was expected by looking what was going on for quite some time but it just happened a little earlier than they thought’.
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