Chembankunju couldn’t understand what was wrong. ‘Why? What do you mean, woman?’
‘Why didn’t you sell him the fish?’
‘How would I have managed then? Don’t I have to pay the fishermen who came with me?’Chembankunju continued, ‘And there is a problem if I sell him the fish; he will want to deduct the money I owe him from the price.’
‘Are you saying that his helping you is now to be held against him?’
Karuthamma too was furious. From her room she called out, ‘There’s nothing left in his shack.’
That evening there was a quarrel in Achakunju’s home.
The wife said, ‘You kept saying that he was your childhood friend. What happened to your dream of working in his boat?’
Achakunju retorted, ‘And you? You went chasing after Chakki. What happened to that?’
Achakunju continued, ‘When people get a coin or two in the hands, they forget the past.’
Nallapennu agreed.
Achakunju reiterated his dream once again. ‘Well, let me see if I can acquire a boat and nets too.’
Nallapennu however wasn’t all that convinced about his resolve.
Six
Chembankunju was a fortunate man. Seldom was his catch matched by anyone else on the shore. In fact, his catch was always twice as much as the others’. When he flung the net, it would rise to the surface laden. A wonder indeed!
Every night when he counted the day’s earnings, Chakki would say, ‘We need to get the girl married.’
And Chembankunju would pretend that he hadn’t heard her speak.
But Chakki too could be adamant. She would continue, ‘What’s on your mind? That she stay here forever?’
Chembankunju wouldn’t speak. He probably didn’t think it as important as making money. When it was to happen, it would.
Chembankunju had put together all the accessories required for a boat. He could go to sea any time now. He was all set.
Pareekutty’s shack seemed to have shut down. Nothing seemed to be happening there. He had no money either. His Vaapa chastised him a great deal. Abdullah Boss said that he knew Pareekutty had given all his money away to a fisherwoman.
Karuthamma heard this from across the fence. She turned to her mother and insisted that they repay Pareekutty his money back right away. She flung into her mother’s face what Abdullah Boss had told his son. Could there be anything more shameful? For hadn’t Pareekutty dipped into his capital and given it all away to a fisherwoman?
‘We’ll pay it back. In time,’ was Chembankunju’s retort, his usual one as always.
For Chembankunju had a new dream. Several new dreams. He wanted to acquire two more boats and nets. Then a piece of land on which he would build a house. And plenty of money in his hand.
‘Haven’t I slaved all my life? … Now like that man Pallikunnath, I too want to enjoy life! Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy it to the fullest!’
He had also decided that he wanted to fatten Chakki up.
Chakki said wrily, ‘As if I will ever fatten up now … at this age!’
‘Why not? Of course, you too will become plump.’
Chakki had never ever heard Chembankunju talk about wanting to enjoy life. Pleasure had acquired a whole new dimension for him.
She asked, ‘What pleasure do you want in this old age? Where do you get such ideas from?’
‘Listen, who said you can’t enjoy your life in old age too? You must take a look at that Pallikunnath man … you should see how he relishes life.’
Chakki looked at him wondering if she ought to advise him. Was he going astray?
Was it wrong to want to pleasure in one’s old age?
Chembankunju said, ‘Let me tell you something. His wife’s your age. But she’s always dressed up … with her hair finely combed, a pottu on her forehead and her lips a fiery red … and her skin has the sheen of gold. You should see them. They are like a young fisher couple.’
Chakki asked, ‘So is that what you want? For me to doll up and flit around like a young girl?’
‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘I would be so embarrassed.’
‘Why would you be embarrassed?’
‘I can’t … I just can’t!’ Chakki confessed with a bashful expression.
Chembankunju continued to describe the multitude of delights that Kandankoran’s life was blessed with. He hadn’t eaten as well as he had in the Pallikunnath house. The curries there had a unique flavour. Like a young couple, they squeezed the most out of every moment of their life.
‘Do you want to hear something else? It was quite embarrassing … one day when I went there, I found them together. Kissing and fondling each other, like young lovers…’
‘Oh oh, such goings-on … rubbish!’ Chakki remarked.
Chembankunju asked, ‘What’s wrong with it? I told you they are like newly-weds, the way they are with each other.’
‘Don’t they have children?’
‘One boy.’
Chembankunju appraised Chakki carefully and said, ‘We must fatten you up like Papikunju. And then we have to indulge in some of that youthful delight…’
In her heart Chakki too wished for the same. To be held and kissed. But she wouldn’t ever speak it. ‘First, you need to sort yourself out.’
‘Yes, of course. I need to sort myself out and then the rest will follow…’ Chembankunju smiled. The thought of his soon to be joys glimmered in his eye.
Chakki grumbled, ‘You seem to be bedazzled by that woman…’
‘That’s true. Anyone would be!’
A little later Chembankunju said, ‘He’s a lucky man.’
‘Let’s hope we too are blessed by the mother of the sea. Once we have land and a house of our own and enough money to live on even if we don’t go out to work, we too would be as carefree as a young couple,’ Chakki declared. ‘And by that time, we would have married the girls off too.’
That was what Chembankunju had in mind too.
‘But I am not pretty,’ Chakki said.
‘But you would be pretty when the time came,’ Chembankunju asserted.
‘What if I am dead then?’
‘Rubbish! Don’t say such things.’
All of a sudden the colour of the sea changed. A denseness. The waters of the sea were tainted red. It was that time of the year for the mother of the sea. For sometime hereafter she would be unable to bless them. The sea would be barren.
A couple of days passed. Chembankunju couldn’t stay idle. What if he went out into the deep seas? He would find fish there.
He called his boatmen and consulted them. But none of them would give him a clear confirmation of intent. Very seldom had anyone from that shore gone deep-sea fishing. And during this month of murky waters, no one ever went to sea.
Chembankunju was stern. ‘Let me tell you something. If you can’t be bothered to go with me, you will starve. I can’t give you an advance.’
The starvation continued. And continued. The little money people had were all spent. A few tried going out to sea. But they couldn’t find even a fish scale.
This was the time when hunger troubled everyone. The workers and the boat owners. The boat owners too had little money to spare.
The neighbourhood was sunk in penury. Everywhere everyone starved. Achakunju, who had decided to acquire a boat and nets of his own, was the worst hit. He had children to worry about.
One day they hit rock bottom. The previous day, they had shaken out the flakes of dry fish clinging to the baskets, sold it for a pittance and bought tapioca for a meal. However, there was nothing for this day. Achakunju and his wife began squabbling. Achakunju slapped his impudent wife and walked away in a huff. It is the lot of the woman to bear the burden of her wailing children. So how could she walk away?
Instead, Nallapennu cursed Achakunju. ‘I know what this walking away in a rage is all about. You will go fill your belly at the tea shop while we…’
However, Achakunju pretended not t
o hear the accusation and walked on. Perhaps he was only looking for the means to alleviate the problem.
She waited until evening. Finally, Nallapennu took a bronze tumbler and went seeking Chakki. She was willing to hawk or sell it but she desperately needed a rupee. Chakki accepted it as collateral and lent her a rupee.
Lakshmi, who heard about this, came with a pair of little gold studs that had adorned her daughter’s ear lobes. Soon everyone was at her doorstep and Chakki began finding it a terrible nuisance. She didn’t have all that money to loan. But no one would believe her when she said so.
Kalikunju went with a cauldron to Chakki. She had scrounged and saved to buy the uruli from Mannarshala the previous year. But Chakki said, ‘Where am I to find the money if each one of you come here? I don’t exactly dig the cash out of the ground…’
Kalikunju had been driven there by her children’s hunger. And she hadn’t expected such a curt dismissal.
Chakki continued, ‘Everyone wants Chembankunju’s cash. But when we needed help, there was no one … then each one of you were willing to betray us.’
Kalikunju demanded, ‘What did we do?’
‘No, you didn’t do anything. But there’s no money here.’
‘How can you be like this? As if you don’t know me?’
‘I have to watch out for myself too…’
Kalikunju lost her temper. ‘Just because you are rich now…’
‘Ah, now she becomes rude…’
Soon it became an argument. Karuthamma intervened. She was scared. As the argument got more vicious, she knew she would be discussed.
Karuthamma fell at Kalikunju’s feet and pleaded. Finally Kalikunju took her uruli and left.
Karuthamma turned to her mother. ‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘What do you expect me to do?’
‘Ever since we got the boat and nets, the two of you have changed.’
That evening as Chembankunju ate his supper, Chakki sat by his side telling him the gossip. The story of hunger on their shore. A fire hadn’t been lit in any of the homes there.
Chembankunju said, ‘Let them starve! Let them all be ruined!’
Karuthamma was shaken.
Chembankunju continued, ‘Let them all burn! That will be useful for us…’
Karuthamma couldn’t understand the reason for his venom. But she felt a great disgust for her father then.
Chakki asked, ‘Why would it be useful for us?’
‘Let them suffer … when they have money in their hands, they caper around. Then they need to go to Alapuzha to fill their bellies with shop-bought food. And if the fisherwoman doesn’t have clothes, they buy the most expensive kasavu sari. They behave as if they don’t walk on the ground. So let them count the stars now…’
Karuthamma couldn’t still understand the reason for her father’s diatribe. Chakki then brought up the old theory, ‘A fisherman doesn’t set aside anything ever.’
‘Let them not! Which is why they are suffering now. You better tell your daughter all this else she too would end up starving.’
Chakki said with a little smile, ‘Ah, what a sensible fisherman you are!’
‘Yes, I am a sensible man! Which is why I have money in my hands!’
‘Don’t tell me about that! That Muslim boy has had to shut down his shack. And our girl is here getting long in the tooth…’
Karuthamma wanted to snap: He too ought to suffer, right, Accha!
Chakki and Chembankunju took advantage of that fallow time on the shore. They acquired several bronze vessels, gold ornaments and other valuables for almost next to nothing. When they married their daughter off, they wouldn’t have to spend as much as they may have needed to.
One day, they acquired a sturdy bed. When her husband came home, Chakki had a bashful grin. ‘I bought a bed!’
Chembankunju leered, ‘Why?’
‘What’s a bed for? To sleep on!’
‘Who’s going to sleep on it?’
‘When the girl’s married, her husband and she…’
‘Really?’
‘What else? Did you think it was for us oldies?’
Chembankunju seemed to accept that. Then he said, ‘But I’m going to get a mattress made. Just like the one I saw at Kandankoran’s.’
‘In which case, you will need to find a woman to match … to sleep with you…’
‘I’ll turn you into that woman.’
A slightly more elaborate plan had sprung in Chembankunju’s mind. Or, perhaps it was just another dimension of his dream to live life to the hilt. He made plans to acquire one more boat of his own.
Almost all the money he had was sunk in movables. However, he still didn’t see it as an impossible task.
One day when Chembankunju woke up, it was to find Ramankunju Valakkaran hovering around. Chembankunju welcomed him with much fanfare and ceremony. Ramankunju was a netsman of the shore. He had two boats of his own. For some time Chembankunju had worked in Ramankunju’s boat. But all his immovable wealth had to be sold off one by one.
Ramankunju needed money. In these times of penury, he had to pay an advance to his workers. He usually borrowed money from Ousep. However, he already owed Ousep a great deal. So how could he approach Ousep again?
Ramankunju said, ‘They have been with me for a long long time … and they are starving now. There isn’t any fish in the sea. How can I close my eyes to their plight?’
Chembankunju agreed. ‘Yes, of course. You must do so. Especially someone like you…’
He offered to lend money. ‘So how much would you need?’
‘One hundred and fifty will do!’
Chembankunju counted out the cash. Ramankunju asked, ‘Aren’t you paying your workers an advance?’
Chembankunju scratched his head and said, ‘How can I? I am only a worker like them. Can a squirrel open its mouth as wide as an elephant’s?’
Ramankunju laughed.
Chembankunju explained his stance once again.
When Ramankunju left, Chembankunju went to Chakki and pranced around her in glee like a lunatic. Chakki had never seen him like this.
Chakki asked, ‘What is all this madness?’
‘What do you know, you creature! His Chinese fishing nets and boat will be mine in a month’s time.’
Then he added, ‘Now you see why you need to have cash in hand.’
Chembankunju’s workers began demanding an advance. He asked them, ‘Are you willing to work?’
They said yes.
Chembankunju said, ‘In which case, let’s go deep-sea fishing…’
‘But how can we? In this evil time?’
Chembankunju came up with a new ploy. He said he would hire new workers. And they would be his permanent employees. ‘I have put all my money into the boat and accessories. Do you expect me to sit around doing nothing? It breaks my heart…’
Chakki and Karuthamma discovered this only when one morning they saw Chembankunju’s boat race into the western horizon. He was standing at the stern.
That day thirteen families waited on the shores. Wives and children pleading with the gods to spare the men. The older men said that the undertow was treacherous. There would be whirlpools in the outer seas.
By dusk, the boat hadn’t yet returned. The seashore resounded with wails. By night, the entire fishing village was gathered on the shore. They all stood waiting, staring at the western horizon. The night sky was clear. The stars were all out. The sea was quiet. In the distance, someone thought they spotted a speck. Could it be the boat?
But the boat didn’t arrive.
Kochan’s old mother beat her chest and demanded that Chakki give her back her only son. Vava’s pregnant wife didn’t blame anyone. But she stood there sobbing. The seashore filled with waves of loud grief.
Closer to midnight, an uproar rang through: ‘The boat’s coming!’
The boat sped through the waves like a bird. There was a shark in the boat. They had got one more. But as they couldn
’t fit both into the boat, one of the sharks had been slaughtered to pieces.
Chembankunju divided the cut-up shark amongst the women so they could sell it in the east. It was enough, he said, if they gave him the money after the sale. Kalikunju, Lakshmi, all of them got a share. And so that day the hearth was lit in many homes.
Two days later, the baits were sprung again. That day as well Chembankunju was triumphant. Even when the sea was barren, Chembankunju was flush with funds. The elders were silent in their failure. ‘It’s because of Chembankunju that our bellies are full,’ the women said.
Some other boats people also decided to go out to sea. That there would be an abundance after this starvation was how they consoled themselves. Last year, the chakara had happened to the north of Alapuzha. Hence, in all probability, the big catch should happen on this shore this year. And by ill fortune, if it wasn’t so, they ought to be prepared to trail it with their nets. Which meant the boats and nets had to be repaired and ready. And it had to be done in these penurious times, the boat owners worried.
Ousep and Govindan arrived on the seashore with laden money bags. Everyone was in need of money. And would agree to any terms and conditions. Shack owners sucked up to the managers of big shrimp exporters in Alapuzha, Kollam and Kochi. Thus the seashore was muddied with borrowed monies.
The strong nets needed to be repaired. Several small traders called on various homes offering loans to the women. They were paying in advance for the dry fish the women and children would gather and keep. Meanwhile, it was rumoured that a young Muslim man was stabbed by Kochutty’s husband when he found him in his hovel.
Chembankunju began seeing a great deal of Ramankunju. The latter was scared that he would have to pay back the borrowed money. But Chembankunju didn’t ask for it back and instead offered small sums as temporary loan.
Pareekutty made no preparation to trade during the big catch. His Vaapa had asked him to shut down the shack. Abdullah insisted that Pareekutty give up trading in fish and do something else. But Pareekutty wouldn’t have any of it. ‘I can’t!’ Pareekutty said.
He hadn’t decided to leave the shore yet, he stated brusquely.
Abdullah was astounded. His son had never before spoken to him in that manner. Abdullah demanded, ‘Why is that?’
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