Indulekha

by O. Chandu Menon

  "Hundred Indulekhas would consent if they got one ring from the Nambudiripad," said Muthu.

  Sankara Sastri vouchsafed no reply to this remark, but, rising from his place, went to the temple. He was a very learned man, and besides being one of Madhavan’s greatest friends, was well acquainted with Indulekha. Hence, knowing as he did that Indulekha’s mental powers were very far above the average, he was greatly dissatisfied with all he had heard. Moreover, in his opinion, Madhavan alone was the proper husband for Indulekha, and therefore he went his way with his mind full of a sad reflection. "What a pity if things should fall out in this wise!" he thought, "and possibly through the overpowering attraction of wealth they will; what is one to do? There is nothing in this wide world, so far as I see, that can prevail against wealth."

  Meditating thus, the Sastri entered the temple and, spreading his upper cloth in the small ante-room by the door-way, lay down with the intention of going to sleep.

  His ill luck, however, pursued him even here, for two or three minutes after he had laid down, a crowd of men entered the room. First there came from within a number of temple servants and attendants and "Halla! Sastri, Sir," cried one of them. "It seems you won’t have any play reading or music at Puvarangu today. My goodness! There is a crowd; they are jostling each other up to the steps of the tank. Do you know at all, Sir, whether the wedding will come off today’!"

  "I know nothing about it," replied the Sastri, "I wish you would let me sleep."

  Next a priest of the temple with some Nambudiris and other Brahmins came trooping through the northern door of the ante- room besidethe northern temple gate, shouting and whooping like a gang of robbers out for a raid, and the whole of their talk was about the Nambudiripad.

  "The Nambudiripad is a strikingly handsome man," said the priest." I have seen him. I wonder what his age is ?"

  "I would set him down as fifty," replied a Nambudiri.

  "Poof!" cried another Nambudiri. "He can’t be so much as that. Say forty or forty-five."

  "Indulekha will take him whatever age he is," remarked a Brahmin." How splendidly he was dressed. What a swell he is! Why I never saw even the Travancore King with such fine clothes!"

  "His clothes and get up are the only things he has," said another Brahmin. "There is any amount of money in his family, but this Nambudiriis a mountebank. He has no ballast and no backbone. Fancy giving such a girl as Indulekha to this miserable dotard. Is the match to be finalised today?"

  "You had better ask the Sastri, if you want to know," said the priest." He is a great friend of Indulekha’s. Hello. Sastri, are you sleeping in the day? Don’t be lazy: get up,"

  The Sastri shut his eyes tight, and pretended to be fast asleep. But it was no use.

  The din made by the priest was too much for him, and so at last he raised himself and sat up.

  "Well," said the priest, "is Indulekha to be paired off today?"

  "I know nothing about any pairing off at all," replied the Sastri, going down from the temple as he spoke.

  The inhabitants of the Puvalli house were also busy commenting on the Nambudiripad’s advent, and Kummini Amma led the discussion.

  "Oh, Chather!" she said, "I never saw such a fine man. My eyes were quite dazzled with looking at him."

  "You mean dazzled with looking at his clothes," said Chather Menon.

  "Well, what of that?" replied Kummini Amma. "Never in all my life did I see anyone make such a fine show. I mind well, too, the time when I saw my granduncle, the Dewan, but even he never cut such a lovely figure as the Nambudiripad. What a lucky star Indulekha was born under! Just think of it now! She is certainly a wonderful girl. But I feel very sorry for Madhavan when I think of him."

  "How do you mean sorry?" asked Chather Menon.

  "Well, there is really nothing to be sorry for," answered Kummini Amma. "Of course, it is only reasonable that Madhavan should have to hold his tongue when such a great man as this comes on the field. But all the same I feel a little sorry for him when I think of it all."

  "How silly you are, mother!" cried Chather Menon. "TheNambudiripad will never get Indulekha in his life. Indulekha is for Madhavan alone. Granduncle is only trying it on."

  "You’re silly yourself," retorted his mother, and the conversation ended.

  The gossip was not confined to these quarters but tongues wagged freely round the kitchen and bathing shed, and on the banks of the tank.

  "I say," said a youth who lived near the bathing shed to another, "I say, what is the Nambudiripad’s name?"

  "They call him, the Kannil Mookillatha Vasoori Nambudiripad," * replied his comrade.

  "Ugh, that’s not a nice name any way."

  "The name don’t matter: It’s the money. They say that at his place the elephant’s chains are made of gold. Then what does it matter if he has a nose or not, or whether his face is pitted or not?"

  "I don’t care how much money he has," said the first speaker, "but I shan’t have the slightest respect for Indulekha if she throws Madhavan over. Madhavan and no one else is the proper husband for her."

  "Bah!" responded his friend," has Madhavan got gold elephant-chains? My good fellow, what bosh you talk. Nothing goes down with women so much as money."

  "Then there wasn’t the slightest use in Kochu Krishna Menon taking Indulekha and having her taught English. Here is a precious fine result of English education when money after all is the one object in life. What will Madhavan say when he hears this news?"

  "He’ll storm and rage like the demon king Shishupalan. But what’s the good of that? Perhaps Indulekha will be happy enough with her pockmarked nose less Nambudiripad."

  "But what do you think of the Nambudiripad’s family name? I was quite close to him when he went to bathe just now, and couldn’t see his nose at all. His face was as flat as a tea tray. It’s disgusting to think of Indulekha being yoked with a fellow like this! I don’t care two straws about his money. If I were Indulekha’s uncle, like Govindan Kutti Menon there, I would never give her to this wretched pit-face."

  "But what if Indulekha is in love with him?"

  "Then there’d be no help for it. But as for Indulekha being in love with the man, I have heard it is Panchu Menon who has forced this affair on her."

  "It is quite time, then, that Panchu Menon kicked the bucket. What an infernal shame it is that he is allowed to abuse and bully as he chooses all the people who live at Puvalli and now here comes a monster as the mate for Indulekha."

  "Don’t you be too sure about that, my boy. Does Indulekha mean to consent? How do you know she will? Supposing she refuses ?"

  "Why, Panchu Menon will turn her out of the house. Even Madhavanisn’t here to help her. But in any case, it is quite out of the question that Indulekha should think of refusing the Nambudiripad. He is the richest man of any in the country, they say. He is the biggest swell of all the Nambudiris, and what more do you want? Madhavan is only a schoolboy".

  "But I have heard that Madhavan and Indulekha were very fond of each other."

  "That’s all over now. If Madhavan had been born under a lucky star, its influence is passed. There is not the least doubt about it, none whatever."

  "Well, whatever mess they make of it, it doesn’t matter to us," was the reply, and with this the colloquy ended, one of the speakers going off to bathe and the other to his house.

  It was, however, at Puvarangu that the buzz of conversation regarding the Nambudiripad was loudest.

  Indulekha’s joy and excitement on receiving the letter from Madras have already been recorded, and, in ignorance of the real cause there of, the lackeys, maidservants and others unhesitatingly ascribed her emotion solely to the Nambudiripad’s arrival. Thus for instance Kunji KuttiAmma’s maid, Paru, happened to go upstairs on some errand and saw Indulekha, who laughed and said:

  "Well Paru, that sweetheart of yours doesn’t come here now a days, does he?"

  "The wretch has stayed away at the farm for the last six or seven months," sa
id Paru. "He has taken on with some other girl. Kandar Nayar told me so."

  "Well, never mind," said Indulekha, "you take some other man."

  "I don’t want anyone, thank you, miss," said Paru. "But the locket I wear on my necklace is broken, and I have worn nothing on my neck for four months. I have told your Grandma heaps of times about it, butno matter what I do, she won’t have it repaired for me. What else can I do?"

  On hearing the maid’s grievance, Indulekha opened her own jewel-box and, taking out a locket worth some eight or ten rupees, put it on a ribbon and gave it to Paru.

  "Here Paru," she said, "put on this locket. You shan’t be unhappy because you have no locket to wear."

  Paru promptly became hysterical with delight. Then she ran downstairs with her locket and, bubbling over with glee, told everyone of the present she had received. Soon afterwards Kunji Kutti Amma called her and, noticing the new trinket on her neck, asked her where she got it.

  "My young mistress gave it to me when I went up to her room," replied Paru.

  "Do you mean Indulekha ?" said Kunji Kutti Amma.

  "Yes," answered Paru.

  "Well, really!" said Kunji Kutti Amma, "Indulekha must be uncommonly happy today about something. What does she look like ?"

  "Very happy," said Paru. "She couldn’t be anything else, ma’am, when such a noble lord comes for her."

  While they were talking in this strain, Kunji Kutti Amma caught sight of Sankara Sastri, who had determined to see Indulekha once more, and was entering the quadrangle of the house on his way up to her rooms. Calling out to him, she asked what had brought him there at such a time.

  "Nothing particular," was the Sastri’s reply, "I came just to see Indulekha."

  Kunji Kutti Amma knew that the Sastri was a great friend of Madhavan, so she said, "Don’t go there just now. As soon as the Nambudiripad and the rest of them have finished breakfast, he will make his sacred way there. It would be better if you went to the temple."

  "Very well," replied the Sastri. "The match with the Nambudiripad has apparently been arranged."

  "How can you doubt it?" said Kunji Kutti Amma. "What? aren’t you pleased at it, Sastri? What better match could lndulekha possibly make than this?"

  "Very true, very true," murmured the Sastri, while Kunji Kutti Ammacontinued, "lndulekha herself, too, is delighted. She’s just dying to seethe Nambudiripad. Fancy what a state of excitement the girl is in! Why, Paru went up to her room just now without a locket on, and just see what a lovely locket she has given her! She is in a state of great delight. I was a bit afraid at first, but thank God, everything has come all right now. Everything is all right with the goodwill of our ancestors."

  * Is a vitiated form of Kannezhi Murkillatha Suri Nambudiripad and Kannil means "in the eyes," Mookkillatha means "noiseless", Vasoori means smallpox.

  "What were you afraid about at first?" asked the Sastri. "Whyshould you have been afraid?"

  "Bless me," said Kunji Kutti Amma, "don’t you know? Weren’t Madhavan and Indulekha madly in love with each other? What I was afraid of was whether it would not be difficult to get over this, and Govindan Kutti’s father was afraid of this too. But we have nothing tofear now. What a difference there is between Madhavan and the Nambudiripad! Come, Sastri, you must admit that."

  "Certainly there is a vast difference," said the Sastri. "There is all the difference in the world, of course there is. Well, I must be off."

  The Sastri left the house as he spoke, and setting forth on his way, encountered the Nambudiripad with all his noisy retinue. Half dazzled by the glitter of gold and tinsel, he mounted a platform built round the foot of a sacred fig tree and, taking his seat there, fell into a train of thought. "What a shame it is!" he said to himself. "There seems to be very little doubt now about this affair coming off. What a terrible state Madhavan will be in! To think that minx lndulekha should be so heartless! Heartless is not the word for it. There is nothing these good-for nothing Nayar women won’t do to make the richest match they can. And I once thought that this miserable flirt was worthy of Madhavan! It is a hard case, but there is no help for it. It is his hard luck, poor lad!"

  At this point his meditations were interrupted by the arrival of two of the Nambudiripad’s retainers. These were Govindan, the betel-box bearer, and a Brahman attendant, who, after conducting the Nambudiripad to Puvarangu, came and stood near the platform under the fig tree.

  "Are you some of the Nambudiripad’s men?" asked the Sastri.

  "Yes," answered Govindan.

  "What stay does he make here?" enquired the Sastri.

  "He will be here at any rate today and tomorrow," replied Govindan. "He thinks of leaving the day after, and means to have company with him when he goes."

  "What company?" said the Sastri.

  "Only a wife," said Govindan.

  "What? is the match to be consummated today?" asked the Sastri.

  "Possibly," said Govindan; "But tomorrow will be quite time enough."

  "The Nambudiripad hasn’t married in his own caste, has he?" pursued the Sastri.

  "My lord’s two younger brothers have," said Govindan.

  "Is the Nambudiripad a good man of business?" was the Sastri’s next question.

  "Uncommonly so," replied Govindan. "There has been none like him in the family. He is indeed a very great man, if you like. It’s a splendid thing for Panchu Menon and his family that my lord is so good as to come and choose a consort from here. My lord never condescends to visit Nayar families like this." After these remarks, Govindan wandered off to the temple and elsewhere, but the Brahman attendant remained, and the Sastri asked him where his home was.

  "In Govindarajapuram," replied the man.

  "How long have you been with the Nambudiripad?" said the Sastri.

  "More than six years," answered the Brahman, "but I have never had any wages up to this day. Once he gave me fifty rupees when I dunned him, but he took them all back two days after. Since then he has given me nothing. If I had got anything out of him, I would have left him long ago but when I ask him for money, he tells me he will pay me with interest. The fact is he is a rank impostor. He has already got at least a score of mistresses, and has had two new ones in the last two months. He never looks after the family affairs, and that lad Govindan told thundering lie just now when he said that the Nambudiripad never went to Nayar houses. He is ready to go to any house where there are women. Sometimes he runs short of money altogether, but two or three Mappillasare always ready to lend him some, and charge 60 per cent interest. When the fool is very hard up, he will put his name to anything. His extravagance is altogether beyond a joke, and he’ll be sold up in the end. Why, he had to borrow three hundred rupees just now at 60 percent interest, in order to come here at all. He’s the greatest fool inexistence."

  "Hush, hush," said the Sastri. "You shouldn’t betray your master. You must just take him as he is. I never asked you anything about all this. Well I must go and bathe," and with these words the Sastri went to the tank while the Brahman lad found his way to the refectory.

  Chapter 12

  As soon as the Nambudiripad had bathed and breakfasted, Kesavan Nambudiri informed him of the declaration made to him by Panchu Menon. Cherusheri Nambudiri was present at the time, and, repressing his inclination to laugh, said, as soon as Kesavan Nambudiri had finished his discourse,

  "That’s just as it should be.

  ‘Poetic fancy, which doth fill

  Man’s spirit of its own freewill,

  And woman’s love, which comes unsought,

  To man with sweetest joys are fraught."

  "But as to whether Indulekha will come or not, I don’t have the slightest doubt."

  "Of course not," said Kesavan Nambudiri. "There are no two ways of looking at that. I think it would be a good thing to go and see her. It is past four already."

  "Let’s go by all means," said the Nambudiripad. "But I must put on a coat, Cherusheri. I think the coat I had on just now
suits me beautifully. It seemed to me to shine very nicely when I got out of the palanquin there in the sun. "

  "Of course it did," said Cherusheri. "Why, isn’t it all gold embroidery, worth ninety-five rupees a yard? You should certainly put on that coat."

  The Nambudiripad accordingly bedecked and bedraped himself with the coat and a shawl, with a cap, rings and gold studded sabots. Then, accompanied by Cherusheri and Kesavan Nambudiri, and escorted by a troop of servants and others who were assembled in group here and there on his route, he proceeded to the front of the verandah of the Puvarangu house. Panchu Menon immediately came down the steps, conducted the Nambudiripad into the great square hall, seated him in a capacious chair, and stood before him with all the ostentatious humility usually shown to kings.

  "Does Indulekha’s villa adjoin this place?" asked the Nambudiripad.

  "Yes, may it please you," answered Panchu Menon. "The villa is just outside the west gate of the south wing. But I think it would be well first to give notice of your gracious advent. Where’s Kesavan Nambudiri, I wonder?"

  As he spoke, Kesavan Nambudiri came bustling in and, saying that he would be back in an instant after telling Indulekha, bustled out again.

  Indulekha was writing a letter when the Nambudiri reached her room and, warned by instinct that his arrival heralded a bitter hour of trial, she stopped abruptly and, rising, asked why she was favoured with his presence.

  "He has finished eating," panted Kesavan Nambudiri. "He wants to see you, lndulekha. He and your grandfather are down below. May I ask him up?"

  "Oh, let him come," said Indulekha.

  "Remember, Indulekha, he is a very great Nambudiripad. Of course, you know quite well how you ought to speak to him."

  "Indeed, I know nothing of the kind," said Indulekha. "I have not the slightest idea how to address him. Perhaps it would be better if he did not come to see me at all."

  "Oh dear, oh dear," ejaculated Kesavan Nambudiri. "Speak to him just as you like, Indulekha."

  "That is exactly what I intend to do," responded Indulekha, and Kesavan Nambudiri hastened away to invite the Nambudiripad upstairs.