A Woman Burnt by Imayam

Author:Imayam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: S&S India
Published: 2023-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

4

When they were walking back, Natesan stopped suddenly and said, ‘You people go. I will join you.’ Everyone looked at him to find out what the matter was. He wondered why they were all looking funnily at him. He said again, ‘Go on, I will join you.’

‘Okay, join us quickly,’ Amaravathi said and continued walking. Murugan, Arunmozhi, and Latchumi began to walk with her.

As if he had some important work, Natesan began to walk towards Gorimedu bus stand. He looked at both sides of the road leading to the emergency block. People were walking in and out of the gate. It was crowded like a temple chariot pulling event. For a while, he stood in the shade of the banyan tree near the main entrance. He watched the people waiting for the bus. He looked at his watch as if he had some important work. He wondered what he needed to look at the time for. What was the reason that Revathi fell in love with Ravi, for her being so adamant in her decision to marry him, and for suffering beatings every day from him after marriage, and then for her self-immolation?

From the time he remembered he hadn’t touched meat, eggs, or fish. He had always had vegetarian food. He had never tried black magic or sorcery of any kind, never even thought of doing any harm to anybody. He had never given money on interest to his fellow teachers. He examined his conscience to see if, from the time he joined service to the time he became Headmaster, he had ever done anything harmful, behaved badly with any students, especially girl students. He wondered if he had failed any student without any reason. He didn’t think he had done any harm to anyone so far.

He wondered if he had ever behaved badly with his family. When his father died, his mother died, he had taken the entire responsibility for the expenditure. He hadn’t taken a single paisa from his thambi. How could people divide and share the expenditure for their parent’s death? He had refused to take money saying this was crass. When they divided the property, he had given his thambi not just the land, house, orchard, enclosures that he asked for, he gave his thambi an additional three acres of land because he was unemployed. When his thambi died from cancer, Natesan paid for everything.

He had never taken a loan from anyone. Hence, he had never cheated on a loan. He hadn’t gone late to school even one day. He hadn’t ever missed teaching even a period in all his years of service. He was a believer in God from his childhood. He had great devotion to Vallalar. He would go walking to Vadalur every Thai Poosam. He had been feeding at least a hundred people every Thai Poosam since he got his job. He had never missed the annual Muttrothal at the Chidambaram Natarajar temple. He had never sent away empty-handed those who came home saying that they were going to Tirupati and asking for some money as offering.

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