The Homecoming and Other Stories by Sri M

Author:Sri M [M, Sri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789353059972
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2020-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

The Serpent Goddess

As Bagubhalan Singarayar, the zamindar of Chuthukuzi set out that fateful evening in his favourite turquoise blue 1915 Cadillac Touring Convertible, he didn’t have the faintest hint of the danger that awaited him, nor did he anticipate this to be his last drive in the car he had inherited from his father.

Bagubhalan was named after his great-grandfather, the founder of the Chuthukuzi zamindari: a cruel and cunning man who was bestowed the title of Singarayar, ‘lion among rulers’ for beheading a rebellious courtier of the King Raja Kumara Chola and gifting the head to him in a decorated bamboo basket. He was then made the feudal chief of Chuthukuzi which consisted of six villages and 4000 acres of land.

When the Chola kingdom collapsed a hundred years ago, the zamindars became independent overlords and lived in great luxury.

The Chuthukuzi palace was an almost impregnable, fortified, stone structure surrounded by a moat with a number of crocodiles in it. Bagubhalan’s grandfather was notorious for throwing erring subjects into the moat to be eaten alive by the crocodiles.

His father was a graduate from the Madurai Christian College who loved his scotch and ended many of the feudal cruelties. He was, however, inordinately fond of women and used his might to abduct any woman he set his eyes on, married or unmarried, from the villages under his domain to satisfy his sexual appetite. Under hushed tones, the villagers discussed his exploits and the sad story of the two women who committed suicide unable to bear the indignity of being raped in front of their husbands.

By the early 1900s, the absolute authority of the feudal chieftains was diluted but the subjects still feared the rich and influential zamindars which worked to Bagubhalan’s advantage. One of the characteristics he inherited from his father was the almost insatiable hunger for other women, even though he was married to a beautiful dusky woman with lotus eyes.

He spent large sums of money to keep his sexual exploits secret. Vague rumours were afloat that he had raped a teenager who had gone to ask him for help in his hunting lodge twenty miles away which he often used to satisfy his sexual predilections, murdered her and thrown the body to the leopards when she threatened to complain to his wife. Nobody dared substantiate the rumours. The story that was presented to the public was that young Nallu was taken by a leopard.

Like his father, Bagubhalan enjoyed hunting wild boars and loved his Winchester rifle as much as the Cadillac Convertible he had inherited from his father, who died of a brain haemorrhage, when Bagubhalan was barely twenty-eight.

The traits he did not inherit from his father and grandfather before him were horse-riding and reverence for snakes, especially cobras.

Although in his bungalow in Ooty, a hill-station nearby, he had a stable of ten excellent horses that went to the annual races and won numerous awards, he disliked riding horses himself.

As for snakes, unlike his ancestors, he abhorred them. While his

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