The House of Blue Mangoes by David Davidar

Author:David Davidar [Davidar, David]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781780225401
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2012-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

55

The new settlement sprawled for miles by the Chevathar and provided a striking contrast to the existing village, more than half of which it had swallowed. Instead of twisty straggling paths it possessed ruler-straight avenues of beaten red earth, lined with ashoka, jacaranda, gulmohar and rain trees. The roads were neatly signposted: Solomon Avenue, Aaron Crossroads, Ashworth Lane. Some landmarks were carefully preserved. Daniel had a grove of trees planted around the well Aaron had jumped, both to beautify it and to ensure that nobody ever attempted it again. The Murugan and Amman temples remained, but the acacia forest was cleared to make way for elegant farmhouses and kitchen gardens. However, the great forest giants were not cut down, Charity saw to that. Her love of trees undimmed, she had hundreds more planted on the newly cleared land. Village urchins were paid handsomely to water the fragile saplings and chase away the cows and goats which would have made a meal of them. As Daniel had hoped, Chevathar was beginning to heal his mother.

Soon after his return, Daniel had thought long and hard about whether to take over as thalaivar of the village: a Dorai had held the position for as long as anyone could remember. In the end he decided the family colony had a greater claim on his time. He let the village elder he had appointed when he had sent Abraham away continue in the job. Ramdoss would supervise him. To run the settlement, Daniel constituted a committee of elders drawn from the twenty-three founding families. A fortnight after they arrived, the committee met to frame the rules the colony would live by. They drew up twelve commandments, of which the most contentious was the one which banned all political activity within the colony. A couple of cousins objected, but Daniel used his chairman’s veto. ‘I’ve seen politics up close and find it abhorrent,’ he said. ‘I’ve already lost a brother to it, and I will not lose any more of my family if I can help it.’ But even Daniel had to concede defeat on the proposal he mooted to remove all traces of caste from the family. ‘Christianity does not recognize caste, and we have all seen the dangers of caste conflict,’ he said. ‘I would like to suggest that all of us drop caste names and only retain the birth, marriage and death rituals of our caste.’ He didn’t find a single supporter for the idea and even Ramdoss demurred. ‘It’s all very well to abolish caste in this community, anna,’ he said, ‘but we are also part of society at large. It gives us our identity. You cannot change the entire world.’

Unable to move his family on the issue, Daniel had to content himself with a minor consolation prize. From this day onwards his immediate family would drop its caste suffix, Andavar. ‘If you want to be tied down by your caste affiliation, I respect your wish,’ he declared to the council of

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