July 1966 Watakälé
The roar of the approaching motorcycle and the crunch of tyres on gravel sent a shudder through Lakshmi’s body. She knew now that it was not Watakälé Periadorai who had hurt her, yet the site of his face with the piercing blue eyes, so like his brother’s, sent shafts of fear and pain through her. It was as if she were back on the floor screaming for mercy and getting none. She moved away from the gravel path, deeper into the bushes. Her trembling fingers struggled to pick the two leaves and a bud. She slowed, then stopped picking.
Meena and the other women giggled and pointed.
From the corner of her eye she saw Periadorai get off the motorcycle and walk towards Kangani. Kangani scuttled to the edge and stood in the ditch, his towel turban in his hand.
Periadorai stared at her. She felt beads of sweat gather on her brow and slide down her face. Her eyes blurred. The other women nudged each other and giggled. Surely they could not know?
‘How is the picking today?’ Periadorai addressed Kangani in English, then repeated his question in slow halting Tamil.
‘Sir, sir, yes, yes, good sir, good sir,’ Kangani’s head bobbed.
Periadorai stood watching them work for a few moments, then flung his leg over the motorcycle and rode off towards the factory.
The silence was broken by guffaws of laughter. ‘Maybe he is checking us out?’
‘No, he was staring at Lakshmi!’
‘Ah, she has soft hands no? And fair skin also!’
‘Soft other things must be also.’
Lakshmi continued plucking. Soon the women moved on to talking about other things. Lakshmi listened to the talk around her.
‘He won’t get away with it!’
‘My husband said that they will fight.’
‘We will all do a stop work.’
‘Bad enough Periadorai, Tea-maker Aiya is also in it, no!’
‘Shut up,’ Kangani supervisor shouted. He tilted his head towards Lakshmi. ‘Somebody might tell what we are talking.’
Lakshmi knew what they meant. They thought that she and Watakälé Periadorai –
No, it was too frightening to even think about. Not caring that her basket was only half full she pulled it off her head. ‘Kangani Aiya, I’m sick. I will go early to the weighing shed.’
Laughter followed her as she ran down the muddy path to the shed.
Later, on her way back to the line room she stopped to watch Kangani and other labourers, including her father, talk at the kade. In the past, these meetings would include plain tea and a shared betel chew, laughter and crude jokes, sometimes also a smoke of ganja. But recently the talk was serious, even angry. There was a new man there, a man from outside the tea plantation. A man they called Union Aiya.
That night, huddled in the corner of the line room, she heard her father Raman shouting outside in the veranda of the line room. ‘The white pig and Tea-maker Aiya will all be sorry soon. We won’t wait for Union Aiya to do it – we will see to it ourselves. I have had enough.’ A few other coolies joined him, shouting, clapping. She crept to the door and listened.
What she heard made her heart burn with fear.
***
The first rays of light crept through the old piece of cloth that hung across the door of the line room. Lakshmi rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Soon she and her mother would need to leave the line room and trudge to the weighing shed for the attendance muster before starting another days tea plucking.
She had to hurry. Lakshmi stepped over her sleeping sister and crept out of the room. If her mother got up before she returned, she would assume that Lakshmi had gone into the bushes to relieve herself. She pulled her skirt and blouse tightly around her and scrambled up the hill towards the Tea-maker’s house.
Lakshmi’s stomach churned. Stopping she bent over and retched. She washed her mouth in water from a little stream and hurried on. She must have an upset stomach. She was vomiting a lot these days.
Shivering in the cold, she scrambled up the path leading to the Tea-maker’s house. Her bare feet slipped on the moss and wet mud. Cursing, she clung to the tea bushes. She stopped to vomit again and then hurried on.
There was not a moment to spare.
The house lay shrouded in darkness. She ran to the back of the house and tapped on the window of the store room where Raaken slept. She heard the hiss and rattle of his snores. ‘‘Raaken, Raaken,’ she called.
Raaken stopped snoring and groaned. The mat rustled as he got up. He opened the window. ‘Lakshmi? What are you doing here at this time of the morning?’
‘Big problem, Raakan! Come, come.’ The anxiety in her voice had the effect she hoped for. Opening the window completely, Raaken climbed through to join her in the garden.
‘Why, Lakshmi? What has happened?’
‘Some of the coolies have done a soonyam, a death charm, and placed it under the mango tree,’ Lakshmi’s voice cracked as she stumbled out the words.
Raaken’s eyes widened. ‘Aiyoo, don’t even talk about such horrible things. Something bad will happen to you.’
Lakshmi trembled and grasped Raaken’s arm. ‘I heard my father talking about it. He is the leader of the group. It’s right in the path Tea-maker Aiya takes to the factory. It’s a death charm. He will step on it and die.’ She shook Raaken. ‘We have to do something.’
Raaken pulled the old blanket around his shoulders. He drew his brows together in puzzlement. ‘Who would want to kill Tea-maker Aiya?’ he scratched his head. ‘Everyone knows he’s the only staff person who looks after us.’
‘It’s something about him keeping part of our pay and giving it to us when we are old. They say it is Periadorai’s idea and Tea-maker Aiya is supporting him. They say we will get less money and that the estate will take the rest. There is a new man who talks to Appa and his friends. They call him Union Aiya.’ She shook Raaken again. ‘I am frightened. One way or the other they want to kill Tea-maker Aiya and Periadorai.’
Raaken frowned. ‘Be quiet, Lakshmi! We don’t want to wake them.’
Lakshmi continued to tug on his arm. ‘Quick, hurry. Let’s find it first.’
Raaken pulled his arm from her grasp. ‘All right. We’ll go check under the mango tree and see if anything has actually been put there. Why frighten them for nothing?’
They walked round the house to the mango tree. Neither spoke. The wind picked up and whistled up from the valley. The early morning mist swirled around them. Carefully they examined the mud around the mango tree, their eyes straining in the dim pre-dawn light.
Lakshmi grabbed Raaken again. Her fingers clawed on his arm. ‘There!’ Her voice was a frightened mumble. ‘What is that?’
Lakshmi and Raaken stared in horror at a spot where the soil had been freshly dug up and covered over. On the surface lay a triangle of three twigs. The sign of a death charm – a soonyam.
‘What did they put in there?’ Lakshmi stuttered. She put her hand on the mango tree and then drew back as if stung.
‘Probably some of Tea-maker Aiya’s hair, a nail and charms bought from the old swami in Diyatalāwa,’ Raaken responded in a hushed voice. ‘You go home before your parents get up. We don’t want your father to suspect anything. I’ll look after this.’
‘Thank you, Raakan, thank you,’ Lakshmi ran from the Tea-maker’s house and scrambled back down the path to the line rooms. She got to the line room just as her mother was getting off the mat.
‘Why are you crying? Are you not well?’ her mother snapped.
‘Just a little stomach ache,’ Lakshmi mumbled in reply, reaching for her clothes.
Together they dressed in their work sari and hessian apron and cumbly, the blanket they wore over their heads. Picking up their baskets, mother and daughter made their way to the weighing station for muster before another day of tea plucking.
But Lakshmi could not work. She was scared and worried. She was also vomiting over and over.
‘Go back to the line room, Lakshmi,’ Kangani yelled. ‘You are useless here today.’
Grateful to be let off, Lakshmi left the tea field.
She heard her mother’s voice. ‘That silly girl must have eaten something at the Tea-maker’s house.’
The loud guffaw from Meena’s mother chilled Lakshmi’s heart. ‘Maybe there is something else in her belly that is making her vomit!’
***
Lakshmi veered away from the line room and ran to the Tea-maker’s house. She looked through the kitchen window.
She watched as Raaken mixed the rice flour to make the pittu for breakfast. Carefully he set the bamboo tube on the pot of boiling water and filled it with the soft while balls of rice flour. He didn’t always get this right, but today the texture looked perfect.
Periamma came into the kitchen.
‘Raaken, you are up early today. And already made the pittu.’ She stood at the door to the kitchen, dressed for the morning. She looks so happy, thought Lakshmi. How will Raaken tell her that Tea-maker Aiya will die today? She will be so upset. Lakshmi was glad she was there.
Lakshmi slipped in through the back door into the kitchen. Periamma turned to her. ‘Lakshmi! What are you –’
They heard Tea-maker Aiya clear his throat as he brushed his teeth in the bathroom.
‘Periamma -’ Raaken cut in quickly. He shivered and swallowed. Lakshmi watched him. Soonyams were dangerous and powerful. To even talk about it was to invoke its power.
Maybe she should go forward and tell Periamma herself.
‘Periamma -’ Raaken repeated.
‘What is it, Raaken, what is happening? First thing in the morning, what are you looking so frightened about? And why is Lakshmi here at this time of the morning?’ She moved into the kitchen and stared at Raaken.
Raaken cleared his throat. He dropped his eyes and mumbled ‘I need to talk with Tea-maker Aiya.’ Sweat slithered down his trembling body.
Periamma stood in the kitchen staring from one to the other. ‘Why can’t you tell me?’
Raaken held on to the edge of the table and shook his head. The table shook with the shudders running through his body.
Periamma stared at him for a few more moments. ‘Oh, all right,’ she sighed. ‘Appa,’ she called out. ‘Can you stop and come here? Raaken has something he says he wants to tell you right now.’
Tea-maker Aiya walked into the kitchen. He was in his sarong and t-shirt with an old frayed jumper over it. Traces of shaving cream clung to his cheek.
He stared at Raaken and then gestured at him with the shaving razor. ‘Stop shaking, man. What the hell’s the matter?’
Raaken’s words tumbled out. ‘Aiya, I don’t know who did it, Aiya. Everyone knows you are a good man, no? No one should ever want to hurt you. But they have done a bad thing, Aiya. A very bad thing.’
‘Raaken,’ Tea-maker Aiya said as he shoved his finger in Raaken’s chest. ‘Slow down! Stop blathering! Who has done what bad thing?’
‘The coolies, Aiya! They have done a – a soonyam – a curse!’ Raaken stopped and gulped. The table he was leaning on fell over with a crash. ‘They have put it in the path, under the mango tree. You will step on it on your way to work this morning,’ he rushed on, ‘and then … you will die, no, Aiya. We must contact the devil dancers, the sorcerers. We must get them to come and cancel the curse, Aiya.’
Lakshmi watched round-eyed. Maybe the soonyam was working on Raaken already?
She expected Tea-maker Aiya to shake in fear. Much to her surprise, he started laughing. Not a gentle polite laugh as he usually had, but a loud, happy laugh that echoed around the kitchen.
‘Is that all it is?’ Tea-maker Aiya said, wiping his eyes. ‘I know the troublemakers who did this. They don’t understand Periadorai’s proposal for a savings plan. The idiots will cut off their noses to spite their faces.’ He gestured a scissor movement to his nose and chuckled again. ‘Come, Raaken, let’s go find this soonyam.’
He looked at Lakshmi standing in the corner of the kitchen. ‘Ah, you’re the one who brought the bad news.’ He laughed again, ‘Come on, both of you.’ He strode out of the kitchen into the garden.
Still shivering, Raaken led the way out of the kitchen and round the house to the place where he and Lakshmi had seen the disturbed soil. Tea-maker Aiya and Periamma followed, both of them smiling. Lakshmi and Raaken exchanged looks. It was a madness spell, they were now sure of it. Why else would they be so happy at a time like this? Standing at a distance, Raaken pointed, and then looked away. ‘There, Aiya – that is the soonyam spot.’
Tea-maker Aiya hooted with laughter again. He went to the spot where the soonyam was. First he stamped his foot on the spot. Then he jumped up and down on it. ‘Raaken, Lakshmi,’ he called out as he leapt up and down. ‘My God is more powerful than all the devils and soonyams in this world and out of it! I am protected by the God who made the world and the stars! This curse can have no effect on me!’ Still laughing, he stepped away.
‘Aiyooo’ Raaken squealed. His eyes rolled up. He sagged and dropped to the ground in a faint.
Lakshmi felt her head spin. She turned and vomited at the gnarled old roots of the mango tree, right over the spot where the soonyam lay.
***
Raaken lay twitching on the ground. ‘Aiya, Aiya, you will die – die – die.’
Tea-maker Aiya looked at Lakshmi and Periamma squatting by Raaken. ‘I can’t be hanging around with this idiot. I’m meeting Ashley-Cooper at ten to announce the plans to the coolies.’ He walked away into the house.
Lakshmi and Periamma sat by Raaken till he sat up. ‘Go to the kitchen and get some tea,’ Periamma instructed. Raaken got to his feet and staggered to the kitchen.
Lakshmi followed Periamma, knowing where she would go – to the study, to kneel by the cross. Lakshmi watched and listened. ‘Dear God,’ Periamma prayed between sobs, ‘look after him. I need him, the children need him.’ Lakshmi turned and crept away to join Raaken in the kitchen.
They sat cross-legged on the kitchen floor, strong, sweet tea in their tin mugs. Raaken bent to thump his head on the floor, then leapt up and walked round and round the kitchen. ‘They will beat him, throw him off the top floor of the factory and stab him. I know they have knives, maybe even guns. They will shoot him and Periadorai, they will chop up the bodies and throw them in the river.’
Lakshmi drained her cup of tea, and then leapt up to follow him round the kitchen. She clung to his shirt. ‘Shut up, you idiot. Don’t worry Periamma.’
Periamma’s voice stopped them. ‘What is happening here?’
Lakshmi ran to her. ‘Periamma, can I go to the factory and see what is happening, please?’ Periamma looked at her, then at Raaken and nodded. ‘I’m worried too. But I don’t want you to go alone. Take Raaken. Both of you go.’
‘Aiyoo, amma,’ Raaken cowered back behind Lakshmi. His sarong was damp. He had wet himself in fear.
Lakshmi didn’t want to waste time. She held up her sari and ran down the road to the factory. Raaken followed her. ‘Run, Raaken, run,’ she yelled out to him.
They slowed as they approached the factory. It was quiet. There was no noise of machinery. No rumbling of the rollers and dryers. No whining of the blowers in the withering troughs. And above all, no chatter of workers.
Then they heard it – a faint sound from the back of the factory.
Raaken stared at Lakshmi. Suddenly he stood straight. He seemed to grow taller. ‘Let’s go,’ he said. ‘If I can’t save Tea-maker Aiya, I will die with him.’ Hitching up his sarong, he ran round the factory. Lakshmi followed. She stopped once to vomit in the drain.
A group of sixty to seventy factory workers were gathered on the back lawn. Some of them shook their fists at Tea-maker Aiya and Periadorai. Others at the back hooted and yelled obscenities. Bellows of ‘traitor, lies and robber’ mingled with screams of ‘kill him’.
Tea-maker Aiya and Periadorai stood on the raised end of the factory lawn. Periadorai looked nervous. But Tea-maker Aiya was calm and relaxed. He looked at the howling mob. The men’s eyes were glazed and there was a smell of stale arak around. One man at the front hawked and spat at Tea-maker Aiya’s feet. Lakshmi recognised him as the union man at the kade. Lakshmi felt the bile rise in her throat, again. Raaken worked his way through the crowd until he stood close to Tea-maker Aiya. Lakshmi crept along behind him.
Tea-maker Aiya cleared his throat and faced the crowd of men. ‘Periadorai is concerned that you all have no money to live on when you are old and can no longer work in the factory.’
There were loud jeers from the crowd.
Periadorai said something to Tea-maker Aiya in English.
‘Periadorai, has a plan for you. He will increase your pay, but you must put ten per cent in a savings account for when you can no longer work,’ Tea-maker Aiya translated.
‘You’re lying!’ one of the coolies yelled.
‘Periadorai wants to cut our pay and keep the money,’ shouted another.
‘We will not work till you stop this plan,’ another screamed out.
A couple of the men picked up logs of firewood. Raaken looked around desperately. Everyone was shouting and moving towards Tea-maker Aiya and Periadorai.
Periadorai stepped back, but Tea-maker Aiya stood with his arms folded, facing the crowd.
‘Have I ever cheated you?’ His voice was clear and calm, echoing around the lawn. ‘When have I ever done anything wrong to any of you? Have any of you ever been turned away from my house without tea and a meal?’ He stared around at the coolies.
Then he stepped down and walked right up to one man. He stabbed his finger at Murugan. ‘Who helped your women when they were pregnant?’
The crowd parted as Tea-maker Aiya walked through. He stopped at another man, Santhanum. ‘Who gave medicines to your children?’ He stepped back and spoke louder. ‘Who gave you extra rice rations? Who wrote your appeal letters for you? Now tell me – why do you want to attack me? Come forward anyone who has a complaint against me. Come.’ He stood with his arms extended outwards.
‘Don’t listen to him,’ the union man yelled. ‘He is a puppet and the white man is pulling the strings.’
Lakshmi looked around. Suddenly, nobody was paying attention to union man.
The crowd became quiet. A few cleared their throats. Others fidgeted. They put down the logs of wood they were holding. They broke into groups. The rumble of talk replaced the yells and hoots.
Suddenly, one labourer pushed forward and stood facing Tea-maker Aiya. Tea-maker Aiya didn’t flinch. He looked the man directly in the eyes. The labourer turned and faced the crowd. ‘Tea-maker Aiya is right. He has never done anything to harm us. Why hurt him? Let a few of us talk to him and find out about this plan.’
Lakshmi looked on – shocked – it was her father, Ramen, the very man who had placed the soonyam for Tea-maker Aiya. Here he was supporting him!
A chattering erupted among the men. After a couple of minutes, the crowd broke up. A few of the coolies, led by Lakshmi’s father, went into the Tea-maker’s office. Others picked up the large bags of fresh tea leaves the women had collected and carried them into the factory. The chug and roar of the dryers and rollers filled the morning. The factory was getting back into production.
Lakshmi and Raaken looked around, wide-eyed. Tea-maker Aiya was right. His God was definitely more powerful than all the devils of the soonyam.
Lakshmi turned and ran back to tell Periamma what had happened. She ran back to the house, stopping to vomit in the drain.