The dawn hides her behind the curtain of the past and the day comes on his mission in the town of Harihareshwara. A slow but dying cacophonous sound of a motorcar takes a pause in front of a double storied bungalow. A newly married couple gets down and gets engrossed in shifting their luggage on the second storey of the bungalow named Shree-Prasad. The newly married couple is Mr. Krishna and Mrs. Sundara Murthy. Mr. Krishna works as a supervisor in firecrackers manufacturing company in Harihareshwara. Mrs. Sundara Murty being ill-educated prefers to be happy in her role as a housewife. It is confirmed from the discussion of the couple that Mrs. Sundara had lost her parents in an accident when she was eight years old and it is her poor maternal grandmother who brought her up. It is on their first night, Mr. Krishna who is already obsessed with her beauty comes up with an appreciable remark for her beauty. He admires her saying, “How beautiful you are! How fortunate I am to have such a beautiful wife!” Mrs. Sundara Murty gets blushed by his complements. It makes her feel proud inwardly but pretends to be taken casually saying, “Thank you very much for this encouraging and lovely complement.” She too acknowledges that she is very fortunate enough to have such a husband who loves and appreciates her. Mr. Krishna further admires her and tries to place her on pedestal saying, “Your beauty has mesmerized me. I am slave to you and to your beauty and will be forever.” To this, Mrs. Krishna replies by giving a blushed smile.
Mrs. Sundara Murty is like her name. She is woman of a paramount beauty. If anyone casts his eye on her, loses his senses and becomes a slave of her beauty. Women get jealous of her and men get enamored after her. She being new and an unacquainted with Harihareshwara takes time to get spread the fragrance of her heart killing beauty. Slowly the beauty of Mrs. Sundara comes out of the confinements of the house. Mrs. Sundara has to visit several parts of the town such as market for shopping and the bazzar for buying vegetables to run the household. Slowly, Harihareshwara gets entangled into the beautiful but harmless fire of beauty of Mrs. Sundara. Her paramount and senses stealing beauty becomes the talk of the town. Her beauty is such that anyone of any age category adult, young or middle aged or a toothless dying old man gets insane and enshrines an impossible desire to have her. When the fragrance of her beauty crosses the frontiers of Harihareshwara, the curious lovers of her beauty deliberately come to those places to have a look at her beauty from where she goes on spreading the fragrance of her beauty. The people are so mad after her dying beauty that they get ready to die for the sake of a single look of her and her beauty. Evil eye of the world too becomes passionate to enjoy the feast of her beauty by foul or fair ways. Thus the paramount beauty of Mrs. Murty gives new hope and pleasure of life to the people of Harihareshwara and places around it.
Life of this newly married couple begins happily in Harihareshwara. The couple continues their life being happy in their limited income by limiting their needs. Both are happy in whatever they have and they never let their concerns grow by aspiring for more than what they have. Every night before going to bed, the couple thanks the almighty for making them happier than others who never had and have the taste of happiness. Such is the happy and contended life of Mr. Krishna and Mrs. Sundara Murty. It has become a routine of Mrs. Sundara Murty to meet the admiring eyes and eyes having evil intentions but ignoring them she leads her controlled life.
One day at noon, when the life is lost in the dissonant sounds of the machinery busy in making material for firecrackers, accidently caused short-circuit sets the fire-crackers’ godown on fire where Mr. Krishna works. Within the twinkling of the eyes, gigantic waves of fire engulf the godown of the firecrackers manufacturing company. Unfortunately, at this moment Mr. Krishna is on a round to make report on the existing stock of the living firecrackers available in the godown. Suddenly the jarring sounds of the bomb blasts hit the eardrums of the labor along with Mr. Krishna present over there and before they understand what happens, the fire engulfs them leaving a heap of coals and coals of dead bodies at the place where there was a huge go-down a few whiles ago. The uncontrolled crowd of people gathers at the spot. Everything is finished before they can do something to rescue the lives. One of the employees of the company identifies the dead body of Mr. Krishna and reports to the management.
The darkness is about to fall, the Sun is seen counting his last breath at the edge of a distant horizon. Mrs. Krishna happily engaged in doing cooking activities simultaneously keeping her eyes on the arrival of her husband. She is so much engrossed in her activities that she never thinks that this darkness of evening will grab the light permanently from her life. A group of employees brings the covered dead body of Mr. Krishna. The door of Mr. Krishna is locked from inside. One of them knocks at the door. Hearing the sound of the knock, Mrs. Krishna hurriedly comes as if she thinks that it is her husband knocking at the door. She gets surprised to see a stranger at the door. The employee introduces himself as, “Hello! Mam!.” Before he adds something to his saying Mr. Krishna hurriedly and a little beat chillingly asks him, “Who are you gentleman and what brings you here?” Fully prepared but somewhat serious inwardly introduces him to her. “I am Rangnath Chakrawarthy, a colleague of Mr. Krishna. Before Mrs. Krishna poses any other question he hastily but in serious tone tells the things happened and brings before her the covered dead body of Mr. Krishna. On seeing the dead body of her husband, Mrs. Krishna makes such a wailing sound that the whole world gets lost into her wailing sound. Wailing sound becomes a louder and louder and after reaching to its extreme becomes silent. Dark silence with spreading darkness comes to stay in the dark life of Mrs. Krishna. Funeral ritual is performed and left no ritual to be performed thereafter in the dark life of Mrs. Krishna.
Mrs. Sundara Murthy’s battle for survival begins. After the sudden departure of her husband, Sundara prefers to continue her life in Harihareshwara as she doesn’t have any strong relative who can look after and support her except her maternal grandmother who is too old to support her financially in these worst days of Sundara. Being ill-educated, she does not have the opportunities to get employed. The pages of the history of the tragedy get turned one after the other. She begins to work as a maid servant in the house of a landlord. Her seductive beauty is her advantage as well as her disadvantage. Her beauty is fascinating enough to change the colors of the eyes of the people. The beauty changes the colors of the eyes and the mind of her master. Once, the master’s wife is out of station. Taking advantage of these solitary conditions, the master has the feast of her beauty. She protests but being helpless and slave to the situation, she learns to accept the turns of her life as they come. Her beauty is exposed to be enjoyed. Mrs. Sundara Murty becomes Ms. Sundara, a very popular and notorious whore in Harihareshwara. She becomes notorious among the housewives for she becomes responsible for spoiling the matrimonial lives of women whose husbands get mad after her beauty and popular for all those women eaters whose objective is nothing but to serve and enjoy the beauty of women. Very soon, the popularity of Sundara reaches to climax with every person in an around Harihareshwara begins his day uttering the name of Sundara. Overnight Sundara attains all that she wants. Her lovers make a splendid Haveli for Sundara which becomes popular as ‘Sundara’s Haveli’ at the outskirt of the town. Being a whore, she prefers to keep herself away from the festivals celebrated in the town.
There is festive atmosphere everywhere in Hariharshwara. People are preparing for Ganpati Visarjan Procession. The devotees are decorating the vehicles with marigold garlands. The technicians are checking the sound system which will be used during the procession. On the trial tune of the musical systems, the children are seen taking some dance steps. The procession begins and it goes through the various lanes of Harihareshwara. It is just behind the haveli of Sundara, there is a huge and historical water lake where the people of Harihareshwara do the visarjan of the idols of their lord Ganesha. When the procession comes and takes a pause at Sundara’s haveli, Sundara comes out and stands in the gallery of haveli and takes a glimpse of the procession and darshan of Lord Ganesha. It seems that the procession is dying to have the rare glimpses of Sundara’s beauty. After this brief pause, the procession reaches to its destination.
It is at the early hours of the dawn of the next day, the entire Harihareshwara gets shaken with the severe vibrations of earthquake which continue for ten minutes. In a brief period of ten minutes, the severe earthquake demolishes the entire town of Harihareshwara which took years to make its existence. Dawn disappears to let the Sun throw the light on the scene of demolition. The sunlight presents such scenes of destruction that makes one close his eyes as eyes would never like to see such a heart breaking scene of destruction. When splendid bungalows and houses are dancing on the instruction of the earthquake and falling one after the other, Sundara hurriedly comes out of her haveli stands still and sees with her open eyes the destruction of the entire town of Harihareshwara and her own haveli too is not an exception to this demolition. To add to this disaster, there comes the rain which further aggravates the situation. Dilapidated structures and dead bodies get mingled with mud and become difficult to identify which is mud and which are dead bodies. Sundara’s eyes catch nothing but the mud of dead bodies of the people everywhere. Loss of lives is so colossal that it becomes question who would mourn on whose death as a few people are left to shade tears on the death of their kinsmen.
On hearing the crying sound of the babies, Sundara runs in the direction of crying sound saves lives as much as possible. Some old men, women, widows and a few young men who are saved in this natural calamity, come to strengthen her hands without bothering of her status. The news of this earthquake spreads like a wild fire throughout the state. Soon demolished Harihareswhara becomes a place of fair. People gather like ants. Sundara gets happy with this crowd but soon she gets disappointed to see that the people are not there to shade tears but to grab property of the dead one. She gets shocked when she sees that the people are busy in discovering the bodies from the mud and grabbing and snatching the gold ornaments of the dead bodies lying in the mud. She feels that Harihareshwara is being twice looted. Despite this she continues her rescue work and saves lives as much as possible. In the initial days after the earthquake, the people of all cadres, government officials, M.L.A. M.Ps., Ministers at the state and a few from the Center visit the earthquake affected Harihareshwara to complete the formality.
The countries all over the world send their help to the earthquake affected Harihareshwara. After a few days of photo session work and shading crocodile tears, all take the leave of Harihareshwara leaving its people die in the miserable conditions. A lot of financial help comes from the countries all over world and from the central government too. But it gets finished till it reaches to Hariharshwara. The almost dead Harihareshwara keeps it’s eyes on the way which would bring savior but its hope turns to be hopeless. Disposal of dead bodies being mixed with mud takes a lot of time which causes epidemics and creates health hazards to the survived.
Sundara realizes her responsibility to revive the dead Harihareshwara. A period of month passes after the first photo session formality, none of the government officials or ministers or the media come back to the town to take a note of destruction and living lives dying for help. For years, Harihareshwara survives without hospitals, schools, banks, cradle houses, libraries and without electricity which darkens the darkness of the evening. Media too have no time to pay heed to the state of affairs in Harihareshwara as it is busy in showing T.R.P. earning news. For months Harihareshwara leads an ignored life.
Sundara does not afford to wait any more for the coming of the savior. She herself becomes the savior of the town and is fully aware of the fact that at any cost, she has to revive her town. She decides to destroy herself to create her town. Construction through destruction becomes the principle of her life on which she leads her future journey. Sundara determines to take absolute advantage of her body for the betterment of her town. She goes to the district collector to bring help for her town. At this time the District Collector is engaged in a meeting with his subordinates. Sundara comes and talks with the peon sitting on a stool. The peon begins to stare and capture as much beauty of Sundara as he can in his eyes. The peon tells her that ‘Saheb’ is busy in the meeting till then you can sit here. While sitting on the bench outside the Collector’s cabin, she notices that the peon is engrossed and ceaselessly staring at her. The meeting ends and the people go out. The peon goes in and conveys the message that a beautiful woman has been waiting for long time to see him. His ‘Saheb’ asks him to send the woman in. Sundara comes in and introduces herself, “I am Sundara, the whore of Harihareshwara.” He gets dumbfounded to see a woman with a mesmerizing beauty standing in front of him. The Distict Collector has heard enough stories of the beauty of Sundara but he never had the opportunity to see her. When he sees the actual Sundara is standing in his office and begging for help, her beauty is such that it makes him mad and his eyes grow lusty and hungry for her beauty. He begins his chat with Sundara in his pinky Hindi.
“Tau aap hai Sundara! Bilkul Nam ki tarah hai aap. Aao Sundaraji! Kaise Anna Hua” without giving her chance to speak, he continues his talk. “Aapke aur aapki khubsurtike bare mey maine bahot suna or padha bhi hai. Aaj mauka mila aapko dekhneka, Sundaraji.” Sundara without waiting for his permission to sit, she occupies the chair and answers to lusty questions. “Bahot Din ho gaye, Kohibhi government ka admi Harihareshwar mey aaya nahi. Log madat ki rah me hei. Aap kuch karo Sir.” The district Collector feels proud and braggartly says, “Aap ko na kahena hamare bas mei nahin hai. App hame khush karo and ham aapko….. Ho sake to aaj Ghar pe khana Khane ko aajao. Sundara spends that night with the District Collector. After initial talk……..ritual is performed.
Thus Sundara goes on knocking at the doors of M.L.A., M.Ps, Ministers and other official in everyone she meets the lusty eyes of the district collector who enjoys the feast of her beauty.
Sundara’s magic shows its miracles. In a few days, the never ending help comes in Harihareshwara. At the instruction of the seniors, the government officials rush towards Harihareshwara. The work of renovation and rehabilitation takes acceleration. With disappearing time, the old Harihareshwara too disappears from the canvas of the present bidding farewell to its lovers. Harihareshwara emerges as an ultra modern city with all facilities. People become oblivion to the disappeared Harihareshwar but form a great sense of respect and reverence for a woman who becomes a legend of sacrifice for the people of Harihareshwara and the entire state. Every one fondly calls her ‘Amma’ a savior of Harihareshawara. This is the new incarnation of Sundara. She no longer remains ‘Sundara the Prostitute’ but a spiritual personality who is loved, respected, honoured and taken care of by all people. Her celebrity crosses the frontiers of the nations. Devotees and her lovers from all over the world visit her ashram and gets blessings of SundaraAmma. Considering her sacrifice for the betterment of the society, not only many countries but also the central government of India and of course the state too gets eager to confer upon her the most covetous honors on. Her Haveli is transformed into an ashrama which is always crowded with her devotees and admirers. Disappearing years steal not only the dimple from the beautiful cheeks of ‘Sundara Amma’ but also the disgrace which corrodes her inwardly. She grows sufficiently old always resting on the bed as she suffers from a severe and uncured disease. Treatment is on but the body has become too weak to respond to the power of medicines. All efforts are stopped to rejuvenate the dilapidated body of ‘Sundara Amma’.
Ceaseless depletion of the body makes ‘Sundara Amma’ almost dead. It is on one evening, the setting Sun calls the soul of ‘Sundara Amma’ to accompany him to a never ending journey of life. The soul of ‘Amma’ responds and thus ‘Sundara Amma’ pays the debt of nature leaving behind her a never ending fountain of inspiration for sacrifice and adherence to the society. The news of ‘Sundara Amma’ death spreads like a wild fire. People like ants start hurrying towards the ashrama where dead body of ‘Sundara Amma’ is kept for last darshan. The crowd enhances leaves no ant like space for stepping on the ground. For the first time in the history of Harihareshwara, the town has experienced and seen such a crowd of people, the edge of which becomes difficult to be fixed. The funeral procession begins and goes through every lane of Harihareshwara. Her lovers and devotees occupy whichever the place and space they get to take the last darshan of their ‘Goddess’. The rain begins and it seems to all that the Nature is too shading tears on death of her darling soul. Harihareshwara gets drowned in the flood of tears. The sacrifice of Sundara not only immortalizes her but Harihareshwara as well.
Funeral procession continues for hours. On the last edge of the crowd, the two old gentle men who are the eye witness of Sundara’s journey and transformation from a whore to a goddess are seen engaged in a serious conversation with tearful eyes. One says:
“Choice of making of a person is not in one’s hands, it is destined. Despite of his strong will, one has to go with the option of life which one has never desired. Destiny traps persons in such net of miserable and helpless circumstances that they have to accept the things as they come in their lives does not matter whether they were their choices or not. A person born and brought up in any kind of family or any kind of the class or strata of the society never wants to go on such a track where he or she would be most undesirable, disgraced and unacceptable figure for the society. A gentle-man never wants to be a criminal of any sort but he is made. A decent woman does not matter, born or brought up in rich or a poor class never wants that the society should call her as whore or a prostitute which is nothing but a curse to entire woman’s community. But they are made so not by themselves but by the society which itself gives birth to this darker and brighter side of its reflection. Sometimes it happens that a person preferably a decent woman who becomes the victim of treacheries at the hand of the destiny and unwillingly accepts the disgrace of being a prostitute. It should be remembered that it is power and miracle of destiny which makes a bad person good and vice versa. If the destiny wants it can make a beggar rich overnight and a millionaire a beggar dying for a penny. If the destiny wants it can make a decent woman as a whore or prostitute and vice versa. This is nothing but an endless unpitying but pleasant game of the destiny on which the entire world runs laughing and drowning into the never ending flood of tears. It is really a great pastime for the destiny of which we are all willingly or unwillingly inseparable parts. The happening of the things in the lives of the person are controlled by the destiny either by herself or through its agents such as the society which is responsible for making itself good or bad.”
Other gentleman agrees with his friend and exclaims, “A woman is not a born prostitute but she is made!”