The God of Small Things - Get a Free Blog

terrorize her. An attempt to instill order into a world gone wrong.
Still later, when the dust had settled and he had had the
paperwork organized, Inspector Thomas Mathew congratulated
himself for the way it had all turned out.
But now, he listened carefully and courteously as Baby
Kochamma constructed her story.
“Last night it was getting dark–about seven in the
evening–when he came to the house to threaten us. It was raining
very heavily. The lights had gone out and we were lighting the
lamps when he came,” she told him. “He knew that the man of the
house, my nephew Chacko Ipe, was–is–away in Cochin. We were
three women alone in the house.” She paused to let the Inspector
imagine the horrors that could be visited by a sex-crazed Paravan
on three women alone in a house.
“We told him that if he did not leave Ayemenem quietly we
would call the police. He started off by saying that my niece had
consented, can you imagine? He asked us what proof we had of
what we were accusing him of. He said that according to the Labor
Laws we had no grounds on which to dismiss him. He was very
calm. `The days are gone,‟ he told us, `when you can kick us
around like dogs.‟” By now Baby Kochamma sounded utterly
convincing. Injured. Incredulous.
Then her imagination took over completely. She didn‟t
describe how Mammachi had lost control. How she had gone up to
Velutha and spat right into his face. The things she had said to him.
The names she had called him.
Instead she described to Inspector. Thomas Mathew how–it
was not just what Velutha had said that had made her come to the
police, but the way he said it. His complete lack of remorse, which
was what had shocked her most. As though he was actually proud
of what he had done. Without realizing it herself, she grafted the
manner of the man who had humiliated her during the march onto
Velutha. She described the sneering fury in his face. The brassy
insolence in his voice that had so frightened her. That made her
sure that his dismissal and the children‟s disappearance were not,