The God of Small Things - Get a Free Blog

and a stainless-steel plate of banana chips (bright yellow with little
black seeds in the center) for Chacko.
“He has gone to Olassa. He‟ll be back any time now,” she
said. She referred to her husband as addeham, which was the
respectful form of “he,” whereas “he” called her “eli,” which was,
approximately, “Hey, you!”
She was a lush, beautiful woman with golden-brown skin
and huge eyes. Her long frizzy hair was damp and hung loose
down her back, plaited only at the very end. It had wet the back of
her tight, deep-red blouse and stained it a tighter, deeper red. From
where the sleeves ended, her soft arm-flesh swelled and dropped
over her dimpled elbows in a sumptuous bulge. Her white mundu
and kavath were crisp and ironed. She smelled of sandalwood and
the crushed green gram that she used instead of soap. For the first
time in years, Chacko watched her without the faintest stirring of
sexual desire. He had a wife (Ex-wife, Chacko!) at home. With
arm freckles and back freckles. With a blue dress and legs
underneath.
Young Lenin appeared at the door in red Stretchlon shorts.
He stood on one thin leg like a stork and twisted the pink lace
curtain into a pole, staring at Chacko with his mother‟s eyes. He
was six now, long past the age of pushing things up his nose.
“Mon, go and call Latha,” Mrs. Pillai said to him.
Lenin remained where he was, and, still staring at Chacko,
screeched effortlessly, in the way only children can.
“Latha! Latha! You‟re wanted!”
“Our niece from Kottayam. His elder brother‟s daughter,”
Mrs. Pillai explained. “She won the First Prize for Elocution at the
Youth Festival in Trivandrum last week.”
A combative-looking young girl of about twelve or thirteen
appeared through the lace curtain. She wore a long, printed skirt
that reached all the way down to her ankles and a short,
waist-length white blouse with darts that made room for future
breasts. Her oiled hair was parted into two halves. Each of her
tight, shining plaits was looped over and tied with ribbons so that