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irds go to die? Why don‟t dead ones fall like stones from the sky? Asked on the evening of the day she arrived. She was standing on the edge of Baby Kochamma‟s ornamental pond looking up at the kites wheeling in the sky. Sophie Mol. Hatted, bell-bottomed and Loved from the Beginning. Margaret Kochamma (because she knew that when you travel to the Heart of Darkness [b] Anything can Happen to Anyone) called her in to have her regimen of pills. Filaria. Malaria. Diarrhea. She had no prophylaxis, unfortunately, for Death by Drowning. Then it was time for dinner. “Supper, silly,” Sophie Mol said when Estha was sent to call her. At supper silly, the children sat at a separate smaller table. Sophie Mol, with her back to the grown-ups, made gruesome faces at the food. Every mouthful she ate was displayed to her admiring younger cousins, half-chewed, mulched, lying on her tongue like fresh vomit. When Rahel did the same, Ammu saw her and took her to bed. Ammu tucked her naughty daughter in and switched off the light. Her goodnight kiss left no spit on Rahel‟s cheek and Rahel could tell that she wasn‟t really angry. “You‟re not angry, Ammu.” In a happy whisper. A little more her mother loved her. “No.” Ammu kissed her again. “Goodnight, sweetheart. Godbless.” “Goodnight, Ammu. Send Estha soon.” And as Ammu walked away she heard her daughter whisper, “Ammu!” “What is it?” “We be of one blood, Thou and I! ” Ammu leaned against the bedroom door in the dark, reluctant
to return to the dinner table, where the conversation circled like a moth around the white child and her mother as though they were the only source of light. Ammu felt that she would die, wither and die, if she heard another word. If she had to endure another minute of Chacko‟s proud, tennis-trophy smile. Or the undercurrent of sexual jealousy that emanated from Mammachi. Or Baby Kochamma‟s conversation that was designed to exclude Ammu and her children, to inform them of their place in the scheme of things. As she leaned against the door in the darkness, she felt her dream, her Afternoon-mare, move inside her like a rib of water rising from the ocean, gathering into a wave. The cheerful one-armed man with salty skin and a shoulder that ended abruptly like a cliff emerged from the shadows of the jagged beach and walked towards her. Who was he? Who could he have been? The God of Loss. The God of Small Things. The God of Goosebumps and Sudden Smiles. He could do only one thing at a time. If he touched her he couldn‟t talk to her, if he loved her be couldn‟t leave, if he spoke he couldn‟t listen, if he fought be couldn‟t win. Ammu longed for him. Ached for him with the whole of her biology. She returned to the dinner table. Chapter 21. The Cost of Living When the old house had closed its bleary eyes and settled into sleep, Ammu, wearing one of Chacko‟s old shirts over a long white petticoat, walked out onto the front verandah. She paced up and down for awhile. Restless. Feral. Then she sat on the wicker
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Arundhati Roy God of Small Things
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locked. The front verandah bare. Un
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meant for. Free funerals. Of course
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made. Lying broken on the hot churc
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desk and approached Ammu with his b
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still, tea-colored puddles the way
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his life, Khubchand, who had the be
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usiness as the Inevitable Consequen
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sternmouthed nuns seated behind her
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look straight, though it wasn‟t.
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would ask to try on their slippers
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the westernmost verandah of the Kal
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found that the senior sisters monop
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peaked red cap. Baby Kochamma spent
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with a towel). She even locked her
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difficulty that their family had wi
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Still, to say that it all began whe
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RejOice, And again I say rej-Oice.
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money to raise a suitable dowry, no
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She didn‟t notice the single Siam
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welcomed. To Ammu, her twins seemed
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a high-wax shoulder polish. Sometim
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Ammu said that the billboard made t
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told that his moth had finally been
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effeminate pout-the kind that child
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and despise ourselves.” “Marry
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Earth Woman‟s eye. That Worse Thi
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Ammu said. Chacko said, “What‟s
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know what Malayalam was. They told
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Chacko lit a Charminar. He inhaled
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hair. Estha wondered how that could
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percent of Kerala‟s population we
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Kerala was reeling in the aftermath
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A bun. A banana. Another balled fis
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Memory was that woman on the train.
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Entomology who first noticed little
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Vellya Paapen‟s good intentions q
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emember Velutha when he left. But i
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though they had successfully conclu
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eyelids the light was bright and ho
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and Rahel thought it was a nice pho
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Anabs-urd Litt-le Bird Is popping o
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them with the boys‟ luggage, his
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white-tiled bathroom, with sea-secr
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“Will you be okay?” Ammu said,
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grandmother‟s cans, Estha Alone o
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eathing people and hairoil. And old
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In the lobby, the orangedrinks were
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Estha went behind the Refreshments
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and pointy shoes. “You mustn‟t
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the question. I cannot love them. I
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“No. Thank you.” Estha looked a
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hostess‟s heart trapped in a bear
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window. He could taste the hot, sal
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“Goodnight,” Estha said, too si
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Those last few tortured nights befo
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wondered idly if it had indeed been
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He stayed in constant touch with th
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no more than a swollen drain now. A
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labeled with edifying placards that
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Rahel tried to walk past unnoticed.
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“That is most unfortunate,” he
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efore the doctor saw him, and to co
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pressed together, smiles frozen on
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Chacko, who usually wore a mundu, w
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Heel and Toe Heel and Toe Long flat
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Ammu said, “Can you see her, Rahe
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eeze. Adoor Basi, the most popular,
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And Later became a horrible, menaci
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It would bea. “All right,” Ammu
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Ambassador Estha and Ambassador Rah
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“I‟m not,” Rahel said. “You
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Baby Kochamma suggested a car song.
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with spit, and taken half the paper
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and I was Little Nehru. Ammu had co
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white, it means it isn‟t ripe. Wh
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of the eternal fire became a red ro
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Nine steep steps led from the drive
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despised her anyway. Shopkeeper‟s
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on her behind. Kochu Maria‟s fan
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were let down. The gauze doors of t
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Even after her cornea transplant, M
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The man or her own child. Or just t
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“Where‟s Estha Mon?” Velutha
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And truth be told, it was no small
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“Oower Kochamma,” the Blue Army
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Kochamma, who didn‟t answer. “V
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Little Girls Playing. Sweet. One be
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spent a whole day saying. She and E
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Gloom swallowed the garden. Whole.
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performed in the front verandah and
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fire till fruit is soft. Sqweeze ou
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Love-in-Tokyo. She heard a nun‟s
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eceipt for the dues that Velutha pa
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What was Estha sitting on? On what
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Here they learned to Wait. To Watch
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The boat-on-legs approached the hut
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sudden silence from inside. Kuttapp
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“Has Chacko Saar‟s Mol come?”
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Hey Mr Monkey Man Why‟s your BUM
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He squeezed the water out of it (sa
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His skin was salty. Hers too. He le
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“I was happy,” Ammu said, and r
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mentioning his name, she sensed tha
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was taut and smooth. Under her hand
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The bedroom with blue curtains and
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his name on it) that lay open on th
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up-like a bubble. He wrestles it to
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soft and womanly, a man with breast
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mother. The air grew warmer. Less d
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Comrade Pillai. Ayemenem‟s egg-br
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side of her face, making her cheekb
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out on either side of his head like
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hooting, helpless laughter. Meanwhi
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friend he had ever had. Not just th
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Margaret Kochamma was physically at
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comfortable, committed friendship.
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had the keys. She called through th
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“It‟s his eye,” Kochu Maria s
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thoughts with unctuous oils. She bl
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makes fishermen pray. At the Kottay
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could not possibly be, unconnected.
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When Margaret Kochamma saw her litt
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still asleep. Chacko, on his way to
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Page 252 and 253: they hung down on either side of he
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Page 258 and 259: “Yes. He is good worker,” he sa
Page 260 and 261: completely. “That may be,” he s
Page 262 and 263: People‟s War joined the racks of
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Page 268 and 269: silver. It took him only a few minu
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Page 278 and 279: But this time, for Ammu and her two
Page 280 and 281: The Kottayam Police. A cartoonplato
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Page 286 and 287: Still they brought out the handcuff
Page 288 and 289: “ssenetiloP,” he said. “ssene
Page 290 and 291: The sight of Baby Kochamma made the
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Page 296 and 297: erths green. The floor green. The c
Page 298 and 299: “And Real Teachers teaching.”
Page 302 and 303: chair below the moldy, button-eyed
Page 304 and 305: She didn‟t see the knob of his he
Page 306 and 307: with an equal measure of pain. As t
Page 308 and 309: what seemed like an eternity, but w
Page 310: He died of natural causes. That fir
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