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eathing people and hairoil. And old carpets. A magical, Sound of Music smell that Rahel remembered and treasured. Smells, like music, hold memories. She breathed deep, and bottled it up for posterity. Estha had the tickets. Little Man. He lived in a caravan. Dum dum. The Torch Man shone his light on the pink tickets. Row J. Numbers 17, 18, 19, 20. Estha, Ammu, Rahel, Baby Kochamma. They squeezed past irritated people who moved their legs this way and that to make space. The seats of the chairs had to be pulled down. Baby Kochamma held Rahel‟s seat down while she climbed on. She wasn‟t heavy enough, so the chair folded her into itself like sandwich stuffing, and she watched from between her knees. Two knees and a fountain. Estha, with more dignity than that, sat on the edge of his chair. The shadows of the fans were on the sides of the screen where the picture wasn‟t. Off with the torch. On with the World Hit The camera soared up in the skyblue (car-colored) Austrian sky with the clear, sad sound of church bells. Far below, on the ground, in the courtyard of the abbey, the cobblestones were shining. Nuns walked across it. Like slow cigars. Quiet nuns clustered quietly around their Reverend Mother, who never read their letters. They gathered like ants around a crumb of toast. Cigars around a queen Cigar. No hair on their knees. No melons in their blouses. And their breath like peppermint. They had complaints to make to their Reverend Mother. Sweetsinging complaints. About Julie Andrews, who was still up in the hills, singing. The hills are alive with the sound of music, and was, once again, late for Mass. She climbs a tree and scrapes her knee The nuns sneaked musically. Her dress has got a tear She waltzes on her way to Mass And whistles on the stair…
People in the audience were turning around. “Shhh!” they said. Shh! Shh! Shh! And underneath her wimple She has curlers in her hair There was a voice from outside the picture. It was clear and true, cutting through the fan-whirring, peanut-crunching darkness. There was a nun in the audience. Heads twisted around like bottle caps. Black-haired backs of heads became faces with mouths and mustaches. Hissing mouths with teeth like sharks. Many of them. Like stickers on a card. “Shhhh!” they said together. It was Estha who was singing. A nun with a puff. An Elvis Pelvis Nun. He couldn‟t help it. “Get him out of here!” The Audience said, when they found him. Shutup or Getout. Getout or Shutup. The Audience was a Big Man. Estha was a Little Man, with the tickets. “Estha for heaven‟s sake, shut UP!!” Ammu‟s fierce whisper said. So Estha shut UP. The mouths and mustaches turned away. But then, without warning, the song came back, and Estha couldn‟t stop it. “Ammu, can I go and sing it outside?” Estha said (before Ammu smacked him). “I‟ll come back after the song.” “But don‟t ever expect me to bring you out again,” Ammu said. “You‟re embarrassing all of us.” But Estha couldn‟t help it. He got up to go. Past angry Ammu. Past Rahel concentrating through her knees. Past Baby Kochamma. Past the Audience that had to move its legs again. Thiswayandthat. The red sign over the door said EXIT in a red light. Estha EXITed.
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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
Page 44 and 45: a high-wax shoulder polish. Sometim
Page 46 and 47: Ammu said that the billboard made t
Page 48 and 49: told that his moth had finally been
Page 50 and 51: effeminate pout-the kind that child
Page 52 and 53: and despise ourselves.” “Marry
Page 54 and 55: Earth Woman‟s eye. That Worse Thi
Page 56 and 57: Ammu said. Chacko said, “What‟s
Page 58 and 59: know what Malayalam was. They told
Page 60 and 61: Chacko lit a Charminar. He inhaled
Page 62 and 63: hair. Estha wondered how that could
Page 64 and 65: percent of Kerala‟s population we
Page 66 and 67: Kerala was reeling in the aftermath
Page 68 and 69: A bun. A banana. Another balled fis
Page 70 and 71: Memory was that woman on the train.
Page 72 and 73: Entomology who first noticed little
Page 74 and 75: Vellya Paapen‟s good intentions q
Page 76 and 77: emember Velutha when he left. But i
Page 78 and 79: though they had successfully conclu
Page 80 and 81: eyelids the light was bright and ho
Page 82 and 83: and Rahel thought it was a nice pho
Page 84 and 85: Anabs-urd Litt-le Bird Is popping o
Page 86 and 87: them with the boys‟ luggage, his
Page 88 and 89: white-tiled bathroom, with sea-secr
Page 90 and 91: “Will you be okay?” Ammu said,
Page 92 and 93: grandmother‟s cans, Estha Alone o
Page 96 and 97: In the lobby, the orangedrinks were
Page 98 and 99: Estha went behind the Refreshments
Page 100 and 101: and pointy shoes. “You mustn‟t
Page 102 and 103: the question. I cannot love them. I
Page 104 and 105: “No. Thank you.” Estha looked a
Page 106 and 107: hostess‟s heart trapped in a bear
Page 108 and 109: window. He could taste the hot, sal
Page 110 and 111: “Goodnight,” Estha said, too si
Page 112 and 113: Those last few tortured nights befo
Page 114 and 115: wondered idly if it had indeed been
Page 116 and 117: He stayed in constant touch with th
Page 118 and 119: no more than a swollen drain now. A
Page 120 and 121: labeled with edifying placards that
Page 122 and 123: Rahel tried to walk past unnoticed.
Page 124 and 125: “That is most unfortunate,” he
Page 126 and 127: efore the doctor saw him, and to co
Page 128 and 129: pressed together, smiles frozen on
Page 130 and 131: Chacko, who usually wore a mundu, w
Page 132 and 133: Heel and Toe Heel and Toe Long flat
Page 134 and 135: Ammu said, “Can you see her, Rahe
Page 136 and 137: eeze. Adoor Basi, the most popular,
Page 138 and 139: And Later became a horrible, menaci
Page 140 and 141: It would bea. “All right,” Ammu
Page 142 and 143: 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
Page 232 and 233:
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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cupboard stood next to the table. I
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they hung down on either side of he
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snacks. Comrade Pillai, grateful fo
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the house, or perhaps from the mome
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“Yes. He is good worker,” he sa
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completely. “That may be,” he s
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People‟s War joined the racks of
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een flattened into a neat illustrat
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appreciation, and went to the door.
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silver. It took him only a few minu
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expeditions across the river and th
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had gone) to divest his sister-in-l
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to a change of faith. Fifteen years
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A nagging sound started up in his h
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But this time, for Ammu and her two
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The Kottayam Police. A cartoonplato
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slow death of dancers. The toy hist
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history‟s henchmen. Sent to squar
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Still they brought out the handcuff
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“ssenetiloP,” he said. “ssene
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The sight of Baby Kochamma made the
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policeman‟s desk. Estha could see
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mangled genie invoked by a modern l
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erths green. The floor green. The c
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“And Real Teachers teaching.”
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irds go to die? Why don‟t dead on
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chair below the moldy, button-eyed
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She didn‟t see the knob of his he
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with an equal measure of pain. As t
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what seemed like an eternity, but w
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He died of natural causes. That fir
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