The woman at the well was old, curved like the nascent moon. Her skin white and wrinkled glittered when drops of water nestled in the grooves of her body. Her wet hair hung limply like silken tassels and her green cotton sari clung like seaweeds to her thin curled figure. The woman drew another pot of water from the well and poured the water over herself. Then she crooked her index finger and shovelled away the water from her body. Finishing her daily ritual of cleansing herself before starting the day`s work she wrung out her sari picked up her pot and slowly winded her way towards the large dilapidated house. It loomed like a gigantic scarecrow amidst the bleak landscape where voluminous fields stretched endlessly traversing time and space. One of the smidgeons of civilisation here was a tar road that connected Ajji`s house to the highway.
`Ajji!` a voice called out from the fields. It was Maya. The child came walking slowly on the dykes that fringed the fields like a crossword puzzle. The shy touch-me-nots lining the dykes thrilled at the girl`s touch and folded away as if embarrassed.
Ajji raised her head and her face creased into a smile when she saw her granddaughter. She was visiting Chikkaluru with her parents for the summer holidays.
The child`s cheeks looked stuffed and Ajji playfully pulled her chin.
`What are you eating, Maya? Pejjakai?` she asked her noticing the half-eaten fruit in the girl`s hand. Maya nodded her head. She loved the fruit that resembled a midget jackfruit. The insides of the fruit looked like a custard apple, small balls of white flesh with black seeds, and tightly lined against each other. The divine aroma and the sweet tangy taste enchanted the child`s senses.
`From where did you get this? We don`t have a Pejjakai tree,` said Ajji.
`Chotu gave it to me.`
`Chotu? Kisna`s son?` Maya nodded her head.
`Since when did Kisna keep pentakis in his shop?` asked Ajji.
Kisna`s shop like the other shops in small towns like Chikkaluru existed in its entirety. It was crammed with all sorts of things that met the basic requirements of the town people. Thus a bunch of bananas would hang over jars of spices and bars of soap would rub shoulders with spoons and scythes. Ajji bought most of her ration like soaps, dried fish, bananas, betel leaves and betel nuts from Kisna`s shop.
`No Ajji,` Maya laughed at her grandmother`s ignorance. `I got this from Chotu`s house.`
Ajji went rigid. Unaware of the hysteria building up inside the old woman the child continued with her narration. `Ajji, do you know how many pejjakais are there in Chotu`s attic? Chotu said his mom would make pickles from them.` Then the girl giggled surreptitiously.` Ajji, Chotu`s mother was not at home. So we slyly ate some paayasa that she had made.`
With a shriek Ajji plucked the half-eaten fruit from the girl`s hand and flung it in the fields. Then she slumped on the steps of the house and began hitting her head with her bony hands. `Ayyo Devare!` she wailed. `What has this child done? She ate food at a `low-caste`s` house. What will her parents say? They left her in my care for four days and went to Dharmastala and now look what has happened. Our home has been defiled because this ignorant child associated with that `low caste`. Ayyo devare! Ayyo! What shall I do?` Maya looked at her grandmother frightened. What had she done? Chotu must be a bad boy. She did not know the meaning of `low-caste` but it must be something bad. Like a liar or a thief. Her parents had told her not be friends with such children.
Even as the girl was musing over her `crime` Ajji grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to the well. She tied the rope attached to the pulley around a brass pot and pushed the pot into the well. When the pot was glutted with the well water Ajji with quick short grunts pulled the pot up and with one swift movement poured the icy water over the girl. The cold water stung the girl like a thousand needles and she cried out in pain and fear. Ajji was distressed but she temporarily ignored her grandchild`s anguish in order to remedy the urgent matter at hand. She took the child in the house dried her with a towel and then led her to the framed pictures of her gods. She stopped before each picture lit incense sticks and murmured incantations. After she was fairly satisfied with the `cleansing` process she turned her attention towards the whimpering girl.
`Maya magaa, don`t cry,` she told her gently. `I will get you another pejjakai`. Believing that was the real reason for the child`s distress Ajji herself trudged half a mile to her nearest neighbour`s house to get a pejjakai. The pejjakai, however, was not ripe.
`This pejjakai is not ripe,` Maya protested when Ajji gave it to her.
Ajji laughed. `Go and keep it in a haystack. It will ripen by tomorrow.` The girl ran to the backyard where stacks of hay stood in a huddle and gleamed like gold in the morning light. Maya burrowed her hand into the largest one and gingerly placed the pejjakai in it. Then she waited. She did not hear her parents arrive nor did she hear Ajji telling them about the `shocking` incident, or the argument that erupted between her mother Gita, and Ajji.
`Are you telling me that you condone what your daughter did today?` Ajji harshly asked her daughter-in-law.
`All I am saying,` said Gita,` is that these things do not matter anymore. At least not in the cities. There people share food with each other all the time. In offices, schools. Even Maya shares her tiffin with her friends. And, by the way, your son`s best friend is your so-called `low-caste`.`
The old woman staggered back appalled. She asked her son in a shocked whisper, `is this true Avi?` Avinash was unsure how to answer his mother without hurting her feelings. `Yes...amma..,` he stammered. Ajji`s face turned ashen. She said quietly, `I think you both better get some rest since you are leaving tomorrow.`
`But amma we are leaving next week,` said Avinash surprised.
`Not anymore,` said Ajji callously. `And since you have got the car there will be no hassles about train or bus tickets,` Then she left the room without giving the two a second look. Gita was livid and she stormed off to their room. Avinash followed her.
`She asked us to leave her house?` Gita cried out at her husband. `Just because her grandchild shared paayasa with that Kisna`s kid? Like Maya had committed some grave crime! Oh god, she is so hypocritical. She buys her daily rations from the man`s shop but thinks it is a sin to associate with him in any other way. You know what Avi? Your mother, with her caste-vaste hocus-pocus could make a great politician!`
`Gita,` said Avinash placatingly, `she is old, she is uneducated and she lives in this desolate place where the few people she meets have the same beliefs ingrained in them.`
`And because of this distorted beliefs she is going to break off relations with her son,` said Gita shaking her head.
`Oh don`t be so melodramatic,` Avinash laughed. `Amma will come around by evening, you`ll see.`
`Not unless a miracle happens,` said Gita grimly. Then she placed a gentle hand on her husband`s shoulder. `Avi, you do understand don`t you, `she said tenderly, `that what happened today has altered your relations with your mother forever?`
This revelation startled Avinash and he looked deeply pained. `Then let`s pray that the miracle happens`, he said softly.
Ajji, shocked and furious at her son`s treachery vented her rage on the poor Kisna when he came over to beg for Ajji`s forgiveness. The old woman`s wrath poured out like hot lava. `You `low-caste` wretch!` she screamed. `How dare you become so swollen-headed? How dare you, not teach your son that an `upper-caste` should not eat in a `low-caste`s` house? Or was this your terrible way of repaying back the no. of times I fed you dosas, you ungrateful wretch?` Ajji`s `philanthropic` gesture of feeding dosas to Kisna was holding the dosas above his hands and then dropping them into his hands.
The unfortunate man stood meekly with his head bowed down until Ajji ran out of steam and asked him to go away. Kisna went in search of Maya. He believed it was his obligation to ask for forgiveness from the child also. He found her keeping vigil next to the haystack. When she saw Kisna she was highly excited.
`Kisna uncle, can you tell me if the pejjakai has ripened?
`What pejjakai, little one?` asked Kisna.
`The pejjakai that I have placed in this hay. Wait I will show you.` She dug her hand into the haystack and suddenly let out a cry of pain.
`What happened, akka?` Kisna shouted, concerned.
`Something bit me uncle,` the girl whimpered and removing her hand from the hay she showed it to him. For a second Kisna`s heart stopped. He looked with horror at the two deep bite marks. And when he saw a black shiny form glide away his doubts vanished. Maya had been bitten by a deadly cobra. Thinking swiftly Kisna tore his mundu from his body and tied it tightly around her wrist. Then he grabbed the child`s hand and began sucking out the poison-filled blood. Her pain forgotten Maya was frightened and fascinated by the man`s behaviour. Kisna spat out the blood and screamed for Avinash and Gita. Hearing his cries the whole household came running. When Ajji saw the man bent over his grandchild`s hand she fell down in a dead faint. She had understood the significance of the sight. Her grandchild had been bitten by a poisonous snake.
Maya was rushed to the nearby hospital. Although the hospital was not modern it was fortunately well stocked in antidotes because of the high incidence of snake-bites in nearby towns and villages. The entire night the girl kept drifting in and out of consciousness as her frantic parents kept vigil at her bedside. At home the old woman lay in the bed too, delirious with worry and babbling incoherently. She cursed Kisna for their misfortune and asked God not to punish her grandchild for the sin that the girl had inadvertently committed. Meanwhile in the hospital, in the next room lay Kisna who had ingested some of the poison and was very sick. He lay weak and exhausted pondering over the day`s event that had brought such a storm in his life. The unfortunate man blamed himself for everything that had happened that day and his prayer to God was the same as Ajji`s.
By the next day Maya was completely out of danger. It was only then that the doctor told Avinash and Gita that Maya`s life had been saved probably because of the timely heroic act of Kisna. The grateful parents went and hugged the bewildered man and wept tears of gratitude.
But Kisna`s greatest glory was yet to come. It came in the form of a knock on his door three days later. When he opened the door Kisna was stunned to see Ajji standing outside smiling and holding a plate dosas. Before Kisna`s unbelieving eyes she entered his home.
Then in a supreme almost divine moment the old woman wept and like a devotee placing an offering before her God Ajji placed a piece of the moon-white dosa in the agape mouth of her grandchild`s life-giver. And her own saviour.