Ending this week with what I think is an anecdote. The story of Savithri as an adult is partially written but I will not be posting it until the story has advanced a bit more. So a break over the next week or so.
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The street in which I lived was called Rajamadam Agraharam. Most of the residents were Telegu Brahmins eking out a living. Among them three or four were family priests for non-brahmins, two cooks, a marriage broker, a cattle broker and a primary school teacher. There was one professional 'corpse carrier'. Among the Tamils, each house had an educated, unemployed boy. Each house had a man or woman with an elephantoid leg. My uncle who bought a house was also unemployed though he had a B.A. in history. All these are a prelude to my account of an incident.
My neighbour was a Telegu man in his forties He was a bachelor. He had lost his parents and was living alone. He lived on the income from letting out two portions of the house. When I was there, his younger sister and her daughter came to live with him. The sister, who was aged about 35, had lost her husband and her in-laws refused to keep her. The daughter was sixteen, well past the marriageable age. With little means at her disposal, the lady had no choice but to get her daughter married to her brother, such marriages being permissible in the community. Youth's call could not be ignored and the girl developed friendship with one of the unemployed boys. This boy had a vacant house in his charge and this house was convenient for their meetings. One day a man climbed a coconut tree to pluck coconuts in the adjoining house and was able to see them together in the house. Instead of leaving them alone, he made a hue and cry.
Nothing came of it. The boy continued living there, so did the girl. The only casualty was their romance. Everyone had something to hide, yet the taboos continued till the late forties.
My neighbour was a Telegu man in his forties He was a bachelor. He had lost his parents and was living alone. He lived on the income from letting out two portions of the house. When I was there, his younger sister and her daughter came to live with him. The sister, who was aged about 35, had lost her husband and her in-laws refused to keep her. The daughter was sixteen, well past the marriageable age. With little means at her disposal, the lady had no choice but to get her daughter married to her brother, such marriages being permissible in the community. Youth's call could not be ignored and the girl developed friendship with one of the unemployed boys. This boy had a vacant house in his charge and this house was convenient for their meetings. One day a man climbed a coconut tree to pluck coconuts in the adjoining house and was able to see them together in the house. Instead of leaving them alone, he made a hue and cry.
Nothing came of it. The boy continued living there, so did the girl. The only casualty was their romance. Everyone had something to hide, yet the taboos continued till the late forties.
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