By Vishnu K Thilak
Following this, other titles start appearing. Occasionally a little breeze puffed in. After a while, Maya (35) can be seen strolling through the paddy fields. Clad in a white saree and a yellow-colored blouse, she wore tiny golden earrings and a lone golden bangle on her left hand. She has a purse in one hand and a newspaper in the other. After a while, from afar a female voice is heard calling
“Maya…”
Adding up to this, a young girl walks in. She is holding a tote bag in one hand and a purse in the other. She wears an old white saree. The Breeze is still there. The girl nears Maya, standing in the paddy field, smiling at her.
Maya: “Where ‘ve you been?”
girl: “Went to grind the rice.”
Maya and the girl starts walking.
Maya: “Where? At Joesettans (shop)?”
Girl: “No, in the store on the other side. Josetttan remained closed as it is Good Friday.”
Maya: “I went to pay the electricity bill.”
Both walked without talking for a little longer.
girl: “My hand, aches…”
The Young girl puts down the tote bag and looks at Maya. She stood there looking at Maya on her face. Maya smiles back. The Young girl simper along. They stood there looking at each other.
Girl: “Aren’t you getting any marriage proposals lately, Maya?”
While saying this, the girl picks the tote bag and starts walking. Maya: “A coterie is coming tomorrow.”
Girl: “where from?”
Maya: “Kaavalam” (a nearby village)
Girl: "How old did you turn? Maya."
Maya didn’t answer. They walked in silence. The girl switched the tote bag to the other hand, and both wended their way through the paddy fields.
Girl: “Don’t you remember Mythili? She went with us to the sewing class.”
Maya still didn’t’ say anything. After a momentary pause, Girl: “She killed herself two weeks ago.”
Girl: “One evening, she set herself on fire.”
The girls continue to walk off together in the quietude.
Girl: “Her husband was a suspicious paranoid. He comes home drunk and beats her every night. God alone knows, maybe he killed her. She has a one-year-old kid who was there when she blazed off to death. The kid escaped miraculously.”
Both continue walking. After a while, the girls stop near a mango tree in the middle of the paddy field. A letter-box is hanging on the tree. The girl puts down the tote bag and her purse and tries to pluck a mango fruit by leaping up and snatching it. Maya stands there watching her. Finally, when the girl gets the mango, she takes a bite and hands it over to Maya. Maya nibbles the mango and gives it back. The girl takes her tote bag. Maya walks ahead of her. The girl follows Maya. After a while
Girl: “Oh! I forgot my purse there.”
The Girl puts the bag down and rushes back to the Mango tree to take the purse. Maya stands there looking at the girl. The view is from behind Maya. Following the sound of an airplane, Maya looks upwards. Maya’s face turns along with the movement of the plane.
Now her face is distinctly visible. The hum of the aircraft fades off. Maya is still seen looking at the sky.
-CUT-
Scene: 2
The front of the house / Ext / 11 AM
Maya and the Girl are still walking through the paddy fields. They stop after a while.
Girl: “Maya, won’t you be there to watch tholpavakoothu (a form of shadow puppetry practiced in Kerala) in the temple?”
Maya: “dunno…”
Girl: “I don’t think I’ll be able to come.”
The girl walks away to the right, and Maya goes into the house. It is a single-storied tiled house in the middle of the paddy field. A middle-aged man (58)is mending fishing nets in front of the house. He is shirtless and wears a Mundu (south Indian dhoti) and has a towel wrapped around his head. The front door of the house is open. In the verandah, there is a sewing machine draped with a piece of cloth. Maya walks towards her father and opens her purse. She hands over a golden chain to her father from a red paper wrap
she took from her pouch.
Maya: “Accha (Father)”
Father: “My hand is messy. I’ll look at it later.”
Maya carefully wraps up the chain in the paper and put it back inside the bag. She removes her chappals and puts the newspaper in the doorway. Maya then takes water from a beaker, which is in the entryway, and washes her feet and goes into the house. Lights turn on in an inside room. Lights turn off. Maya opens the back door and walks towards the right. The unlocked rear door gives a glimpse of the outside view. Walking to her right, Maya empties a hand
full of rice into the dirt. A brood of hens hurriedly comes and starts eating the rice. While feeding the hens, Maya clucks and calls the chickens. (ba…ba…ba…)She waits for a while, looking at the hens feeding and go back into the house. Maya goes to the verandah and lifts off the blue drape from the sewing machine. She then sits on the doorsteps and starts stitching. Her father is still mending the nets. After a while
Maya: “ Accha, I’ve kept the Murukan (a kind of paan)in the Kitchen.”
Father continues to fix the nets without saying anything. Maya sits there, sewing the clothes.
-CUT-
Scene: 3
Kitchen / Int / 9 PM
Maya is frying some fish in a Chinese pan. There are one pearlfish and three crystal fishes. One of the crystal fish is a little smaller. Maya transfers the fried fish to a plantain leaf. She then replaces the Chinese pan with another one and pours oil to it. Maya stood there, looking at the oil getting hot. After a while, Maya yelled out
Maya: “Accha, come, it's time for food.”
Maya pinches out a bit of a Pappad and puts it in the oil to test if it’s hot enough. She then puts the whole pappad in the oil. Maya passes on the fried papad into a tin. As she fires the third papad, her father walks behind her and goes away. Maya immerses
another papad into the oil. Maya fries four more papads and removes the pan from the fireplace. She then puts a pot full of water for boiling. Maya takes the papad tin and sits near her father in one of those short-legged chairs. Both of them start eating Dinner. Maya takes out papad from the tin and puts in her father’s plantain leaf. After a while,
Father: “They said they’ll be coming tomorrow.”
Maya remains silent.
Father: “Mol (daughter)didn’t say anything.”
Maya: “Yes... Accha.”
Father: “The boy is a teacher in a school. It is the School where deaf and dumb kids go.”
Father is talking while eating.
Father: “ Hope at least this works out.”
Maya stops eating food.
Maya: “Accha, Don’t talk while eating…”
Father: “No… I was just saying…”
Maya continues with her dinner. After a while, Maya stops and gets up. She then walks to the kitchen and adds more firewood to the stove. Maya stood there, looking at the boiling water for a while.
Father: “Finish your dinner, Mole…”
Maya: “I’m not feeling hungry, Accha…”
Maya then comes and takes the plantain leaf in which she was eating her dinner.
Maya: “I’ll give this to the chicks and come back.”
Saying this, Maya takes the leftovers and walks out. Father continues eating.
By Vishnu K Thilak
Comments