Firewood should be cut for the public eateries known as oottuppura ¹. Farmers should submit their bullock carts and bullocks to the adhikara kacheri ².

At least half of the 120 services prescribed for the lower castes must be completed during the Maharaja’s visit, or they will face beheading. Unfortunately, they will not be compensated for their efforts, and not even a sip of porridge will be offered to them. Even the food wastage of oottuppura is off limits to them, as they are forbidden to go there. Refusal to serve will be met with severe punishment, and any delay in tax payment will result in being bowed down and forced to carry a heavy stone on their back. Even the sick and elderly are not exempt from this ‘obligation to serve’.

The men, with their rectangular ears hanging down to their shoulders, adorned by long lead earrings, their mundu not reaching below their knees, and their tufts of hair covering their scruff, ran away without uttering a single word. They shouted for help, screaming “Sudalamaada ⁴ come to my rescue! Kallimaada ⁴ come to my rescue!” Those without families ran to hide, while the family men sought to bribe the authorities in order to escape.

When the hamlet of Palm Huts heard the sound of rushing footsteps as a result of the outflux of people..,

The women, who had been talking in the street here and there, grinding corn in thirukai ⁵, pounding corn with an ulakkai ⁶ in ural ⁷, and chatting to each other while doing their daily chores, abandoned their tools and congregated together. They wore single sarees below the waist, reaching just to their knees, and were completely exposed above the waist.

The lead coils decorated their long ears like men. Apart from that, these women were renowned for their chests freely exposed to the air. As they aged, their breasts became plump like mangoes, withered like bitter gourds, and hollowed like the dried shell of a gourd.

Yesterday, these women, who were accustomed to seeing breasts as just another body part like arms and legs, felt a little embarrassed when they saw the woman in a blouse. She would occasionally appear in front of the palm tree hut, which served as the northern boundary of the southern row of cottages. They were also somewhat envious, wishing they could take off her blouse and put it on their own waist. Even the upper-caste women did not wear a blouse like hers, and instead wore girdles around their breasts. Sometimes, the shoulder strap was wrapped tightly around the back and another loop was attached around the waist. However, the woman in the blouse was wearing a kandanghi ⁸ saree, with floral designs folded into pleats above her breasts. When asked, she said it was a blouse, and ‘It’s the custom of our village’. She told them ‘You should also put it on’, as it was more important than wearing a mangalsutra. To befriend her might cause trouble, similar to the story of a mouse befriending a frog in order to learn how to swim…

1. Public eatery house with free food – chatram
2. Bureaucracy office
3. A garment worn around the waist in the Indian states of Kerala
4. Rural Hindu deities worshipped predominantly in South India.
5. A grinding arrangement made in stone to grind small millets into fine flour.
6. Threshing wood with its top and bottom covered with iron
7. A stone machine to pound grains like rice, corn.
8. Woven with thick and coarse cotton in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu,

(to be continued)

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