The people with cleanly laundered clothing lined up on one side, while those wearing dirty clothes and the woman with thol-seelai (sarees draped over the shoulder) lined up on the other, arguing with each other. Stones and insults were thrown back and forth. At the same time, some namboothiri men with their tuft on the front right side of their heads, as well as some men in white clothing and some Christian priests, took the side of the people with the dirty clothes and spoke angrily to the opposition, pushing them back.
முகம் தெரியா மனசி, The faceless woman, Bing AI generated image
Meanwhile, the carts and buildings in the market were destroyed, grains were smoking, goats were bleating, and cows were roaming aimlessly.
Above all –
Many of the lower-caste women – dressed in kuppayam (a type of blouse) that extended to the wrists, rose up to the neck, and spread till the waist, with a piece of saree draped over their shoulder to assert their rights – were pushed down. Their kuppayam-s were unraveled; thol-seelai-s were undone; sarees tied at the waist are unfastened leaving them exposed and vulnerable. Clutching their private parts with both hands, they cried out for help. There were many cries of “Jesus.. Jesus”; little mumbles of “Muttharamma, Muttharamma”. Their usual voice chirping like beetles, echoed the grunt of shells that day.
At that moment, a rogue man in clean clothing chased a young woman in kuppayam, who ran away with her eyes darting back to him in terror. She stumbled and fell, lying ten feet away from where Rasamma stood. The chaser, reached her at no time and sat on the woman’s stomach, tried to slip his hands between her chest and the kuppayam. Paralyzed with fear, she covered her eyes and hands, awaiting her fate.
Rasamma, who had been standing like a machine, suddenly felt human again. She bent down and picked up a sharp boulder from the ground next to her. With a mighty cry of “Elei…” she charged towards the man, knocking him down at the feet of the victim and spilling his blood. She then lifted and hugged the woman in the kuppayam, supporting her with one shoulder and helping her walk back to the market.
In this battle for the rights of suppressed women, Rasamma joined as a faceless woman.
முகம் தெரியா மனசி, The faceless woman, Bing AI generated image
(The End)
Jeyamohan wrote about Su Samuthiram like this –
He wrote with a tone of sarcasm and irritation, capturing the cheapness of the human mind and the cruelty of our institutions. He did not leave any loose ends for the reader to speculate or imagine. Many of his stories are heartbreaking. He wrote about the silenced, the forgotten – in his words, the ‘starving herd’ – and each story cries out for them in an agonising way. He remained one of them until the end.
Samuthiram declared, “My song belongs to the folklore, my brother”, clenching his fists. “There is no Pallavi, Anupallavi, or Sangeetham in it…”
