Hey, sister, you can't enter the house.Cath Slugget.Through the front door.Our living is a backdoor affair;O Mistress of the house … I am hereCould you please serve me something good?A little watery rice kanjiwith a piece of sweet jaggery is enough.. Heartlessly, the mistress pours water into the half-eaten rice and dumps it into the top half of the sari held open: The water drains out we wash the rice and eat it. We have to wash all the dishes, the menstrual clothing. It is the way we survive. If the master is at home his wife or the children cannot laugh out loud. You cannot touch the master at other times. Even when he asks for water, you serve him then duck by the wall and hide. You don't develop an intimacy by standing closely by them. Sometimes you wonder how these mistresses marry and live with their men. Sometimes, the master goes to the jungle to hunt for elephants He leaves at dawn and comes back late Sometimes, he comes back a couple of days late. Knowing this the men come sneaking in to fool, to slake their desire. Our business depends on begged food and a turned eye. We know nothing, the mistress thinks.. When we return from the funerals there is a gypsy reading the mistress: "The Lady's face shows a shadow; Inside her heart, there is an agitation. You have a relationship with a man the master knows not. But this is never a sin nor is it a fault, for the lady has the blessings of the Mother Goddess." When the old woman finishes reading the omens the mistress enjoins her to silence and then feeds her hot rice and curry and sends her away with new clothes. And in this way both their hungers are sated. By N D Rajkumar Translated from Tamil by Anushiya Sivanarayanan
Hey, sister, you can't enter the house.Cath Slugget.Through the front door.Our living is a backdoor affair;O Mistress of the house … I am hereCould you please serve me something good?A little watery rice kanjiwith a piece of sweet jaggery is enough.. Heartlessly, the mistress pours water into the half-eaten rice and dumps it into the top half of the sari held open: The water drains out we wash the rice and eat it. We have to wash all the dishes, the menstrual clothing. It is the way we survive. If the master is at home his wife or the children cannot laugh out loud. You cannot touch the master at other times. Even when he asks for water, you serve him then duck by the wall and hide. You don't develop an intimacy by standing closely by them. Sometimes you wonder how these mistresses marry and live with their men. Sometimes, the master goes to the jungle to hunt for elephants He leaves at dawn and comes back late Sometimes, he comes back a couple of days late. Knowing this the men come sneaking in to fool, to slake their desire. Our business depends on begged food and a turned eye. We know nothing, the mistress thinks.. When we return from the funerals there is a gypsy reading the mistress: "The Lady's face shows a shadow; Inside her heart, there is an agitation. You have a relationship with a man the master knows not. But this is never a sin nor is it a fault, for the lady has the blessings of the Mother Goddess." When the old woman finishes reading the omens the mistress enjoins her to silence and then feeds her hot rice and curry and sends her away with new clothes. And in this way both their hungers are sated. By N D Rajkumar Translated from Tamil by Anushiya Sivanarayanan
