(late) Srimathi N. Thangam
with
Chiranjeevi P.D. Baskaran
son of
Sri P.P. Dhoraisamy (Landholder, Pandiyoor. and
Srimathi N. Kalpagam
Sivakami is disappointed though unsurprised that Vairum has issued the invitations in his name instead of Goli’s. They have heard from Goli only once since Thangam’s death, when he came to Sivakami’s house for an hour and made noise about how it was time for Laddu to come and work for him. Goli did not look well. He had lost weight, so that his eyes and jaw seemed overly prominent and his clothes, old and expensive, were a bit big to flatter him the way they did when he was younger. It was midday and Laddu was out at the oil processing plant. He grew impatient and left. Sivakami never told Laddu and Goli never returned. Laddu has done well at the plant, against all expectations. Vairum has promoted him to overseer and Laddu would have been very ill-advised to leave.
“Perhaps,” Sivakami speculates aloud, to Muchami, showing him the invitation, “perhaps Vairum didn’t even know how to contact Goli?”
“Not likely, Amma.” Muchami shakes his head. “Vairum could probably find anyone in the presidency. Didn’t you say the invitation says your son-in-law is now in Indrapuram?” Muchami pauses, either to decide how plainly he should speak or to let his words sink in. “In fact, I’m sure Vairum might even have sent Goli an invitation, if only to provoke him. He didn’t make the invitation in Goli’s name because this is his show.”
“People in our Brahmin quarter are going to think Vairum is trying to slap Goli in the face,” Sivakami says, rueful.
“He is, but I think that’s only a side benefit.”
Sivakami looks at him.
“I don’t mean to make a bad joke.” He holds his hands up, conciliatory. “Amma, Vairum is doing something good for Thangam’s daughter. Accept this. He is doing as much for Janaki as if she were his own daughter.”
Sivakami wishes she could not see the wisdom in what he says, but he is right: Vairum is doing more for Thangam’s children than her own brothers ever did for him and Thangam. He is a better man, she thinks.
“Amma,” Muchami goes on slowly, “I have a concern.” He has never talked to her in much detail about Goli’s deal-making and is nervous to do so now, but feels he must. “I suspect that, as soon as Goli receives the invitation, he will be in Pandiyoor, trying to raise support for some investments. I’m sure Janaki’s future in-laws are cautious people. But they may feel shy to say no, and then…” He has speeded up and pauses. “There’s nothing like money matters to cause familial discord. I would hate for them to take a financial loss out on the girl. They think very highly of her, as highly as she deserves.”
Sivakami is flummoxed. She never would have thought of this. She feels slow and he waits, giving her time to think through what he has said. “I absolutely do not want them to think that investing with him is a condition of the marriage,” she says after some minutes.
“Yes, that’s exactly one of my fears,” Muchami responds.
“Vairum is so explosive when it comes to his brother-in-law,” she continues. “I would rather we not go to him about this.”
“Okay. Perhaps it won’t be necessary.” Muchami scratches his chin and his scalp. “What about this? Can we somehow inform the son-in-law that while Janaki’s future family appears well-off, we have just learned that they are in fact in a very bad position financially? That they may well say they want to invest with him, but that he should beware, because they are wily-lawyers, after all-and will take him for all he is worth? That they are going down and he should be careful not to be dragged down with them?”
“We cannot say that ourselves,” Sivakami objects. “He will ask why we are marrying his daughter to these people.”
“Good, quite right-so who would he believe?” Muchami asks, like a schoolteacher, as if he knows the answer. He gives a hint. “Who would be only too happy to believe and pass on such a story, but be unlikely to pass it on to anyone else?” He pauses to give Sivakami a chance to respond, but she is silent. “Your brothers, Amma.”
Sivakami frowns, impressed, as he goes on.
“Send them a letter in confidence, saying Vairum heard this from a reliable source after the arrangements had been made, but decided to go through with the wedding, because it’s a good family otherwise, and that he pledged that he will not permit anything bad to happen to his niece. You don’t need to say what they will recognize, that this is exactly what they did for Thangam. But say you are worried about Goli, and want them to talk to him, because it would not be appropriate for you or Vairum to do so. They will be only too glad to have this authority, and even if they spread rumours, those won’t amount to anything more than all the usual rumours that are always in the air about rich families.”
Sivakami has to admit it is an excellent scheme, and as it turns out, Sivakami’s brothers are happy to do their sister this favour. She and Muchami are satisfied that they have done something to ensure harmony for Janaki in her marital home.
Sivakami has insisted that all the basic costs of the wedding be paid for from her money, the manjakkani, which has grown substantially owing to Vairum’s efforts. He agreed but has insisted on paying for extras himself-this is to be a sumptuous celebration, far showier than Sivakami thinks advisable.
The wedding will be not only ostentatious by Sivakami’s lights, but also, paradoxically, short. Efficiency is the hallmark of the new age, even in matters nuptial. A celebration that would have lasted a week in Janaki’s mother’s time will now be completed in three days. People have jobs.
Cholapatti is done up in style. An enormous canopy is erected, covering the entire length of the Brahmin quarter, which will be closed to traffic, from the witch’s house to the temple. All Cholapatti’s Brahmins are invited, as well as a number of wealthy non-Brahmins. They will be sufficiently deferential not to take cooked food in Sivakami’s presence, but the Brahmins are abuzz at Vairum’s urban bad manners nonetheless. Relatives of both sides will descend from all over the Madras Presidency, as well as a number of Vairum’s associates from Madras, including foreigners with whom he does business. Vani will play a recital on the second evening, reprising the program, a little old-fashioned but still charming, of the concert where Vairum first saw her.
Baskaran’s family, as has become the custom in certain circles, has not asked for a dowry, and Vairum has not offered one. Still, Baskaran’s siblings and his parents will receive gifts of clothes and jewellery and Janaki will go to her in-laws with a substantial trousseau of high-quality pots, gold and silver jewellery, silk and blended saris, and other items modern and traditional, representing considerable expense. Sivakami is not sure how she feels about this advance on the old system. On the one hand, she recognizes their lack of demands as a sign of their graciousness. On the other, traditions offer protection. A girl is an asset to her in-laws-a cosmetic, material and moral asset-and a dowry is one way of assuring she is seen as such. If the bride’s side keeps up its end of the bargain, so must the groom’s. Sivakami fears that the loosening of certain controls may lead to the loosening of others, that families who don’t receive dowries may not protect girls as they have been obliged to do in the past.
When she raised this question with Vairum, though, he told her that her knowledge of history and human nature is flawed and incomplete, and that people who take dowries these days are opportunists and not to be trusted. And, as Sivakami observes Baskaran and his family, she finds herself, a little grudgingly, coming to believe that the family is honourable and the match a good one.
Which makes her feel all the odder when Vairum confronts her, late in the afternoon of the third day. The main hall is full of relatives and guests, napping and gossiping, passing the time between meals and major ceremonies. She herself is lying down, in the pantry, her head on her wooden pillow. She hasn’t the energy she once had, and the effort of making the sweets, which she insisted on, has tired her, as has the stream of people coming to pay their respects, and the instructions she has sent out with Janaki, Kamalam and Gayatri, each time the bride has come in to change her clothes and eat.