Pa. Singaram
Translated into English by Saravanan Karmegam.
Chapter 13: The dance of the sea
…..
It was fourth day. They were sitting on a green rug spread on tobacco bales and playing 504 card game.
“He is a lucky guy to get big share in the game” said Shanmugam Pillai as he was taking his vest off.
“Big share? How big it is? It isn’t born to an elephant? Is it?”
There followed a cheeky talk filled with mutual sarcasm and exchange of banter.
The people from Thirupathur had a unique manner of teasing each other. Their insinuations would have no harsh words in it yet inflated with high temper expressed in words articulated in a specific manner by braiding them together. One needs to listen to the nicety of their talk in the town ‘car’ stand.
Cars are standing here and there. The ‘car’ agents are busy roaming with pencils on their ear lobes, trip sheets in hands and beedi in mouth. Their yells resonated the tunes of the car stand. “Kunnadi-kaaradi-devottai1”, Devottai! Singampidari2- kottampatti- Natham! Natham! Natham”
Vandu meesai3 Kaanaa Roona came running out of Hussein’s shop and yells, “Move away….move away…One tonner royal Mail is coming. Those who going to Pudukkottai come fast. I have only five minutes.” Kannayira Vilas bus comes there. The ‘cleaner” mounts onto the top to clear all bales, utensils and pots bundled up, kept stacked up to a man’s height on the top of the bus, and throw them away onto the ground. Driver Sultan jumped off his seat and gave a friendly slap on an agent’s back and asked him “Machan, how come his eyes look so heavy this early? Anything spicier?” Kaanaa Roona has been suffering from an upset stomach and on herbal concoction every morning.”, drama contractor Nallakudiyan Servai remarked with a sympathetic note. Boys, standing around the buses, yelling non- stop, are busy enticing the passengers with Murukku, freshly cut tender coconut, and bunches of bananas kept on platters. The song sung to attract the customers is heard from lame Muthaiah’ palm-leaves-roofed shop in the north-west.
“Saavanna Lenaa colour4 sir…. Try its taste once. I’ll give it with ice cubes sir…very good ‘colour’
“Hello old man! Where are you going?”
“Natham”
“What? To Natham? Listen to me aiya…why do you guys going to Natham board this bus? Yonder look! there is a bus standing under the tamarind tree, looking like broken garbage vehicle. You go there and fall into it. Hell with your Natham?”
Sivagangai car agent Meerasa was sitting on the floor, squatting, was toying with a beedi in his hands. He lighted it after removing its tip with his teeth.
“It is said that even dog won’t die in Natham. But they are going there for procuring materials. Aren’t they? Paganeri car agent Veerappan remarked as he wrapped his towel round his head.
“Who knows for what hell are they going there? They have barged into the bus like their Natham’s uninvited demons. Today’s collection will dip to nothing. Hell, with their Natham!” he grunted furiously, spat out spittle and puffed on beedi as he closed his eyes.
“Maple! Watch the beauty of those Natham men travelling” Paganeri agent opened his dhoti and took out a packet of beedi and a match box. “Their ears stand erect like that of meat seller Singam. Don’t they?”
“Meerasa! Hei…man…look there…isn’t it royal gait of Sovanna Maanaa? They walk like peacocks decked with rattle” screamed driver Aani Muthu Servai who was standing in front of Nagappan’s petty shop adjacent to Vande Mataram Iyer shop while stuffing tobacco leaves into his mouth.
“Let them leave Mamu….Pitiable fellows! I think this is the right time for them to eat hay. That’s why they have left for that cattle shed”
“You, the spoilt brats! “Words downpour” Somasundaram Pillai turned his eyes to Meerasa. His silver tongue echoes. “Why are you buggers whiling away your time shamelessly at this place where some good men would often visit leaving all your pride and ego behind? Enough of your useless existence of being a burden to this earth like a stray bull devoted to Singampunari temple. Manamelpatti Pambaiyan needs some work force to make fence. You all better go there”
“Sovannaa Maanaa! Please be gracious enough to send my daughter in law to Colombo by ship”
“The king of Abyssinia has started selling tea there5. She can also join him to make tea. The fortunes might take an upward turn.”
“No…if they go there they will also wear cap and grow thin beard. Wrapping the sari around them, if they walk with yellow shirt and green colour over coat, one would definitely grow suspicious whether it is the son of our Seethakkali Sarkkarai Ravuthar or some prince of Hyderabad Nizam. So it is better they spend some time learning the art of making fence with Pambaiyan for a couple of months”
(Stores in charge Mani Iyer who was just coming out of ‘Club’ shop with his dirty, oil soaked towel wrapped round his waist and beard not shaved for ten days, was mumbling: “Who’s instigated our “words downpour” Pillai at this hour? Now it is impossible to stop him”.)
“Mamu…Please let him go…It is the time to relish toddy. Why do you stand on his way at an inopportune time?
“You guys are the ones who howled aloud in search of bones while hiding it somewhere. Aren’t you? Retract your tails and get out. Look there. The messengers of God of Death come running to us with the rope of death in their hands. If you get delayed, you will be stuffed into coffins. Where is your Identity Card hanging on your neck? Have you eaten that up too thinking it is bone? As you buggers have nerves to carry trip sheets in hands, women around here are so fed up with drivers and spit at you. Even after Manamadurai Seeni has brought out all your misdemeanours in his gramophone records, you all have never mended your ways. Even the rain is rudely irregular as it is unable to bear your immoral ways. We could only get paddy grain of four and three fourth of padi for a rupee. To the north of Madurai, the women folk are…..”
The question from a man carrying his belongings obstructed his flow.
“Hei….you want the bus going to Sivasangai. Don’t you? ….why do you need boarding the bus? Listen to my suggestion. Buy some roasted grams for one and a half rupee, hang it on your waist and then start walking swinging your hands and legs”
“Sivasangai…Sivasangai….the bus is about to leave. Only two minutes more. Meerasa’s voice is heard in high pitch.
“Sivasangai….Sivasangai…come fast…”
“If you walk down by tiny steps, Sivagangai would appear in front of you by evening. Don’t get closer to these ‘car’ chaps. If you dare boarding their ‘tin sheeted’ cars, you will regret for sure. The speaker’s right hand pointed to the Saminatha Vilas bus and Meerasa. As soon as their bus reaches the plain ground near the Banyan tree, they will stop it and dismantle its spare parts with an excuse of repairing it. Then what? You would have to sleep keeping your head on your folded knees. So dear man…listen to my words.”
****
The sun light which had been very harsh till now disappeared suddenly. The air became sultry. Pandian rose, looked up and examined the sky. The bundles of clouds were found scattered, grew thicker and darker. The waves were looking silky as if they were glistening with oil. The wind was standstill and atmosphere was suffocating. On the other corner, the sailors who were looking at the sea and sky intently turned suddenly, ran along with the captain to the ship mast and tightened the ropes. An unintelligible trace of worry was visible in what they had felt. Everyone rose, looked defenceless and looked at each other’s faces filled with fear.
The lightning flashes cut through the sky with shaking thunders. At the same time an impact with an inestimable speed and weight shook the ship, its people and materials on the deck. The sky seemed to have been broken and a torrent of flood gushed into. It was a cyclone. Both wind and rain were at the peak of their ferocity. The waves and its movements weren’t visible and it seemed to have merged with wind. The ship jumped up and down and spun in an axis like a spin top. First right, then left, then right and then left. It wavered from one place to another, jumped up, then fell down struggling to stabilise its hold. There was a cracking sound as if boned were breaking. Everyone could see sea water going up above their head. “We are dying….or going to die very soon.”- The death with our body getting rotten, eaten by fishes, sunk to the bottom of sea at an unknown place. The darkest of darkness. Darkest night everywhere. Sea…rain…cyclone…sky…He was lying holding a thick rope that was hanging somewhere. It looked like falls…Cascade of salt water…falls of sea…Flash of lightning…the hole of the captain…shadowy images moving across, sharks, its saw-like teeth, the cyclonic rain along the howl of winds…The body getting tired and senses getting cataleptic. The dance of demons- with the ship spinning, jumping up, swaying and fearfully dancing. The noise of something cracking up. We are going to meet our death with our body getting rotten, eaten by fishes, sunk to the bottom of the sea at an unknown place. We are going to die….No, we won’t die….we are dying.’
Suddenly there came an intimidating calmness where the sea and sky were found separate.
The sea captain shouted from a wooden enclosure.
“Come here, Come here….Lekas…lekas…”
Pandian rose. All the ‘bodies’ that were hiding in almost every corner rose their heads slowly. The ship is not steady. The waves looking like a mountain range hit the ship. The persons on the ship totter and run.
The sky, sea, wind and rain came together once again. The sky spews lightning like fire balls. The torrent of flood water gushes into. The air gags the breath and the sea is on its worst form of lethal dance. The ship jumps up and then falls down, and then breaks up. We are going to die… going to face the death with our body getting rotten, eaten by fishes, sunk to the bottom of the sea at an unknown place. Sea water on our faces, on our bodies, on our hands and legs, and the dresses strangling every part of body and cutting it like a saw. Death…death….death. The wooden pillar…stone pillar….iron pillar….and our pillar of life. The ship hops up, falls down, spins, sinks and floats. Jumps up again and swims. Coarse feeling of chillness. Noingggg….puingggg…..noigggg….puingggg. The Chinese demons of thunder and lightning throw themselves upon. Bales and small bundles fall off and disappear. The ship jumps up, falls down and cracking up. The ship spins as if having lost its axis. The sea waves are still hitting it.
‘What’s this? Sun light! Sun…Sun….Sun...The ship’s deck is full of water and the mast is found broken. The sailors are trying to pump the sea water out that was gushing into the ship through holes. They are fixing the holes, placing chunks by cutting wooden pieces and chiselling it.
The boxes containing tea leaves and bales containing tobacco leaves were floating on both sides of the ship.
Pandian is standing hell shocked at seeing the sea in all four sides. He couldn’t assess the duration of the dance of the sea. No one could watch the clock when it had started, when it had ended and even after long the dance had had ended. When they glanced the clocks, they saw it all had stopped working.
The ship is on its way without anyone’s control. The boxes and bales thrown out by the sailors during the dance of sea are floating along with them. No one has fully come out of the cyclonic terror yet. The captain Ai Liyang has gone into his hole and smokes his hookah. How far is Penang from there? When would they reach there? – No one was there to answer these questions.
The captain went to the deck at night and conducted a round of scrutiny over the sky and sea and then scratched his head. Pandian went to him and asked about the situation. The captain replied in a mixture of both Malay and Chinese.
“No need to worry now. We would be able to see the shore in a couple of days.”
No one ate that night and did not even talk.
Next day morning the sun rose. The sea waves hit the sides of the ship chasing one after the other. Both birds and fishes were playing in both sides in groups.
The ship was floating at the whims of the sea.
Day became night and became day and then became night. The dim light of crescent moon was glittering. The salty air caressed everyone’s body. A shoal of sea cows was following the ship displaying their back with snorts like grunting buffalos swimming in village tanks. The waves were calm and gentle.
On the fifth day evening after the dance of the sea, some greenery along the horizon where sea and sky met was visible. Approximately after half an hour, the lights of fishing boats were visible.
“Shore! Shore! Shore!”
Next day, in the forenoon they were nearing Penang harbour.
The clock tower is visible. The vehicles and men moving along the Weldtki Street are also visible.
The ship reached the shore and beached. The ships that would undertake long journey were crowding the shoreline. The question that came from every ship - ‘where are you coming from? Where are you coming from?’
“Belwan…Belwan”
The travellers going to Sumatra alighted the ship, went to the shore in small boats, crossed the walking bridge and entered customs office and produced their travel permits.
“Thamir? The Japanese officer roared at them.
“Yaa. Masta…they bowed their heads as a mark of acknowledgement that they were Tamils.
After an initial scrutiny of few seconds, the officer gave them their permits back affixing them with his stamps.
They walked through Market street and entered Chetti Street which was known as Penang Street. The street bore nearly an empty look except a couple of persons striding in it.
Pandian set out to go to Seeni Mohammed Ravuthar’s shop. Andiappa Pillai and Nallamuthu Konar told him that they were going to Seenaa Kaavanna shop in Queen Street. Others informed him that they would decide where to dump the materials after having it discussed with Maanaa Roonaa shop.
“After having your meals, all of you come to my place. We can share the burden of the cost of materials after assessing the total loss in the sea per head” Andiappa Pillai told and walked to north.
“Yes…that is how it ought to be” Shanmugam Pillai replied on behalf of others.
***Ended***
Notes:
1. Kundrakudi- Karaikudi- Devakottai – Names of towns in Sivagangai District.
2. Singam punari- a small town in Sivagangai District.
3. Vandu Meessai- Moustache that looks like feelers of insects.
4. Colour- local soft drinks are known as ‘colour’ in rural Tamil Nadu.
5. After Abyssinia was captured by Italy, the king Heiley Selassi escaped his country and was running a tea stall in Colombo. This news had been published in newspapers.
