Posted:
loved the update Arnav last line was brilliant
Originally posted by: mak3mesmile
In India, we had snakes living in our backyard too. Just regular snakes [a whole bunch of them] but they were enough to keep me from ever treading onto their marked territory. It was a deal...you no come here and I no come there. It was a good deal but I'm not sure who struck whoever it was...it worked.
That was my snake story. My mom has one too but hers is a bit more...uh scary.
Anyways, the fact that Khushi and Nalan protected Arnav proves that physical strength is not the only one that counts [thank god for that otherwise I'd be completely useless]. Go teamwork!!
You go Khushi!
That convo after/during the kissing...I completely agree with Arnav and Khushi.
I repeat...You are a magnificent writer :)
Originally posted by: cindrella255
LOL... But I thought technically this update should remind us of someone struggling for life aka Vidya😃
Aaj phir dil ne ik tamanna ki
Aaj phir dil ko hum ne samjhaya
Chapter 18 – Shavathaalam
[This chapter is dedicated to one of my favorite directors of all time, Venu Nagavalli. For those of you Malayalees, this scene may bring back memories.]
Athiru kaakkum malayonnu tuduthee… thuduthee taka taka taa..
He heard the sound of an old man's voice singing in a rhythm in the style of old poems and paused.
He cocked his ear for the sound and followed the trail without knowing why he did so…
In a short distance, he found a clearing similar to many in the woods and an old man with a long beard was lying supine on a log, one foot up in the air balanced on his other bent knee.
He was drawing in the air with his right index finger and his foot moved up and down to the rhythm of his singing.
Chatichille neerali chatichille taka taka taaa….
Maanathuyarna manakottayalle… takarnee… taka taka taka…
He stood there and watched, transfixed… he couldn't understand anything the man said, but he thought he could see by the sight of something like a gargantuan mad sorrow leaking out of the man's voice, flowing off the log and onto the lush wet ground…
Takarnidathoru tari, tariyilla podiyilla… pukayumillleee taka taka taa…
Kaattinteyulachilil… oru valli kurukkil… kuralonnu murugi… thadiyonnu njerinjuu
Jeevan Njarangi… taka taka taaa…
The man stopped singing then… he put his hand down and looked straight at Arnav.
He got up off the log and walked towards him.
For a moment, he felt worse than the moment when he had seen the snake.
The sorrow was now gone with the man's silence, but the madness was clearly visible in his eyes and his knotted hair and stained clothing…
He thought briefly of walking away, but stood his ground as the mad man came towards him. When he was right in front of him, the man stopped.
This time there was no Kashi and no Nalan to shield him and the man looked into his eyes for a long moment before he said, "Shavaathalamanu Mone… Shavathaalam."
The man burst out with a laugh, startling him. Before he recovered, the man's laughter stopped just as suddenly as it had started and he reached out to touch him… at least, that's what he thought at first… but just when he cringed internally, the man's hand went right over his shoulder as he appeared to be reaching for someone.
He turned around and saw Kashi standing there behind him, at a distance.
"Lakshmi…" the man called, and Arnav turned to look at the man and saw that his voice was strangely coherent in that moment, his eyes lucid, no trace of the madness there now.
He heard her anklets chime slowly as she walked towards them.
"Ammavanentha ivide? Ente koode illathu vannal njan uchayunu eluppannorukkam. Varuvo?" (What are you doing here, uncle? If you come home, I will give you lunch. Will you come?)
The man stared at her for a moment, confusion clouding his eyes like the filmy layer of cataracts.
"Lakshmiyallalo." He finally said. (You are not Lakshmi).
She shook her head and brought her hand up to touch the man's cheek. "Kashi."
"Lashmiyenthiye Kutti?" (Where is Lashmi?) the man asked, turning into Kashi's touch lightly.
"Valiyammayi… angu othiridooreyalle ammava?" (Great-aunt… she is very far away, remember uncle?)
"Atheyalle." (That's true…)
For a moment, he looked off into the distance, lost in thoughts, but when he looked back, the lucidity was gone.
The man looked at him now and laughed again before he said, "Shavathaalam."
Then he turned around and walked into the woods.
Arnav looked at the empty log as he asked, "What is Shavathaalam?"
She was quiet for several moments before she answered, "The direct translation would be something like Death Knell"
He looked at her and saw that she was still watching the place where the man had disappeared.
"Who was that?" he asked.
"Shankaran Namboothiri. He came here many many years ago with my great uncle on vacation. It was just for a month when they were off from university. But he fell in love with my great-aunt very quickly after he got here."
":Lakshmi?" he asked.
She nodded.
"What happened? She didn't return the sentiments?"
"She did. Very much so…" She answered.
"Then?"
"His family was just as illustrious as ours, and they had a healthy respect for astrology, just like ours. So, they wouldn't let them get married. My great-aunt, she had chovva-dosham… She was manglik."
He had never put any stock in astrology, but knew that many still did. Clearly, back in the day and especially in this neck of the woods where tradition and ancestry seemed to be seeped into the soil to such a degree that they seemed to drink and eat it daily, it must have been all that ruled.
"So what happened?"
"He defied his parents. Wouldn't return to their illam and stayed here. He wanted to marry her, no matter what. My great-great-grandparents were trying to figure out how to deal with this, but even my great-aunt wouldn't agree to the marriage."
"Why not?"
"I don't know how it works in North India, but there is a strong belief here that if you have chovva dosham, then your spouse will not live long. She… she believed it, so she wouldn't marry him."
It seemed such a conundrum to him, and one that was man-made rather than anything else.
"Where is she?" he asked.
She closed her eyes and sighed before she opened them and looked at him. "She is dead."
"She killed herself?" he asked in surprise. If she had, that would have been a phenomenal waste.
"No, of course not." She paused again before she turned away completely and said in an almost whisper, "Shivan bit her."
--------
[For Non-Malayalees: The poem the man sings in this chapter is from a 1987 Malayalam movie called Sarvakalashala, and the scene in which it is sung is the link provided above. This chapter is a tribute to that movie and the director of that movie, one of the greatest offerings of the golden age of Malayalam movies, a decade that is an eternal source of inspiration for me that made my formative years that much more colorful and enriched.]
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