Nineteen

Abstract

Rathni’s marriage was still several days away, but it seemed so near to members of Malegowda’s household that they threw themselves headlong into wedding preparations. Aaware and togari gram were not yet ripe for harvesting. However since nothing needed to be done by way of cultivation, the servants had some free time. They had to do the rethreshing on the day after the Sankranti festival because once the ears of corn were rethreshed, no one would have the time to even scratch his rear. Which was why the wedding preparations had to be over by that time. Malegowda got mason Muttayya of Sara-guru down to Gauwally and he was already busy with decorative mortar-work. The floor of the front verandah and the living hall gleamed so highly that one could see oneself in them. Delight leaped in Mudda at this. The mortar that the verandah was plastered with was still not dry, so Mudda wrote his name on it and after it dried the letters could no longer be erased. The red and blue paints that Gendethimma had brought adorned the doors, windows and pillars of the house. The entrance door was painted blue, and on it Mudda doodled in big pudgy letters, “Come tomorrow” Mudda had read these words on the front door of the village revenue officer’s house, and he’d made up his mind that very day to write them on the street-door of his own house. The story that Jayaram, the priest’s son, had told him about this message, “Come tomorrow” had pleased Mudda greatly.KeywordsFree TimeOily SubstanceBlue PaintFront DoorDeep ThoughtThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.