Making a sincere attempt to bring an unimagined and unexplored treasure trove of modern Sinhala literature to the English reading community, Montage is bringing Mahinda Prasad Masimbula ’s award winning novel ‘Senkottan’ translated by Malinda Seneviratne, veteran journalist, writer and poet.
‘Senkottan’ (The Indelible), a remarkable creation of literature by Mahinda Prasad Masimbula was his debut effort in his literary career for which he won the State Literary Award in 2013 and short-listed in Swarna Pusthaka Literary Awards and many other Literary Award Festivals in the same year. The book has been published by Santhawa Publishers and ‘Senkottan’ has blazed the trail in the self-publishing industry as one of the best-selling books in Sinhala literature.
CHAPTER 3, PART 2
Heen Ridee’s fresh lease of life began to blend among the greenery and with the wind for the first time. She went to the peththara to bathe that day when the sun was brighter than usual. The golden rays were conjuring wonderful imagery upon the paddy fields nearby. The dew on the young stalks of rice had not yet dried. She cast a virginal gaze upon the talipot grove below the peththare. Wading into the water knee-deep, Heen Ridee sprinkled a handful of water upon her chest. Her entire body went numb. It was at this moment that a thiththakadei shoal began to tickle her legs. It was a strange tickling the kind of which she had never before experienced. She had never noticed this intensely playfulness of the fish.
‘Oh how naughty they are….tickling me endlessly,’ she said to them softly. She wanted to look at her breasts. They had grown much over the past few days. She thought that one day they would be as beautiful as her sister’s. Thereafter she began to pour upon herself the water she drew with a bucket.
There was a pair of eyes hidden amid the talipot grove observing these scenes which were unfolding for the first time ever. The best was what those eyes saw when the young woman changed her clothes facing the talipot grove. Everything from that point until she started scrubbing herself having bathed for a while were eagerly and greedily captured by these eyes. Heen Ridee scrubbed herself longer than usual. During this time, those eyes had seen her young breasts three times and her thighs seven-eight times. The little girl who had been running hither and thither wearing rags and bathed in dust had been wonderfully transformed in a matter of few days. The amazing change infused a wondrous sensation to the manhood of the owner of the eyes that observed all this from the talipot grove.
She started bathing once more. He has another opportunity. She will be changing her clothes. Impatient for this moment to come, he went into action. It was for him more pleasurable than ever before. He thought this and felt it. She began to put on her clothes right at the crucial moment and this too facing the talipot grove. His needs, as such, were fulfilled beyond imagination. He quickly cut several thal goba and hurried towards the peththare along with the tender talipot sprouts. The young woman was washing clothes.
‘Ah…Babanis Aiye…’
‘I came to cut some thal goba for kiri amma…most of them had unfolded, though,’ he spoke of an errand for his grandmother and placed the yield of his labour upon the peththare stone. He had folded his sarong half way up his legs and was bare chested. Dust and tiny dry twigs and leaves from the forest were entangled in his chest hair. As he brushed them away and washed his face, he quickly picked a stone, took aim and let fly at a fish. In a flash a fairly large thiththakadeyya floated to the surface.
‘Eeya! What a sinful act….you are a great sinner!’
While she expressed disgust, the young man Babanis spoke proudly about his accomplishment.
‘Alright, let’s say it was a sinful act. But tell me, who else could take aim and kill a fish with a stone’s throw….hmm?’
‘Just go away. I am angry with you. I don’t like people who kill animals. I was talking with them just before you turned up. Now there is one less…..’
‘You have become quite a proud woman now, haven’t you?’
‘Eeyaa…a woman? Am I a woman?’
‘Alright, alright. You may not be a woman, but you are big girl now. You are no longer a little girl, are you? That’s why you bathe with the cloth tied higher….well, it was we who had to sweat endlessly….’
It was true. Babanis had worked tirelessly for several days before her puberty ceremony. He cut Arecanut logs for the small hut erected in the compound in front of the house. He wove raw coconut fronds. He cut holes to lay the bananas so they ripened faster. He blew smoke into these holes. He brought the rabana from the henagedara. He wove the mat for the floor of the hut with the tender, yellow-green coconut leaves. It was all Babanis’ work. Heen Ridee rinsed and scrubbed, scrubbed and rinsed, again and again. She softened.
‘That’s true of course Aiye. I saw you lugging an Eracanut log, sweating profusely….’
‘How did you see that? You were supposed to be hidden in a corner!’
‘I saw from the window. I felt sorry for you…’
‘I also looked towards the window a few times, hoping I would get to see you, but I didn’t.’
‘Eeya…aren’t you ashamed to cast your eyes on the windows of the rooms where a cornered girl was staying?’
He glanced at her body now and again. There were some scars of old wounds but they were of the kind that would disappear. She was at the first stage of blossoming into a full woman. His impatient mind desired an opportunity to caress and kiss this body right away. He wanted to tell her that he had seen not too long ago every inch of her body that was now covered. He just couldn’t wait to lay his hands on this body. All that Babanis wanted now was to have Heen Ridee in his arms at the first opportunity offered. And yet he knew this would not be easily accomplished.
‘There’s something I want to tell you. If I were to come by at night, would you stay by the window?’
‘Eeyaa!…you must be crazy. The other thing is that father sleeps in the wellaa hut. You’ll end up getting assaulted…so whatever it is that you have to say, say it right now.’
‘No…no…I will definitely come tonight. I am not scared of even the devil.,’ he insisted.
His playful and brave words filled most corners of her mind with strange feelings. She began to feel a certain pride. She felt that she too is an important woman in this world. By this time she had already rinsed the cloth she bathed in eleven times.
He felt that she remained in the waters without going home because she liked him. And yet he thought that if there was something untoward in what he had said it would be best that it be erased with a joke. If it was something that would titillate her in some way, it would be to his advantage, he reasoned.
‘You know sister, every time I see you I am reminded of a verse that Mal Aatha often recites. Whenever he drinks toddy, he gets poetic. He makes people laugh until their sides ache…’
‘What do you mean?’
‘This I remembered when I saw your bosom.’
Her face went red with embarrassment but she very much liked Babanis’ playfulness.
She was impatient to hear these strange verses he spoke of. Despite being in the dark about certain things her face wore the red blush of embarrassment. As she was rinsing the bathing cloth, some water splashed on him. Their new world began to be filled with coolness.
‘This is a verse that Mal Aatha sang upon seeing a young lass as beautiful as you. So listen…’
He looked around and with great affectation began to sing.
In yonder thicket of the elephant kraal there’s indalolu
bloom this season they say in abundance unheard
the buds of Aththalawatte Madu Hamy’s breasts
looked upon me and with much coyness swayed
Her mind and body could not be unperturbed listening to this. They went numb. The poem was exotic.
They are both laughing now. It was just then that Podina arrived at the peththara. She saw them laughing together. The moment he saw Podina, Babanis picked up the thala goba and took off. It became clear that what had transpired was not idle chat when Heen Ridee came out of the water in an unusual hurry. Podina felt angry at her little sister.
Podina knew that Babanis was no good. He had a considerable reputation among women folk as someone who loitered where women bathed.
‘What was it that made you get so giggly with Babanis? I waited and waited and came only because it was getting late. Do you remember what time you left home? It’s enough time for anyone to bathe ten times, isn’t it? You had to stay and flirt away. You know very well that he is one who wouldn’t let a parrot or woodpecker alone. He kills and eats them….such a sinner is he!’
‘What’s come over you….nothing like that happened. He said something funny. I laughed. That’s all. Wait….I will tell mother when they come back that you were harassing me.’
‘First they make you laugh and then they make you cry, that’s the way it happens. Get back home. Right now!’
Podina was furious. Heen Ridee could not understand what had agitated her so. She wasn’t happy about being ordered by her sister. If that wasn’t enough she had also insulted Babanis who had made her laugh so much. Sure, he hunted animals and ate them. He was however a true and brave man, she told herself as she walked home. At that moment she thought that it would indeed be so good if he came by her window as promised.
Podina berated Heen Ridee several times more even after coming home. Heen Ridee thought how good it would be if she could pour out all these pains and sorrows to Babanis. She could stay up all night if necessary if he were to come. The absence of her parents meant that half the things she needed to clear out of the way. Babanis, however, didn’t know her parents were away. She needn’t have told him that her father would be sleeping in the wellaa hut. Would that give him second thoughts? Would it stop him from coming? She was furious at herself. Maybe that’s part of being a woman. A true man would not let such things stop him. If Babanis was the man she believed he was, he would come.
There was only one problem. Her sister.