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 3
That unusual night was approaching. And what an unusual night it was, Heen Ridee thought to herself. She was lying down on a mat rolled in a corner of the room, but slumber was nowhere in sight. It was a relief when she heard the devil bird call from the direction of the thick jungles of Pelawatte and ceased thereafter. She was convinced that Santhosa Maama must have been chanting something. The villagers knew that whenever the devil bird called, Santhosa Maama would chant something and silence would follow. One day however, he had erred and the devil bird had alighted on the roof of his house and ceaselessly screeched all night, she had heard her father say.
Her mind was filled with a strange loneliness traced with anxiety. Whichever pathway of memory she chose to travel along she always encountered Babanis and Babanis alone. When she followed a noise, it ended with Babanis’ laughter. The faint light outside showed up the window as a soft white square. The piece of cloth that served as a curtain fluttered slowly in a breath of wind just like the flutter in her heart. She could hear Nambu Aiya snoring in the verandah room. The little fellow incoherently asked for something once or twice in his sleep. There was no sound from her sister.
Had her wickedness erased the love in Babanis’ heart? Her objections must be due to the fact that she didn’t have a proper man. The foxes in the Vaadiyawatte fox hole started howling just then. The dogs in the village immediately responded in a chorus. Fear enveloped her once again. Did something bad happen to Babanis along the way? Menik Hami had mentioned about a white cobra that slithered around the tract of paddy.
‘Please, please….let nothing bad happen to him!’
After another hour and more had passed, that black image bleeding into the darkness moved towards the window. At this moment Heen Ridee was swaying between sleep and wakefulness, but she was fully awake and alert when he scratched the window frame for the first time. She felt the entire room tremble not just her heart. He continued to scratch the frame. She cleared her throat once to indicate that she was not asleep. It took her eight or nine minutes to get up and go to the window.
They recognized each other first from smell. Then he reached out and held her hand. She, in turn, to confirm that it was indeed Babanis, placed her hand on his heart and caressed the hair on his chest. Yes, it was he. After a while, having concluded that the night belonged to them and no one else, Babanis kissed her face and neck from which he felt wafted a fragrance like no other. The only hinderance now were the three bars on the window. Heen Ridee worried that they would be broken simply on account of Babanis’ strength. They were however made of the stout kithul. She nudged that thought aside.
The wind arrived now and then, caressed them and left.
‘You are feeling cold, aren’t you Aiye? she murmured softly. The moon hid behind a cloud; emerged again. Babanis whispered into her ear. He described the wonderous things he had seen that afternoon. She pinched his chest.
‘Let me in sweetheart. We can’t do this hanging on to this window like bats clinging to kajupuhulan.’
‘Oh no…no…let’s leave that for another day mae deyyo.’
‘You aroused me out of my mind and now you throw obstacles, isn’t that it?’
‘No, no..there’s nothing like that deyyo. Akka is inside. She is a light sleeper. She’s been watching me like a hawk since this afternoon. She’ll slaughter me, mae deyyo.’
And thus they communicated, alternately whispering into each other’s ears. First the whisper. Then the kiss. And then the moment for word.
‘Ayye…please don’t kill animals again…that’s all I ask from you.’
‘I will stop it, I swear!’
‘How will I survive once you leave? I feel strange…I will not bathe tomorrow…’
‘Why would you not?’
‘Because that would wash away your kisses….’
They giggled softly once more. It was once again the moment for kisses. Several hours passed this way and he left just before dawn, but only after they agreed to meet again the same way the following night.
When she recalled that amazing night as she swept the compound in front of the house her blood streams filled and overflowed with a trace of excitement. She wanted to finish sweeping that area as soon as possible and spend more time sweeping the spot outside the widow. She imagined how he would have clung to the window from outside.
‘Poor Babanis Aiya…!’
He was amazingly sweet. There was stubble on his cheek. And he had a hairy chest. He was dark and handsome. He made her laugh until her sides ached. She felt utterly blessed. It was unforgivable that she had to be so nasty to a man so good. If he was bad he wouldn’t have kissed her forehead just before he left and said ‘I will take care of you all your life.’ She also remembered how he tarried just a moment after bidding her goodbye, bringing tears to her eyes. She decided she will not stop this, whatever her sister may say.
‘She’s crazy. She’s bursting with jealousy.’
She thought that if indeed her sister was jealous of her it had to be on account of a strange incident she had witnessed a few months previously. She had been reluctant to think about it thereafter but the present state of affairs took her back to that moment.
It was a night when their mother had left to perform puberty rites. She had wanted to relieve herself and looked for her sister in the living room where she usually slept. She wasn’t there, but she heard some stifled sobs coming from the verandah room. There was a lamp in that room and Heen Ridee wanted to take a peek. She stepped out peeped through the widow panes which were slightly ajar. Nambu Henaya was sitting on his haunches, looking down. Her sister was seated near the head of the bed. She didn’t have her jacket on and her cloth was undone at the waist, barely covering her body.
She was pleading sofly, ‘come..’ She said it twice. He looked at her and looked down again, helplessly. She stayed still for a few moments and suddenly pounced on him and started beating him like a mad woman. Heen Ridee remembered how frightened she was. Finally, Ayya had gone on his knees, brought his hands together, worshipped Akka and whimpered in a pleading tone, ‘I told you…that I can’t do such things…’ Her sister had then kicked him for good measure, picked up the cloth that had fallen, wrapped it around her waist, sat on the bed, panting.
She hadn’t slept one wink that night. Those images played before her eyes again and again. She wondered at length what her sister had been demanding. All the queries that troubled her had been answered the previous night. She must have wanted that which Babanis Aiya had given her. If that were so, how fortunate she was, she thought. Moving from dark memories to happy ones, Heen Ridee saw how her lover’s feet had disturbed the ground under the window. She looked around and mimicking him, grabbed the window and hung on it. It was not easy at all. His arms must have hurt a lot. Her heart began to fill with love that was even greater than before.