episode 5

Aganagai told her brother what had happened and wept.

“They snatched my child away. He doesn’t understand my love. My tears are acting. All my laments are anger. I just feel like dying,” she cried.

Kantha pulled her close and said, “A man’s world is different. A woman’s world is different. It will take some time for him to understand you. After being a family for so many years, it’ll be hard for him to accept you as his family, leaving them behind.”

She pulled away from him. “How can you say that, bro? He’s living with his family. I left my whole family and went to live in his house, believing he is my world. But he doesn’t feel like accepting me as a person in his house. You’re a man too, right? That’s why you don’t understand my heart either,” she cried.

He wiped her tears.

“Men are like that. But we’re not bad people. I’m telling you plainly. We don’t know how to adapt and live. That’s why we stay within our families. For those who can’t even immediately give space in their heart to their wife after marriage, do you think they’ll feel like going to another house to live?” he asked.

“men can’t adapt. Men can’t trust. So why should we women have to die for that, bro? I don’t want to talk to you anymore either. I’ll file a case in court and get my son back,” she said.

“Alright. Give me one last chance. I’ll make him understand you,” Kantha said.

Gritting her teeth, she held her head. Looking at her brother, she asked, almost yelling, “I’m a woman, you know. If that dog didn't fall for me, do you really think he’s going to fall for you just because you go wearing a saree? Will he just open up his heart and show it?”

Seeing her depression, he sighed deeply. “This is your mistake. You have a body. You try to enslave him with it. You think a man will fall only for a woman’s body,” he said.

She ground her teeth noisily. She swung her hand. His cheek and ear got slapped.

He closed his eyes in pain. His sister really was strong. She must have hit her husband like this too. That’s why kabilan must have been more affectionate to his family than to her, he thought.

“It’s okay if you can’t give comfort. At least don’t raise my tension by arguing for the sake of it,” she said, running her hands through her hair.

“Go to that house in my disguise, bro. If you can manage in that house for three months, then I’ll accept you as a man,” she challenged.

He felt a small relief. He thought it would be enough if he could light a lamp in his sister’s life.

“You’ll tell me details about your family, right?” he asked.

“I will,” she said. “And similarly, you have to take care of my business. I’ll give you the details,” he said.

“Okay,” she said.

The next day she was discharged. Until then, neither Kabilan nor his family had come looking for her.

Both of them went to Kantha’s house. Kantha’s mother and his stepfather were living in a separate house.

In his own house, there was complete freedom.

They bought clothes for both of them.

“You don’t know my husband. During periods, if I stay away for five days, he’ll sulk for six days. If he rapes you, I’m not responsible,” Aganagai said.

Wearing a blouse over a padded bra, he said, “There’s no chance he’s that kind of person. If he is, I’ll teach him a good lesson.”

“Only if you tilt your head back will your Adam’s apple show. So don’t go staring at the sky,” Aganagai warned.

“You also use only the personal bathroom in my office room. When you go out, go into a private stall restroom,” he said.

“Okay,” she said, “Don’t sit with your legs wide open.”

Suddenly remembering something else, she sat sadly on a chair there. “My son must be hungry!” she said.

“I’ll feed the little man three times a day.”

She glared. “He drinks breast milk.”

He glared back. “You drank poison like some drunkard. If you had died then, what would your child have drunk? In that house, he’s the only problem. All the keys to expose me are in his hands. I’ll get him to your mother soon,” he said.

She gave her phone to him. She took his phone.

A wig was fixed on his head. She had trained him for two days on how to braid hair.

He applied kumkum and wore jewelry on his neck and hands. As a child, when his ears were pierced, wanting to wear a diamond stud in one ear, he had kept the holes in both ears open. Using that, he now wore jhumka earrings.

“If you mess up anything in my office, I’ll bite you,” he threatened.

“Mess up as much as you want in my family. I don’t have a problem. I’ll be happy even if you hammer nails into everyone’s heads in that house,” she said.

***

It had been a week since Aganagai left her father's home. After a week, in the evening, an auto stopped in front of kabilan's house.

Kantha, in his sister’s getup, got out of the auto.

After paying the auto, he looked at the house. There was a rangoli at the entrance.

‘Does a house where my sister couldn’t live deserve a rangoli?’ he thought as he went inside.

Semmalar was sitting in the hall. The child was sleeping in the cradle nearby. There were tear stains on his face. Seeing that, kantha's heart grew heavy.

Semmalar looked at him and asked, “Why did you come here, wretch?”

‘This is the house where the most wretchedness happens, right? That’s why I came,’ the words came to his mouth.

But he shouldn’t do that. He had decided he must bring spring to his sister’s life, so he said in a lowered voice, “Isn’t this my house, ma? That’s why I came.”

“Why is your voice so awful?” she asked, frowning.

He was struggling to mimic. But can a female voice come out just like that?

“With my face, can I speak in Shreya Ghoshal’s voice?” he muttered, then said, “I’ve caught a cold, ma.”

“You and your face…” Semmalar scolded just as someone crashed into his back with a thud.

He turned. Anicham, who had bumped into him, stepped back rubbing her forehead.

“Feels like I hit a stone. Your face and features…” she pouted, mocked him, and walked past.

‘Damned thing. She’s the one who bumped into me. She’s scolding me,’ he cursed in his mind.

“Nagai…” a bouncy voice called, and he turned.

Aganagai’s co-sister Kondrai came out of her room.

“I miss you…” she said, grabbed his hand, and pulled him to her room.

“They said you got angry and left even the child. Mother in law told me,” she said, pushing him to sit on the bed.

“I went on a tour and bought this for you,” she said, bringing a saree and placing it on his lap.

It looked like a blue silk saree.

He said, “Thanks.”

“Your voice has become awful. Did you cry a lot?” she asked, sitting beside him.

“Your husband’s face has been dull for a whole week,” Kondrai said.

‘Yeah. He came running and fell at my sister’s feet! That’s how I knew his gloom!’ he thought, then said, “For a whole week, you didn’t even call me once. You didn’t come looking for me either.”

Kondrai looked at him in surprise.

“You’re very different. You talk a lot,” Kondrai said.

He placed the saree she gave on her bed and stood up.

“There’s no need to give gifts out of duty,” he said and walked out.

‘She’s completely changed!’ she thought, just as Kantha picked up the child from the cradle.

He took the child to the bedroom and laid him on the bed.

“The cursed one has come back again. Who cried and asked her to come here?” Semmalar muttered.

“The wretch who ran away leaving the child—couldn’t she just stay gone?” she taunted.

He couldn’t express how angry he felt.

He had issued a challenge to his sister. But he had no confidence he could last three months.

He gently patted the child’s chest.

Kabilan came into the house. As soon as he entered, he sensed something different.

He came to the bedroom. Seeing his wife, he asked, “Why did you come here?”

Kantha turned to him, irritated. But deciding to reform him with love, he said, “I can’t live without you.”

Seeing him speak in a changed voice, Kabilan looked at him strangely and asked, “Why are you acting new now?”

How did he figure it out already, he wondered.

Twirling the pallu of his saree with his left hand, he approached him with a seductive smile.

Placing a hand on his chest, he said, “It’s only wrong if I act with the neighbor.”

“You’re the type who would act like that too,” Kabilan muttered, and Kantha slapped him hard.

Patience? He just couldn’t hold onto it.

He thought the Nobel Peace Prize should be given to his sister first.

Kabilan’s cheek felt like it had turned to one side from Kantha’s slap. He wondered if she could slap with such force.

To be continued..

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