Nurungukal....contd.....

   But on that fateful day Muniyandi’s father lost his grip on the hump of the running animal and slipped on to the wet mud road. There was a sigh from the crowd. Usually the bull ran forward to escape from its pursuers but this one turned back and charged. Muniyandi’s father could not stand on his feet and he was writhing in pain as the injury caused by the hooves of the heavy bull had broken one of this thigh bones. And before the crowd could extricate him from the bull it had pierced its sharp horn well into his torso damaging the lungs and heart. May be the animal would have been taking a revenge for all the agony it had suffered so far. They could not save his life. Muniyandi was about eight years old at that time.

       Years passed and the pond would have been filled and emptied many a time.The widowed mother struggled hard to take care of her child. In the process Mniyandi had to drop out from the school. When the two was in dire need of money they raised petty loans from a pawn broker who visited the village every weekend. And gradually the money lender and the widow became closer and closer. The relationship culminated in their marriage. But the hitch was that they were of different castes and the villagers refused to sanctify the relationship. The result was that they were ordered to leave the village. There was no choice to Muniyandi but to accompany them as he loved his mother so much. Nobody knew their where abouts and after knowing this story I never had the inclination to enjoy the sunset on the banks of that pond. But occasionally I even now felt his presence and heard the flute while relaxing in similar surroundings!!!.