Entwined with these, their voices also had lost their human quality. However Kali had been to these spots a few times when they were youngsters, he was presently incapable to think about where Muthu was taking him. So much had changed in every one of the years he had remained closed inside his stable. They strolled past fields having a place with the two towns and arrived at the stream. It was flanked by thick shrubs on the two sides. The avaram bushes had become as tall as trees. Muthu strolled past them, out of nowhere turned a corner and moved higher. There was a coconut forest before Kali’s eyes.
There were probably 100 trees. They had been established following the decree that there should be sufficient room between two coconut trees for a chariot to go through. Practically every one of the trees were of a similar level. He might see the delicate coconut and the drink pots on large numbers of them. He had never seen such a forest in these parts. When every one of the raised fields lay evaporated, how did such a coconut forest flourish here? For most different yields, you could oversee regardless of whether you had next to no water in the well.
It might be essentially as little as what a little cuckoo would require for a beverage. With that you could develop some stew, a square-proportion of raagi or some cotton. Yet, coconut trees required a lot of water. In any case, the coir covering would dry and hang, and that thusly would cause the highest point of the tree to shrink up. Such trees seemed to be broken-winged birds frozen in mid-air. Kali had four coconut trees. In the blustery season, he would augment the circle around the tree for it to hold more water. Yet, in summer, the circle would recoil near the roots, and he would deliver two heaps of water through the little trench. What amount of it could get to the coconut trees? Not much. Kali called this ‘Life Water’.
This water was intended to invigorate barely sufficient coconut trees to make due. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do in light of the fact that they required coconut for their food. Ponna would likewise sell what she didn’t require. All things considered, it was just both of them. Yet, Kali couldn’t move past his feeling of miracle that here, in this dry land, was a coconut forest with 100 trees. As they entered, a chill palm breeze took them in its hug. Evaporated barks and fallen fronds had been piled up on a side. A few fronds had likewise been spread under each tree. He was brimming with questions: ‘Machan, who possesses this spot? I never acknowledged there was such a woods so near us. There could be 100 trees, isn’t that so? Seems as though they have all aged.
How would they help water?’ Muthu recounted to him the narrative of that spot. A Muslim dealer who claimed a cotton storage facility in Tiruchengode likewise possessed this spot. Before this woods of trees came up, this also was a dry real estate parcel like the encompassing stretches. However, the cotton vendor had huge load of cash. He brought a Gounder family from there and gave them a spot to live here. This family had been moping in a ranch there, filling in as farmhands. He had met them during his visits there to purchase cotton. At the point when he called them here to deal with the spot, they moved. Since he had no main issues in regards to cash, he gave them what they required. There were three wells for this land, and one all around was utilized for water system consistently. What more did the trees require?
There was likewise a tile-roofed house squarely in the center of the property for the proprietor to remain in when he visited sporadically. The Gounder family remained in the covered rooftop cabin. The second the bloom sheath began appearing and the trees began yielding, a Sanar family too constrained its direction into the forest. Besides the fact that they assumed control over the trees yet they likewise began making and selling drink. Kali’s mouth watered at the possibility of the drink. Until certain a long time back, you could get coconut drink in shops. You could drink a bellyful at anything that time you needed to; it was not so sharp as palm drink. It was, truth be told, sweet. In any case, it was a genuine shock when all drink and arrack organizations in Salem region were requested to be closed down. One couldn’t see drink bowls on trees.
The Sanars were confused about what to do; it had been their conventional vocation. Life, as a general rule, lost its flavor. Along these lines, individuals began fermenting arrack covertly. In any case, there was a tenacious feeling of dread toward the police. Individuals asked why Brahmins were settling on these choices. In the white man’s standard, who unexpectedly gave these Brahmins the power? By what other means could things end up if this Brahmin legal counselor from Salem — a man who didn’t know anything about liquor, who had never tasted meat in his life — was made the priest?