Love Drained by Kalai Selvi Arivalagan (best new books to read .txt) 📖

“Let my hair down and enjoy life.” Sherin muttered softly to herself.

“But, will I be allowed to let my hair down and enjoy life as it comes” A big question loomed before her.

Sherin stopped for a while combing her lengthy dark hair. Dark, thick curls of hair floated down her back resembling a black jet of flash flood.

Every week on a Friday morning, Sherin dried her locks of hair in the morning sunlight. Her hands gently stroke down and relieved the knots on the hair.

Warm sunlight bathed her hair with fondness and caressed down her neck with love. Her mother helped Sherin to take the utmost care to nourish the hair with home made oil.

For the oil, she dried fresh hibiscus flowers, fresh leaves of henna, fresh vetiver or perennial grass, and yellow karisalankanni keerai or greens. Then she broke them hoarsely in the grinding stone.She poured the coconut oil in a clean bottle and added a few spoons of the hoarsely ground powder.

For more than fifteen days she kept the bottle in the sun till the color of the oil changed. Sometimes her mother soaked the fresh shikkakai pods overnight in the water and made a thick paste of it in the grinding stone. Taking head bath with this shikkakai paste, helped her body to cool and her skin to glow.

‘Do I look like Rapunzel?’ Sherin questioned herself one day. Just like her am I locked away and hidden from the world?

She desperately wanted to broken her chain of loneliness and come out. Yet, she could not do so, as she knew women in her family stayed at home and were always escorted by the male members of the family. Without any one to escort, she could not go even to a nearby temple.

After graduation, she didn’t have the liberty to step outside home. At college she enjoyed the breathing space and it was really an escape. After college, her parents were not interested in sending her for any kind of jobs.

Getting her married was the only thought they had in their mind. When it took more than two years to find a suitable alliance for her, Sherin felt locked inside a place hidden from the eyes of the world.

The high walls and the barbed wire-fence lined with trees protected their sprawling land. Once inside the house, she is shut from the entire world. Only radio connected her to the outside world.

Reading daily newspaper helped her to know what happened around her. But she has to wait patiently till 11 am. Sherin would then walk to her neighbour to read the English newspaper.  The fresh smell of the paper was inviting and she quickly went through the newspaper glancing for any news that caught her attention. Apart from the newspaper, she listened to the radio starting from morning 5:45 am. Even before mike was switched on to air the programmes, she would switch on her radio. The morning programme started with ‘Vante mataram’. She loved to listen to Vante Mataram in the early morning as it evoked a sense of patriotism within her. Next, she loved the voice of her favorite announcer who greeted ‘good morning’ in his manly voice. Sherin even started to believe, if she heard his greeting in the morning, the day would be good for her.

Sherin loved bird watching in the morning. But she could watch only crows. She had read about hundreds of birds. Yet, she was lucky to watch only crows, mynahs, pigeons, sparrows and drongos.

During afternoons she sat under the pomegranate tree and scribbled poems. She also watched tiny birds that drank nectar from the flowers on the pomegranate tree. She could not spot them as they always hide inside those thick branches.

In the evening, Sherin would watch rows and rows of cranes flying toward their nests. It was a treat to watch them flying high up in the sky.

“I must be a bird. Then I can fly and reach anywhere I wish.”  ‘Are these birds lucky to find their mates? ‘They need not ask the permission from their parents to choose their mates.’ Sherin’s thoughts went wild.  

At night, hooting owls would fly across the dark curtain of night in seconds. Sometimes she saw the beady eyes of big bandicoots that ran stealthily along the compound wall. Her mother would yell at her to come inside as it was past 11 in the night. Still, Sherin loved to linger in the dark and listen to the peculiar noises of the night.

In her heart, she could listen to the rustling sound of the silk dhoti from the dark. Slow steps would reach her and she would willingly let those strong hands lock her in a tight embrace. She inhaled with love the natural masculine aroma that tickled her love nerves to expect more.

Sherin sat in the chair reading her book. There was not much of sound as it was 10 pm. She did not want to disturb others sleeping inside the house. Sherin could hear the soft rustle of the moonjuru (a kind of mouse) that moved swiftly squeaking its way. An unbearable stench crossed her nose as the mouse ran under her chair. As Sherin knew that snakes considered those kinds of mouse  as a treat, she lifted her legs on the chair.

Another thirty minutes went away in reading. Sherin suddenly felt something pulled her hair from behind. She took her long plaited hair and brought it to the front. The long plaited hair stayed on her left shoulder for a while, but it slowly went back again. Sherin once again pulled it to the front. Sherin closed her book and looked around her. No one was there. She could hear the soft rumble of the fan only. The window doors were open wide and she could see the dim light of the night lamp on the wall. Sherin ran on the steps and closed the doors loudly.

Sherin could hear her heart pounding loudly. She could feel two invisible eyes constantly looking at her and disturbed her sub-conscious mind. Unknown excitement caught her. She had ever felt so and could not tell why she felt like that. The next day dawned as usual. Sherin didn’t find anything special during the day and so she desperately waited for the night. Though at heart she wanted to stay back and see what happened, her reasoning skill pushed her inside the home.

More than ten days went away, Sherin avoided sitting alone in the dark. One day while she was deep asleep, she heard a tap at the doors of the window. Initially she thought it was the wind outside. No one heard the sound except her. She nervously looked at the window. Suddenly the hook on the window came out and the doors opened wide.

Sherin could feel the rush of cold air through the window. The cold air landed directly on her bed, and it spread across her making her feel the warmth of a person alive.  

Sherin wanted to scream, but something got stuck inside her throat and no voice came out of her mouth. The tongue stuck to the upper gums made her jaws tremble with unknown fear.

"It is me." Someone whispered into her ear. Sherin opened her eyes wide and looked around. She couldn’t see anyone in the dark. But she could feel the presence of someone and a husky aroma lingered around her.

As if in a dream, Sherin gave herself to the invisible power. Sherin closed her eyes and started to enjoy those intimate moments.

The next day dawned as usual. But Sherin did not get up at her usual time. Around half past eight, her mother woke her up. Sherin's face was swollen and red with high temperature.  Sherin's dad took her to the doctor immediately.

The doctor prescribed some medicines and the temperature came back to normal. Yet, Sherin felt so weak and she could not get up from her bed.

Worried her mother took her to the local temple. The old lady sitting near the sanctum   asked Sherin to sit before her. She meditated for a while and took a bunch of neem leaves. After circling the neem leaves three times around her, she started to talk.

"Now things will be good. She is looked upon by a hairy-fairy." Sherin looked at her confused. She had heard about fairies and what is this hairy-fairy.

"Don't sit outside late night. Otherwise this hairy-fairy will take you along with it." She went on narrating incidents that happened earlier. Sherin's mother was too good to believe all these things. When she took home Sherin, she did not fail to nail down a bunch of neem leaves at the doorstep to keep away the hairy-fairy.

Sherin knew  one thing clearly, still time has not not come for her fairy to relieve her from the virgin life.

Text: Kalai Selvi Arivalagan
Publication Date: 01-23-2012

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Dedication:
Days of dreams and loneliness