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Devadasi
Chapter Listing
Chapter XII
Meena was now her own mistress. She lived in a respectable part of the town.
She had a servant girl to wait on her and a brahmin cook. She was like any
other young housewife, running a house, gossiping with her neighbors, going
to the temple occasionally to worship, and with a few shopping expeditions
thrown in. Her mother came to see her often and still harped on Meena's wasted
youth and the opportunities these days for a young and talented dancer. But her
grumbling had ceased to worry Meena and she took it with a good humored
tolerance that was a sign of maturity. True, she still kept her dancing
costumes and the strings of bells that went round her ankles, at the bottom of
her steel trunk. Occasionally, she took these out when there was no one around,
looked at them longingly and wondered if she would ever use them again. But
the ceremonies she had performed and the silver statue she had presented gave
her some consolation, though, in her heart of hearts, she wondered whether a
vow once taken could ever be revoked.
Udayar went about his business with a new enthusiasm. Apart from attending to
his agriculture, he was also beginning to lend money to other agriculturists
who were not as well off as he was. They usually borrowed from him at the time
of sowing and returned the loan after the harvest was gathered and sold. Other
money lenders were all town people, who did not understand the needs or the
psychology of the agriculturists. They charged exorbitant rates of interest and
went to court the moment there was any delay in payment. But being an
agriculturist himself, Udayar understood the borrowers and their problems; he
knew about the prospects of crops and advised his clients about the type of
crops to grow, when to sow and so on. He also charged a standard rate of
interest at twelve per cent. He further accommodated them in various ways,
gave more time for repayment in case of a bad harvest and gave concessions in
interest to those who happened to have had bad luck. But he was particular
about one thing and that was, the return of his loan. He was not interested in
taking over the farms of his debtors as compensation of his land. His
philosophy was that unless a man could prosper by taking a loan firm him, he
would not give him one. The result was that he picked and chose the people to
whom be lent money and rarely had to go to court to recover it.
Consequently, he was a popular man among other agriculturists. They came in
increasing numbers to Meena's house to meet him, to borrow money and to ask
for advice. While Meena stayed in the background when there were other men
about, ho found that her knowledge of men and affairs was very wide thanks to
the training she had received as a deva dassi and her judgments were sound.
She often got information through her maid servant about the various people
who came to the house and passed it on to Udayar. He often benefited from such
information.
Occasionally, when she heard music, unconsciously her feet would begin to keep
time and her face would show the mood and emotion of the song. Or, when her
mother spoke about the new dancers who had come to the temple and explained
some of the finer technical points in their dances, she would look wistfully
into the far distance, but would soon recover herself. Except for such rare
occasions, the life of peace and domesticity gave her a sense of contentment
and stable security that she had not known before.
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