Tiger Hills (66 page)

He stopped, trying to gather himself. “What I did to you, Devi,” he said shakily. “If I could take it back, what I did, I—”

“Enough,” Devi whispered. She moved her hand, finding his fingers, and clasped them in her own. She shook her head, and her hair at once sprang free of its bun, even with so small a movement. “Enough,” she whispered again.

Devi shut her eyes, letting go. Sinking softly into the past, floating toward that innocent time when both their lives lay unsullied ahead of them, shining with promise. A clear summer sky, two children running laughing through the fields. The sun glittering upon the crab stream, the water like molten silver against their legs. A length of chicken gut, cast it in, draw it out, the water, so bright,
look,
a cluster of fat black crabs, glistening like gems.

“So many crabs we caught that day.”

“Thirty-three.”

“Tayi made crab chutney. And you … you ate so much you were sick in the bushes after that.”

Devanna lay very still. Then lifting his hand, he gently pushed the hair back from her face.

Epilogue

D
awn hung suspended over Tiger Hills. Devi watched, as gradually, like a curtain being lifted, the night began to part. A fulgent mist rolled in from the mountains. The light seemed phosphorescent, glimmering over the flower beds and the pale green scum of the pond. Silently she called their names, one by one, all those who were gone, as color streaked the velvet skies and a rooster began to crow.

Miles away, a car climbed steadily through the winding roads. It had motored all through the night, the light from its lamps thrown back from the gray banks of fog, now flaring briefly inside the car, then casting it once more into shadow. The driver had pressed on, undeterred by the poor visibility, navigating as much from memory as by sight. He glanced to his right, not really seeing the rising sun, or the valley emerging blue-gold into sight.
Not long now, not long at all.
His foot pushed unconsciously down on the accelerator, lifted again. The car surged forward, sunshine probing its bumper and diffusing in a morning haze.

Deep within the estate, something stirred in anticipation, the beginnings of a breeze, shivering through the coffee. Tentative at first, questing, and then, like a coil unsprung, it whirled outward, erupting through the mist, banging unfastened windows to and fro down the length of the house, raising puffs of red dust from the
gravel as it sped down the drive. It bowled past the gates, shaking loose a burst of carmine from the flame trees lining the road. The flowers spun in the air, this way and that, one blowing in through the open window of the car. The driver picked it absently from his lap, pressing its petals between his fingers, then cast it aside, flexing his palms against the wheel. The sun caught the gleam of metal at his wrists: a watch on one hand; on the other an old silver amulet, fastened with cord. The flower oscillated midair for an instant until the wind scooped it up once more. The car flew on toward Tiger Hills, a flash of color beneath the trees.

He did not remember the accident, only the aftermath; finding himself awake and disoriented in a grimy hospital bed. He had moved tentatively, and pain had shot through his leg. It had come back in a rush, then, everything that had led up to this, the events of the past months, his self-imposed exile, amplified by his physical vulnerability. He had lain there, grief swimming up his body, as the words, his mother's terrible words, repeated themselves in his ears.

A curse, a punishment, that is what you are to me.

One by one, they had seemed to loom at him from the shadows. Avvaiah. Appaiah. Appu. Baby. In his pain-addled state, each had then seemed to turn their backs upon him and disappear. He had shut his eyes, so much weight, such pressure in his chest that for an instant he was certain it must fall apart. And then something did give way within him. He had sat up, and ignoring the stab of pain in his side, he had set his feet on the floor. It hadn't taken much to bribe the attendant. The collusion that had followed at the hospital morgue, a death certificate, faked to perfection.

“This is the way, the only way,” he had repeated to himself. Where he would go, he did not know. Down this road and that he had turned, his mind blank, tamping down the past, his chest so tight it was as if the breath were being choked from his lungs.

In the end, however, it came to nothing—not the distance, nor the years. For it never left him, the shape of these hills, the lay of this land. This dark fragrance of mulch and jungle earth that pooled within his heart. He used to imagine, as a child, how a
marble might roll, mapping in his mind its route. Starting at the back stoop, rolling past the kitchen, beyond the pigsty, past the garden, dipping south and past the first coffee bushes, now gaining speed as it clipped toward the birdhouses, now slowing as it climbed uphill. In the end, we are each drawn to what we love most. And for him, it had always been this. Through evening fogs. In noontime shadows and the first moonlight. Through rustling leaf, in water and stone, in the glowing charcoal wings in the trees. It never stopped, not once through all that time, this clarion call of home. Rising to such a crescendo that one day there was nothing to do but return.

The car hesitated at the open gates, as if unsure how best to herald its arrival. The wind swept through the windows, katabatic, untamed, the promise of rain in its spores. He drew a deep breath and floored the accelerator, sweeping up the gravel drive.

Far off in the distance, down by the paddy fields and a stream that shone with silver, a flock of herons took wing. Silently they climbed, an arrow of purest white, silhouetted against the skies. Past the rows of gleaming coffee they soared, through the trees, and over the waiting house.

Glossary of Terms

Adigé: Coorg choker, made of gold, rubies, and pearls

Akka: Literally, “elder sister,” used as a term of respect to address a girl or woman older than the speaker

Anna: Literally, “elder brother,” used as a term of respect to address a boy or man older than the speaker

Appaiah: Father

Avvaiah: Mother

Ayappa: Hindu god

Ayurveda: Traditional form of medicine practiced in India

Ayya: Term of respect used to address an older man, or a man of higher status or income than the speaker

Bal battékara: The person who is first to touch a downed animal, whether dead or alive, in a hunt; traditionally considered to be as brave as the first person to knock down an enemy's flag, but not as brave as the one bringing down the enemy (or the animal, in the case of a hunt)

Barfi: Indian sweet made of condensed milk and sugar

Beedi: Local Indian cigarette, made from tobacco wrapped in tendu leaves

Cent percent guarantee: Local syntax for “guaranteed one hundred percent”

Chee Chee: Derogatory slang for someone born of mixed Indian and British parentage

Chiroti: Sweet made of layered dough and powdered sugar

Chokra: Hindi for “boy”; derogatory for a boy of low status and income

Cowrie: A marine gastropod; cowrie shells are sometimes used for divining purposes

Dariya: Sea

Dilli: Delhi

Dosa: Thin pancake made from rice and gram beans

Faggot: From “fag”; British public school slang for a student who was required to perform menial tasks for a senior student

Galla meesé: Traditional Coorg mustache and sideburns that a killer of tigers sported as a badge of honor

Ganapati: Another name for Ganesha, a Hindu deity

Gilli danda: Children's game in India played with sticks of two different lengths, a gilli and a danda

Ginn: Sweet made from the colostrum-rich milk of a cow that has recently calved

Goolies: Slang for testicles

Goondah: Rogue or hoodlum

Holigé: Pancake-like sweet

Idli: Savory cake of ground lentils and fermented rice

Iguthappa: Hindu deity

Inji: Polluted by virtue of coming in contact with someone's saliva

Jaangir: Sweet of lentils and sugar syrup

Jaggery: Unrefined cane sugar

Jhumki: Hanging earring, typically with a top stud and a cupola-like bottom

Jodi kadaga: Coorg double bracelet of gold and rubies

Jomalé: Coorg necklace with two strands of gold beads strung on black or gold cord

Junglee: Of the jungle; a person with no manners

Kailpodh: Coorg festival that celebrates the appearance of the first ears of rice in the paddy fields and the commencement of the hunting season

Kaimada: Shrine to venerate the ancestors of a clan

Kartamani: Literally “black jewel”; chain of black glass beads worn by married women in India

Kapad: Protect [Swami Kapad: Lord, protect (us)]

Kebab: Meat or poultry dish roasted on a skewer

Kokkéthathi: Coorg necklace of gold with a crescent-shaped pendant bordered by seed pearls

Koramas: Forest-dwelling tribe in Coorg

Kunyi: Child

Kupya: Traditional attire of Coorg men; a wraparound, V-neck tunic with short sleeves, fastened by a silk brocade sash at the waist

Laddoo: Ball-shaped sweet made from flour and sugar

Lungi: Sarong fastened around the waist and typically worn by men

Maava: Father-in-law

Maavi: Mother-in-law

Machan: Hunting platform erected in the trees

Maryadi: From the Sanskrit maryada, meaning border, limit, or boundary. Used by extension to mean ethics and a sense of propriety

Masala: Mixture of spices

Monae: Son

Mughal: Of the Mughal Empire. The Mughals were Islamic kings who ruled much of the Indian subcontinent beginning in the early 1500s.

Mundu: Another variation of the lungi (see above); a sarong fastened around the waist and typically worn by men

Naan: Indian bread

Nari Mangala: “Tiger Wedding”; ancient Coorg custom of venerating the killer of the tiger in a mock wedding between the hunter and the spirit of the tiger

Odikathi: War knife with a broad curved blade

Ottis: Flat rice bread

Pathak: Coorg necklace of coral and gold, slung with a hooded-snake pendant

Payasam: Sweet made from condensed milk, sugar, and rice or vermicelli

Peechekathi: Coorg dagger in a gold-and-silver scabbard with a handle made of ivory

Poli, Poli Deva: Invocation to the gods at harvest time; literally, “Shower, shower (your blessings) O God”

Pisachi: Evil spirit

Poleya: A tribe of people who traditionally worked on the landholdings of the Coorgs

Pooja: Indian prayer ceremony

Puthari: Coorg harvest festival

Puttu: Cake, typically savory

Sabse Achha: Literally, “best of all”

Sardarji: A title for men from the Sikh faith

Sepoy: Indian soldier

Shastras: From the Sanskrit “shastra,” meaning rules. Rules of conduct as laid down in ancient texts and treatises

Swami, Swamiye: God

Tamasha: Show or spectacle

Tantras: Ritualistic doctrine of enlightenment incorporating tenets of Hinduism and paganism

Tayi: Grandmother

Teli-neer: A mixture of clean water, cooked rice, and embers from the fireplace, used in ritual purification

Tiffin: A midday meal or luncheon; used by extension to mean food

Tombola: An Indian lottery

Tuckshop: British term for a candy store

Vaidya: Traditional Indian physician

Veera: The spirits of men who've suffered violent deaths

Verboten: Forbidden in German

Vibhuti: Sacred ash used in Indian prayer ceremonies