Mooga, a Kannada short story by Mallikarjun Vanenoor

Sahitya Akademi

MoogaAuthor(s): Mallikarjuna Vanenooru and V.B. TharakeshwarSource: Indian Literature, Vol. 42, No. 2 (184), ACCENT ON KANNADA SHORT STORIES(March-April, 1998), pp. 40-49Published by: Sahitya AkademiStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23338517 .

Accessed: 24/11/2014 06:19

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Sahitya Akademi is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Indian Literature.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Mon, 24 Nov 2014 06:19:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sahityaakademi

http://www.jstor.org/stable/23338517?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Mooga

Mallikarjuna Vanenooru

MÖOGA1, the dumb-fellow, who was sleeping beneath the old

and tall Bilva trees woke up and stared as the golden sunrays

spread around him reflected off his eyes and obscured his vision. He

filled his eyes with the sight of children who were playing marbles,

tops and chilukavu even in the hot sun, creating a lot of noise. He stood

up on the elephant-sized base of the tree lifting his head off and looked

at the gigantically grown tree trunks and branches, as if he was seeing them for the first time. Slowly getting down from the platform, he

started to walk.

The children who were immersed in their play stopped for a while and smiled at him. Children where puzzled when Mooga did not

reciprocate their smile. Though he recognised their confusion, they soon

got back to their old playing-mood. The boys who rolled in play the

small iron ring made out of an iron strip around the axis of a bullock

cart wheel, love him so much. There is a reason for that. They knew

that Mooga was better than Badigeru Maryanna2 in making a handle

by fitting an iron-ring onto a bamboo-stick. If Maryanna is at the furnace

and children are found wandering there with eager faces and the broken

handle of their playing wheel, he would shout at them. vvWhat

Maramma3 has possessed these boys! They come to play in this deadly hot sun instead of lying in their house. Why don't you people go somewhere else ?" If Mooga is at the furnace, with patience he would

keep a foot long iron slip in the furnace till it became red, and lifting it

out, he would fit it on the bambóo-stick and give it to the children. So, when he comes out of his hut, the boys gather around him and talk to

him in sign-language asking him to prepare for them a handle,

enquiring about his work and food. The dialogue between Mooga and

the children was a matter of amusement to the whole village.



As he left the playing children behind and went further,

remembering something, he became sad. Sadness pervaded his,face.

He became aware of where he was, after covering a distance of seven

or eight yards from the Bilva tree. He had stood there thinking, though he had set off for his hut. He was standing before the Eashwara temple. He looked at the white-washed temple walls which were glowing in

golden-sunrays. It had given the temple peculiar aura. He continued

his walk perplexed, as if he had lost something.

Many people standing in front of their houses, gave an inquisitive look at Mooga's saddened face and walked inside. He came near his

hut and pushed the door open. Sara Sakha was lying in front of him

and the Pallu of her saree had slid off from her blouse. Her breasts

were heaving up and down. He looked at it with disgust for a while

and turned his face away. Cob webs were hanging from all nooks and

corners indicating that for many days the floor of the hut had not been

swept and smeared with cow-dung. Repulsed by this sight of the hut, which had lost its original shape, he made a disgusted face, as if he

was seeing it for the first time. Gangakka's memory came to him.

In the beginning Mooga had married his own elder sister's

daughter, Gangakka. Gangakka, after attaining puberty, spent seven

or eight years of married life with Mooga before she died of a kind of

Paralysis, making Mooga's life solitary. When the memory of his dead

parents was still haunting him he was married to Gangakka, which

led to changes in his routine. Many people marvelled at Mooga, now

bouncing with new energy. Mooga had three acres of land besides a

small reservoir. There was no dearth of water as there was a small canal

adjacent to his land. When Gangakka, attaining puberty, came to live with Mooga, his love for her and his energy to work knew no bounds.

Gangakka, tightly caught in the strong arms of Mooga, half

heartedly used to get up before sunrise to do the house hold chores.

Mooga also used go get up early to go to his field, putting a spade on

his shoulders. He undressed himself, soon after reaching the place, with nothing on except his drawers and put those clothes in a corner.

Tying a towel around his head When he was tilling the soil with a spade, he would stop only when the sun was ready to set. He would lift his

spade and bring it down, with in seconds, to dig up the land, upturning big chunks of it.

Mooga's sweat, mingled with each and every particle of his land,

Mcdlikaijuna Vanenooru/41



had established an implicit relation between him and the land. While

watering the field, while planting saplings, while preparing the ground for planting, he used to smear himself with mud, dancing like a mad man.

If the speechless Mooga started dancing to the rhythm of sticks in the moonlight on the full-moon day of Gowri festival, whoever saw it

would be dumb-struck. While singers were singing, no one would go away without appreciating the rhythm, the time-sense and the grace with which Mooga danced. Womenfolk get a chance to sing now and then only during planting season, but during the. full-moon day of

Gowri festival they get a chance to sing in a group. Even they used to

stop their singing to see Mooga's Kolata4 dance. With in that group,

Gangakka used to steal a glance now and then at Mooga. If Ellamma and Huligemma teased her seeing it, she would turn red, flashing a

false anger upon them. On one such occasion, grey-haired old-woman

Angadellamma said, "

A fine good boy, but god made him speechless, that is all." Another old woman Alekwate Huligemma, "What can we

do, if Sunklamma's5 blessings are not there." On the day of the marriage of Mooga and Gangakka these two oldies ran-around as if it is their children's marriage. The dressed up, decorated bride Gangakka who

sat down for the rituals, started crying and tears trickled down. No one knew anything about the reason for her crying. They thought it is

natural for a girl to cry at the time of her marriage and kept quiet. But Alekwate Huligemma tried to console her by whispering in her ears :

"This boy is gem of a person, what do you cry for ?" Though several

people tried to create obstacles by saying "why do you want to marry this beautiful girl off to that dumb a fellow". Ningavva was adamant

on giving her daughter in marriage to her younger brother. As the day of Sotana6 approached, along with Garya, others also

started worrying : How would that Mooga conduct himself ? How

would he treat her ? They had decided to have Sobána on a full moon

day. On that day as the moon rose in the east, Gangakka's heart fluttered

in an unknown fear.

Moon rose in the east on Shindevala hill kicking aside darkness.

Looking at it Gangakka remembered the full-moon on Gowri festival.

Friends of her age surrounding her were floating away in jokes, teasing and gossiping, enjoying themselves and laughing as if they were

experienced in such matters. Mooga, who danced to Kolata songs on

42/Indian Literature : 184



the full-moon day of Gowri festival, started dancing that day too in

different styles, before Gangakka's eyes. After all the rituals and aratf , the couple was pushed into the decorated house. Friends of her age closed the door behind them and left the place laughing.

Mooga scratched his head sitting on the threshold, looking at

Gangakka recoiling from him and was sitting, facing the door. Both of

them were sitting as if they were determined not to stir from where

they were.

Soon Gangakka started crying. Seeing her sobbing, wiping tears

with her hand and shaking her head Mooga realized that she was crying and he came near her and held her hand. Bringing her near the

threshold he made her sit down.

Without knowing how to console her, he became restless. If he

had known how to speak, he would have told her about things from

his childhood days and made her laugh. Because they knew each other

from childhood days, it was not difficult to have a conversation with

her.

Sitting beside her, he began telling her in his sign language using his hands and mouth. Suddenly overcome by what he was doing he

stood in front of her and went on intently with the narration when

they were children his climbing the gum-tree and throwing those fruits

down straight into her spread skirt from the top of the tree.... When she

had lost all her marbles to a boy she played with and complained

weepingly to Mooga, his seeking out that boy and thrashing him,

making him vomit all those marbles... : he mimed everything.

Gangakka, who had stopped crying and felt shy, had lowered her head to hide her shyness. But to make her properly follow his miming, he had lifted her face gently, holding her cheek in his palms. Then she had no other go than looking at him. She could see the contours of his

face clearly in the light, which was falling from a lamp hanging high in the hut.

Though waves of hesitation slowly receded, he still had a

suspicion in his mind. "Didn't like the marriage with me, becasue I can neither speak nor hear," he asked her, through clear signs using his hand and mouth. May be because of the sadness which was pervading his face or because of the tears gathering at the edge of his eyes preparing to trickle down, his eyes were sparkling. Gangakka felt that

Mooga is more dear to her than ever before. Immediately she got up

Mallikaijuna Vanenooru/ 43



saying "No... no...." to convey to him that she liked marrying him. She took his hand in hers and spoke to him in his own sign-language.

She was overcome by emotion. She couldn't suppress it. It rose

upto her throat which began to swell with it. She started sobbing, embraced him, hiding her head in his chest. Those two bodies which embraced each other, got welded as if they wouldn't ever part.

At Gangakka's demise, Mooga was stupefied. He couldn't recover from it for several days. He wandered everywhere, regardless of

whether it was the temple, a hut or a house. Mooga, who used to shower

affection on children, had felt very happy when Gangakka gave birth

to a male child. But when the infant followed his mother within eight months of her death, he felt lost and directionless.

Mooga's healthy body turned into the stick which it now was. He

assumed several shapes in different people's words. Before that he used

to pacify crying children, carrying them on his shoulders. He used to walk around the village carrying them and was thrilled at it. His style from top to bottom—from wearing turban to his gait, everything had

something special about it. The way he opened his month, as if he was

placing new ideas in front of you, his hands moving like he was

hypnotising you... like this he was the centre of attraction and life

bloomed, wherever he went. There is a gigantic gap between that Mooga and today's thin stick

like Mooga. People were talking about it everywhere. "You should learn

how to earn and live, from that Mooga. But you people—shame on

you- know only to live on other's earning, by hook or crook." It was

natural for elders to advise the loafing youngsters like this.

Ellamma and Huligemma, who were talking to Mooga, as he was

their distant relative, not only felt bad about his condition, but also

thought of finding a way out for him. They were thinking of making a

match between corner house Basoppa's daughter Sarasakka, who was

deserted by her husband, with Mooga in iidifce-marriage8. Before they could execute their plan, from some other quarter this Udike-marriage seemed to become a reality.

On that day Mooga was summoned by seven or eight elders, assembled at Eera Reddy's place. That meeting was called to discuss

the possibilities of Udike-marriage between Sarasakka and Mooga.

Ennuga, who was working in Eera Reddy's house and who was also

the present Mandal Panchayati member, took keen interest in this

matter. It was on his request the meeting was organised. Onion-sized,




protruding eyes on a long face, thick moustache, ruffled hair—all this

gave Ennuga a fearsome look. Ennuga, murdering someone in broad

daylight, was lying low now. Ennuga thunders in Telugu "Emannu

Konnarra e ulurike pulika nenu, puli (what do you think of me... I

am the tiger of this village,)" as a warming up ritual before quarrels. All the men in the village were afraid of Ennuga. Seeing him, they would thrust their tails between their legs and shut themselves in their

houses. When Ennuga was involved in that murder case and was

wandering penniless, Eera Reddy said. "Why don't you live in our

house?" He was afraid to say "be a bonded labourer to me and live in

my house." Ennuga happily agreed to this suggestion. Eera Reddy was

tired of quarrelling with others for everything, for not letting water to

his field, for cattle breaking loose into his field. Eera Reddy, who used

to tremble if someone shouted at him, received a shot in the arm after

employing Ennuga. Now laying his hand on his moustache, he used

to challenge people "those who have the courage, let them come". In

this context, several people couldn't resist wondering what could be the reason behind Ennuga playing a leading role in Saraskka and

Mooga's lldifce-marriage. Mooga's real troubles started only after his marriage with

Sarasakka. Ellamma and Haligemma were wondering how they missed the news regarding Sarasakka's relation with Ennuga. Now they heard another shocking news that Sarasakka not only has relations with

Ennuga but also sleeps with several other men. Ellamma and

Haligemma were afraid of facing Mooga, feeling guilty that they were

responsible for convincing Mooga to marry Sarasakka. When Mooga heard this, he withdrew into himself some more.

He started spending more time in the field than in his house. A rumour was spread that-Ennuga is going to till Mooga's land. Further, Ennuga himself spread word that Mooga has to return his loan and only after

paying back the loan, will Mooga get back his land. As this news started

making rounds in the village with new wings and new feathers, Mooga lay on the culvert in front of his hut, beaten to a pulp.

Ennuga along with Era Readdy's four men entered Mooga's field and smilingly said "leave this land to me, I will cultivate it and will

give you a fixed quantity fo pulses... every year." Mooga got infuriated and gave him a mighty kick. Ennuga fell down and recovering from it he pounced on Mooga along with his men. They started beating him.

Mooga couldn't control the pain and let out a cry and collapsed, but

Mallikarjuna Vanenooru/45



they did not stop beating him. They blindly thrashed him everywhere. Some people carried the unconscious Mooga to his hut. Ellamma and

Huligemma, enraged by this, confronted Ennuga in a verbal duel on the same night.

"Hey, you pimp of your wife, you kicked that dumb-fellow, let

black cobra bite your hand, you will die, a fistful of worms filling your mouth..." Angadellamma's fury knew no bounds. "Hey you can not

earn your livelihood, you live by cheating and snatching other's

livelihood," said Alekwate Huligemma without any fear. Ennuga, for

a while perplexed by this sudden onslaught did not know how to

confront it. Soon he recovered from it. Looking at them with his raised

red eyes he said, "What do you know, you old fools... get lost from

here or you will get it good and proper from me." As the verbal-duel

progressed and more people joined the show, Ennuga's anger grew. He said, "He owes five thousand rupees to me, I have the promsory note9. Are you going to pay it back to me?" "Oh! oh! You are a big landlord to lend .five thousand rupees! Show me your promsory note, let me see it," Angadellamma confidently challenged his contention. When there was no promsory note, how would he bring it? Thinking that this old hag who is demanding the promisory note in front of so

many people, would not keep quiet, he started slapping her left and

right catching hold her hair. Angadellamma screamed at the

surrounding villagers "You fellows, come and help me. It seems no man is there in this village..." Ennuga left her saying, "If you poke

your nose again in my affairs, I will split your bones, be careful."

Mooga's little eyes lost their sheen and seemed to let out pain.

Suspecting that some evil spirits had caught Mooga and inflicted pain on him, Angadellamma used to go to Sunklammavva, every morning to light oil lamp and incense stick. Within a month Mogga recovered

and went to all elders beginning with Eera Reddy, pleading for help in

getting back his land.... But it was of no use. Bodigera Maryanna agreed to take him for work at his furnace.

Earlier Mooga used to smile beautifully. Now a smile would never

appear on his lips. Muscles in his face were stiff, without expressing

any emotion, reflecting nothing, as if he is indifferent to everything. When he was lost in old memories, immersed in deep thought, a

shape appeared at the door. He looked towards the door with widened

eyes. Badigeru Maryanna's son Mariswamy was standing there. Mooga came out looking at him quizzically. "Appa is calling you, to heat the




spokes of a bullock cart wheel" he replied in sign language. Mooga walked towards the furnace following Mariswamy. They had already taken out the spokes of the bullock cart's wheels and they were heating it in the front yard. He got into his usual work, thinking why every one

assembled there were looking at him in a peculiar way. "Did Ennuga agree to give back his land?" His heart started pounding. Both Ellamma and Huligemma were there. "Are they discussing my land-issue?

Though I have lost all my hopes, somehow in a corner, new hopes are

springing up." His body shivered slightly wondering at it.

After the work, he waited for those moments getting excited. Those who were sitting on the rocks under the shadow of rejirn plants in front of the furnace, called Mooga. Huligemma and Ellamma took out

bettel leaves and arecanuts from their pockets and started chewing it.

Badigeru Maryanna began to put forth the issue. "Look Mooga" it seemed that Maryanna was afraid of talking

loudly and holding his voice low said "that fellow.... that son of a

pimp.... Erinuga is not going to give back your land. First of all, you are deadly attached to the mother of land" he uttered these words as if in an aside. Angadellamma spitting betel leaf juice on the ground said "Look some land is there on the banks of that Hagari, that land is suited for growing water-mellon and other such fruits... see if you are interested in filling it. Mooga felt disappointed. He couldn't control his anger and sadness. They sprang up to his neck and he started

sobbing. He cried as if he was going to empty all his despair, pain, anger and disappointment which he experienced all these days. His weak and feeble body shook along with his sobbing, suggesting that his weeping was very heavy in high speed. The people over there did not know how to console him. When his weeping became controllable, he said:

"He snatched my land, upon that very land he thrashed me left and right, crushing my bones, making a powder out of it. If there is

something called justice, please help me in getting back my land." The

way Mooga said "my land" in sign language by touching his chest, the

way he said "if there is something called justice" by touching the ground with such an intense fervour, indicated his deep agony that he won't be able to live without that land. Not only did people get convinced about his agony; they also clearly understood it.

At last they forcibly made Mooga accept this proposal. Alekwate

Huligemma raised a doubt "On the otherside of Hagailuvu, in the same

Mallikaijuna Vanenooru/47



line, the Benakallu family, that Ennuga's relatives, also grow water melon. If they object?" But people dismissed her doubt believing that it may not be the same land and kept quiet.

On the same day afternoon, after finishing his job and lunch,

Mooga, shouldering a spade, proceeded towards Hagari. As he stepped out of his village, in front of him he could see groups of rejiru plants; several small shrubs thorny bushes; beyond that, amidst heaps of sand, water flowed slowly. He walked with a feeling that he had stepped into an unknown, alien world. "Some one else is tilling my land and

reaping the fruits and I am in search of a land" Mooga laughed dejectedly at himself.

He came near the heaps of sand, drew an approximate line with his toe, measuring it as Badigeru Maryanna had suggested. Instantly, he felt that he was the king of a State, the lines which he had drawn, all the strong forthwalls and he brimmed with pride. He thought of devils like Ennuga entering it and he again losing his base and becoming like a lost soul as an impossibility and took a deep breath.

He started digging knee-deep pits. The dreams hitherto mocked at him from the periphery, slowly entered the scene. Watermelon seeds sown a few seconds back became big creepers in half a minute, in another half minute it bore flowers, the flowers became raw fruits and the raw fruits became ripe. In another minute Mooga was walking majestically on Bellary's beautiful road. A bullock cart full of watermelon was slowly moving on behind him.

"Oh! you... who on earth are you, digging our land..." someone shouted loudly. Mooga, who was digging and putting aside the sand with spade, stopped it for a while, looked at the direction from which the sound came, thinking who was that bloody fellow, who had the

courage to trespass the boundary of his state. He gave a sublime

indifferent look at them and without acknowledging their presence, started digging pits.

"What! Are you people simply looking at him? Kick that bastard..."

One of them said to his fellows. The other three pounced on him,

dragged him on the ground and started beating him. Mooga identified

them as people from Benakallu, which is on the other side of the river

Hagari. "Every year we till this land, this fellow comes here, thinking that it is gorament10 property" saying thus, the other fellow also started

thrashing him. Escaping from their clutches, he started running. Blood




started trickling down from his torn lower lip and fell on his clothes.

While running he turned around and saw that they were following him. Putting all his energy, he started running to escape from them,

who, he believed, were other avatars of Ennuga. He increased his speed.

Barking dogs followed Mooga, who was running like a madman in

the twilight. Seeing this, people came behind him wondering what he

was upto. Mooga came near the Eeshwara temple, and looking

sideways, started climbing the tall Bilva-tree. Wondering why Mooga is behaving strangely, people gathered there as if it was a fair.

"Hey, Mooga... get down," they tried to bring him down,

communicating with him in sign-language. Their hands began to ache

gesticulating in sign-language and finally giving it up, they simply lifted their heads and began to stare at him. Mooga simply kept climbing

up forgetting everything around him. "What if he falls on our head"

fearing thus, people encircled that Bilva-tree. From somewhere,

Angadellamma and Alekwate Haligemma presented themselves on

that spot. As their soft heart melted and their cry reached up in the sky,

Mooga, as if competing with it, climbed to the top of the tree and sat there. v

Notes :

1. Mooga — dumb man

2. Badigeru Maryanna —

Maryanna who belongs to the caste of carpenters. 3. Maramma — Local goddess, supposed to be the goddess of diseases.

4. Kolata — A form of dance in which people dance to the accompaniment of

the beating of small sticks and song. 5. Sunklamma — Another local goddess. 6. Sobana —

Equivalent to the first night of a married couple. 7. Arati —

Waving small lamps around the couple or anyone, as part of any sacred ritual.

8. Udike-marrige — A kind of marriage without any big rituals, in which a woman

deserted by her husband starts living with a married or unmarried man as

the case may be. Found in all castes except brahmins in Karnataka.

9. Promsory note — promisory note.

10. Gorament — Government.

Translated by Tharakeshwar V.B.

Mallikaijuna Vanenooru/49



Documents

Mooga, a Kannada short story by Mallikarjun Vanenoor