Aniruddhan ran to help the worker and pulled him off from Vishnu's hand. "Vishnukunje, this must be the work of those Kalarikkal people. There is no point in getting angry on these fellows", he said.
Angry, Vishnu turned to Aniruddhan and said, "Find something to make up for this".
"We will", Vasudev answered for Aniruddhan.
"Come, get in the jeep", said Vishnu to both of them and they got in and drove to the timber yard of Kalarikkal where Vishnu got down.
Pranav and Anjaneyan were in the yard when they arrived.
"Who is this? The young master of Paarakkal?" asked Pranav mockingly.
"Cut it out Pranav, where is our timber?" asked Vishnu.
"What timber?" asked Anjaneyan.
"The one you stole from the river", replied Vishnu.
"Sorry, doesn't ring a bell" replied Pranav.
"Really, then I am going to get even. Find a buyer for that timber, Pranav. Whatever I am going to do is going to cost that much to you", said Vishnu and he got back into the jeep and left.
"Etta, they are going to do something big", cautioned Anjaneyan.
"I know, lets see", said Pranav.
That night in the recently acquired Chakkalakkal estate, a group of men headed by Jeevan with scythes cut most of the cardamom plants and pepper vines. It caused a tremendous uproar in the Kalarikkal family and they called all their goons and affiliates and burnt the village grocery shop of Paarakkal.
Knowing that the situation is going out of hand, Subramaniyam said to Vishnu. "Now the water has risen above the neck, we should do something. First of all we need the support from the ruling party and the police. Ideally I would have sent you, but now you can't leave the village because of the skrimishes. I will send Vasudev instead and for helping you I have called Sreekumar, your cousin, see he is here", pointing to a tall thin man who came from the other room.
"Sreekumar, good that you are joining the ranks", said Vishnu.
"Thanks etta, lets get those bastards", said Sreekumar.
Initially Sreekumar was a huge help. There were many armed combats between Kalarikkal and Paarakkal supporters and goons and Sreekumar was effective in quashing some of them with his sheer brutality. But in three days, Mahadevan came to Vishnu and said, "Etta, you should seriously consider sending Sreekumar back".
"Why?" asked Vishnu.
"It might be really very bad for our image if he is here. Yesterday he had tried to abuse the daughter of Kumarettan, that grocery shop owner", replied Mahadevan.
"Is it some kind of a news spread by Kalarikkal? Kumarettan is related to them" asked Vishnu.
"No, I got to know it personally. Apparently the girl was returning from the river where she went to wash clothes and was coming through the footpath from the river and he grabbed her and tried to drag her into the shrubbery" said Mahadevan.
"WHAT!" shouted Vishnu.
"Yeah, she fought and escaped and also, she wasn't his first victim in our village. When I got to know about this, I asked around and found out that Sreekumar has a pretty bad reputation. He... he is infamous for sleep with unwilling women and girls, mostly women from families that owe money to Ganeshan uncle", said Mahadevan.
"Oh, God! Even our own people won't stand with us if he goes around doing it to the other community.", observed Vishnu.
"So what should we do now?" asked Mahadevan.
KAMU SEDANG MEMBACA
Malathi charitham (The history of Malathi) (Kalarikkal series - 2)
Romansa"I want a relationship with you. And I want to tick every single milestone in that relationship. I want you to woo me, date me, make love to me, and.... break up with me" she said. "What!" he looked at her in shock. "I have loved you for more than a...
