Malathi charitham (The history of Malathi) (Kalarikkal series - 2)

15. The battle of young Turks - I

"You seem to have a lot of work", observed Pranav.

"Yeah, what to do. The government will finish its tenure soon, so all the developmental projects have to be finished before their term is over. I am sorry I planned to spend the entire time with you, but this had come up", she said with sadness.

"Malathi, I have a suggestion to make. Since you have a lot of work to catch up on and I have unfortunately been called for some really important ones, don't you think its a good idea if you go back to Prayikkal. In here you won't get any time, but there you can finish all your work and get to office on time on Monday. Besides I will also not feel guilty if I had to leave you here all alone on a holiday", said Pranav.

"You think so?" asked Malathi, her expectations for the holidays suddenly evaporating.

"Take my word for it, dear", he said and kissed her on the cheek.

"Alright, as you wish", she said and got up to pack her belongings.

Pranav went behind her and slid his arms around her waist hugging her. "I am so sorry dear, I will make it up to you. By the way, Karthikeyan will drive you home".

With an uncharacteristic pout Malathi kissed him on his cheek.

After Malathi got inside the car, Pranav turned to Karthikeyan and said, "Call here after you get your ettathi home. If there is any trouble, inform immediately". Karthikeyan nodded and left with Malathi in the car.

As soon as the car was out of sight, Pranav headed back into the house and went past the front rooms and through the inside courtyard of the house, he reached a room at near the kitchens which was the boys' den and opened it, to find the rest of his brothers busy cleaning the pistols and rifles.

"All done?" he asked them, Dinesh nodded in reply.

"Load them in the jeeps", instructed Pranav and he went to his bedroom and opened his wardrobe to retrieve his trusty pistol. He came out and Keshavanunni met him in the verandah.

"So you have zeroed on their timber consignment?" asked Keshavanunni.

Pranav nodded in reply.

"Fine, give them a befitting reply", ordered Keshvanunni.

Pranav nodded and left with Dinesh, Nikhil and Anjaneyan while Akhil stayed behind.

***

If anyone had asked how Kaniyankara got its name, some people might wrongly attribute it to the Kani-aaru, the beautiful bluish green river that rests like a necklace around Kaniyankara. Before it reached the plain regions of Kaniyankara, it crosses the hills and gently makes its way to the rich paddy fields and banana plantation of Kaniyankara. On some of the violently rainy monsoon months, the river gets flooded which makes the lives of the people living near it miserable and for a long time. People have been asking for a check dam to be build over it to control the flow, but right now, those requests were just on paper. The now free flowing river was in fact a highway for the goods from the foothills to reach the plain. Paarakkal family and some other traders used this river as their vehicle for transporting the trees they cut in the hills to their timber yards below.

Since a level of dishonesty was involved, most traders would cut more than what was allowed and in the night transport it using the river to avoid detection. To recognize which timber belongs to whom, they came up with the system of putting colored lanterns on one end of the tied up timber. If in the night, their workers saw their color, they would get to the river and pull the timber to their riverside and tie it. Paarakkal had for many years used a yellow lantern for signaling their timber. Tonight a consignment of teak worth nearly 12 lakh (1.2 million) was supposed to arrive from the hills. Pranav was determined that this consignment will not reach them. He had planned that some of his men will board the floating lumber and pull it to a side and take it in their lorries. On an afterthought he had arranged his men to be at the far end where the river exits Kaniyankara to catch any unmarked timber in case they could only manage to remove the lantern and no other trader claimed the timber.

They had the information that the consignment would be coming by 9 PM to a spot upstream of Paarakkal timber mill and they reached the sport near to 8:30. They chose a forested slope near the spot and Pranav, Dinesh and Nikhil with a few of the men found a spot near a rock to wait. They saw some red and green lights in the river, timber belonging to other traders. The forest was quite except for the rustling of the leaves in the wind and the occasional gunshots of people hunting for wild animals could be heard at a distance. The air was cold and tense, their breaths stiff with anticipation. A dimmed lantern was lit to show them some light in the pitch darkness in the moonless night.

"When you see the light just get to it and pull the timber ashore. The lorry will be here within five minutes and we will try to get it in", said Pranav to the men.

"Etta, look", shouted Dinesh.

Since they were not expecting the timber for the next half an hour and were busy listening to Pranav, nobody had noticed that calmly  floating down the river was a yellow light.

"Etta, we will be too late to reach the water to retrieve it or extinguish the lantern", said Dinesh.

"S***", said Pranav looking at their target reaching the spot they intended.

"By the next turning Paarakal men could see the light and retrieve it", said Dinesh in frustration.

"We will have to let our men at the end of Kaniyankara to retrieve it", said Pranav.

"How? The light is still on", said Nikhil.

Pranav grabbed his rifle that was resting against the rock. Immediately Dinesh lifted his hand to signal everyone to hush up. Pranav checked the bullet and closed the chamber and took off the safety. Then rested his left feet against the rock and took the stance to shoot the lantern. Years of training to shoot wild animals in these hills had made him a skilled marksman. He trained the gun on the lone yellow lantern bobbing with the waves far below. He slowed his breath, eyes stead fast on the target, heart beat in sync, he chose the moment and pulled the trigger. A loud crack was heard and the light on the floating timber went off with a faint shattering sound of the glass in the distance. After an hour, a few kilometers downstream, his men collected the timber and loaded it on to trucks.

The next morning Vishnu and Vasudev arrived at their timber yard in their jeep with Aniruddhan. Vasudev had started becoming a bit more involved in the family business post the shouting session from Subramaniyam.

Vishnu took the stock register from their worker and asked, "So where is the consignment from yesterday?"

"Sir, nothing came yesterday night" he replied in confusion.

Both Vasudev and Aniruddhan's turned their attention to their talk.

"The consignment of teak? Where is it?" asked Vishnu in anger.

Two more workers joined in and the first man in desperation said, "Sir, we three were on the lookout, nothing came for us yesterday".

Vishnu threw the register on the bonnet of the jeep and walked to the worker and in an uncharacteristic display of anger that shocked both Vasudev and Aniruddhan, he grabbed the worker's collar and in a resounding voice shouted, "Are you saying that 12 lakhs worth of prime teak just evaporated into thin air?"

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So guys, the inspiration  came from travels near Kallayi river and Naran (2005), if it resembles any other movie, its a coincidence. Please let me know in the comments if there are something similar in other novels or movies.