When Ajith married Nanda, he had little more asset than the textile shop he was running. Her parents being no wealthier a party opposed their union not for his lack of material prosperity, but because of the bad reputation his family had in terms of character. Ajith's father was a well-known philanderer whose name had been linked with a number of women in the village.

"You are going to bring discredit on the whole family...Forget about it at once and do your studies," Nanda's mother said bitterly, strongly opposing her daughter's love affair. Yet Nanda did not have the heart to disappoint her lover and so they carried on surreptitiously right under the nose of her parents and a horde of relatives living all over the village.

Her mother, however, had a glimmer of suspicion aroused by her daughter's cryptic behaviour, her eyes often glued to a distance beyond the parapet wall where the gravel road was, or else in deep reverie with little talk with anyone in the house. It was on this road that Ajith passed riding his bike, eyes incessantly kept on her house in order to get a glimpse of his sweetheart. If she happened to be there and no one else around, he cleverly threw a neatly folded letter over the low-wall which she leisurely picked up while pretending to be taking a stroll in the garden.

They managed to meet in town where she went to school and had enough chances to have a lovely talk while waiting for a bus at the bus stand and also in the bus seated together.

"I don't think they will allow us to get married..,"she whispered to him, now that the exam is near and their meetings are doomed to stop after that when she will be compelled to stay home indefinitely.

'Then we will run away," he rejoined in his usual carefree style, and smiled broadly.

"You can say that easily... You don't know my father."

"Your father will later agree..That's how things normally happen."

After the exam Nanda's parents had little hope of her success and in desperation they set about looking for a man to marry her off before it was too late for it. The 'most eligible bachelor' was found through a matchmaker from a village several miles away and after visits made by both parties on each other's houses, a date was fixed for the engagement.

Nanda's parents cast a deep sigh of relief on the day of the engagement. It was only 'forwarding of the names' without any formal signing of documents, yet the festive air pervaded the house with all relatives having come together.

"I will never let this happen..."Ajith swore retaliation while on one of their clandestine rendezvous, however strong the barricades put up for them were. "What are you going to do?" she asked helplessly, now ready to accede to any course of action he was to propose.

"I'm going to tell that man to withdraw..."

And being as good as his word he went in search of the would-be-groom and presented his case, and was even bold enough to show him the letters written by his girl friend. The man relented and in spite of disappointment promised that he would never pursue the case any more so that Ajith could continue his affair with Nanda.

Now having no other choice but acquiesce in what appeared to them to be inevitable, the wedding was held on grand scale, the couple being in seventh heaven as they were after all able to have their own way. It was Ajith's extremely amiable nature that ultimately caused a full about-turn in the hostile attitude Nanda's relatives so far entertained, pacifying their many grouses against him and his family.

Ajith eventually turned out to be a blessing to the whole family circle as his outgoing ways proved to be a great source of times of need like weddings, pirith and danas or even funerals.

When once Nanda's mother fell seriously ill and had to be hospitalized, it was Ajith who took the greatest pains to make here suffering less and also spend lavishly to provide everything necessary for the patient. He took her to hospital in his own car and brought her back also, no one else in the family having a vehicle of their own. Ajith made a point of visiting her twice a day, every morning and evening, when even the old woman's own children were not able to do so.

When Nanda's mother thus returned home fully recovered she was full of praise for her new son-in-law and even said, "If not for Ajith putha, I wouldn't have survived this time".

By and by the new couple were so loved by the parents that the ancestral home was given over to them in the midst of heavy opposition from Nanda's siblings, particularly Sena the eldest who had been without any fixed job and was so leading a miserable existence with the meagre earning his wife got as a clerk in the local co-operative.

"Ajith is a very cunning fellow like a jackal...Nanda ruined our family by marrying him," Sena was saying to his two brothers.

"But he did everything when mother fell ill and spent a lot of money also..." Sarath the youngest in the family retorted.

"You don't know anything. You foolish fellow...You all have fallen into his trap...He did all that to trick mother into giving over the house to him... We were all taken in by the rascal...You take it from me," Sena was giving vent to his long pent up feelings of grudge against Ajith, on the wedding day of Lalitha, their youngest sister.

"Why...why...what's the problem?" Ajith queried hurrying to them to know why Sena was shouting.

"No Ajith aiya...it's nothing. We were just talking about Lalitha's dowry," Sena mumbled meekly now subdued like a child before his bother-in-law's pleasing personality.

"Why...mother said she would be given part of the rubber land..." Ajith said, trying to placate his in-laws.

"But what is there for us, Ajith has got the other part of even the rubber land,"Sena's wife uttered in desperation after Ajith left them.

"Why he has a son in the medical college to spend on..no...So why should we worry... He will treat us all when we fall ill one day..." Sita the only teacher in the family rejoined using her usual sarcasm.

Everyone laughed at it in spite of themselves.

*

When Ajith fell ill with a heart ailment, Yohan his eldest son happened to be working as an intern having passed out. So he was able to get the best of specialists to attend to his father, and also to get the heart surgery done as early as possible.

After a major operation, Ajith was able to lead a near-normal life, but due to continual use of heavy doses of drugs developed a kidney condition as well for which he had to attend the clinic each month.

'If we fell ill like that we would have gone by now. Good that he had a doctor son..." Sena was saying. He was now living in rented house barely making ends meet with his wife's meagre salary. Others were no better as they got very little from the family property.

When Ajith fell seriously ill Yohan was abroad with his family and was only able to come at the last moment. Though the doctors tried hard, they could not save his life.

At the cremation of the body that took place beside the sea-beach all the family were gathered in a bunch looking glumly up at the chimney which was spewing black smoke into the skies.

As Nanda was weeping loudly with her limbs racking with sobs, Yohan came there to greet their relatives who were getting ready to leave.

"Chapa didn't come?" a friend asked after Yohan's wife.

"No, she can’t come with the little baby... I’m also leaving tomorrow morning..." Yohan said with a faint smile on his face.