The Cloud of the Princess - Part I Chapter 6

Sembaruthi was already halfway climbing up madiyamalai and she was really moving fast. All the other girls were still at the bottom of the hill and were wondering why sembaruthi was so keen in eating the medicine that kumudhini had given her a few minutes back. The girls instead of following sembaruthi up,started a discussion among themselves.

Devaki asked the group, “What has happened to this girl? I thought she was the one who did not want to get married soon?”

Imayaazh replied, “Haven’t you heard our grandparent’s saying devaki? The girl who refuses to marry will be the first to marry.”
The group started to laugh. When the laughs faded, thamarai asked kumudhini in an excited tone “kumudhini. Please tell me.. Does the medicine really work? I don’t doubt your father’s skills, but I am wondering how such a medicine could be prepared at all?”

Before kumudhini stared to respond, imayaazh cut in – “adiyey thamarai! I think you are the one who should have taken the medicine. You seem to be the one who wants to get married as quickly as possible… take my advice for it thamarai… You don’t need medicines to find your soul mate... You just need wide eyes... Keep searching... you will surely find one jumping down into your house up from the skies”

“Aah… imayaazh now I know why the roof of your house is open… I can imagine you dreaming all night … with your eyes wide open of course” responded thamarai.

Normally imayaazh would be the one who would get the better of others in the group. Now this comment of thamarai made the girls laugh like anything. It took a while for the laugh to fade off.

Devaki spoke now. She was considered as the good girl among the five. Also was she the most intelligent. Even imayaazh would not normally comment on her. “Kumudhini… I can see what thamarai is asking. How could a medicine find you your soul mate? Did your father really prepare this? Or was it just another story that came into your mind last night?”

Kumudhini smiled gently and said “very true devaki…very true… but it is not a story that came to my mind last night. It is really a medicine prepared by my father. But it is called as ‘manamarundhu’. It has no effect when taken in. Only the one who consumes it starts to feel that she has taken a medicine and her problems would end. Most of the time the problem is in the person’s mind and this is the best method to solve it”

Imayaazh was fast to react. “adi paavi kumudhini… what made you think we have problems in our minds? “

“That was for fun, my dear imayaazh… and even I am surprised why sembaruthi took the medicine. It was purposefully aimed at you”

The girls began to laugh their heart out.

Things that happened after this instant were quick. The girls were laughing among themselves and did not watch what was happening behind. A man with red eyes was walking swiftly towards the group. It seemed as if he was targeting someone in the group and was almost running to catch her. The man was well built and the way he was approaching the girls looked as if a huge demon was preparing to ruin a small city by kicking off huts and pulling out and throwing away trees. The man was very close to the girls now and devaki was the first to notice him. She got terrified on seeing his face and shouted “ayyo… look out everybody… he is coming to attack us”

The man stopped in front of the girls who were shocked by his unexpected arrival towards them. They all started to run away from the place when they heard a voice that hit their ears like a hammer hitting a nail

“Kumudhini… wait…”

Horror jumped into kumudhini’s face and she looked at him with a terrified expression.

Before even she started speaking, a group of soldiers jumped out of a nearby bush with swords raised high and took hold of the man. Four of the soldiers grabbed him from all sides and the fifth one who looked like the leader of the group commanded the others. ‘Take him to ponvilayur.’ And the soldiers dragged him out of the place. Then he turned towards the girls and spoke ‘It is already late in the evening. Don’t you know it is unsafe to be here at this time of the evening?’

Kumudhini was still in terror. She was not able to speak anything. Devaki was keenly watching the man who was now at a distance, trying unsuccessfully to get out of the hold of the soldiers. Thamarai and imayaazh looked at each other. Finally imayaazh spoke. ‘We normally stay here in the evenings. But today it has become quite late. We did not hear the ‘madhuoli’ ring yet. So we thought we could stay here for some more time.’

Madhuoli was a kind of indication system that pavazhanaadu had developed. After sugumaaran – one of aadhirayan’s twin sons who had ruled from the west, his son asokan climbed up the throne of pavazhanaadu. And he was not as good as his father in implementing strict laws to govern the people. He was too lenient and this led to increase of crimes in the state. Only towards the end of his rule, he realized that the crime rate in the kingdom had gone up considerably and then tried to enforce laws to control them. Though he was partially successful, he could not change a few practices that had developed during his reign.

Men, both soldiers and common men, had started the habit of consuming huge amount of alcohol. They drank all the day and all the night and this affected productivity. More importantly, men who were drunk bet up their wives and children and it was pathetic to watch. As more and more men started to fall for this habit of drinking alcohol at all times of the day, women found it very difficult to even walk on the streets. Men who were only beating up their wives and children, even started to beat up unknown women on the streets. Women found it hard to survive and since the strongest political men also had fallen for this practice, they did not dare to complain the king about it. Asokan’s failure in stopping alcohol consumption continued with his son singamugan, the next king of pavazhanaadu. Mahendiran, the one that followed him was not successful either. By the time mahendiran died, the men had turned so powerful, that women were treated very badly. They had to live every day with fear and tears. Pavazhanaadu was going through one of the toughest phase in its history and no king for nearly 100 years was able to control it.

Then came Padmanabar – the most respected king of Pavazhanaadu after Aadhirayan. Padmanabar thought that using force was not a solution for this problem as none of his soldiers would accept to stop men from drinking alcohol when they themselves were addicted to it. So he called in all the wealthy merchants who sold alcohol and announced them that they would be waived off tax if they sold alcohol only at certain periods of the day. This was a great opportunity for the merchants. They knew addicted men would come anytime they opened their shops and so they will still have the same amount of sales. And with no tax, they will have just more gold and silver than they had now. They welcomed the proposal and accepted to open their shops only after sunset. And as an indication to women, padmanabar had also asked the merchants to tie a huge bell in front of their shops and ring it daily when they opened the shops. He convinced the merchants explaining them that it would not only be an indication to women to be careful, but also for men to come to their shops.

And so every alcohol merchant had a bell called locally as ‘madhuoli’ which they would ring to indicate that their shops were open.

Now as imayaazh indicated about the madhuoli, the soldier seemed to have gone into a diferent era where all the history came into his mind. He recovered himself after a second and replied

‘I think I should not blame you girls after all. King Padmanabar started the madhuoli concept before which it was very difficult for women to come out of their houses. And only after this have women gained some confidence and have started to come out for the past ten years or so. And don’t worry girls. His honourable King Kunjidhapaadhanaar is going one step forward to stop this problem. He has sworn to his father on his death bed that he would totally eradicate the practice of consuming alcohol from Pavazhanaadu. It won’t be long before which you permanently stop hearing those ‘madhuoli’ bells ringing. And it won’t be long before men like him who was about to hurt you after having consumed alcohol during the day from illegal sources are controlled and destoryed’

And a shrill sound came from a distance. It was the ‘madhuoli’.

The soldier smiled gently at the coincidence and said ‘Well they say things spoken out will happen when a bell rings. And this bell is ringing now just to indicate its own death… but first things first. I would request you girls to leave the place now immediately’

Kumudhini had still not recovered and she started to move away first. Imayaazh and thamarai were uncomfortable and were not sure if they should go or not. Devaki took her eyes off the soldiers who were dragging the man away and said to the soldier ‘I think we made a mistake… we were discussing about something and we did not realize that it was time for ‘madhuoli’ to ring. One of our friends who was with us has gone up to the temple. We can’t go without her.’

The soldier seemed skeptic. He looked at devaki for a second to find out if she was speaking the truth. ‘Why did your friend go to the temple at this time? And what about you girls? Why did you not accompany her?’ he asked looking into devaki's eyes.

The girls looked at each other for a second. Devaki spoke slowly ‘We were all planning to go. But she started before us. We were about to go too ,and all this has happened’

The soldier still was not convinced. He could see devaki trying to avoid his eyes.He said ‘I don’t advice you all to stay back till she comes down. I’ll go up, find her and take her to her house. You girls go along with my soldiers to your respective places’ He turned and looked at a group of soldiers who were standing at a distance and chatting. on seeing him, three of them came running. ‘You three go along with these girls to their places and I will meet you on budhan in the capital’ He commanded.

And the girls started to depart with the three soldiers as the head of them started to climb up the hill. As they went along the narrow streets of araimedu which was getting darker every second, all the four girls but kumudhini started to think about the soldier they had just met. He was handsome. He was strong. He was courageous. He was soft yet powerful in his words.

And suddenly an interesting thought crept into their minds...

‘may be…may be the medicine that sembaruthi ate is going to work after all’