A Detailed analysis of the Short Story "Action and Reaction" by Chithra Fernando

The following is a detailed criticism of Chithra Fernando’s short story ‘Action and Reaction’ and it enables you to answer questions based on a host of topics such as the ‘Karmic Law’, the action and reaction theme, as well as questions on characters such as Kusuma, Loku Nenda, Mahinda etc. Etc.

Chitra Fernando’s short story “Action and Reaction”, which is based in Sri Lanka, has a Buddhist theme. It demonstrates in a Buddhist perspective how the law of causation, which is known in Buddhism as kamma (action) and vipaka (repercussion) process, operates in the dittha dhamma vedaniya mode, having "immediate effects” within the current life itself.

"Karma is volition," says the Buddha, meaning both good and bad mental action. It is not an entity, but a process of action, energy and force. It is our own doings reacting on ourselves. A person experiences pain and happiness as results of his or her own deeds, words and thoughts reacting on themselves. Our own deeds, words and thoughts produce our propensity and failure, happiness and misery.

Since there is no hidden mediator directing or administering rewards and punishments, Buddhists should not rely on prayer to some supernatural forces to influence karmic results. The Buddha admonished that karma is neither predestination nor determinism imposed on us by some mysterious, unknown powers or forces to which we must in vain offer ourselves.

                                                                                                                (Peiris, 2003)

An understanding of the Buddhist explanation to kamma (as presented above) is useful in appreciating this story because the protagonist’s internalization of kamma is crucial in development of its plot.

The narrator is Mahinda, a medical professional. He is the nephew of the protagonist Loku Naenda (Elder Aunty) who is known in her village as Payagala Hamine. Mahinda’s father is Loku Naenda’s younger brother. Loku Naenda is the eldest in the family and everybody is respectful to her as “a very good and generous woman”. The story that encapsulates some childhood, youthful, and adult memories Mahinda treasures of Loku Naenda, spans over a period of some years from Mahinda’s life, to show how Loku Naenda suffers deprivation in her old age in reaction to the despotic actions she committed during her middle age. In her old age she surrenders herself to the one whom she victimized in her middle age. The little girl Kusuma, who once becomes Loku Naenda’s victim, grows into a monster, “a replica of her employer” (Landow, 1989), to victimize the latter, who has now lost her power over everything in her surroundings. The reaction for her action becomes unbearable but there is no room to complain mainly because it is interpreted in the same terms Loku Naenda used during her heyday. What Loku Neanda did under the cover of virtue boomerangs on her and she is compelled to suffer silently in fear that her image would disintegrate once she opens her mouth.

Loku Naenda the Ever Virtuous and Charitable

In an extended family in a traditional Buddhist rural environment, through a social convention Loku Naenda fits to be the role model for everybody to follow. “She's an example to us all." The claim made by Mahinda’s father as an intellectual in the family convinces everybody. Loku Neanda’s adherence to the Buddhist concepts of sadhdhhaa and ahimsaa is exemplified in Mahinda’s claim that “even the most insignificant creature benefited from Loku Naenda's attentions”. It is established by his

observation of her attempt to save “some ants that had fallen into a basin of water”. Also Chitra Fernando provides a good reason for Loku Naenda’s abstinence from stealing. “She had everything she wanted.” It is implied that, as she is materially fortified, her spirituality is sustained by itself. As nobody dares to probe into the veracity of whatever she says, all accept her often-made claim that she never lied. “Loku Naenda's conduct was always irreproachable.” On the basis of the moral standards maintained in the rural aristocracy of Sri Lanka, there is nobody in the microcosm of this village to challenge Loku Nanenda’s virtue. Chitra Fernando achieves humour through all these claims about Loku Naenda’s goodness that people make within a social hierarchy where she occupies the apex. She even gives a good reason out of Loku Naenda’s physique for her committed celibacy. Her “board” torso, “short” stature, “very dark” complexion, “thick” lips, “coarse” skin,  “large” moles on the top of her nose and her chin and “very small” knot of hair “at the back of her head” are not attractive features for a man of her own class to marry her. So the safe distance she keeps from all men has two reasons: a man from her own class would not marry her for her wealth; and she does not want to marry a man below her class out of her arrogance.

Her religious and medical interpretations of “drinking” and “smoking” evoke laughter in the narrator as they suggest a morality peculiar to herself. The fuss she makes about Mahinda and Siripala, caught by Punchi Naenda, sharing a cigarette is evidence of her interpretation of all pleasures and pastimes people have, in terms of karma and the gratification of senses leading to a prolongation of the existence in sansara. The cacophonous admonitions she makes on such occasions ruin all possibilities for the other to correct himself rather than help to ameliorate his behaviour. “So I continued to look the other way.” Mahinda’s nonchalant reaction implies that Loku Naenda’s correctional strategies have no impact on her followers. The toughness of Loku Naenda is realized not only by her younger generation but also by the members of her own generation. Despite her unreserved admiration of Loku Naenda’s “generosity and compassion” presented in longwinded panegyrics, the unmarried Punchi Naenda (Younger Aunty) prefers to live in Mahinda’s house, implying that a normal person cannot put up with the eccentricities of Loku Naenda. 

Recruitment of Kusuma on the Pretext of Adoption

The entrance Chitra Fernando makes into the episode of Kusuma’s recruitment as a domestic servant tremendously adds to the humour she has already achieved in her bizarre introduction to Loku Naenda. She unfolds Loku Naenda’s record of so-called “good deeds” and determines the self-made assurance she enjoys of “a place in the Thusitha heaven” particularly reserved for her.    

But this instance of Loku Naenda's generosity was not an almsgiving; it was not a special puja; it was not donating a loudspeaker to the temple for the relay of the daily banö preaching so that all the Payagala townsfolk could not but benefit from the loudness of Loku Naenda's piety.

The items in the list of rituals emerging from this introduction to the new venture she is going to embark on leads to a symbiosis of “loudness”, show and publicity that is generally promoted by the monastic community associated with Loku Naenda type devotees from the rural aristocracy of the time. Being “a very practical woman”, Loku Naenda interprets the recruitment of the twelve-year old Kusuma as a domestic servant as the adoption of the latter as a daughter. Deceived by Loku Naenda’s trick, the members of her clan are worried that “a toddy tapper’s child” is going to be their “relative” while a public opinion develops in favour of her, camouflaging all her hypocrisy. “This was a meritorious deed which

was much better.” This reminds of the humour achieve by Dickens (1860-61) in the trick Miss Havisham plays upon Pip in front of her poor relations.

Chitra Fernando sheds light on Kusuma’s malnutrition through her “small and skinny” underage look as a nine-year old and the expression of “her huge dark eyes [that] half-filled her little face”. The remarks on the lice that “crawled in her curly black hair” and the “sore on her knee” suggest her neglected health habits and suffering during her upbringing “in a hut” as “one of eight children half-starved, beaten and bullied”. Kusuma’s easy availability for exploitation emerges from all these icons of poverty.

The perks the girl is supposed to enjoy in “Loku Naenda's spacious house” are termed as “good food, good clothes and a suitable wage deposited in a post office saving's account”. But what the girl is supposed to do in return as a resident domestic servant is not articulated anywhere. Nor the “suitable wage” is stipulated in any formal document or a contract. It is obvious that she is supposed to be at Loku Naenda’s command all twenty-four hours of the day unlike a daily-paid regular employee. Compared to the recruitment of a grown-up woman on a regular basis, this deal makes it obvious that Loku Naenda is going to be profited by it. She is to benefit from an unlimited source of child labour at a cheap rate. Yet the interpretation of the deal as an act of charity makes everybody envious of the poor little Kusuma. Their feelings are voiced in the remarks the members of Loku Naenda’s clan make, “It was, we all felt, the perfect sum total of a servant's happiness.” "That girl must have done a lot of merit in her past lives.” "Must be like heaven to her!"

Kusuma’s Debut in Her New Social Milieu

Kusuma is about to make her debut in her new social milieu. Everybody in Mahinda’s house wait for Loku Naenda to come over there with her new domestic servant. Through this episode where members of Loku Naenda’s family talk about Kusuma, Chitra Fernando provides a portrait of the type of class distinction prevailing in this rural social setting. Having studied the features of the girl beforehand, Punchi Naenda remarks “She’s not bad looking…” and predicts that “with all the good food she’ll be eating” Kusuma will “soon fill out”. Knowing that Kusuma had been starving, she assumes that anything served at Loku Naenda’s will go down with Kusuma. Yet she expresses qualms about the girl immediately. “I hope she's not going to be greedy and steal.” This is the very charge most mistresses make against the servants in their houses in Sri Lanka. A grotesque portrait of a hardhearted disciplinarian appears through her strict terms about correcting the girl’s values. Chitra Fernando ironically remarks, “Punchi Naenda did her best to see that everyone observed the second precept.” She exposes through Punchi Naenda’s initiative to correct the girl, the exploitation of Buddhist precepts to safeguard her family’s wealth.

Mahinda’s father is more human and positive about the girl’s future. “She gives her servants so much!” On the basis of the remarks people make about Loku Naenda’s generosity, he instils hope in the others that Kusuma will improve her morals and there is nothing to “worry” about her. Yet he puts a great weight on the implication of a servant ignoring the conditions laid down in Loku Naenda’s house. “For them to misbehave is just raw wickedness, nothing else.” As statements made in this way are all interpreted in terms of kamma, Mahinda’s father ends his contribution to the conversation saying, ”No one can escape the karmic law.” In whatever terms, the social comedy provided this way helps to establish the cynical and suspicious attitudes of the rich towards the poor.

Through Mahinda’s observation of the vast improvement of Kusuma’s appearance after her one-week stay at Loku Naenda’s it is clear that she has undergone an appropriate transformation to qualify to be a domestic servant of a rural aristocratic household. While her “clean and lice-free” hair suggests her improvement in her health habits, her “closefitting white cotton blouse and a pretty flowered red-and-white cloth” that had replaced the “badly sewn shabby frock” she was wearing on her arrival make her look a typical member of the servant class. In whatever condition, servants in “frocks” are anathema to the mistress, as it is considered a prestigious garment meant for her family members. Through the compliments her family showers upon Loku Naenda on her so-called “good work”, Chitra Fernando portrays how the rich like to see the poor within their social milieu.

The social comedy reaches a significant climax when Loku Naenda opens her response in utter satisfaction and jubilation. Drawing an example of her old servant Salpi who has already been at hers for fifteen years now, she boasts about her art of winning the heart of a servant. "I know how to treat my servants. That's why they never leave my house.” As far as Salpi has no better place to go to, she may stick on. But Loku Naenda’s claims are never challenged by anybody. “They enjoyed a fair bit of comfort in her house.” Mahinda’s remark about their accommodation at Loku Naenda’s covers what appears on the surface.

Kusuma’s Acculturation to Loku Naenda’s Methods and Manners   

On seeing Kusuma about three months later, Mahinda gets fascinated by the physical change Kusuma has undergone in terms of height, complexion and plumpness, and interprets it as “the full effect of Loku Naenda’s generosity”.  But Chitra Fernando implies it as the bodily transformation a girl undergoes in the course of attaining puberty. However, she makes it clear that nobody can deny the contribution Loku Naenda’s good food has made towards her recovery from malnutrition. The sublime portrait of Loku Naenda’s miraculous generosity, ironically developed through the others’ misunderstandings, gets shattered in the cynical comments she frequently makes about the girl’s appetite. "She eats as much as Salpi, and does love sweets!" Chitra Fernando does not take too much time to provide an anticlimax out of Loku Naenda’s façade and the reality behind it. The additions Punchi Naenda makes to these comments and Loku Naenda’s responses aggravate the grotesqueness of her new image.  “Have you caught her at it (stealing) ever?" Punchi Naenda’s curiosity suggests the alertness of the mistresses about their servants’ movements. "No. She's a bit greedy but I give her plenty to eat." This answer implies Loku Naenda’s pragmatic way of handling the girl.

Yet her response to the question raised by Mahinda’s sister Mala about the way in which she would deal with Kusuma once she is caught stealing is obscure and mysterious. "I always follow the karmic law - it's my constant guide." She says she does not administer any corporal punishment but what she means to do in terms of following the karmic law can be more complex, complicated, subtle and terrible. Mahinda understands what the monk states about karma in terms of the compulsion one has to take in one way or another the “consequences” of the “actions” one commits and one’s lingering in samsara is caused by one’s own attachment to the various things one desires. Yet he notices a great contradiction in what Loku Naenda says and does in demonstration of her knowledge of the karmic law. “…Loku Naenda, who was so wise, seemed to want a lot in return for whatever she did.” This sarcastically suggests Loku Naenda’s spirituality is just a farce. Mahina’s scepticism of the whole thing about Loku Naenda’s precepts and practices is implied in his disinterest in her frequent lectures on

morality and his zeal to follow his unorthodox interests such as dodging Paali classes and smoking without getting caught. 

Vital Decisions on Grooming Kusuma as a Servant 

To the pleasure of Loku Naenda, with her tremendous adaptability, Kusuma proves herself an asset of a domestic servant, in terms of intelligently carrying out Loku Naenda’s commands, keeping herself as well as the house neat and clean, and fetching and carrying goods here and there. Based on her brightness, Loku Naenda takes the very first decision on Kusuma totally to her own advantage. Kusuma should be taught “how to crochet” instead of how “to read and write”. Her calculations about the income generated by crochet products make it evident that “Loku Naenda was a very practical woman”. Kusuma is meant not only to work for the house but also to earn money from outside. Quite naturally, Mahinda’s sister, a girl more or less of Kusuma’s age, finds a great companionship in the latter. As a child, each time they meet, she innocently tests Kusuma’s knowledge of the world and enjoys the superiority she holds by proving that she knows more things than Kusuma does. Yet Mahinda is considered “the really wise among the younger lot.” Implying that Loku Naenda does not allow anybody to bypass her in any virtue, Chitra Fernando sarcastically connects her too to this children’s group and reveals the opinion held by everybody that Loku Naenda is “the wisest”. The friendship between Mahinda’s sister and Kusuma grows through a regular process of lending and borrowing books with pictures that fascinates Kusuma about the world. “She asked Nangi a thousand and one questions.” Soon Loku Naenda, disappointed with Kusuma turning books during her free time, orders Mahinda’s sister to take the books away. Altogether Loku Naenda feels herself practical by keeping Kusuma in an eternally inferior position by means of deliberately imposed ignorance and illiteracy.

Kusuma’s Deprivation of Childhood Fancies

Mahinda’s observations of his sister Mala’s approach to Loku Naenda regarding her desire to obtain the permission of the latter to take Kusuma along with her on a family trip to Colombo is full of sarcasm. He ironically assesses the strategic value of the bowl of varöka (mesocarps of ripe jack) already presented to Loku Naenda and the basket of mangosteens promised of for the following day while tackling a hard nut like this subtle woman, and laughs at his sister’s temporary success. The innocent girl of Mala is with tearful eyes while presenting her case to this soi-disant all-virtuous, all-immaculate, and all-perfect woman. Although Kusuma is the beneficiary of this proposition, Mala puts it as a plan made for her own convenience, just to have a peer or a companion around so that she can share her loneliness among a group of adults. Through Mala’s joyful response to Loku Naenda’s permission, Chithra Fernando brilliantly conveys a little girl’s innocent happiness. Her excitement is implied in her hurried flight to the back of the house to share her success with Kusuma. In her bewilderment, Kusuma seems not to have imagined of such an opportunity before. However, she is pleasantly surprised by the message of it.      

A little dimple appeared for a moment. I had never seen that dimple before; I never saw it again. Her teeth were very small like little gleaming grains of polished rice. And all the stars in the sky tumbled right into her great black eyes.

Chitra Fernando conveys a tragic message through Mahinda’s study of her countenance that glitters for a short while with hope and happiness, in response to Mala’s message. Mahinda claims that he has never seen after that the little dimple that appeared for a moment. Through Mahinda’s claim, Chitra

Fernando means that along with that dimple all the innocence, blitheness, simplicity and suppleness of Kusuma has vanished for ever.   

Chithra Fernando works out a highly effective anticlimax through Loku Naenda’s cacophony that greets Mahinda and Mala on their visit to her just the day before their trip to Colombo. Most probably they want to take Kusuma with them for the train journey the following day morning.  

"Aren't you thoroughly ashamed, girl? You eat a mountain of rice every day. Yet you steal! Greedy, disgusting filthy girl! Chi! Chi!"

Loku Naenda keeps shouting her guts out at Kusuma for stealing a kävum, while Mahinda and Mala stand still. Her hysterical cacophony continues at an increased tempo at the sight of Mahinda and Mala, "Kusuma is not going to Colombo. She's not going. … …” This is an ultimatum for their plan for her.

Then she charges Mala of “spoiling her with all this talk of Colombo… ” and complains, “She's getting quite disobedient”. Then she stresses in a determined voice, “No Colombo for her, no new cloth and jacket.” Further Loku Naenda tactfully tries to elicit an answer from Mala for the crime she charges Kusuma of, “Now what shall I do?” Failing, she declares her decision. “No Colombo, no zebras and kangaroos for this creature here. She'll stay behind and help to make more kävums!" Although she likes presents, in order to hide the least trace of softness she would betray, this time Loku Naenda does not acknowledge the gift of the two bottles of honey she receives from Mahinda’s mother. “The karmic law is my constant guide.” Loku Naenda seems to consider herself the decider of the other’s destiny or the heavenly prosecutor for the sins the humans commit.   

“Kusuma didn't look up, didn't utter a word. The kävum held tight in her clenched fist crumbled and the bits fell on the floor. Nangi and I left quietly a few minutes later. We could still hear Loku Naenda shouting at Kusuma. Tears of disappointment were streaming down Nangi’s cheeks: yet Kusuma hadn't shed even a single tear.”

Through the negative transformation Kusuma’s psyche undergoes on this occasion, Chitra Fernando adds more meaning to the eternal disappearance of her dimple that Mahinda notices at breaking the news about her prospective journey to Colombo. On the due day, she runs into the house, disappointing Mala who tries to speak to her. That implies Kusuma is no more in the world of her peers. Maybe by now she has been given a proper dose of intimidation, indoctrination and warning against associating with children of her age. Mather’s prevention of Mala from communicating with Kusuma implies that everybody is scared to antagonize Loku Naenda. Also the justification Father makes of Loku Naenda’s punishment suggests that everybody endorses her moves without weighing their pros and cons. Very practical as always, Loku Naenda becomes the winner at the end of the day as she has not left room for anybody to criticize her. Everybody agrees that Kusuma, the little thief, should not be spoilt further by taking her on a trip to Colombo. From thereon, under Loku Naenda’s strict observation, Kusuma remains totally dedicated to cleaning, polishing, sweeping or crocheting. “All work but no play makes jack a dull boy.” (Howell, 1659) This is going to be common to the little Kusuma too.

Loku Naenda’s Celebration of Charity 

Chithra Fernando’s narrator Mahinda keeps away from the village for some years, studying at university to become a medical doctor. In the mean time Kusuma grows into a young woman. Mahinda’s ideas become intellectually mature in the course of associating with a group of radical young people who always constructively argue about various social issues. Yet Loku Naenda sticks to her procedures and practices without even an iota of change. Her sadhdhhaa remains as strong as ever. She does not find any reason to accelerate her attainment of nibbaanö while she is confident that she has a guarantee from her acts of charity that she can take some roller-coaster rides in the amusement parks of samsaarö “a couple of eons or so” rolling in the lap of luxury.

During a university holiday when Mahinda is at home, a carnival atmosphere develops at Loku Naenda’s house now “full of people, bustle, talk, laughter, the smell of food” getting ready for a night-long ceremony of pirith chanting followed by an alms giving for twenty-five monks at the end of it which is supposed “to be a really grand affair”. On the night of the pirith chanting, Kusuma gathers prominence through her artistic motifs applied to the decorations of the pirith manadappe, the special enclosure where the twenty-five monks in “all their yellow-robed splendour” have got seated. To everybody’s admiration, Loku Naenda, who is the chief daayakö and the donor of everything, makes a solemn display of her sadhdhhaa, seated in the front, with her hands clasped together and held high, almost at the forehead level. She proves herself extraordinary by remaining in the same place the whole night. The chief monks’ sermon is on dhaanö parömithaa, the perfection of giving. He relates the Jaathökö Story of King Manichuudö, where the Boodhhisaththö donates his flesh and blood to Sakra who comes in the guise of a hungry demon called Kausikö, and proves by that exercise his sole wish is to attain buddhahood leading to nibbaanö. “But by this deed may I attain perfect enlightenment to release the unreleased, to console the unconsoled, and to liberate the unliberated. This is my wish.” The declaration the Boodhhisaththö makes in the story seems to be resonating in the ears of Mahinda even years after the event. Yet it does not mean anything to Loku Naenda as nibbaanö occupies the least significant place in her agenda. Focusing on the donations made there, the chief monk relates the message of the Jaatökö story to Loku Naenda’s sadhdhhaa to a hosanna of "Saadhhu! Saadhhui Saadhhu!” Chitra Fernando creates a powerful irony out of the chief monk’s sermon and Loku Naenda’s response to it. Loku Naenda gets showered with admiration and praise. After the monks have left, Loku Naenda, her face beaming, comes up to Mother and Punch Naenda, as if to share the joy of her triumph over all the Buddhists of the village community. Punchi Naenda does not take much time to cheer her up by comparing her pirith manadappe with that of one Mrs Welikaka’s, and claiming that hers is ten times nicer than the other’s. “Both Naendas laughed gleefully, almost like little girls.” Mahinda senses the banality of their feelings. They use charity as a means to outclass all the others. The anticlimax emerging from their mundane behaviour after a spiritual act is enormous. 

Kusuma Earning Respect in Society

During the pirith ceremony Mahinda observes from a corner that Kusuma is an attraction among the crowd. With her good looks she impresses even Mahinda, a medical student on the verge of completing his studies. 

Kusuma, who was very artistic, was helping with the decoration of the pirithmandappe. I watched her as she worked. She was at this time about nineteen - tall, slender, fair-skinned. Her hair was tied back in a big konde. Her face was fuller, rounder, but her eyes were as huge and as black as ever. She moved

quickly, lightly. And then all at once I realized that Kusuma was a very beautiful woman. So I looked at her often.

He also becomes conscious that Loku Naenda keeps vigil on her in a mission to prevent her from getting entangled with a man at a time when there are “a lot of young men around”. She pretends to have a great sense of responsibility towards Kusuma, but in the real sense she is scared that Kusuma will leave her if she finds a man. “Kusuma wasn't even in the least bit frivolous.” Mahinda implies that she has undergone strict disciplining under the tutelage of the stern and strict Loku Naenda, who herself is a confirmed single woman. The reasons for her qualms about the future of Kusuma’s loyalty are clear from the current situation in her household. While Salpi is old and frail, Kusuma has taken control of everything in the house of Loku Naenda.

Self-important because of the independence she enjoys as the manageress of the house and strictly disciplined against men’s company under Loku Naenda’s guidance, she asserts herself within the crowd of people, moving “gracefully but efficiently from kitchen to verandah supervising, organizing, advising”. Yet from among the crowd of people who have gathered there emerges a young man, brave and perseverant enough to attract the attention of the self-respecting Kusuma. Despite the cold and reserved tone of her speech, he willingly obeys “her instructions and orders”, finds work to do wherever Kusuma is supposed to be, does the kitchen work such as “cut, chop, sift or pound” that are normally done by women, joins Kusuma in decorating the pirith manadappe, and shows her a great interest in enjoying her company under whatever circumstance. Finally, as the reward for all his labours, he manages to receive from her “a quick, tiny smile” confided from everybody but not from Mahinda. Later Mahinda learns from Mala that he is the assistant at Martin Mudalali's kade, Piyadasa. “I liked him.” Mahinda confirms that a “tall and fair skinned” young man with “a kind face” of the type of Piyadasa is a suitable match for Kusuma. During the pirith ceremony, Mahinda notices “Piyadasa seated behind Kusuma” “right at the back of the room”. Kusuma’s choice of a place to sit down in that crowded room is evidence of her acceptance of Piyadasa after all. 

Kusuma’s Deprivation of Romance and Sexuality

Two days later, Piyadasa’s romantic pursuit of Kusuma culminates in a formal marriage proposal. Loku Naenda discusses it in serious terms with Punchi Naenda, Mother and Mala. “Loku Naenda looked agitated, angry.” Coming from a sea-bath, Mahinda joins in the conversation almost by accident. "Kusuma wants to marry Piyadasa!" Mala presents the case. "Good idea!" Mahinda endorses it. Loku Naenda reacts to Mahinda’s suggestion with revulsion. "Kusuma marry Piyadasa!” Mahinda enquires about the reason for Loku Naenda’s opposition to Kusuma’s marriage to Piyadasa. Mala and their cousin Nihal both support Mahinda’s positive stand about the union between Kusuma and Piyadasa. Loku Naenda ends up in a hysterical attack, while “her chest heaved, her lips trembled, [and] her eyes seemed to shoot sparks of fire”. She goes on crying, “The selfishness … the ingratitude of … of everybody. After all I've … after all I've done…” Punchi Naenda, another confirmed single woman, joins forces with her and severely shouts at the young folk. Chitra Fernando dramatizes the situation with her deep knowledge of pragmatics in the context of the Sri Lankan rural upper class.

“Piyadasa came to me and said he wanted to marry her. … said she was willing, I couldn't believe it... to do this thing behind my back!” Mahinda intervenes on behalf of the young couple and rationalizes the approach they together followed regarding their future prospects. He points out their decency of telling

their wish to Loku Naenda, rather than eloping. In response, Loku Naenda first interprets their expectation to get married as greed. “Tanha, tanha, tanha, they're all filled with tanha.” She howls. Then she presents an account of what she did for Kusuma who came to her “like a wild animal”.  “I cleaned her, fed her, clothed her, civilized her … Is it too much to ask for a little gratitude in return?” She does not make any acknowledgment of Kusuma’s contribution to the upkeep of the house and garden so long. She implies that Kusuma has been a lotus-eater all the years she spent at hers. The cat jumps out of the bag. Her intention to keep Kusuma as her domestic servant on a permanent basis becomes clear. "It's her duty to stay with Loku Naenda. Loku Naenda didn't bring her up for nothing." Mother’s businesslike statement conveys there is no element of philanthropy in Loku Naenda’s so-called act of charity, for which she earned admiration from the others in the event Kusuma was brought in. On the pretext of adopting her, she rears her like a servant.

Mala’s argument on the possibility for Loku Naenda to receive continued assistance from Kusuma even after marrying Piyadasa does not hold any water for the sceptical and ruthless Loku Naenda.

"Will Kusuma have to live with Loku Naenda forever then?" asked Nangi.

"Why not?" snapped Punchi Naenda, "Much better for her to stay with Loku Naenda than going off with that Piyadasa and having ten children!"

These exchanges between the upcoming young woman Mala of marriageable age and Loku Naenda’s constant ally Punchi Naenda, another confirmed single woman losing appetite for romance or sexuality imply how much the old women respect the feelings of the upcoming young. "I'm not selfish.” Loku Naenda says trying to cover up her ulterior motives. She further makes a bogus promise to arrange a marriage for Kusuma, amidst the envious Punchi Naenda’s revulsion. Then, in a resolute voice, she states her plan to remove Piyadasa from the scene through the help of his master Martin Mudalali. She uses her power over him this time. Loku Naenda has no faith in people. She refutes Mala’s stand that Kusuma does not run away from loku Naenda out of loyalty. That is the only time Kusuma developed any nuptial dreams. With all her power Loku Naenda erased Piyadasa from the environment and transforms Kusuma into a confirmed single woman like her. Chitra Fernando removes one by one all the layers of Loku Naenda’s façade of philanthropy and lays bear her grotesque hypocrisy and shrewdness through her tricks that are meant to help her satisfy her ulterior motives as well as save her face.

Instead of finding a suitor for Kusuma, Loku Naenda gives “over the running of the house entirely to Kusuma”, in order to free herself to study the Abhidhhammö.

It was Kusuma who arranged for the sale of all garden produce like coconuts and yams. It was Kusuma who bought all the necessities for the household. It was Kusuma who organized all the pirith ceremonies and the daanes. She became almost as keen as Loku Naenda in the performance of such duties. They seemed to give her an ever increasing pleasure. She talked a lot about how the accumulation of merit would give a person a better life in the future. She often said that she must have been very wicked in a past life and was determined to be better in this her present one. Loku Naenda was very pleased with her. Punchi Naenda began to be almost jealous.

The authority she is allowed to exercises in the management of the house and the organization of all the charitable ceremonial activities that bring her prominence removes her from all possible romantic inclinations. Despite Punchi Naenda’s jealousy, Kusuma continues to run the house like a bossy woman. At home, Mahinda, now heading for postgraduate studies, defends Kusuma from Punchi Naenda’s parochial criticisms. However, rightly or wrongly, all the women predict Kusuma will become a headstrong woman who will have no respect or courtesy for any of the members of Loku Naenda’s family. Each time they criticize Kusuma, Mahinda smiles. Through his smiles, Mahinda interprets this change in Kusuma as a result of the deprivation she underwent at the hands of Loku Naenda.    

Kusuma’s Rise and Loku Naenda’s Decline

In terms of accounts of what Mahinda observes at Loku Naenda’s house on his occasional visits to her, Chitra Fernando relates how power gets accumulated in the hands of Kusuma and how Loku Naenda’s command over her estate shrinks parallel to it. Year by year Loku Naenda shows signs of aging: she develops “streaks of grey in her hair”, stoops more and more, wears glasses, and loses her front teeth one by one. In the absence of physical strength, she is destined to spend “a lot of time reading the suttas” confined to her chair. Salpi is dead now; Kusuma, a really industrious and tough woman, works not only on the crops from the garden, the handwork such as table mats and pillow slips and the sale of the garden produce, but also on the preparation of daanes to the monks in the temple. “Kusuma was in the sole charge of Loku Naenda's household now.”

On Mahinda’s first visit he discovers that all the earnings Kusuma makes are being currently saved to “buy a brass lamp for the temple” and Loku Naenda is happy that she does not spend on fashions. Loku Naenda’s intention to keep her is further revealed in her strategic removal of Kusuma from the world of beauty and fashion and indulgence of her in the popular types of “meritorious acts” such as donating various costly objects to the temple and sponsoring rituals that bring back panegyric publicity. Thereby she systematically prevents Kusuma from men’s association until the latter passes the marriageable age and becomes a woman as frigid as herself. On the pretext of charity and merits, she keeps her on a permanent basis as a privileged domestic slave always engaged in temple development projects but not concerned about personal development ventures.

During his second visit to Loku Naenda now “older, grayer” and friendlier than before, Mahinda notices how, in the world of spirituality, Kusuma dominates everything and leaves Loku Naenda to suffer deprivation. Along with “the magnificent brass lamp Kusuma had donated”, the acre of land she bought for building a new preaching hall, and the shrine room and the wall around white washed with her funding, the temple complex signalizes more of Kusuma’s contribution than of Loku Naenda’s. The temple seems to be harping on Kusuma’s name much oftener than that of Loku Naenda’s. Considering herself a wealthy devotee, she seems to have absorbed all the obnoxious values maintained by Loku Naenda in her heyday. Aiming at enjoying the full benefit of them, she does not want to share with anybody the cost of any of those so-called “meritorious acts” she commits.  

Loku Naenda had wanted to contribute something towards it but Kusuma had refused very firmly. The merit from this act had to be hers and hers alone; she did not want to share it with anyone.

Kusuma’s rejection of Loku Naenda’s contribution to the projects she carries out in the temple premises, signifies her rejection of the latter in all things she does. Loku Naenda does no more control

Kusuma but Kusuma controls everything including Loku Naenda. An obvious shift of power emerges in all developments in the house.    

Mahinda’s third visit to Loku Naenda occasions for him to view that Loku Naenda has undergone further vicissitudes of life. After “a stroke which paralysed both her legs” Loku Naenda uses “a wheel chair.” “Punchi Naenda's death of a heart attack” makes Mahinda’s mother leave Payagala and settle down at Mala’s in Kandy. "Kusuma looks after her very well. Loku Naenda is so lucky to have her – but she's very lonely.” These words Mala utters on Kusuma’s treatment of Loku Naenda represent the presumption that everybody in the family entertains, in their inability to visit her frequently.

What Mahinda surveys on his arrival at Loku Naenda’s, proves there is nothing to complain about Kusuma’s home management.

“Loku Naenda's house was still the same. The garden looked flourishing. The coconut trees were loaded with nuts, the mango trees with fruit. The orchids just beside the verandah were all blooming.”

Signs of physical deterioration in Loku Naenda’s appearance and behaviour suggest that she is right now undergoing hell, in her inability to control the matters as before. 

“Loku Naenda was in her wheelchair on the verandah. She saw me, tried to speak but couldn't. Her face quivered. I went up to her and took her hand. She held it tightly. Her hair was completely white, the skin of her neck and arms hung down in loose folds. In the years I'd been away she had shrunk into an old, old woman.”

In Mahinda’s company Loku Naenda finds a way out of her frustration. From her mood while talking about the preaching hall that Kusuma finished shortly before, it becomes clear that she is now fed up with “meritorious acts of charity”. It seems that, in a frenzy to have a better life in the next birth, Kusuma scrapes the bottom of all coffers to carry out her ambitious projects in the temple premises. The hilarious thing is she does not want to get Loku Naenda involved in any of those things, fearing that she will have to share the merits if she does.

Kusuma’s Ignorance Leading to Egoism  

From the inception Loku Naenda wanted to groom Kusuma as an ignoramus of a domestic slave. Always “a very practical woman”, Loku Naenda mars all childhood prospects of Kusuma being an educated and intelligent woman. As a result, now it is very difficult to explain to her the joy of sharing the merits of good deeds which she has passionately taken to. By preventing Kusuma from associating with Mala, Loku Naenda did not allow Kusuma to take pleasure in anything. Instead of reading and writing, she took steps to teach her only domestic work, which would be useful to her in return. So, given the opportunity to handle an unlimited amount of power, Kusuma now operates simply like a robot, without an iota of respect or thoughtfulness about the others who have contributed to her upbringing.

On an ambitious project “to build a shrine room” in the temple premises, Kusuma uses all the money her hands are on, including the income from Loku Naenda’s property. Not only that, she also turns the valuables in the house into money to finance the project. As a result, Loku Naenda has become utterly uncomfortable.

Loku Naenda gets dumbfounded when Mahinda enquires about “the ebony furniture” which used to be the pride of the house as an inheritance from his grandfather and had been promised of for him. "Kusuma has been like a daughter to me. She does everything for me. …" Her apologetic explanation to the missing items suggests nothing but a pretext for her helplessness. As if to console her, Mahinda discretely conveys his disinterest in the furniture on an excuse that he has no room to keep them in his flat in London. But that does not recover Loku Naenda from her guilty conscience. "That furniture was my father's. I wanted you to have it." Ultimately, as there is no alternative, Mahinda feels compelled to endorse Kusuma’s shrine room construction project. "Never mind, never mind, Loku Naenda. Building a shrine room is a very good thing, a very meritorious act." He unsuccessfully tries to console Loku Neanda who is lamenting her own folly of grooming an egoist out of Kusuma instead of a sensible human being.  

Actions of Hypocrisy Precipitating Reactions of Monstrosity

Amidst Loku Naenda’s lamentation, Kusuma returns home from the temple, around lunch time. When he looks at the time, Mahinda realizes the talk about Kusuma looking after Loku Naenda is only gossip. For her the shrine room construction project seems to be a greater priority than Loku Naenda’s welfare. A “middle-aged woman - broad, strong, determined, hard”, Kusuma wears a look of resentment when she notices Mahinda’s presence. The simple lunch is composed of only rice, pol sambol and a bit of dried fish. Maybe the menu in the poorest house in the village is more sumptuous than this. “Kusuma stared at me defiantly, as if daring me to criticize, I was silent.” Powered by her defiant spirit of independence, she seems to intimidate Loku Naenda as well as her visitors. Mahinda tactfully responds to Loku Naenda’s regret to miss “some seer fish and prawns”, pretending to prefer dried fish to them.

Through Mahinda’s embarrassment and helplessness in front of the once-pitiable and helpless Kusuma, the domestic servant of his own aunty, Chitra Fernando satirizes the destiny of Loku Naenda, the all powerful. Everybody seems to get scared of the monstrosity of the one who came into the house like a poor creature. Mahinda is genuinely concerned about Loku Naenda’s welfare but he has no way of undertaking it, as his sister’s house does not have sufficient space to keep somebody on a permanent basis. He is even not sure about the meaning of telling Mother and Mala about Loku Naenda’s plight.

Loku Naenda’s behaviour during Mahinda’s brief conversation with Kusuma over the shrine room construction project is full of trepidation. “Loku Naenda looked at me pleadingly, fearfully.” 

Mahinda: "So Kusuma, I hear you're building a shrine room. It must be a very expensive business."        

Kusuma: “I have found the money for it. It's a very meritorious deed. No one should interfere with such a good thing. "

Mahinda: "When will it be completed?"

Kusuma "The building will be completed in about a month's time. But I need more money for the image and the wall-paintings inside. My name will be inscribed outside because I am the donor … Would you like to donate something, Mahinda mahataya?"

This stretch of conversation reveals the ulterior motive of Kusuma as a devotee of the popular school who, for spiritual progress and salvation, banks on expensive donations made with his or her name etched on them. While there is no substantial topic to converse about, Mahinda casually expresses his amazement over the ambitious shrine room project. Kusuma replaces the mundane epithet “a very expensive business” he uses to call it by a spiritual one “a very meritorious deed”. But immediately spoils the quality of its meaning by mentioning the ban she has set against the others’ participation in it. Mahinda avoids an argument just by switching on to the timeframe set for the construction. Her response reveals that she is stuck with a lack of funding and is keen to call for donations. She obviously contradicts her stand about the other people’s involvement in it by asking Mahinda for a donation. By unwarrantedly using Loku Naenda’s income from the garden produce, she has quite unawares violated her stand many times already. Kusuma seems to be amassing a great wealth for her life after death and sounds like an insurance policy holder who does not want to share the benefit of her investment.

As if to escape from her depression, Loku Naenda elicits from Mahinda his life in London. When the subject of meals arises she suggests that he should have got married to a woman who can cook for him. Marriage that she once prohibited for Kusuma as an act of thanhaa now prescribes for Mahinda as a source of care. When Mahinda silently gets up to leave, she insists that he should spend the night in her house. Commitments to his profession and family urge him to leave as he had planned. Loku Naenda’s response containing an allusion to death suggests that she is utterly disillusioned with life after all her meritorious deeds. Mahinda’s words of encouragement do not play upon her feelings.     

So hardened in her own hypocrisy, now, she cannot deny her long-standing views. While openly suffering rejection, she claims, “But I'm very lucky to have Kusuma…she's like my own daughter”. She has to stomach the results of her own mistakes. Almost as a mannerism or a discourse marker, she utters, “It's my karma”. The cliché she used to deal with the others’ affairs she uses now to deal with those of her own. Her sense of insecurity overflows in every act or word she makes.   

And she said once again, "It's my karma." A common place, almost meaningless phrase mouthed by so many. And yet, as I looked back for one last wave, there seemed to be a truth in it – a truth reflected in that heavy, sullen woman standing in the doorway and in the other, feebly waving a loose-skinned hand.

Chitra Fernando ends the story with a spectacular tableau of the two women. They contrast with each other in stature, appearance, deportment, and countenance, by all means, like a guard and a prisoner. Loku Naenda seems to be suffering under her once victim. “As Kusuma turns into a replica of her employer, she becomes an equally unsympathetic character.” (Landow: 1989) Kusuma seems to be torturing her once victimizer. Everything proceeds in Loku Naenda’s world in a vivid action-reaction continuum. The exploiter gets exploited in the end.     

Conclusion

In the transaction over Kusuma Loku Naenda makes two critical mistakes. The first and foremost mistake she commits is to confuse Kusuma about her identity. Kusuma does not know whether she is Loku Naenda’s daughter or servant. Reputed to be “a practical woman” she uses the two terms “servant” and “daughter” interchangeably on Kusuma to match her cunning intentions regarding her. When she wants to charge her of some petty offence like stealing a kävum, she calls her “servant” and

when she wants to prevent her from marrying Piyadasa and keep her on a permanent basis, she calls her “daughter”. Moreover, she earns credit from the others by pretending to adopt Kusuma as a daughter and prevents her from associating with Mala and reading books by emphasising that she is there as a domestic servant. Thus Loku Naenda craftily plays with Kusuma’s identity with the wicked intention of exploiting her labour till the end of her life. Stranded between two contrast identities, Kusuma is in a battle to preserve her self-esteem. There it is understood that she is agonised by the members of Loku Naenda’s clan who are not prepared to accept her as a relative. The monstrosity she develops at the end, that frightens everybody is partly the result of the struggle she has had all her life there with her confused identity. This teaches a lesson to Loku Naenda on playing with the identity of her subordinates.

The other mistake she commits is to make a monster out of Kusuma by preventing her from associating with her peers in her social milieu. A headstrong self-opinionated woman claiming a reputation of being a strict disciplinarian, Loku Naenda has no regard for the other people’s feelings. When Kusuma as a child goes through the picture books, she orders Mala to take them away. When Mala wants to take Kusuma on her family trip to Colombo, she cunningly prohibits it for her on the pretext that she stole her kävums. It is perceivable that Kusuma symbolically runs away when Mala calls her on her way to the station maybe because Loku Naenda has given a thorough warning. Her rigid upbringing is clear in her bossy tone even when she moves as a grown up among the people who gather at the pirith ceremony. After a huge struggle Piyadasa manages to win Kusuma’s consent to marry him. But when he formally requests Loku Naenda for her permission she gets him ousted from the scene and indoctrinates Kusuma against marriage and rearing children. Thus Kusuma is brought up in utter isolation. Thinking that romance and fashions would upset Kusuma’s loyalty to her, she systematically inculcates in Kusuma the idea that she can enjoy after death a better life in heaven, if she carries out the conventional meritorious activities. In order to become human one must first cultivate a habit to appreciate the fellow humans. But this is a lacuna in Kusuma’s character due to her upbringing at Loku Naenda’s. Her sole interest is to carry out things that are believed to bring in return longevity, beauty, health, strength, and wisdom in her new life after death. In the mean time, under Loku Naenda’s influence, Kusuma never develops a trust in collective spirit, friendship, group sense or interdependence. Therefore she does all things in isolation. That is how she, in fear of having to share the merit, happens at the end to reject Loku Naenda’s assistance in the preaching hall construction project in the temple. Thus Loku Naenda’s strategies to bring up Kusuma as a servant totally bound to her take away her spirit to appreciate and respect another human being and transform her into a monster. All human virtues such as love, concern, gratitude, respect, sympathy get squeezed out of her character in her constant interaction with the hypocritical, selfish, cunning, self-important, ruthless and inconsiderate Loku Naenda. Thus Loku Naenda’s mistakes reflect on her when she has no more physical strength to control Kusuma.

Chitra Fernando has captured a common situation in Sri Lanka. There are many Loku Naenda type middleclass women as well as Kusuma type domestic helps who swop their roles with each other as a result of a chain of atrocities that transpire in their long-term interaction. The rich and poor divide under the same roof engenders tragic outcomes of this sort, once power shifts from one party to the other under some circumstance. Loku Naenda’s entire clan feels helpless in the presence of Kusuma as Kusuma has made a sacrifice of her whole being to earn the despotic position she takes rejoice in at the end. By this time she has no friends and no people to share her feelings with. Ironically, she has no

friends all over the planet earth as all her aspirations are centred upon some celestial world described in terms of fantasy. As Goonetilleke (2005) observes “The writer leaves us with a haunting doubt as to the justice in these changes.”