Kannadi Valaiyal

Summer. The Gulmohar tree was at its supreme radiance, with its red flowers. Murugan was overwhelmed by the view outside the jail gate. Partly, by the Gulmohar flowers. There was not even a faint smile on his lips. He was numb! Seven years of imprisonment was one for a lifetime. But he was happy, extremely. When he thought about Malarvizhi, he wanted to kiss her forehead and embrace her, tightly and tell her how much he was waiting for this moment. As he sat in the bus, memories flashed back in his mind. After he was in jail, he had never seen his daughter, Malarvizhi, not even once. She was just 8 years old, then. He just had a vague image of her, in his mind. Never did he write to her, or tried meeting her, not once in these 7 years. A deep sense of regret rose within him. He consoled himself that she would surely forgive him, for that. The bus reached its last stop. It was dusk. He got down from bus and walked towards a shop. He wanted to buy glass bangles for her, green ones! He recollected how she used to ask him to get green bangles for her, when she was little, at the temple fairs. He held the bangles wrapped in newspaper, and walked ahead. Everything had changed, the lanes, the roads. Unfamiliarity all around. He reached the tiled house. That was the only thing that hadn’t changed much. Except for some parts of the wall which was covered with moss. He knocked the door. He could hear the tinkling of anklets towards the door. He could see her through the glass pane of the window. She had grown beautiful, like her mother. He found it difficult to look at her, through the window pane. He felt remorseful. How could he face her? Forgival from her was way too far, he couldn’t forgive himself. After all he was a murderer.-of her mother. Glass bangles slipped from his hands. They broke. Her favorite, pachai kannadi valaiyal! They broke. So did he.