The Shrine

Mrs. Talsingh stooped down to sweep her patio with a bundle of dried leaves, taking great pleasure in both the swooshing, scraping sound and the slight ache in her lower back. After all, this was how Indian housewives had swept up since Indian women had first been allowed to join their men in the estate barracks in the old days of the Indenture in Trinidad—and, she was sure, this was how it was in India itself for all the glorious centuries of its civilization. She knew perfectly well that she was a bit of a joke around the village, whose other ladies had long since gone over to plastic brooms bought at the hardware store or even to strange plug-in devices that sucked up dust—and, no doubt, a multitude of tiny creatures whose souls were thus sacrificed in the name of progress. But she remained steadfast. “Is a li’l t’ing,” she would say in her weary but authoritative voice, “but is the li’l t’ings that does matter.” Housewives sacrificing tradition for the sake of their aching backs? It was indeed the edge of a slippery slope. What next? Abandoning the head scarf? Wearing slacks? Eating beef? Sad to say, there were others who did such things—and worse—and it probably all started when they gave up their good, old-fashioned leaf bundles. Her own daughters, Indra and Jana, far away in Canada, made her the butt of their jokes whenever they came home to visit. They had learned the proper technique of sweeping and taking care of a respectable house when they were girls, but God alone knew what they did in that strange, cold land to which their husbands had taken them. As for her daughter-in-law (whose name she adamantly refused to say aloud), well her stupid son Mohan was fully to blame, indulging her as he did in every whim that came into her head as a result of the American fashion magazines she was forever reading instead of taking care of her house and her children. No bundle of leaves for that awful girl—why, the lazy good-for-nothing hired a creole woman to come in to do her cooking and cleaning while she traipsed off to Port of Spain to have lunch at a tennis club, if you please, with her uppity friends! But this day Mrs. Talsingh's irritation with the new generation was short-lived because she had a greater, a higher purpose in mind. The night before, as she made her offerings to the household deities, she had resolved to carry out the last wish of her late husband. She has procrastinated too long, but now she would make amends by seeing to this business with firm dispatch. She finished her chores, bathed, and put on her best dress. As she brushed her long, still lustrous hair, she glanced at her wedding picture. Had it really been 60 years since she had come to Zenobia Village to marry Hari Talsingh? She had grown up in Banpore, not that far away, but well off the main road that led to the old sugar refinery, the usine. Hers had been an isolated childhood typical of girls in those days, and needless to say she had never so much as talked to a boy other than her brothers and cousins, nor had she so much as laid eyes on Hari Talsingh before the day her wedding was celebrated. Imagine what these young girls today would say if you told them they couldn't go to school or go around unchaperoned with their friends to movies and parties and that they had to get married at the age of 14 to some boy they had never even met! But it was better in the old days; she thought—marriage is too important to leave it to addled and naïve young people. She thought bitterly of the peculiar alliances made by her own children, whose folly she and her husband had been powerless to stop in the face of “modernity.” Well, things had worked out well enough. As she looked again at the old photo, she acknowledged that in the view of the community at large, she had gotten the better part of the bargain. The Talsinghs, while not rich, were certainly better off than her own folks. Hari's father was a foreman at the usine while her own father still labored in the fields cutting cane. The Talsinghs had a nice cement block house right on the main road while she had grown up in a thatch-roof cottage in a place that her own grandchildren mockingly referred to as “the boondocks.” And Hari himself was tall, fair, and quite handsome while she—she had no reason to deny it then or now—was short, dark, and plump. She never did figure out why the match had been made in the first place—her hateful mother-in-law never ceased tormenting her by announcing that it had all been a terrible mistake and that she would be sent packing should she commit the tiniest infraction of the old lady's arbitrary rules. And yet she was happy in her fashion. She enjoyed her children when they were young and although Hari spent a great deal of time at the rum shop and beat her for no particular reason whenever he got home, she really did not mind. She heeded the advice of one of her older sisters-in-law, to whom she had confided the first time he laid hands on her. “Silly girl,” Sita had said with a sigh, “is a good t’ing when a husban’ he beat you, else how you know he does care for you?” It was true—a husband who did not strive to keep his wife in line was a husband who could not be respected as a provider and householder of repute. A man who was not a big beater was no man at all, and what self-respecting woman would want a husband like that? Well, Mrs. Talsingh never had to worry—over the years Hari gave her ample evidence of his provident care. Now in his later years Hari had come under the sway of a charismatic pandit fresh from India itself. The holy man had somehow gotten Hari to give up drink and Hari indeed became something of a sadhu. After he retired from his own position at the usine just before it shut down for good, he spent most of his time studying the sacred books and going about in the company of the village Nawh who helped people set up their household pujas. Mrs. Talsingh was not entirely sure she liked this new, ostentatiously pious version of her husband, but in spite of what she had learned as a young bride, she had to admit that it was a relief to be free from his wrath. And since his death, she had felt a sense of freedom, the enjoyment of which she could never, would never acknowledge, least of all to herself. Shortly before his death, Hari had come up with his grand plan: he wanted to build a shrine on the property he had bought a few years before. The property adjoined the house, but had been given over to the growing of papayas. The extra income they made from selling the fruit was a welcome addition to his small pension, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to persuade one of her grandchildren to drive her to the Saturday farmers’ market up in Couva and the land was just going to waste in his opinion. In his advanced spiritual state he had convinced himself that the land had to be consecrated to holy purposes. As it happened, the Dookharine family, who had operated a once lavish shrine on their own property down the road, had given up that aspect of their good work. The Dookharines were by far the richest family in Zenobia and why they continued to live there no one could say. Mrs. Talsingh was convinced that they did so just so they could lord it over their neighbors, something it would have been more difficult to do had they moved to some fancy house far from the cane fields where their neighbors would have been uppity rich people just like themselves. In any case, the Dookharine shrine, dedicated to Hanuman, was long the focus of the village's ritual life. Unlike other families, who celebrated their pujas in the modest confines of their own houses, the Dookharines’ house was open to all, and their pujas were for decades the main events on Zenobia's social calendar. Everyone in the village was expected to attend, and all the women were expected to help with the cooking and serving. The Dookharines seemed to take it as their lordly due. But now the old man and the old lady were both dead and their children had moved away to the lavish quarters more in keeping with their station in life. They let the house out to rent and, of course, the renters—shiftless people of no standing whatsoever—could not be expected to maintain the shrine or keep up the annual round of ritual activity. And so Mr. Talsingh saw his opportunity. “Is a nice t’ing,” his wife agreed, “but is also a big headache, nuh. We bot’ getting’ old, and our children do not care for such t’ings. We do not need such a She of course, that she did not need the since it was that all the of would to while her husband on the with the But she made it as if the was one they would he “Is a of It on our family, on the she “Is just just want people to like the Dookharines to She her and for the that would certainly have been her in the old But Hari in a and She to her but that his was made The new pandit from India to at all the a The were of course, but this one could of the in and he himself with a that no other figure in could he would to part of his time pujas in a place like Zenobia was a that could be Hari and the pandit even that the shrine would be dedicated to the of and a for men so to They were also in that the place would be a shrine like the one the Dookharines had much and not a such a would the of the and Hari nor the pandit wanted to deal with the of the who would that they knew best and would take over the and it for their own purposes. that was a household shrine an they would be to as they saw Mrs. Talsingh had said at how you go for this the to build the who what of t’ing come “Is Hari be any of these to do the work. We have the from how you go was his had to in the years of Hari's and his it seemed as if his would be The pandit came around every so to her that even he was he still had an sense that this shrine in Zenobia was something he was to She was to of course, but she was to give no of or even if the was to be But now had She had what she was quite was a from a it was from Hari or from himself she could not say, but as a woman of of the sacred to knew an from on when she And she had gotten the that the shrine was to be and that the And so she her most head and set off down the road to the The American had been to Zenobia for since the days when he was a boy who said he wanted to a of about the in and who even in the village for more than a while he did of course, a bit of a of the had new was of them to the in the years But of them had wanted to live in a village like they make a to get a bit of what they but once they had they beat a to their on the other seemed really in all of things the no could care their Now in those days it was for people to that the in had from American seemed to that things had in some knew things about what people in India itself had been like before the he wanted to out what had over the It all seemed and he in the house of Mrs. Mrs. Talsingh's and good The were to be of for the young and so that he be all And then he over the Now he was old and and far from and he could face to face with the village and important with and not at their and them Mrs. Talsingh had that the American was some at the of the up in but he was over in Zenobia to old Mrs. Talsingh was to to before he and she had the that he would be taking at the who had been his since the had gone off to live with their son in Mrs. Talsingh the to the house, as she how this had something of a Her children her that it as to the road as it had been in the days when it was but she off their She had been this road for 60 years and she about to give into and a just to go a time was to a although it was still a with in the of the She care. in these 60 years had she this road on this or that of and And when had she had a more of business to She glanced at the the Now that all of them were her own house was no had their new with but she on in one of the in the and she all to persuade her to new and who what She was one of the last to keep her old at the thought of a right to where people and the she saw the cane she came to Zenobia as a the fields as far as the could a of fresh and when the was She when the would the fields to get of the before they their The of would be on the to all over the village as the the night a said they of and the seemed like a out of But she thought it was It was a time that the of the village and the itself was a of the tradition that had it since her from the had moved their own of She had once the American one of the cane that he too the of but the man had in his gave her to that the American things her even course, was as it had been when the American first came to The cane fields had long been to the growing of and people could be to in the as at the were so much more to their time was no what it a few people in the of most of the still cane although it was no a activity. Indian she were still to the of but had gotten so uppity with its and that it could be any Mrs. Talsingh thought that it was a terrible for people to of their like she knew that her had on the old and she was not so as to wish for a to the old of the But the so to her It was for one was a time you could the main road and own Now it was like a all and and that you from any at and Mrs. Talsingh the and she was to the of their whom she knew had gone up to to the American to she knew he was The American had told Mrs. to let the who knew best know that he was around and would seeing although his would have to be this Mrs. Talsingh was one of those who had been to a bit of that her the American had first come to it would have been for a woman to join the men at but had certainly and for given the purpose of her she was that they But all, was her She wanted to the American that the shrine was now going to be but she knew that he had been this since Hari was What did she to do In she did not have a that when the came she would be given the to say that would the American to help her in some that she could not her she the to the to her was to the She could from the which was the of the house, so she the and by Mrs. came to the and said should have it was her Mrs. Talsingh come to the She in the of the and off to the Mrs. Talsingh the American with Mr. and a few other village seeing her and he his in a that once have her but that she now to as yet that she was the right to you, Mrs. he before came down was to some of old was one with Hari that the to have and wanted to let you know how much the you both Mrs. Talsingh the of her head her in the but now of a respectable woman a man not of her is It was our Hari he say how much he to you all about the you take in the that husband is well In and he and to the other around the just how a it is for a to be by his neighbors even he has Mrs. Talsingh could her good She thought she have to some of to the of her but was the American all her for her. one t’ing that would made he even The other men but Mrs. Talsingh to the as a one and not a of she now is to to make it like he wish you the best of know to help you in any he down and to to his with the other Mrs. Talsingh to join the women in the where she got the Mrs. Talsingh her and said in a whose authoritative But Hari would like for you to She the other men and she to at the But he to be if What do to is the shrine before the first even be said She could the other men by the but as the American seemed to her they said such a place from be on the The other men and in much do you it Mrs. Talsingh had no but she not this figure came from she did not but once the were out in the open they The other men did not Mr. said in an you is our old to just give you on the you all the American more to make than to that he thought the figure was not give you that much if what The other men in certainly give you a that would be a good for to give something to Zenobia all the all of you have over the The other women had come out of the to their out of this but they were in their when the American to the other men and if others be to do the certainly knew the As well respected as Hari had no one in the village was to over so much as an old to help his build a they were all on the with the of the couldn't be in of the The American them all by in an voice, this be the last time to come to time to do something like Everyone but no one that or he had a that this was something he wanted to but then that they all in to to his own a of the American his a bit and you know how with the big get of so that the really to Everyone a No one has to the by The remained in the he on with have new they small a he was the men But a shrine was not a was the It if a had a of because the would be there to make sure got But in a household shrine, if was an then no one in particular was you could take family would take for to that the place is that and so Mrs. Talsingh was not well know how it is is then no one is The men agreed, although they were still with her for so out he had the as a to get out of an the American seemed to to the once it was on the at it Mrs. Talsingh and want to the shrine to But the Dookharine shrine was dedicated to sure there people in the village who have to other or has a then family could make sure that its was for all of them could be shrine would be all long, and not just on the days dedicated to the one Mr. as if in but then you know this probably better than any of this is a of just to old folks. children and grandchildren have no time for and “Is Mrs. put in from the does come home for and but when all gone and she swept her around the in a of a nice with a tradition the of the village be a good even for the young in years to come they want to keep up the be so sure that what then have a good in which to have social It a community The American he was and for the of village were to those of the old people in the knew that in one or had the of the Indenture and the of the But he was not as as he to sound that it would the of and the of the But as he there to his old he knew that he was also to have given Mrs. Talsingh the she was for had he the to do he was not sure about the of becoming a village on that But he still wanted the shrine to be it was the one he could to the of a bit of the he had spent years The seemed to be the to get it the in the and thought he they were The village of the of when it came to family, but on the village family to out for its own It was important for the Dookharines to a shrine on their own to which else was more or to there no a of their and knew that Mr. Talsingh's he for his family to to that as The of the others from their to give the the to her And she was to the with her neighbors she her to the shrine as her The American that no than his old Zenobia was in his in his like the of them had to the shrine as well as to the community you Mr. The American seemed that had been to that part of his A shrine first and of course, but then once it could be for purpose people thought respectable son that was a good to even with his than Mr. said with a friends this with the time he said Mr. in a that made it that the was let know what you to make a if the the village to the American Mrs. Talsingh the to some with the other who had to the She certainly much like to and they were for her to The remained and the was still when she The had not yet She could not say that she was at the of her all, she been sure what she had expected in the first But she certainly was not happy with the things She was sure that the village would the the the American was on his up to would come around to his of and the Talsingh family shrine into some of community She was on over this shrine is a shrine not a community that she said to as if to her thought but the all from her mind. she got home she off her and set about her as she did so that she felt more than After all, even if this community came to it would still be on her and she was sure would not to such a the Talsingh the American would certainly up that with his own And if this of in the to the the purpose of else into in so that she up all the so much the was certainly to be but at her had to take over And even if happened, at least she had the in She had gotten a She had Hari's It was now out of her and more than would make the she as she a of off the leaf she was to as a and it on one of her from her She around the a and down to her

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