The remote village of Perumpadi is a land of sins and secrets. This novel is the story of its people

Nowhere in Perumpadi is there a sign of an institution with the name board “Reformation House.” Nevertheless, any shrivelled fence post in that place would be able to promptly identify it as Kummannoor Paul sir’s residence. The christening of that house was a benediction from Pitiyathani Mathew Varghese sir, more popularly known by his initials PMV – when expanded by the irreverent local people, it became a vile abuse in the vernacular.

In 2002, the 50th anniversary of the migration into Perumpadi was celebrated with much gaiety and pomp. On the conclusion of any celebration, the Perumpadian tradition was to single out an organiser and roundly abuse him behind his back.

Everyone revelled in running PMV down. Which meant that when the idea of the golden jubilee celebrations was mooted, the Perumpadians had unanimously proposed his name as the general convenor of the Celebration Committee. Since he was ever-willing to be the recipient of the vilest of abuses if the trade-off was recognition and a position in the community, PMV welcomed the responsibility cheerfully.

Based on their arrival dates as migrants to that place, in the golden jubilee souvenir – financed by advertisements canvassed from all corners under PMV’s leadership – the families were numbered as First Family, Second Family, Third Family, etc. The First Family, as the first migrants to Perumpadi, was Cherukana. Malayani was the Second Family, Machcholil, the Third Family. In that order of seniority, Kummannoor ended up as the Fourteenth Family.

PMV felt the need for another name for that family because Kummannoor was the name of a place in Thiruvithamkoor, the erstwhile Travancore state. Irrespective of whether what PMV proposed was sensible or nonsensical, it was customary for the people of Perumpadi to oppose it with all their might. However, when PMV proposed Reformation House as the name for Paul sir’s house, strangely no one resisted it.

For the denizens of Perumpadi, it was not a mere appellation conferred on the house. They truly looked upon the house as the site of their collective reformation. This was because the mediation services that Paul sir had started had become an acceptable dispute settlement system for the Perumpadians by the time his son Jeremias took over from him.

The first place the people would to run to if there was any calamity was Reformation House. Whether it was a property dispute, or a family quarrel, or a brawl on the streets, the protagonists would inform Jeremias as soon as they had finished the skirmish and dusted up. The next step would be for Jeremias Paul to summon all the affected parties and hold talks. The Perumpadians were firm in their belief that at the end of the parleys, a just solution would be forthcoming.

Since in all their private and public matters, decisions for their reformation would emerge from that house, everyone recognised and acknowledged the aptness of the name. This was also the reason why Jeremias Paul, de facto paterfamilias at Reformation House, was respected much beyond his station as an ordinary clerk in Kacherikadavu Cooperative Bank.

Before Jeremias’s preoccupation with the golden jubilee celebrations ended, in the wee hours of one morning, Shyla, wife of Anungu Rajan, the only son of Goddess Bhavani, arrived at Reformation House. Her demand was that a parley be held on the same day to resolve a dispute in their family.

There was no way Jeremias could have found the time to go to Goddess Bhavani’s house that Tuesday. The final event of the jubilee celebrations was to be held the next week. PMV was only the convenor in name; if things had to be organised without abuses being traded, Jeremias Paul had to be present in person.

Moreover, it was on Tuesdays and Fridays that Bhavaniyamma transformed into Goddess Bhavani. On these two days, when she stopped being a mere mortal, she would eschew all household work, and devotees would throng at her sannidhaanam or sanctum sanctorum. People from Malappuram to Shimoga would turn up and Goddess Bhavani would intervene in all sorts of cases, whether family disputes, financial ruin, lovesickness, seduction, evil eye, black magic, or voodoo.

However, since Perumpadians did not hold Goddess Bhavani’s powers in high esteem, they were never in the race to have her darshan. Not that Goddess Bhavani ever complained about the absence of those skinflints, who would offer crumbs as oblation and then haggle over it.

After accounting for all the impediments, on the successful completion of the jubilee celebrations, one Monday, when the sun was dipping on the horizon, Jeremias Paul headed for her sannidhaanam in the company of Kallarackal Velu. Whatever the destination or purpose, Velu would tail Jeremias as his Man Friday. His qualification for the role was not merely the readiness to act as a runner if someone had to be summoned in the middle of the mediation, or as a sounding board if Jeremias needed a second opinion. In the parleys, people would blurt out many things – it could be shocking revelations or comical, risible things, or something that tickled one’s prurience. It could be uncontainable gossip that kept scratching the listener’s inner self and demanded that it be declaimed to the wide world.

Excerpted with permission from Anthill, Vinoy Thomas, translated from the Malayalam by Nandakumar K, Penguin.