Three Sisters And The Cock Of Windsor
"Who is this man Arthur Windsor and why has he come here?" Savitri asked.
The three young women sat in a small, public courtyard with only a few other people walking about. The day was very hot, as were most days in that region. Despite the great heat the women preferred to be outside than inside of their crowded home. This was because they shared their two-level house with their grandmother, their parents, their in-laws and their unmarried sisters. Every bedroom contained an entire family.
Nipa and Savitri were true sisters, while Pritam was their sister in-law. The women were all in their early twenties, married, and each had one child to take care of. Actually, the consensus was that Pritam was estranged from her husband. The man had gone to the city one too many times and had not come back for several weeks. The biggest reason why the three women stuck together was because the townsfolk unfairly blamed Pritam for her husband's running away. Nipa and Savitri would not stand for this because they knew how bad a husband their blood brother had been to his wife.
Pritam was the most heavyset and curviest of the three. Her skin was dark and her face homely, but she made up for these deficiencies with her heart of gold. The sisters were of much fairer skin tone, having come from a once proud family that had long ago fallen out of favor and into obscurity. Savitri was very pretty, but also smart and curious enough to want to know everything about everything. By far, Nipa was the biggest prize for a husband to catch. She was a beautiful girl; with eyes that sparkled and a smile warm enough to melt ice, if any ice were to be found in that hot, humid place.
All three women wore loose blouses and the traditional saris, which were long strips of fabric that wrapped around their entire bodies. Their saris ranged in soft colors of blue, yellow and orange.
The women lived in what is properly called a cantonment. Originally, these were neighborhoods built for the British, set up near rural villages or cities but not within them. This particular cantonment was located on the outskirts of Chennai, far enough not to be part of the big city's hustle and bustle, but not completely out in the country either. It boasted of large, pleasant bungalows, streets lined with pretty trees, and also electricity and plumbing. Important Britons: politicians, military sorts or the wealthy retired to such places.
When the majority of the British had either moved away or died out, the cantonment became populated with native Indians. Also, the cantonment had been expanded with all manner of brick and concrete structures and even boasted a small, Western-styled shopping district with a cinema.
The biggest problem was that these young women quickly grew bored with their surroundings. The heat was oppressive and there was simply nothing at all to do. Most of the young men were off working the fields to the west, unless they were lucky enough to find stable and better paying employment in Chennai. The husbands of the sisters would board a bus early in the morning, along with a number of other local men, so they would be taken to their jobs in the city. The older and younger men of their cantonment went into the farms to work the fields and were also gone from nearly sun up until sun down.
Younger women would always pick up the bad habits from the older women, and our three ladies were no exception. They spent hours contemplating and deliberating over the latest movies from the cinema, or they complained about the heat, or they would walk over to the textile store to consider whatever new fabrics had come in. If a cow wandered into the cantonment, they would talk about that and wonder what had caused the cow to end up there and so far away from its ilk. Most of all, and just like the older local women would, these three ladies like to gossip about other people.
"I don't think his last name is Windsor." Pritam admitted.
"Of course it isn't." Savitri shook her head as if that was clearly obvious. "That man is using a false name. He must have been involved in a great scandal to end up here. He is using a false name so that whoever is looking for him will not easily find him."
"Do you suppose someone is looking for him?" Pritam asked.
"There must be." Savitri replied. "Otherwise there would be no need for using a false name."
"What do you think he did?"
Nipa, who was the quietest of the three, spoke up. "Certainly he didn't embezzle any money or he wouldn't have come to such a worthless place as this."
"I think he is a British bastard." Pritam said, causing the sisters to break out in laughter. "Think of it. What do we know about this man?"
"He's an old man." Savitri said. "Certainly he is over sixty years old."
"He speaks good English." Nipa added.
"Well, of course he speaks good English because he is English!" Pritam scolded.
"That isn't what I meant." Nipa made a face. "I mean that he speaks a cultured form of English, as if he is an educated man."
"He has to be an educated man because he teaches the children here English!"
"Any fool can teach English here." Savitri said. "But I think my sister is correct. This man is a cultured man. Not only does he teach English, but he teaches the children manners and art as well. Yet he is still keeping his head low. Mr. Windsor is obviously more intelligent than the English teacher we already have, Mrs. Knobbs. He only assists her when he could very well teach on his own. The panchayat would grant him a larger stipend if he only showed his credentials, but he refuses to do this."
"What else do we know about Mr. Windsor?" Pritam asked.
"He knows how to fix things that are broken." Nipa said. "He even knows how to make things that none of the other men around here can make."
"He is educated and he is an inventor." Savitri concluded. "I believe he was taught in a university."
"No, he's much too strong to be a scholar." Pritam refuted. "I've seen him carrying heavy logs on those broad shoulders of his. There are strong men here, but they are young men when compared to Windsor. That man is building a house for himself out by the river! What sort of scholar would do that?"
"That's because nobody likes sharing a bungalow with Mrs. Knobbs." Nipa said. "That old woman is crotchety!"
"I think he was a military man." Pritam suspected. "I think he has retired from the military and come out here to settle."
"Perhaps he was thrown out of the military." Savitri theorized. "Perhaps he has been shamed. This could explain why he is using a false name and taking great pains to keep his identity concealed."
"Then you agree with me that he is a British bastard?" Pritam asked.
