Novel Excerpt
The following is a passage from A Maiden’s Prayer:
CHAPTER 6 – HATCHING PLOTS
Although Olga Aunty was not the eldest in the family of sisters – my mother Blossom was – sister number two assumed the matriarchal role early on after their mother succumbed to pneumonia at the age of fifty one. After Olga Aunty took charge, she never looked back. She didn’t have children, and that position provided her with more time on her hands when compared to the others, which she used to run their lives.
Whenever there was anything of importance to be decided, the family turned to her. Her counsel was as good as anybody else’s, but her decisions were unwavering and the lack of ho-humming that characterized the others’ thought patterns had made her the obvious choice to lead.
In the case of her brother-in-law Berty, however, there was no easy solution. The matter had dilly-dallied far more than she had anticipated. It seemed hopeless at times, but Olga Aunty plodded – and plotted – on.
She chose to ignore the astrologer’s assertion that Berty Uncle could not have a successful marriage until he was above the age of forty. While remembering the astrologer’s warnings about taking particular care in finding the partner, she encouraged the adult members of the family to hold aloft a perennial searchlight for Berty Uncle’s future mate. Like Jane Austen, they firmly believed that an unmarried rich man was a waste to society, like beef tenderloin on a Hindu ascetic. It was not as if the four sisters’ marriages had turned out to be particularly rosy examples. Oswald, my father, lived from one drink to another, Olga Aunty had husband Nelson Uncle firmly under her thumb, and it was rumored that Mary Aunty’s husband, Dinesh, was seeing another woman. Beulah Aunty, the youngest, had yet to start complaining publicly about her husband, Martin Uncle, but rust was definitely appearing in the conjugal armor.
They had their own hands full, but they were all united in an almost vicarious desire to install Berty Uncle in the married state. Olga Aunty’s problem had become everybody’s problem especially because of the long-standing issue with Nelson Uncle and Berty Uncle’s near-estranged sister, who had staked unfair ownership of their ancestral home in Panadura.
Thus, they left no stone unturned; matchmakers were sought, feelers were sent around staff rooms in school, neighbors were appraised, and distant relatives were informed of the existence of this eligible bachelor. Proposals kept cropping up, though not all worthy of consideration and the chaff had to be removed from the grain. They ranged from divorcees with or without children (mostly chaff) to homely but wealthy girls trying to fling off the old maid status (sometimes grain) and poorer hopefuls trying to climb the social ladder (definitely chaff).
Even after a process of stringent winnowing, there was enough to keep Berty Uncle occupied during his vacations in Colombo. The six-month labors of his dismayed brother and sister-in-law, ably aided by the extended family, ensured that a plethora of marriage proposals – some on paper and others less tangible – awaited him. He was whisked from one bride-viewing appointment to another.