Funday Times

Paduma's World By Nihal de Silva
Paduma fights an election

There is to be an election in the village. Old Aranolis has been president of the Farmers Union for five years but is not coming forward again. Saro's father Ranbanda has put his name forward and another farmer, Piyadasa, will be contesting him.

'It's a shame we have no vote,' Bothalay says, throwing a pebble into the water. 'Both of them would have come after us.' Paduma lies on the rock looking at the fluffy white clouds drifting across the sky.

'If you had a vote,' he asks. 'Which of them would you give it to?'
'Both are stinkers,' Mahi replies. 'I won't vote for either one.
'Can't we help one of them?' Paduma asks dreamily. 'He'll pay us, won't he?'
The other two sit up and look at Paduma, both hope and doubt in their expressions.

'Who will give us work?' Bothalay asks doubtfully. 'Both wives are equally poisonous.'
Paduma thinks about it. Ranbanda is married to Misilin while Piyadasa's wife is Sita. The two women are sisters, and fierce rivals. The boys are not popular with either family.

'During election time they'll take anyone,' Paduma announces. 'Let's support Ranbanda.'
Paduma leads the way to Ranbanda's house. Mahi, walking nervously behind him, says: 'If Saro is at home, she'll chase us away. Won't even give us lime cordial drink.'

Paduma knows this is true, for their classmate Saro is the daughter of Ranbanda and Misilin. He hesitates but then shrugs his shoulders and marches on. They climb the stile at the entrance. A large field planted with groundnut lies between the road and the house.

The boys stop to admire a life-like scarecrow Ranbanda has made to frighten parakeets and other birds away. The body has been made with sacks stuffed with straw. A ragged shirt covers the upper body and a sarong is tied at the waist with coir rope. The head is an inverted clay pot with demon-like features neatly painted on it. The features are twisted in a fiendish grin.

The boys have never seen such a realistic scarecrow before. Nor, it seems, have the birds, for there are no parakeets or pigeons to be seen.
Saro pounces on them as they step into the veranda.
'What are you fellows doing here?' she demands bossily. 'We are busy. Go away.'

'We have come to help uncle,' Paduma says. His tone is lofty. 'Tell him we are here.'
'What? Are you mad? Better for us to hire buffalos than you.'
Before Paduma can think of a suitable reply he hears a voice from within the house.

'Who is it, daughter? Who has come?'
'It's that rascal Paduma and his friends. They want to help in the election,' Saro says with a nasty laugh. 'Don't worry, I'll chase them away.'
'No. No,' Ranbanda says, coming out of the house. 'If they have come to help, I have just the job for them.'

Paduma is pleased to see that Ranbanda has a kindly smile on his face as he greets them, something they have not seen before. Clearly they have selected the right candidate to support.

Paduma is swelling with pride as he leads his team, a roll of posters under his arm. Bothalay follows with a tin of pappa, (glue made by mixing wheat flour with hot water). Mahi Bada brings up the rear carrying a wooden stool.
They stop near the school gate; Paduma has a good look to make sure that no one is watching. At his signal Mahi plants the stool near the gatepost; Bothalay climbs up and, with one practiced sweep, applies a layer of pappa across the surface. As he hops off, Paduma climbs up and, taking a poster from the roll under his arm, slaps it on.

Govi Samithiyata Ranbanda dinawamu.
Lets elect Ranbanda to the Farmer's Union.
Ranbanda has given them a large stock of posters and it takes them two days to complete the job; but when they do, every available space in the village has been plastered with Ranbanda's poster. The boys wave jauntily at the scarecrow when they walk down the path to Ranbanda's house.
Saro doesn't actually smile when she sees them, but she doesn't frown either. She tells her father that he has visitors; this time Ranbanda has no kindly smile for them.

'Did you do the job properly?' he asks. 'Did you paste all the posters?
'Yes uncle.'
'Hm. Then you can go.'

'Uncle, aren't you going to give us something for our trouble?' Paduma asks.
'Give you money? Are you mad?' Ranbanda shouts. 'Go away.'
Ranbanda's treachery leaves Paduma speechless. The boys seek refuge by the wäwa, the hidden shelf on the rock where they try to recover from the shock.

'We should have talked about the money before we did the job,' Mahi says as he looks reproachfully at Paduma. 'My ammi says you must always agree on the price first, before starting business.'

'What does your ammi know about elections?' Paduma demands loftily. 'We expected Ranbanda to be honourable …'
'But he's a rogue,' Bothalay says. 'I hope he loses the election. He doesn't deserve to win.'

'Do you think we can make him lose?' Paduma asks softly, turning his head.
'What do you mean?' Bothalay replies. 'How can we make him lose?'
'We can go and work for Piyadasa.'

Piyadasa lives in a tiled house at the far end of the village. Although, like Ranbanda, he also is a paddy farmer, his main cultivation is sugarcane.
He is just leaving the house when the boys meet him in his compound. He is older than Ranbanda, wiry and tall with an egg-bald head. His most prominent feature is an enormous, bent nose like an eagle's beak.
'What do you want?' he demands roughly. 'I've told you rascals not to come here.'

'But, mama, we have come to help you,' Paduma says in a pained tone. 'We have seen Ranbanda mama's posters all over the village. We don't want him to win.'

'So? What can you fellows do to help?' Piyadasa asks scornfully. 'You don't even have a vote and your parents will never listen to you.'
'We can paste posters for you,' Paduma says. 'We will remove all Ranbanda mama's posters and paste your ones in their place. Everyone will vote for you.'

Piyadasa stares at them for a moment, then shrugs and goes back to the house.

They are on the road once again. This time Paduma carried the stool and uses it to climb up and rip off Ranbanda's posters. Bothalay then holds up the tin of pappa while Mahi passes up the poster with a picture of Piyadasa.
They are pulling a poster off the wall of Josa's shop when they hear a roar of anger behind them. They turn fearfully to find a furious Ranbanda standing there with his mouth open. Before they can move, Paduma feels rough fingers grasp him by the neck. Ranbanda catches Bothalay in his other hand while Mahi hugs the roll of posters to his chest, too frightened to move.

'Listen to me, you rotten little traitors,' Ranbanda hisses, shaking each of them in turn. 'If I find even one more of my posters removed, I will catch you and I will skin you. Do you understand?'

Paduma, standing on his toes, tries to speak but the words won't come out. Ranbanda shakes them once more and releases them.
'Remember,' he snarls, as he turns away. 'Even one more and you'll be sorry.'

The boys walk sadly along the footpath by the wäwa.
'What are we going to do?' Mahi asks. 'There are no more places to paste Piyadasa's posters. We'll have to go and tell him.'

'No. No. He'll whack us for sure,' Bothalay says. 'Let's pull down some of Ranbanda mama's posters. He won't remember all the places.'
'That won't do. Saro will find out and sneak to her father, then we'll get it.' Paduma says. 'Anyway Piyadasa expects to see his poster all over the village. How can we do that without pulling all Randbanda mama's posters down?'

They hear the lowing of buffalo. A moment later they see the first Martin aiya's herd come round a bend in the road, a few animals at first and then a grey mass of calves and cows, followed by old Martin keeping order at the back.

It is when the bellowing animals are passing them that Paduma has his great idea.
Paduma's sister Kanthi is laughing when she tells him that Sita, Piyadasa's wife, is searching for him with an ilapatha in her hand. An Ilapatha is a handleless ekel broom generally used for dirty work such as cleaning the toilet.

'Why? What does she want?' Paduma asks.
He is puzzled, for he had thought that Piyadasa and his wife would be pleased with his ingenuity. He had been dreaming of the rewards that Piyadasa would shower on him. He has no time to think this out for as he leaves the house and steps on to the road he comes face to face with a stormy-faced Sita.

'You - you monster!' she screams as she runs towards the petrified Paduma. 'How dare you do such a thing? Piyadasa will lose the election now.'
She grasps Paduma by his ear.

'But nända, we thought you'll be happy. Everyone in the village has seen the posters,' Paduma exclaims, standing on tiptoe and bending his head to ease the pain. 'You pasted the posters on the backs of buffalos. Everyone is laughing at us.'

'Nända, does that mean Piyadasa mama won't pay us for our work? It was very hard.'
'Pay you? I'll give you payment.'
Sita swings the ilapatha in her fury. Paduma howls and struggles free. He runs to the wäwa where his friends are waiting.

'Piyadasa's family is worse than Ranbanda's,' he complains bitterly to his friends. 'Not only won't they pay us, Sita nända whacked me with an ilapatha.'

'But everyone in the village came out to see the Piyadasa mama's posters on the buffalos,' Mahi says. 'It was far better than pasting it on coconut trees and walls.'

'She says people are laughing at them,' Paduma replies, 'as if that is our fault. We did the work; they should pay us.'
'Let's go and cut some sugar cane from his field,' Bothalay says. 'It's only fair when he refuses to pay us.'

Paduma's eyes light up. Piyadasa's sugarcane field is well protected with a heavy barbed wire fence to prevent animals from the forest getting in. The only entrance is secured with a locked gate.

But the boys know a way in by jumping off an overhanging branch of a kottang tree by the fence …
The have cut and tied a bundle of succulent stems and are about to carry it away when Bothalay nearly steps on the pig trap. Paduma studies the wickedly serrated teeth of the trap with rising fury.

'Look at that,' he says. 'Piyadasa knows that boys from the village might creep in to steal a few stalks of sugarcane. Still he puts a dangerous trap like that.'

'If some boy's foot is caught in that, hospital for sure,' Mahi says.
'What can we do to teach him a lesson?' Bothalay asks.
He looks at Paduma.

The bundle of sugarcane is safely hidden near the wäwa. The boys creep up to the fence and look back at their handiwork with deep satisfaction. Ranbanda's lifelike scarecrow stands in the middle of Piyadasa's field. The stick Ranbanda has used to build the dummy is held firmly in the jaws of the pig trap. The scarecrow seems to be screaming in pain.

'What will Ranbanda say when he finds his pambaya here?' Mahi asks.
'And Piyadasa, what will he say to Ranbanda when he finds his sugarcane missing?' Paduma asks. 'Adi pudi for sure.'

Back to Mirror Magazine