The ‘crazy’ woman under the temple car

 

It was a town known for its Krishna temple going by another name of the lord. The much renowned temple and its large tank drew devotees all through the year. There were a number of small shops on the front side of the temple selling different things.

This story is not about the temple or the lord housed in its precincts but about a ‘crazy’ woman in her 60’s clad in a faded frock who lived under the temple car(chariot) for years. No one knew exactly how she came to live under the temple car or where she hailed from. She was short, olive-skinned with a flat nose and slanted eyes. Possibly she hailed from some Eastern country but people assumed it was Burma.

The young kids must have troubled her in the initial stages by making faces, throwing stones or crowding around her that must have made her cross and ill-tempered. This grouchy temperament must have fetched her the name ‘crazy’. She was otherwise harmless, good-natured and kept away from others. There were unfounded stories about her, that she bathed in the temple tank daily in the middle of the night and that she stood with folded arms at the temple gate looking towards the sanctum sanctorum after the bath. But it was a fact that one Venkatesan, a kindly shop-keeper whose shop was close to the temple car gave her the left-over food after his lunch.  A few of the many pilgrims who came to the temple threw fruits, biscuits, water bottles and coins before her.

Be that as it may, there was an aged resident in one of the houses adjacent to the temple and close to the tank. He was living alone and having his food daily from a hotel adjacent to his house. A quiet man, who wore his dhoti cross-legged in traditional manner and sported the namam prominently on his face, was known for his daily regimen of visiting the temple twice a day and for his religious pursuits. He must have been a man of means as he donated liberally to the temple causes like feeding the poor during festival days. He never mingled much with others.

It was one early morning that some passer-by found his door ajar with a blood-soaked towel lying near the front door. His shouts gathered a few people and a policeman who were standing at the front of the temple. The policeman warned the people from entering the house lest they disturb the evidence and gingerly went inside alone. The body of the old man was found in the front room adjacent to the main door. He had been hit several times by a wooden log from behind with no evidence of a fight, suggesting that the visitor was a known acquaintance.

Enquiries by the police started after a case was registered for homicide. There were no clues left behind except the blood-soaked wooden log. The police dog pursued the trail of the accused only up to the bottom step of the tank. Two months passed by without any progress in the case. It was one hot mid-day, when the policeman in mufti who kept a vigil on the house from temple side stepped into Venkatesan’s shop adjacent to the temple car to sit under a fan and have a glass of cool water. After the initial pleasantries, the conversation led to the murder case that was at a dead end.

The policeman expressed surprise that no one from the shops or the people who were present at the temple's large mandap(portico) had seen on that fateful day anyone entering the house that was clearly visible. He wondered how the case can be resolved unless someone gave a lead.

The conversation led to the crazy woman under the temple car. “Do you think the old woman can throw some light as I have heard that she remains awake and takes bath in the​​ middle of night in the tank,” asked the policeman.

“It is all hearsay about her remaining awake and praying to god at midnight after bath. No one ever talked to her to find out whether she is cogent and normal. I do not think anything useful will come out of her,” replied Venkatesan and added as an afterthought,” People call her crazy for years and I doubt whether her testimony would hold any good.” The policeman did not pursue the conversation thereafter.

Venkatesan surprised the woman by taking the food himself that afternoon instead of his assistant who usually did, He dissuaded her who tried to stand up and sat on a stone by her side. “I think you know our language as you have been here for many years. You must have known that the aged man who was living adjacent to the hotel had been killed. Do you remember him?”

“Are you referring to this old man?” she replied by putting her finger on her forehead and showing the namam shape.

“Yes, the very same man. Tell me what all you know,” he prompted her.

“Oh, oh, was he the one who was killed? I suspected when many policemen visited his house and he was not seen thereafter. Keep it to yourself and do not tell anyone lest some harm befalls you. I have seen one stout man, who was also tall with a steel bracelet on his right hand and a long mustache hanging on both ends, visited him frequently. He used to come sometimes in a small red car with someone else driving the car. I have seen him accosting the old man when he came out of the temple after his daily visit some days. I have not seen him for some months and do not remember to have seen him that day,” she spoke clearly indicating no craziness as her prefix suggested.

“Did you see anybody else on that fateful day at the house of ​the ​aged man?”

The ‘crazy’ woman looked at Venkatesan for long without saying anything which prompted Venkatesan to ask again, “You have not answered my question. Did you see anyone else?”

“I do not remember,” she replied. This time Venkatesan looked searchingly at her eyes for long before he got up and left.

The vigil by police was intense with constables stationed on all the streets around the temple. A week later they found a tall stout man with the bracelet and drooping mustache peeping at the house from a red Maruti wagon. The police nabbed him and took him to the police station. On enquiry, it was revealed that he was looking after the lands of the aged man in a nearby village for several years and met him whenever he came to the town. This was corroborated by the village authorities. Being an unlettered man, it appeared that he had asked the village authorities to file a complaint with the police about the murder.

Left with no other lead to investigate, the inspector decided to meet the woman under the temple car.

“Do not be afraid. I have come to seek your help. The tall man who came in the red car was in fact supervising the old man’s land at the village and visited him often in that connection. He is in the clear. Think carefully and tell me truthfully whether you saw any other man on that night the aged man was murdered. We cannot let an innocent man’s murder to go unresolved and the perpetrator to go free unpunished.”

The ‘crazy’ woman kept quiet for a long​ time​. Pressed repeatedly, she said, “I am sorry I cannot tell you. You find yourself.”

Further enquiries revealed from other shopkeepers revealed that Venkatesan wanted to expand his store and was persuading the aged man to sell his house or let out the front portion of his house for opening a brass and stainless-steel vessel store and that the aged man was unwilling. This led the police to contact the tall stout man who was supervising the lands and learn that the aged man had mentioned that he was being intimidated by the shopkeeper.

When the inspector again questioned the woman whether she knew about the meetings between the shopkeeper and the aged man, she refused to answer. Warned in a stentorian voice with authority and a threat that she would be taken to police station if she did not reply properly, she buckled under pressure and said, “How can I betray my benefactor who had fed me for years?”.

After some initial resistance, Venkatesan after the usual treatment in police custody confessed to the crime but pleaded in extenuation that he was in a drunken state when he was slapped by the old man.

Though I would not like to injure the felicity of the readers, I am compelled to disclose that there was a brutal attack on the old woman the same night by some unknown assailant but luckily it was not fatal.