My father left the country the year my sisters were born. He returned six months after I watched them drown in the Bay of Bengal. My sisters’ funeral dinner was scheduled to coincide with the day of his arrival. Some relatives came over that morning to participate in the ritual. When I got back home from school, I found them sitting crosslegged in the foyer: 15 women, the henna on each left palm drying to a russet circle of mangoes and leaves. The air tingled with excitement. And I understood. My father was here.
At dusk, we all filed into our backyard. I was still in my school uniform. We formed a circle around a priest. He read aloud a Ganesha hymn, and we chanted after him. We sat down crosslegged. In front of each of us was a banana leaf that held a heap of lemon rice surrounded by small pools of lentils, aloo-gobi, mango chutney, and yogurt. We started eating in the light of paper lanterns that ran from Ma’s window past the well to the outhouse, their amber bellies glimmering against the slowly darkening sky. The lighthouse on the banks of the Bay of Bengal swept its illuminated arm across the evening at nine-second intervals. I avoided looking at my parents. The priest stood in our midst and watched us eat. He rubbed his potbelly and grinned at anyone who made eye contact with him. I didn’t want to be grinned at, I certainly didn’t want to grin back, so I looked away from him as well.
Suddenly, Ma called out my name.
“Shagun? Where are you?” The conversations around us were suspended.
“Shagun?” she called again. The woman to my left hollered, “Your son’s here.” Ma dropped her head a little, levelled her eyes with mine, and asked, “Why won’t you respond when I call you, son?” I cupped a palm around my ear and leaned toward her. “This is your father,” Ma announced. That was how, at the age of 16, I met the man who made me. His face was owlish, his hair salt-and-pepper. He had the build of a banyan; he dwarfed Ma who sat next to him. Some guests started to clap their hands to their thighs. All their bangles jingled. Ma swept an arm my way and said to my father, “Your son. A Mathur obviously.” Laughter spilled from everyone’s mouths. And some food. The conversations around us resumed. Ma kept shaking her head to brush aside the two locks of hair that kept falling onto her forehead. He blushed when he tucked them behind her ear, and my neck went hot.
After dinner, an aunt took me up the stairs and to my father. He was sitting on my mother’s bed. I clasped my hands and stood before him with my head bowed. “Ay-hay, look at him,” she said, “feeling nervous to meet Daddy. That’s so cute.” She laughed and clapped the back of my head. She closed the door as she left. “You’re not to call me that,” my father said. My throat ached. I wanted to gulp down a bottle of water. “No Daddy-Papa business. You’ll call me Pita- jee,” he said. “Now come here.” He held my head in cupped palms. He thumbed my eyebrows, ran a knuckle down my cheek, turned me around, placed his palm on my back, turned me again. He studied me slowly, head to toe, until his little lashes met.
“Are you asleep?” I asked. “Should I go?” He laughed with his eyes closed and his shoulders shook. He picked me up, his 16-year-old, and put me on his lap. Four of his shirt buttons were open. He smelled of something pleasant and foreign. He pressed his cracked lips to my forehead, then opened his eyes. They were hazel like mine. The edges of his mouth curved downward. Downstairs, Ma and our visitors sang bhajans as they cleaned the backyard and the kitchen, their voices punctuated by the dull clang of metal pans, by the mop’s wet slurp on the floor. It was a mild October day so my uniform didn’t reek of dried perspiration; that felt like a small consolation. I leaned into my father and wrapped tentative hands around his shoulders. A hug would bring our reunion to its end, I thought, and he’d let me slip off his lap and go back to my room. Instead, he pressed me to himself. He smothered my face against the wiry hair on his chest. His stubble scraped my forehead. He scrubbed my arms ferociously. His throat, as he cleared it, rumbled against my forehead. His embrace felt less like an act of affection, more like a punishment. Punishment for what I’d done.
I panicked and pressed my forearms to his chest and tried to place some distance between my body and his. When his tight grip frustrated my attempts, I raised my head and bit his ear. He sucked in a sharp breath. With a hand on my arm he pried us apart. He nursed his ear, but discreetly. He pretended to relieve an itch. Then the power went out.
“Who’s your favourite god?” he asked, in the dark.
“What?”
“Boys should like Hanuman,” he said, placing me down. “Hanuman makes you good at cricket and maths. Did you know?” I didn’t, my silence said. “That’s why you need a father,” he said as he struck a match. “To teach you things.” He lit a candle, let me out, and closed the door. He stood at the window that faced the hallway. I watched him as I passed him by, his face streaked in shadows and candlelight.
Excerpted with permission from The Sea Elephants, Shastri Akella, Penguin India.