One

Abstract

Gendethimma was anxious to get to Gauwally before dark but it was a good four miles away, and the afternoon was already giving way to evening. He had tramped along in the searing heat of a merciless sun, and had drifted into a deep sleep the moment he lay down for a rest under a tree by the tank weir at Gollanabeedu. Now, awake, he scrambled to his feet, and the effort of placing the basket on his head — first lifting it on to his knee, then up to his shoulder, and finally on to his head — briefly exhausted him.