The Covenant of Water

It is 1943, and much of the world is immersed in war. Philipose is set to go to college—if they can find a tailor with enough time to make him a uniform. The child he saved later died of a different disease, and Philipose is heartily against entering any medical profession. His vocation seems to be in literature. On the train to college, Philipose and his escort, Uplift Master, witness a battalion of troops headed to Burma, where the Japanese are encroaching. While Parambil is far from the front lines, the sight reminds them of the conflagration that currently engulfs the world. The entire village is proud that Philipose will represent them as the first person to receive a college degree.

Meanwhile, Uplift Master undergoes some personal problems with his wife. With her newfound Christian devotion, she is no longer interested in sex, and he is “stung by words that were not foreplay, but no-play” (306). He decides to leave it to her to initiate any further relations and realizes almost immediately that there will be no further intimacy. Instead, he finds solace in alcohol.

Philipose is on the train to Madras and college; he is overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the journey. Once he makes it to college, he is hazed by upper classmen. Placed in one of the upper rows of the lecture hall, he struggles to hear the professor. He is told that his hearing impairment may prevent his continuing studies. He is slated to see a specialist to determine the extent of his impairment.

The specialist assesses Philipose’s hearing capacity and diagnoses him with “nerve deafness”; there is nothing that can be done (316). While Philipose is certainly disheartened by this assessment, he is also somewhat relieved; he knows that Parambil is where he is meant to be. He packs his belongings and determines to return home. His only deep disappointment is that he had once dreamed of following in the footsteps of his literary hero, Ishmael, from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. It seems that this kind of adventure is not in Philipose’s future. Instead, he will take comfort in the knowledge that the novels he loves will take him anywhere he wishes to go. With the money left over from his tuition, Philipose purchases a handful of classic texts—Miguel de Cervantes and Charles Dickens among them—and the proprietor of the shop gives him a couple of volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

On the train, Philipose becomes acquainted with his fellow travelers, including a young woman whom a fellow passenger calls Young Miss. Together, they try the snuff offered by another traveler, and Philipose is struck by Young Miss’s strong hands and low-timbered voice. He is delighted to discover that she knows Moby-Dick as well as he does. She does a portrait of him that Philipose believes captures him exactly, and she leaves him a note with a quotation from that favorite novel. He finally realizes that Young Miss is actually Elsie, Chandy’s daughter who once took his hand in the Chevrolet, and he dreams of the day when he will be worthy enough to ask to marry her.

Philipose finds Parambil in disorder, though he leaves Madras just in time: The Japanese forces bomb the city soon after he departs. The headlines reach Big Ammachi before Philipose does, and she is panicked. Baby Mol, however, senses that Philipose is coming home. For his part, Philipose is happy to be home, shocked at the news of the bombing, about which he knew nothing, and dreaming of Elsie.

After the bombing in Madras, there is a crisis in the food supply. Philipose decides to give food to the needy, but he must do so with discretion to prevent the estate from being overrun. The estate manager, Kora, teases Philipose about bringing a radio back with him when there is no electricity to make the radio work. Kora drinks too much, but his wife, Lizzi, is well-liked by everyone. Kora’s joke falls flat; it makes Philipose feel guilty for spending money on the radio when there are so many in need. He and Uplift Master open a food pantry, the “Feeding Center,” which helps to feed the hungry people of Parambil. Philipose begins to write about these experiences; he calls the output his “Unfictions” (342) and submits them to a local magazine for a competition. After winning first prize, he decides that a profession as a journalist suits him. He fervently hopes Elsie has seen his article.

A year after his return to Parambil, Philipose publishes a few articles in the local magazine “under the heading ‘The Ordinary Man Column’” (344). One of his pieces draws the ire of a clerical workers’ union, and this gives cause for a reunion between Joppan and Philipose. Joppan is proud of his friend, calling him a real Communist; however, he notes that the plight of the pulayar will continue unabated until there are some fundamental changes to Indian society.

Meanwhile, Uplift Master’s campaign to bring electricity to Parambil finally succeeds, and Philipose can at last listen to his radio. Shortly thereafter, Philipose decides that he is in a position to approach Elsie: “‘Ammachi,’ he says, ‘I want you to send for Broker Aniyan. I’m ready’” (348). A marriage broker is required to make the arrangement.

The marriage broker comes to Thetanatt, and an arrangement is attempted. Everyone involved—Big Ammachi and Chandy included—is taken aback by Philipose’s desire to speak to Elsie alone. First, Big Ammachi is concerned about the Condition; she tells Philipose that he must tell Elsie everything about the family legacy if he is to marry her. Second, cousin Odat Kochamma is shocked. Philipose need only to show up at the wedding; he does not need to speak to or see Elsie beforehand. But Philipose insists on seeing Elsie, and they speak in English with each other, a language nobody else in the room understands.

He asks Elsie if this marriage is what she wants. Philipose does not want to marry her if she does not want to wed. She asks Philipose if he will respect her desire to be an artist, and she notes that he is an artist, too—a writer. If he can do that, then she will happily marry him. The deal is brokered.

World War II is nearly over, and the relationship between the British colonizers and the Indians has changed. Philipose believes the British Raj is coming to an end, just as he embarks on a new beginning. At the wedding between Philipose and Elsie, Philipose tries to embrace Shamuel, whom he thinks of as a father. The embrace shocks and secretly delights the old man, as it is not correct for the estate master to touch an untouchable.

The union between Philipose and Elsie begins happily, and the physical chemistry between the two is undeniable. Elsie tells Philipose that she feels safe with him. The only request she has is that Philipose cut down the jackfruit tree that stands outside their bedroom window. It blocks the view beyond. Philipose believes the tree has “watched over him in his sleep ever since he was a boy,” so he is not entirely willing to grant her request (366).

Philipose balks at Elsie’s request to cut down the jackfruit tree. It is the first sign of trouble between them. In addition, Elsie’s output of visual art outpaces Philipose’s writing. He cannot keep up with her.

On the other hand, “Big Ammachi is smitten with her daughter-in-law” (370). Elsie also becomes friends with Lizzi, the estate manager’s wife. This friendship ends abruptly when Kora—caught forging documents—leaves the estate, and Lizzi follows him, but Elsie’s drawings of Lizzi are notable; Philipose knows that Elsie is an artist of the highest rank.

At the same time, world events drive the news; the atomic bombs have been dropped in Japan, and the war is quickly over. Elsie wants to return home to see her father and friends, perhaps travel to farther corners of the world. The thought fills Philipose with panic. He finally tries to forbid her to go, but she will not listen to his demands. Baby Mol reveals that Elsie is pregnant. While Philipose marinates in guilt, he decides to go to Elsie’s family’s estate and to have her art studio refurbished. Elsie forgives him, but with wariness.

Elsie and Philipose’s baby, Ninan, is born in 1946, in the aftermath of world war. He comes early but makes up for his prematurity with a precocious spirit. His presence allows Philipose and Elsie to reestablish the bonds of their love. However, it is clear to Big Ammachi that Ninan also has the Condition. He does not like the water.

The following year, India gains its independence from British rule. The convulsions that rock the nation in August of 1947 are violent and deadly. In Parambil, the fighting seems far away, happening mostly in the north.

A year later, Philipose discovers that Elsie has entered her drawing of Lizzi into a contest. She has won, and the drawing will be shown in Madras, but Philipose refuses to return to the city that defeated him so many years before. Meanwhile, Ninan continues to grow and thrive. Fearing water, he craves altitude, and he regularly climbs the jackfruit tree that Philipose has refused to cut down despite Elsie’s requests. Eventually, Philipose has Shamuel and his workers trim all the limbs off the tree, hoping to appease her. The monsoon season comes, and Baby Mol celebrates its arrival.

Baby Mol is now in her early 40s, though intellectually she will always be a child, just as Rune predicted. Though she celebrates the onset of the monsoon season, she quickly becomes “restless and unhappy” as it begins (397). Shortly thereafter, Philipose hears the agonizing screams of his wife and runs to the bedroom: Ninan is impaled on one of the trimmed limbs of the jackfruit tree. Philipose runs to him, pulling the child off the tree, then jumping to the ground and breaking both of his ankles in the process. Despite his broken ankles, he runs with Ninan’s lifeless body as far as he can before realizing that there is no saving him.

Shamuel cuts down the rest of the tree after the burial. Philipose blames Elsie for wanting the view not to be blocked by the tree; Elsie blames Philipose for not cutting the tree down entirely. The rage and sorrow they feel for each other cannot be healed. Elsie leaves Parambil.