The Vendor of Sweets

Jagan, anxious and preoccupied, goes through his workday in a daze. While he counts his cash, he internally compares his inability to understand Mali to the warrior Arjuna’s inability to comprehend the entirety of God in the Bhagavad Gita—though he knows the comparison is rather sacrilegious.

That evening, sitting on a colonial statue pedestal near his house, Jagan recalls traveling to a village called Kuppam to meet a possible bride suggested to him by older family members. In a flashback, Jagan’s older brother comes along as a chaperone on the trip. When they arrive at the possible bride’s house, her family greets him in an outer area of the house and asks Jagan polite questions about his journey while Jagan tries to cultivate the quiet mystique appropriate to a bridegroom. The whole time, Jagan looks around trying to get a glimpse of the possible bride, of whom he has only seen a poor-quality photograph.

When the possible bride’s family serves food, Jagan wants to eat it all—he hasn’t yet given up salt and sugar—but his brother gives him a stern look, so Jagan eats little, pretending that he is only eating out of courtesy to his hosts. Afterward, his possible mother-in-law invites the party into the house proper. Jagan knows he shouldn’t act too eager to see his possible bride—he has ruined four previous visits to possible brides by staring at the girls, hence his older brother’s presence as a chaperone on this trip. Yet he feels impatient. 

The party sits in the home’s central hall. Jagan hears a harmonium playing and a rather deep woman’s voice—Ambika’s—singing inside. Then, after several people urge the shy Ambika to emerge, she does—only for Jagan, vision “clouded with a happy haze,” to miss most details of her appearance. Yet she shoots him a “lightning glance” that makes his heart race. Then, abruptly, the visit ends.

As Jagan and his brother begin their journey home, Jagan is thoughtful and silent. At the rail station, Jagan admits he likes Ambika, and his brother says he hopes Jagan hasn’t been “a fool” and hasn’t “cheapened” himself by saying as much to her relatives. Jagan assures his brother that he hasn’t—though he was longing to exchange another look of love with Ambika before he left.

Jagan and his brother get back to Malgudi early the next morning. Soon the whole family is involved in cementing plans for Jagan and Ambika’s wedding. Jagan’s father writes to various older relatives to get their consent; after getting their consent, he consults with Jagan’s mother. Jagan—who as the involved party isn’t supposed to show interest—hears tidbits about how things are proceeding from his sister. When she tells him that Ambika’s family wants the wedding in September, Jagan is shocked and nervous to think that he could be a husband in three months.

Finally, Jagan’s father sends a letter approving the marriage to Ambika’s family. A multitude of letters pass between the families—and then, one night, Ambika’s family arrives, as do priests, relatives, and neighbors. An elderly priest reads a painstakingly prepared wedding notice stating that “Jagannath” will marrying Ambika on September 10th. Ambika’s father gives Jagan’s father a dowry of $2,500 rupees and politely insists that Jagan’s older brother counts it to make sure the sum is correct. Then the whole assembly has an enormous meal together. Jagan is shocked that so many people are celebrating.

September approaches. Jagan’s father tells him to take time off college to help with the preparations. Jagan is fitted for a tweed suit, though he’d rather wear a dhoti and jibba, while his mother goes to buy saris for Ambika and other members of the wedding party at Universal Saree Emporium. Meanwhile, Jagan’s father tries to make sure that everyone “remotely connected” with Jagan is invited, not forgotten.

Ultimately, 3,000 people are invited to Jagan and Ambika’s wedding, which takes place in Kuppam. Jagan feels that he spends the whole celebration greeting various people, though in fact he and Ambika also go through a series of sacred rituals, and the “sacred thali” that Ambika is wearing makes him feel a tremendous sense of duty. He longs to be alone with her, but people keep dragging him back to his guests when he tries to snatch a moment with her.

There are two unfortunate incidents during the wedding. First, a highly respected 75-year-old relative of Jagan’s is accidentally seated with the children—but Ambika’s father apologizes and is forgiven. Second, the “gold waist-belt” in the list of jewelry that Ambika’s family was supposed to leave with their daughter turns out not to be solid gold but a mix of gold bars and silk cords. When Jagan tries to defend Ambika, he is called “hen-pecked” and “obsessed.”

After the marriage, Jagan and Ambika get a room in the middle of the family house. Jagan spends all the time he can having sex with her, neglecting his classes and failing his exams, until Jagan’s father suggests they send Ambika back to her family for several months while Jagan gets his degree. Ambika, meanwhile, points out that she has household duties and can’t spend all her time with Jagan. Various family members comment on how Jagan is only interested in spending time with her, not anyone else.

Yet after almost 10 years of marriage, Jagan and Ambika still have not had a child—and meanwhile, Jagan has failed to get his B.A. Jagan’s older brother moves with his family to their own house, while Jagan’s sister gets married and moves to her husband’s house. Jagan’s mother begins to complain that the house is empty, and that Ambika is not providing grandchildren. Alone in their room, Jagan jokingly suggests that Ambika should pretend that she has stopped getting her period—but of course, he’s joking, as menstruating women have to self-isolate in an “orthodox household with all the pujas and the Gods.”

Ambika argues that the infertility doesn’t come from her family, as all her sisters have had children. Jagan, stung, argues that his family is very prolific too. The couple, frustrated, starts having less sex, and Jagan takes to sleeping out on the veranda. Yet Ambika herself very much wants a child and begins mocking Jagan for sleeping outside.

One morning, Jagan’s father abruptly announces that Jagan and Ambika will be traveling to a temple on Badri Hill with him the following week. He tells Jagan to take several days off college. When Jagan asks why, his father says the temple cures barren women. Jagan wants to defend Ambika but feels unable to talk about her family’s fertility to his father. He has recently started trying to study harder to at least keep his family from blaming her for his educational failures. Yet when Jagan asks his father whether they can postpone the Badri Hill trip until after his exams, his father refuses, saying they have to make the trip before the rains come and prevent it.

On the appointed day, Ambika, Jagan, and Jagan’s parents take a bus to the base of Badri Hill. Jagan has to sit with his father, who looks like “someone going out to negotiate a contract,” while Ambika has to sit with Jagan’s mother. The bus is overfull and very loud; Jagan, seeing that the chaotic atmosphere is wearing Ambika down, wishes that he could sit with her and tease her—though even after years of marriage, he can’t anticipate whether she would tease back good-humoredly or snap at him. A couple weeks ago, when Jagan’s mother criticized Ambika for oversalting a sauce, Ambika snapped, hid in her room, and refused to eat. Since then, Jagan’s mother has refrained from criticizing Ambika too much.

When Ambika, Jagan, and Jagan’s parents disembark from the bus, Jagan’s father goes to buy food from a coconut-seller and complains about the inflated tourist prices. Jagan wishes he could tell his parents that they have sufficient grandchildren and so can leave him alone, but he doesn’t. The coconut-seller tells Jagan’s father not to whine about the price—he’ll be compensated with a grandson soon. And sure enough, Mali is born, after which the family delivers offerings to Badri Hill to fulfill the oath they made.

Ambika goes with Mali to visit her own parents, who give her many gifts and hold a feast in honor of her first-born child. Her father and Jagan’s father agree to start a savings account for Mali, and Ambika and Jagan feel proud and happy to be parents.