“Let my hair down and enjoy life.” Sherin muttered softly to herself.
“But, will I be allowed to let my hair down and enjoy life as it comes?” A big question loomed before her.

Sherin stopped combing her lengthy dark hair for a while. The dark, thick curls of hair floated down her back like a black jet of flash flood. Every week on a Friday morning, Sherin dried her locks of hair in the morning sunlight. Her hands gently stroke down and relieved the knots on the hair.

The warm morning sunlight bathed her hair with fondness and caressed down her neck with love. Sherin stood there relaxed as the walls hid her from the ogling eyes of strangers who admired her hair at the first instance of their meeting. Her mother helped Sherin to take the utmost care to nourish the hair with homemade oil.
For preparing the oil, she dried fresh hibiscus flowers, fresh leaves of henna, fresh vetiver grass, and yellow karisalankanni keerai or greens. Then she broke them hoarsely in the grinding stone. She poured the coconut oil in a clean bottle and added a few spoons of the hoarsely ground powder. For more than fifteen days, she kept the bottle in the sun till the colour of the oil changed. Sherin applied this homemade oil only.

For washing her hair, she used the home made shikkakai powder that was ground into a smooth powder. Sometimes her mother soaked the fresh shikkakai pods overnight in the water and made a thick paste out of them in the grinding stone. Taking the head bath with this shikkakai paste, helped her body to cool and her skin glowed.

‘Do I look like Rapunzel?’ Sherin questioned herself one day. ‘Just like her locked away in a castle, am I also hidden away from the world?’ She desperately wanted to break out of her loneliness and come out. Yet, she could not do so, knowing well that women in her family stayed inside, and, were always escorted by the male members when going out of home. Without any one to escort, she could not think about going even to a nearby temple.

After graduation, she did not have the liberty to go out. When she went to the college she had the breathing space and it was really an escape from the four walled prison named home. But, after college, her parents were not interested in sending her for any kind of jobs. Getting her married was the only thought they had in their mind. When it took more than two years to find a suitable alliance for her, Sherin felt locked inside a place hidden from the eyes of the world.

The high walls around her house separated her from the world. The barbed wire fence lined with trees protected their sprawling land from others. Once inside the house, she is shut from the entire world. Only a radio connected her to the outside world.

Television had not yet come into her place of living. Reading daily newspaper somehow helped her to know what was happening around her. But she had to wait patiently for the morning 11 am ding dong from the clock at her neighbour’s house and then, walking over to her neighbour, request politely for her permission to read the English newspaper.

The touch of the newspaper sent a spark through her. The fresh print smell of the paper was inviting and she quickly went through the newspaper glancing for any important news that caught her attention. Apart from the newspaper, she listened to the radio starting from morning 5:45 am.

Even before the announcer switched on the mike to air the daily programmes, she would switch on her radio. The programmes started with ‘Vante mataram’, the national song of India. She always loved to listen to Vande Mataram in the morning as it evoked a sense of patriotism within her. Next, she loved the voice of her favourite announcer who greeted ‘good morning’ in his manly voice. Sherin even started to believe, if she heard his greeting in the morning, the day would be good for her.

“Sherin, what are doing out in the mist?” her mother called out to her.
“Brushing my teeth, Ma,” Sherin replied back.
“Get inside. It is so chill outside, you may catch cold.” Sherin’s mother called her again.

Sherin loved bird watching in the morning. But to her disappointment she could watch only crows. She had read about hundreds of birds. Yet, she was lucky to watch only crows, some mynahs, pigeons, sparrows and drongos.
Sometimes during afternoons, she sat under the pomegranate tree and scribbled her poems; she watched tiny birds like the humming bird that drank nectar from the flowers on the pomegranate tree. She could hear them, but could not spot them in between the thick branches of the pomegranate tree.

When the evening set in, Sherin watched rows and rows of cranes flying toward their nests. It was a treat to watch them flying high up in the sky.
“I wish I could be a bird. Then I can fly around the world and reach anywhere I wish.” Sherin’s thoughts took her high up in the sky. She could not spot the hooting owls at night. They would fly across the dark curtain of night in a second.  She could not tell when she will get the real freedom.
Sometimes she saw the beady eyes of bandicoots that ran stealthily along the compound wall. Her mother would yell at her to come inside as it was past 11 in the night. Still, Sherin loved to linger in the dark and listen to the peculiar noises of the night. 

She loved to think something that may or may not come true. In her heart, she listened to the rustling sound of the silk dhoti from the dark. The slow steps reached her and she willingly let those strong hands to lock her in a tight embrace. She inhaled with love the natural masculine aroma that tickled her love nerves to expect more.
‘Are these birds lucky to find their mates during the breeding season?’ Sherin thought.
‘They need not ask the permission from their parents to choose their mates.’ Sherin’s thoughts went on wild.
Sherin admired pigeons and sparrows for they had life time partners. While other birds changed their partners every breeding season, most of the pigeons and sparrows lived with their selected partners throughout their life time.

Sherin sat in the chair reading her book. There was not much of sound around her as it was around 10 pm in the night. She did not want to disturb her parents and others sleeping inside the house. Sherin could hear the soft rustle of the moonjuru (a particular type of mouse) and it moved swiftly squeaking its way. An unbearable stench crossed her nose as the mouse ran under her chair. People never hit that kind of mouse as it was considered as the vahanam or vehicle of Lord Vinayaga, a Hindu god. Sherin knew that those kinds of mouse are considered as treat by the snakes, and so she lifted her legs and sat in a squatted position on the chair.

Another thirty minutes went away in reading. Sherin suddenly felt something pulling her hair from behind. She took her long plaited hair and brought it to the front. The long plait stayed on her left shoulder for a while, but it slowly went back again. Sherin once again pulled it to the front. Sherin closed her book and looked around her. No one was there. She could hear the soft rumble of the fan blades from her home. The window doors were open wide and she could see the dim light of the night lamp on the wall.
‘Come inside. It is too late.’ Her mother called her again. ‘If you are not coming inside now, I am going to lock the door.’
‘Coming, coming’ Sherin jumped down from the chair and ran toward the stairs. She entered the house and closed the doors loudly.
‘Idiot, close the doors without making any noise.’ Sherin ignored her mother and lied down on her bed.
Sherin panted heavily. She could hear her heart pounding loudly.
She could feel two invisible eyes constantly looking at her and disturbed her sub-conscious mind. Unknown excitement caught her. She had ever felt so and could not tell why she felt like that. The same type of excitement she saw in her friend last week during marriage. Sherin teased her friend along with others.

More than ten days went away, Sherin avoided sitting alone in the dark. One day while she was deep asleep, she heard a tap at the doors of the window. Initially she thought it was because of the rough wind outside. But no one in the family heard the sound except her. She nervously looked at the window. Suddenly the hook on the window came out and the doors opened wide. Sherin could feel the rush of cold air through the window. The cold air landed directly on her bed, and it spread across her making her feel the warmth of a person who is alive. Sherin wanted to scream, but something got stuck inside her throat and no voice came out of her mouth. The tongue stuck and her jaws trembled with unknown fear.

"It is me." Someone whisphered into her ear. Sherin opened her eyes wide and looked around. She did not see anyone in the dark. But she could feel the presence of someone and the husky aroma that lingered around her told the presence of a male person. As if in a dream, Sherin gave herself to the invisible power. Sherin closed her eyes and started to enjoy those intimate moments.

The next day dawned as usual. But Sherin did not get up at her usual time. Around half past eight, her mother woke her up. Sherin's face was swollen and red with high temperature. Her mother touched her forehead and was shocked to feel the high temperature. Sherin's dad took her to the doctor immediately.

The doctor prescribed some medicines and the temperature came back to normal. Yet, Sherin felt so weak and she could not get up from her bed.

Worried her mother took her to the local temple. The old lady who was sitting near the sanctum of the temple called Sherin to come to her.

She asked Sherin to sit before her. She meditated for a while and took the bunch of neam leaves that she kept near her. After circling the neem leaves three times around her, she started to talk.

"Now things will be good. A hairy fairy gazed on her." Sherin looked at her confused. She had heard about fairies and what is this hairy fairy.

"Don't doubt what I am telling you. Don't sit outside late night. Otherwise this hairy fairy will take you along with it." She went on narrating incidents that happened around their place.

Sherin's mother was too good to believe all these things. When she took home Sherin, she did not fail to nail down some bunch of neem leaves at the doorstep to keep away the hairy fairy. Sherin did not know if she has to laugh or cry. One thing she knew, still time has not come for her fairy to relieve her from the invisible virgin life.