Wisdom of Women: Unveiling the Story of Pattumma’s Goat

Reading Time: 11 minutes

Pattumma’s Goat is one of the famous stories written by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer. Below is a detailed chapter-wise analysis of the story.

CHAPTER – 1

Basheer  begins the story by stating the title and the alternate title, Wisdom of Women.

He sets the background in the first paragraph: “After leading a lonely existence for a long time, just wandering from one place to another, I came to live in my own house in Thalayolaparambu near Vaikom, ready to lose my temper at the slightest provocation”.

He then gives a beautiful description of the home he built for himself as a solitary retreat.

Unfortunately, when he returned home after his usual wanderings, he found that his brother Abulkhadar had rented this house to an excise inspector, Sri Ramankutty. He lives there with his cook.

As it was difficult for Ramankutty to find another house in the small village, Basheer decided to stay in his family house for a while.

The doctor had advised Basheer to have a peaceful and quiet stay to regain his mental health.

Unfortunately, he was in chaos in the extended family house.

He writes, “The house is always filled with noise”.

Their house is thatched, with two rooms, a kitchen, and two verandas.

Then he gives a detailed description of the people and animals at home.

Family members: Umma (mother); his brother Abdulkhadar, his wife Kunjanumma, their children – Pathukutty, Arifa, Subaitha; next brother Muhammad Hanifa – his wife Aishomma – their children – Habib Muhammad, Laila, Muhammad Rasheed; then his sister Anumma – her husband – Sulaiman – their children – Saidu, Muhammad; the youngest brother – Abubakar (Abu).

Non-humans: Cats, rats, crows, hens, etc.

Amidst the chaos, he becomes aware of the presence of a goat. He writes – “It is a nanny goat, bran-coloured, and very active.” This is the first description of the goat in the story. 

Then he describes the goat’s everyday activities: “Very early in the morning, it comes into my house, goes into the kitchen and has its breakfast. Then it goes right inside the house, steps on the bodies of children lying asleep there and wakes them up, makes its way into the yard and starts to gobble up the jack-leaves that have fallen during the night.”

Once, while lounging in a canvas chair, he heard someone tearing paper in his room. He writes, “I looked in through the small door. That goat was standing on my bed eating a book.”

The goat ate Balyakaalasakhi and Shabdangal (his novels). It first ate a big chunk of Balyakaalasakhi, gulped shabdnagal and then started eating the blanket. Noticing it, he says, “Hey, beautiful, please don’t eat that blanket.”

At first, he was confused about whose goat it was, as it had so much freedom in the house.

He then asks his mother, “Whose is this goat?”

“It’s Pattumma’s”, – said Umma.

Pattumma, Basheer’s sister, lives nearby with her husband and daughter, Khadija.

Pattumma visits home every day with his daughter Khadija.

Pattumma told her problems to her mother, as her financial condition was deplorable.

She has full expectations of her goat; when it delivers, she can sell its milk and make money. She says, “None of you need to do anything. Just wait till my goat produces a kid. Then we’ll see!”

He describes Abubakar, his youngest brother, in this chapter. He has leftist ideologies. He wears a well-ironed dress, his hair combed neatly, and he wears a ‘chappal’ (which is a luxury); he changes his dress twice a day. Abu was staying in Basheer’s room. When Basheer came to stay in the house, he kicked him out. That room was built by Bapa (father) for the study purposes of Basheer and Abdulkhadar. Abu has made another room in the house. When Abu raised his voice, everyone in the house, including the animals, got frightened.

CHAPTER – 2

One day Pattuma’s goat ate Abi’s trousers. Obviously, everyone turned against the goat. Basheer realises it’s not the goat’s fault when he gets the whole story about the incident. Abi had kept a rice cake in his trousers’ pocket. The saddest thing was that Abi had no other dress to wear. Basheer gives his towel to him after bathing.

Abdulkhadar was a schoolmaster; he was very particular about language and its standard usage. Once, he said to his mother, “Amma enikku kodikkan kurachu shudhha jalam tharu” ( Mother, kindly give me some pure water to drink). On that occasion, Umma beat him with a spoon.

Abdulkhadar was rowdy in school. Basheer writes – “Both in school and out, Abdulkhadar was a proper rascal”. Basheer had to carry his slate and books to school even though he was older than him. He used to punch Basheer, and Basheer was afraid to punch back. One day, gaining confidence, he gave back a punch. Then, the whole situation changed. Abdulkhadar politely said – “Don’t hit me! I am your younger brother…I shall carry your slate and books.”  It was the end of his rowdyism “and from then, Abdulkhadar knew his place as a younger brother.”

While relaxing in the easy chair, Basheer noticed that group after group of girl students passing along the road looked at him diffidently. He writes – “I felt pleased. They would know who I was.”. He imagined their conversation. The schoolgirls were looking at him with romantic eyes, might be talking about him, his merits as a writer; they may come to get his autograph soon, etc.

Meanwhile,  Pattumma’s goat ate half an ana of Pathukutty, given to him by his father and was in his trousers. So pacify the boy, Basheer gives him the money and thinks he will get it from the goat’s faeces.

He then remembers an incident. Once, the headmaster of the nearby school visited him to invite him to deliver a speech. Basheer was not interested in giving talks or lectures. So, he said, “I don’t usually make speeches. Moreover, at the time, I won’t be here.” The headmaster printed his name on the notice without his consent. He remembers a girl with curly hair who came home and requested him to come for the speech. Basheer wasn’t interested, so he was forced to leave home a day early and return the next day.

One day, to his surprise, the school girls came home. He realised they did not come for an autograph but for jambu fruits (water apples). “They went straight to the foot of the jambu tree, said something to Umma and gave her something. Umma gave them a whole pile of jambu fruits. That she had tied in a cloth”. They gave one ana for the fruits to the umma. Seeing this, Basheer became furious. He had planted the jambu tree. He writes – “I am the one who planted it. And those donkeys did not even look at me!” So, he took the money from Umma to buy beedies.

Thus, he was extremely unhappy with the girls; the next day, when they came, he dealt with the situation and gave them very few jambu fruits. So the girls were disappointed with him. They said, “What’s this? They are so small! If the lady is here, she gives us big ones.”

One day, while he was enjoying a beedi after drinking tea, “a lovely dark-skinned girl around sixteen” came home. Her name was Suhasini. First, he thought the girl came for jambu fruits. But, surprisingly, she walked straight up to him and greeted him politely. She said – “I know you, sir; I have read all your books… Would you please write something in my autograph book and sign it?”. Basheer was pleased by her behaviour. So he climbed into the jambu tree and picked a lot of fruits, wrapped them up in a piece of paper and gave them to her.

In the concluding paragraph of chapter 2, he writes – “Pattumma’s goat will soon be giving birth”. When he heard the news that day, he was surprised. He never felt it was pregnant.

CHAPTER – 3

Chapter three begins with a happy note, as Pattuma’s goat is getting ready for delivery.

Basheer became more responsible towards taking care of the pregnant goat.

Later, Basheer feels that the women in the house have misjudged things; the goat is not pregnant, and its stomach is flat. He writes, “Women are the authorities on such matters. I admit. Nevertheless… with regard to pregnancy,  women had, in this case, made a big mistake!

Then, for the first time, he realises there are two goats in the house, Pattumma’s (the pregnant one) and Anumma’s. Anumma’s goat is the daughter of Pattumma’s goat. One is pregnant, and the other is not.

Pattumma tries hard to feed her goat properly during pregnancy; she goes to other places to fetch food for the pregnant goat.

Basheer then realises something about what women in the house eat on a daily basis. It was shocking for him to learn that Umma, Anumma, and Aishomma never ate rice; instead, they ate tapioca. Men in the house come during mealtime, have their portion of rice and leave; they are never bothered about what women eat or whether there is something left for them to eat. Despite this, women do all the work. This is happening in almost all houses. He writes, “This is not the case in my house alone. This is how things are in almost all middle-class homes. The women make great sacrifices; why are men unaware of this?”

The above line highlights the pathetic state of women in middle-class families. However, we could find a true feminist in Basheer here. After knowing the miserable condition of women, he writes, “Before I go, I must give all the women in the house a good square meal at least once.”

Meanwhile, we are once again led to the miseries of Pattumma.  Pattumma dreams of repairing the front door of her house, which is tied up with a rope after she gets money by selling goat’s milk.

Throughout the story, we can see Umma and his siblings requesting money from Basheer for one thing or another. Of course, Basheer gives them money, sometimes willingly and often because he has no other way.

At one point, Basheer realises he has no money left. Though he bought things for everyone at home, they always complain as if he had given nothing. This irritates him. He writes, “To tell the truth, they all just grabbed it and left me with nothing.”

As he is the one who runs the house, he has the privilege of drinking milk and having ghee as he pleases. This privilege reminds him of the affluent days of his family.

He recollects an incident that happened twenty-five years ago. Along with the timber business, his father made small country boats. He took timber from the forest and sold it at Kochi with the help of workers. The family was financially sound during that time. At home, there was sugar and ghee in big bottles. He writes, “Ghee gold in colour and of right texture.” They used to eat ghee and sugar along with snacks. In between, he remembers, he was beaten by his father, mother and even Nangeli (the maid) for mischiefs. Nangeli used to beat him even though he was Kochu Yajamanaan, the young master. She claims she can beat him because he had sucked her breast in his infancy. One day in between breakfast and lunch, Basheer was hungry. He found the sugar and ghee kept side by side in Bapa’s room. He waited for nothing; he blended sugar and ghee in a bowl and kept the bottles intact. While eating it graciously, he heard a feeble voice from behind, AbdulKhadar! Basheer had to share it with him so that no one knew about it.

Basheer narrates it like this – “Unseen by anyone l picked up a bowl, unseen by anyone I made my way to the room where Bapa slept. I slowly picked up the ghee jar and set it on Bapa’s bed. Slowly, I removed the stopper, took some ghee with my nice, clean hands and half-filled the bowl. Then I picked up the ghee jar and put it on the corner shelf. In the same way, I put a lot of sugar into the bowl… I sat on Bapa’s  bed and mixed together ghee and sugar. Then I put a little in the mouth and crunched away.”

After a few days, Abdulkhadar fell ill. Meanwhile, Basheer was beaten up every day for the loss of ghee from the bowl. Abdul got bulged day by day. No one realised that it was because he ate ghee and sugar daily. Basheer tried to convince Umma and Nangeli about the theft, but they didn’t believe him. Finally, Abdulkhadar was treated for the unknown illness behind his blotting belly, and everyone was worried about him.

Then one day, Basheer caught him red-handed. He made everyone see  Abulkhadar sitting under the bed, eating ghee and sugar from a bowl. He was beaten up for the same.

Then the story shifts to the present-day events.

Pattumma asks Basheer secretly about the earrings he promised for Khadija.

Knowing this, Anumma also demanded earrings. Basheer had already promised Anumma new kitchen utensils when she moved to her new house.

Chapter -4

The chapter begins amid an uproar and confusion – Pattmuma’s goat puts its head into a pot. However, it was resolved after a short while.

The chapter reflects everyone’s hope for Pattumma’s goat and the money they will get from selling its milk.

Finally, Pattumma’s goat delivers.

Basheer was tense about its delivery, but the women in the house were least bothered about it.

Basheer has all the concerns for the new mother and newborn.

Meanwhile, he remembers the story of Hanifa stealing five rupees from the beetle box.

Everyone in the house continuously asks Basheer for money for various reasons.

Then, the postman Kuttan Pillai comes with a money order of a hundred rupees. He understood that those who asked him for money came to know about the money order much before. So he asks Kuttan Pillai –“ Did you mention this money order to anybody?” Kuttan Pillai replies – “Sir, we all belong to these parts. I need Abdulkhadar and Hanifa for many things. They told me, sir, when a money order came for you. I was to let them know first.”

Thus, that hundred rupees was divided on that day itself. At the end of the fourth chapter, he writes, “Before the day was over, the whole lot had gone”.

CHAPTER -5

In this chapter, Basheer recollects his school days and narrates his experiences with Abulkhadar.

Adulkhadar and Basheer studied together up to the fourth form in a Malayalam medium school. After that, Adulkhadar studied up to the seventh form. Meanwhile, Basheer was in Cannanore Jail. His experiences in jail are summed up in his book, Recollections.

Abdulkhadar became a school teacher but later gave up his job and went to work in a shop, rolling beedies. Then he gave up beedi-rolling after some time and installed a blacksmith’s forge in the market, making tin-plated metal sheets.

He recalls some events from 1936 and 1937. At that time, Basheer was a prolific writer. At the same time, he was trying hard to make both ends meet. He writes, “I became a literary man and was living in Ernakulam. I did a lot of writing. I had nothing to eat.”

At that time, Abdulkhadar visited him. After reading Basheer’s stories, he asked, “Where is the predicate in the sentence?” Basheer was sure he wrote beautifully and became furious and asked, “I don’t understand. What predicate?”

As a reply, Adulkhadar gave a long lecture on grammar – about subject, predicate, concord, etc. Basheer writes – “In the course of the half–an–hour conversation, he made me out to be an ignoramus. Then he said, ‘You should take lessons in grammar. ’ He recommended a few grammar books, also.

Basheer became furious and said, “Clear off! Get up and get out! You and your grammar! You big thief! You stole and ate the ghee and went around saying you were sick! Look, what I have put down in writing is the way I talk in conversation. What if it doesn’t have one of your silly predicates?

With this conversation in the story, he establishes clearly that he writes in the commoner’s language for them to understand, and he is not bothered about standardisation and appropriation of language.

Those days of criticism are history. Instead, Basheer says his brother now reads his stories with great enthusiasm, and he has also asked him to write stories about their relatives.

The narrative now comes back to Pattumma’s goat.

Pattumma takes back the goat and its little one in the morning, as she has to sell the goat’s milk

One day, Basheer was surprised to find everyone having milk tea

He understood that they had stolen Pattumma’s goat milk without giving it to its little one.

Though everyone pleaded not to tell this to Pattumma, Basheer told her the truth when she came home. He said, “Pattumma, be careful. They all gathered, milked your goat, and drank the milk in their tea. Beforehand, they took the kid and tied it up.”

Hearing this, Pattumma became furious. When Pattumma asked about it, everyone replied, “It was good that we did it. We’d do it again. The got and kid are fed here…” So they have every right to milk the goat and drink its milk.

The chapter ends with Pattuma’s decision –“I will never set foot in this house again”. She takes the goat’s kid to her house.

CHAPTER – 6

In the last chapter, we find a different Pattumma.

Pattumma has started selling milk.

Kuttan Pillai, the postman, delivers ten complimentary copies of his book, The World Renowned Nose.  Basheer sells nine copies in the marketplace with the help of Abu. Then, he gives the money to Umma and the rest of the people in the house.

He visits Pattumma’s house. He finds it in a pathetic condition. A house made of mud and without a lock or door. He promised her to give the money to repair it. Pattumma hopes to do it when she gets money from goat’s milk

Everyone at home was unhappy that no one was invited to Pattumma’s house for food.

Again, people at home started doing various things to steal Pattumma’s goat’s milk. Knowing this, she finally decides to give half a bottle of milk to her house every day.

Basheer ends the story by stating, “We get two kinds of milk at home. One that they steal and the other that Pattumma gives. Poor Pattumma”.

Basheer is still puzzled about how the brains of women work, as he concludes, “Which of the women was the first to have this brain wave?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORKS CITED

Asher, R, E. & Coilparampil Chandrasekharan Achamma, Pattumma’s Goat, Mathrubhumi  Books. 2021. Print.

Asher, R. E. and Achamma Coilparampil Chandrasekharan. Pattumma’s Goat. Mathrubhumi Books, 2023. Indulekha, https://indulekha.com/shop/pattummas-goat-fiction-vaikom-muhammad-basheer/.”

Pathummayude Aadu. Malayalam Audio Book. Chapter 1-6.Anu Prathap Official.

Prominent Personalities of Kerala Vaikom Muhammad Basheer. 

http://www.stateofkerala.in/kerala_celebrities/vaikkom-muhammed-basheer.php

Vaikom Muhammad Basheer.Keralaculture.org. http://www.keralaculture.org/basheer/714

Zompa Tenzin. Vaikom Muhammad Basheer was the master of disguise. Writer to revolutionary, he did it all. The Print. https://theprint.in/theprint-profile/vaikom-muhammad-basheer- was-the-master-of-disguise-writer-to-revolutionary-he-did-it-all/808431/