Everything's Arranged by Siew Yue Killingley (Full Text)

EVERYTHING'S ARRANGED

    The last day of term was always dreary for Rukumani and Devanayagam. They had to say goodbye many times over before going to their respective homes, his in Lipis and hers in Ipoh. This being their last day together, they were also tempted to do rather dangerous things, such as walking back to the Third College and sitting in the very public lounge where fellow students who were remotely related to them and Ceylonese parents who came to fetch their offspring home would see them. Going to more secluded parts of the campus was even worse although it meant less chance of being gazed at, for if they were seen by people who knew them and their families, they would be accused of making love in quiet corners. It was better to sit in public and take the risk of being seen by family friends, some of whom might just casually mention to their respective families, 'Your son is a friend of Ruku's' or 'Your daughter is getting some help in her work from Deva, it seems. Saw them in the Third RC lounge', and leave it at that.

    The long vacation stretched wearily before them both. Devanayagam thought of coming back for the last two months or so to read in the library, but they both knew that it was hopeless for Rukumani to do that. Like most people, her parents had the idea that terms at the university were like school terms; also, that if she went back to stay at the hostel, she would be open to all sorts of dangers and temptations, since there would be no classes to attend and therefore no lecturers to keep an eye on her chastity. At the same time they liked to pretend that Rukumani was 'too spiritual to know anything about sex', and that topic was never mentioned at home. The time for her marriage to be arranged would soon come and she would find out all about that after she was married. Marriage was such a spiritual thing, really, that if sex were brought into it, it would give her the wrong ideas, such as those of the Modern Girl. Sitting in the...