Summary

The author begins this short story with a second person narration of Kittur's railway station and the areas surrounding it. The narrator details the interior of the station, telling the reader that when they disembarked the train, the Madras Mail, they would see a dirty station with dim lighting and lunch bags that stray dogs and rats paw at strewn across the station. The walls are covered in posters of a large naked man with his legs crossed that have been put up by the local Jain sect that runs a free hospital and lunchroom. The posters tell passengers in the Kannada language that one word from the naked man could change their life. The second person narrator then goes on to detail the Kittamma Devi Temple, which was built in the Tamil style and how it was built on...