The Cadjan Fence, based in the colonial times, is about a family preparing for their fathers' return back

home to Jaffna.
There is no great detail offered in this story. It is a snapshot of life. That is, it gives enough information to understand the whole thing. The whole thing is the situation in olden day Jaffna. There are many things symbolic to Jaffna and its culture that are mentioned. The story was written in Tamil and the theme can be easily understood by the Tamil audience for which it is targeted. The tale starts with the mother answering the daughters question of where the brother is. She explains that she has let him go see a film as the father is out. There was a high state of culture and natural desires were suppressed. The father is very strict and was in Colombo. Most of the families in Jaffna saw the head of the household staying away from home working in Colombo. Jaffna was known as a money order economy. The mother wants the daughter to study, but at the same time knows that her children must also experience life once in a while. This is why she lets her son go for the film. She talks of thosais and letting the ulundu soak and this connects the reader effectively. The second scene pictures the daughter and her lover. Again the authoritarian nature of the father is hinted at when the daughter tells her lover that her father will give him the ekel-broom treatment for asking to marry her. There is some humour in the narrative when the daughter tells her lover that his habit of tooting the horn while driving makes him want to toot and fondle hers. This conversation is unbeknownst to the mother and brings the cadjan fence to play. This love scene is in opposition to Jaffna being portrayed as a society with good morals and arranged marriages. This depiction of romance laughs at this idea. The fence is an actor and is representing Jaffna. It is described in the last paragraph as doing the traditional duty of guarding Jaffnas honour and dignity from generation to generation. The fence has seen the daughters secret and then it sees what the mother has to hide in the third scene. The mother who has seen to it that her children are asleep goes out to meet her lover. The lover has been getting the lease to the fathers land and this happens to be the mothers dowry property. The lover is a toddy dealer and promises to supply her with some when the father comes back. The mother seems to be performing her role as a wife by making sure that she cooks thosais and sees to it that the father is well taken care of. At the same time, she is meeting with another man. The account is somewhat a type of satire. The writer is laughing at the hypocrisy of the Jaffna people. The mother in the final scene is telling her husband that the fence should be made higher because the daughter is getting big. This is a case of look who is talking as the mother seems to be indulging in the fathers absence almost as much as the daughter.