The Transaction (ePub)

Raghavee and Martin each give their individual accounts of the same story. On the night that their shop burnt down Raghavee's father died of a heart attack. When her mother and siblings decided to relocate to Newcastle in Natal, Raghavee moved in with Martin, a white boy. She became his housekeeper. Cohabitation of whites and Indians under the same roof was illegal under apartheid race laws. As expected, they were eventually arrested for contravening the immorality act.

Raghavee Srivastava the niece of Uncle Raju who happened to be a prominent member of the Communist Party was the daughter of an Indian rural shopkeeper. The shop was located on the edge of the national road connecting Johannesburg to Durban. Her friend Martin Marshall, a white boy, lived on a small farm across the road from the shop. They had been friends since childhood. In race-obsessed apartheid South Africa it was indeed rare that genuine friendships between white and black or white and Indian could ever become established. Eventually, Martin inherited the farm following the death of his great grandparents. Tragedy struck the Srivastava family. On the night that their shop burnt down Raghavee's father died of a heart attack. When her mother and siblings decided to relocate to Newcastle in Natal, Raghavee moved in with Martin. She became his housekeeper. Their arrest and trial became headline news mainly because she happened to be the niece of Uncle Raju Srivastava. Right up until their arrest they slept in separate rooms. In response to Martin's kindness and generosity, she tried to initiate a transactional arrangement where she would provide Martin with sexual services in exchange for being looked after by Martin. Martin was paying for all her living expenses, including her studies. She liked him, but did not love him, and so felt obliged to pay for her keep and her university studies towards a law degree, in the only way she could, and according to what she thought would be a fair transaction.