‘Happy Pongal, happy Sankranthi, Ammalu. I’m fed up with this balancing task. I work like a bull and you reap all the credit”
“I can take care of your cash transaction and balance the income and expenditure”
“Cash transaction? You think I am a fool to hand over that to you? I’m talking about the arduous task of carrying your Pongal requirement, this morning from the market. A big clay pot on the head; one hand gone to support that. A long sugarcane stick; another hand spared to hold it.
A cloth bag with turmeric plant raising and lowering its head, dangling from the shoulder! Everyone in the street was watching me and enjoying my struggle to keep in balance those three uneven, unequal demands of yours”
“You could have hired an auto or a cab”
“I could have. But how will then people know about my sacrifice to you?”
“Sorry to say that your sacrifice is of no use to me. I wanted you to buy a clay pot with a big mouth; you bought one with a small mouth and big hole at the bottom. The long stick which you were carrying was a tender bamboo plant and the one in the shoulder bag was a ginger plant. I have to ask Ammini’s husband to get me a fresh set”
“Phoo, Nair? That guy with a big hole in his head?”
‘’I’m not worried if he has holes everywhere, as long as he gets me a pot without holes. For your information, the milk when boiled should outflow the vessel; if it gets drained off through the bottom, it will only put off the flames”
‘’You didn’t tell me all these tricks earlier. It was your mistake”
“Indeed it was my mistake I married a man of super intelligence like you. Anyway, happy pongal, happy Samkranthi. Children are waiting for you on the terrace for kite flying. Join them. Kites are to fly high in the air; not meant to nosedive into the earth. Don’t blame me later, for not telling you in advance”
“Don’t I know even that basic principle? I’m like a kite flying high in my wisdom and you are like a clay pot with a big hole at the bottom, which drains all the wisdom I have poured into your head”
“’That is OK; hold the thread in your hand and leave the kite to fly- upwards!”