“Ammalu, had I arrived one hour late on the day of wedding, your mother would have found another boy for you and I would have been spared from your clutches for ever”
“No. I would have waited for my whole life for you. And my mother too”
“You both were so enamored by my charm?”
“No. She happened to see you bargaining the price for one small piece of Pumpkin with the roadside vegetable vendor and told me: ‘he will make a
n ideal husband for a luxury- loving girl like you'”
—————————————————–
“Every man adores a woman, other than his mother and that is not his wife. What you say?”
“What do I say? You have said everything. You keep on adoring any woman. I’m not worried, as long as I have your car key, safe key and life-key”
“Life-key, what is that?”
“key to your heart”
—————————————————
“I don’t wish to hurt your feeling by saying that you are much below my expectation when I met you for the first time,
Ammalu”
“You expected something when you met me? You never raised your head then”
——————————————————
What makes a man happy in his old days ?
Recollecting his young days’ adventures, which he can munch even after losing all teeth.
If he had no such adventures for munching?
He can think of new ones .
How, if his wife, unlike Ammalu, is a strict woman?
Are you married ?
No, Sir.
Then, get married. You will learn how to create adventures.
No. Certainly not at my age. How to munch old memories, otherwise?
Ok. Keep some money always with you.
For what, Sir?
For buying peanuts! A man who is scared to marry, even after sixty, is left with nothing else for munching.
What makes a man happy in his old days ?
Recollecting his young days’ adventures, which he can munch even after losing all teeth.
If he had no such adventures for munching?
He can think of new ones .
How, if his wife, unlike Ammalu, is a strict woman?
Are you married ?
No, Sir.
Then, get married. You will learn how to create adventures.
No. Certainly not at my age. How to munch old memories, otherwise?
Ok. Keep some money always with you.
For what, Sir?
For buying peanuts, for munching! A man who is scared to marry even after sixty, is left with nothing else for munching.
—————————————————————
Ammalu’s face haunting
“Did you make this pokkoda?” I asked the lady of the house, who had invited me for an evening tea.
“Yes, mama. I made it” she answered proudly.
“I doubt”, I replied, “it is too tasty”
That instant and damaging reply unwittingly came out of my mouth, as I saw, for a moment, Ammalu’s image on my host’s face and such poking to rise her anger was my usual practice. I wanted to correct my wrong, but thought, suppose she questioned whether I saw my wife’s image on every woman who invited me for tea, it would be still worse. So, I kept quiet biting my tongue.
She didn’t throw me out or say a word of abuse. Just looked at me piercingly.
But my next act brought me real trouble.
“Can I have some more; it was really good” I asked when the plate before me became empty.
“Sure, mama. Soon after my daughter in law returns from USA, I will ask her to make. Pl. wait for sometime, if you don’t mind” replied, the gracious host.
Sent from my iPad