‘SP, why did you go to my mom’s house and trouble her?’
‘I went and troubled her? I went their to pay my respect on Gurupoornima day. That is all’
‘That is not all. What did you do then?’
‘I kept a one rupee coin at her feet and sought her blessings. That is all’
‘That is not all. Tell me what happened afterwards?’
‘The benevolent lady bent down, blessed me, picked up the one rupee coin and said, placing it in my hand:
‘ inchimittai vAnkikko’- buy ginger toffee on your way back home’
—————
Ammalu, do you really love me ?’
‘Not sure. But when you don’t eat in time, I feel the hunger.
When you get hurt, I feel the pain.
And when you ask such stupid questions I feel sympathy for you’
——–
‘Ammalu, today is Gurupoornima. Let us go and take your mother’s blessings’
‘SP, I never knew that she was your teacher. What did she teach you?’
‘One of the several conditions she laid down when I met her to seek your hands, was that I should grind 3 kilos of parboiled rice and one kilo of udagdal, in the stone wet grinder which was as big in size as your mom, in exactly 30 minutes.
‘No way, Amma’, I told her.
She was pleased when I addressed her as ‘Amma’
She took my hand to the pestle and made me rotate it and passed on a gem of advice from her mouth.
‘Whatever my daughter says, you should move your head as effortlessly as the pestle moves’
‘Will you?’ she asked then, majestically raising her head.
‘Yes, mom’, I said humbly bowing my head.
‘Ammalu is yours!’ She proclaimed .
‘And that is our guru-sishya bandaham.’
———
Don’t you think Ammalu, that we should be a bit romantic in our life?’
‘What is that?’
Oh, you are an old Murphy radio. How to explain to you about iPhone and iPad ?’
‘If you explain properly, I will try to understand. As proverbial professor, you know the skill of explaining even inexplainable things’
‘I’m glad that you have understood my greatness.
Romance means Ammalu, I look at you and you look at me–‘
‘We don’t do that?
‘That is just ordinary looks. I’m talking about a type of Jim,Jim look!’
‘You can’t explain what is romance and you say, Jim,Jim, gum, gum. I will go to one of your friends and get my doubt clarified. I will look at him, he will look at me- up to that I understood’
‘Enough, enough, Ammalu. That is more than enough. That exactly is romance, Ammalu, we have plenty of that.. enough o enough!’