Ammalu, I believe in telling my opinion ‘phat’ at the face of anyone, without bothering about their reaction, wife or her mother or even God or Goddess’
‘Not a bad idea’
‘So, you understood?’
‘Yes, of course’
‘Tell others too’
‘My mom knows already. To the’Now, Ammalu, you are telling me ‘phat’!’
‘I was in a serious literary discussion with the countries top men in art and literature . What was the emergency for you to call me, Ammalu?’
‘Help me to remove the ribs of these curry leaves, please. I have a cut in a finger’
Even a stranger, met casually in a market place or a bus stand, may remember us when we meet again and flash a smile. Some, who are close to us, may not even do that, for whatever be the reason. Some couple too behave like that after a quarrel.
Seshu couple had a petty quarrel. ‘Did you see my dentures?’, he asked his wife. The old lady, instead of saying, ‘it is inside your mouth’, looked at the ceiling, then picked a broomstick and swept the floor!. We have a phrase for that in Malayalam. ‘Chanthayil kanda parichayam polum Illa’
Last night, when my son in law Vuday brought me from the Orlando airport, it was 10.00. My grandchildren Raaghav and Divyaa were waiting for me. Little Dhruv too was awake but he never showed any expression of having ever met me! I was, simply, a non entity for him. He continued to be busy with his playing!
( file photo with Dhruv, clicked when he came to Baltimore, last year)
Now, coming back to the old couple, Seshu pretended as if he was angry and asked his wife, ‘Vaayilae enna kozhakkattyai thirigi irukkayo?
Have you pushed a Modakam inside your mouth?’
The honey suddenly remembers about the Murukku, her neighbor brought. She tells him (forgetting her vow that she would never talk trim for ‘another hundred years’),’Meenakshi brought exactly two murukkus . Maha kanchoos she is. Could have brought a few more. But how will you eat? You have no teeth!’
Ignoring her teasing, he asked,’ are you blind? Can’t you see my strong and shining teeth?’
‘So, you knew that your teeth were inside your mouth and not inside my sari knot’. And continued, ‘that ‘anda puluku, aakaasa pulugu, (talkative bluffer SP mama lost a dozen teeth and claims that those fell on their own? Have you ever heard teeth falling down on their own, like hairs?. My suspicion is that Ammalu manni would have thrashed him’
‘Ammalu may thrash your teeth but not SP’s. Unlike you, she treats her husband like a god in human form’
‘In human form ? Only his form is human. I don’t like the way he stares at women?’
‘Ok. Go and get the murukku’
Like LKG kids, forgetting the fight, they go, one behind the other.
—————
