“I can stand the rains from the dark sky, not the flow from your blue eyes, Ammalu”
“My eyes are not blue, my eyes may generate fire at time, at you but never water.
And SP GAru, there is neither fire nor rain in your poetry”
—————————————-
“Honesty. What Ammalu? Honesty. I’m that in physical form”
“I’m aware”
“If you are aware, go and tell everyone. Your mom, my friends, your friends”
“Sorry, I can’t do that. I can’t tell a lie. Truth. What SP? Truth. I’m that in physical form”
—————————-
“You should be proud that I’m your husband and all your friends respect me”
“I’m proud that you are my husband”
“And about your friends’ respect for me?”
“That comes next. Do I respect you? The answer is already in the first part-. ‘I’m proud’”
“Why don’t you be liberal with your praises for me?”
“You are my husband”
“You have become stingy now, with your words”
“No, I have said all about you”
——————————–
“Ammalu, you know who I’m for the world outside?”
“I know only one world and there are only two people in that. You and me and you are mine. I’m nether aware of any other world nor interested too”
————————————
“Ammalu, a woman should have only one husband but a man can have twenty wives”
“Have forty, who question you ? But tell a word to my mom”
“If I can talk to her, do you think I would have mentioned to you?”
“Then keep quiet and sit on this Sevai machine. I have no strength to press it”
“I too have no strength, Ammalu”
“And you want to have twenty women!”
——————————————
“Oh, the gem among women, Ammalu, are you going to become mother again?”
“Worried?’
“Not me, our sons and daughter. Will they pet their own babies or our babies?”
‘Did you say babies?”
“Yes, if it happens to be twins”
“You are liberal not only in words, but in thoughts too. I love you for that”
“Thank you. Love’s application is limited”
“Yes, for the time being!”
“What!!!!!!”
“Man lives on hopes”
“And woman too?”
“Yes, woman too”
“An yellow robe and some little cash, please”
—————–
“Ammalu, ask for anything as my advance gift for the New Year”
“Why this unprecedented gesture?”
“Just like that. Want to be liberal why welcoming 2015”
“I know how liberal you could go. Get me one pack of Injimittai – ginger candy”
“How much does it cost ?”
———————————-
“Ammalu, the Government central or State is likely to issue a postal stamp recognizing my contribution to the society. I can recommend your head too, to be included in the stamp, if you improve the quality of your service to me”
“An authority bigger than Central and State, has already issued a stamp carrying my head and foolishly I stuck it to the wall of your heart. The old- time glue was so strong, that I’m unable remove my head despite many efforts. One stamp is too many, NSP”
“NSP? Why that prefix ‘N’?”
“No Stamp Please”
————————-
“Ammalu, suggest a New Year Promise, a really hard one. Right now, here in your presence, I will take oath and announce my decision”
“Speak truth. A really hard one for you”
“No problem. Get an aspirin tablet please. Severe head ache. I need rest”
“Really severe?”
“Yes. get a Masal dosa and four iddlies please too. Of course, a cup of hot coffee will help to reduce the head pain”
“Hungry too ?”
“Terribly hungry”
” excellent. Your New Year Promise has started working. Congrats”
“I’m yet to take the oath! You’re lying Ammalu”
“No, I’m not. I too have a New Year Promise”
“What?”
“Speak truth”
————————-
“I thought your mom would visit us with a solid gift for the New year”
“She has sent it in a bullock cart. It should reach us now. She will meet you later”
“Really? She is my best mother in law. Let us give her a solid welcome for coming with a solid gift”
” yes, you too keep four solid men for unloading the load and take it to our back yard?”
“Why to backyard, Ammalu? The bundle could be old coins, silver and brass vessels . She might be having some copper vessels too”
“No, it is a granite wet grinder she inherited from her mother and an iron pounding unit, both with equally strong pestles”
“Mad woman ! Who wants those? I will return, through the same cart”
“You can do that, by paying to and fro cartage and loading and unloading charge, about 1200 Rs”
“What gift is this, Ammalu?”
“Solicited Solid gift”
——————————
“Ammalu, tell your mom, that SP didn’t become a big man because I married her daughter”
“She never said that. You are misinformed. To my knowledgejan, she said, ‘SP became a moderately refined man after he married Ammalu’”
.
Baltimore
Jan 5, 2015
Blog
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Challenges
Challenges are there everywhere, for every one, human, animal, bird or insect. In every walk of life. On the land, in the water or from the space,
One has to be always prepared to accept challenges. That doesn’t mean, you should screw up your mustache, stand at the front gate, with a big knife to strike the enemy when he attacks.
It means, first, have knowledge of general nature and sound knowledge on the subject you are dealing with. This is to ensure that ignorance should not be the cause of your failure.
Then comes courage. Knowledge can be bought, acquired, but not courage. You have to develop it within yourself, to help which, knowledge can be one of your tools. Failures can be another tool, if used efficiently. Belief in God or Destiny could also be a tool, if not misused.
Then comes the most important part. Think cool, analyze the problems, arrive at a decision. Use any tool, books, friends, intelligence, experience, anything, but your cool mind, your decision and sir, your Fate will guide you to find a solution,
You are the king, if you have come over the problems. If you have not, use all the tools and be prepared to face the next problem. If you lose heart and sit in a corner, you are creating a problem for that corner. It will -
Aswagantharishtam, last dose
“Ammalu, come closer; the walls have ears”
“That is a news. The walls were duff yesterday when you yelled at me”
“You were dumb, yesterday. Now you have become eloquent. The walls have gone deaf today. Things change, you see.
Hear this. A rich lady became old and–”
“That is news again- rich ladies too, turn old ? Continue; waiting to hear your story”
“This is between we, two. She has plenty of money and a pretty daughter”
“It is not between we, two. There are four people now in the picture and plenty of money”
“Yes, the old lady wants to hand over her money and daughter, both to me”
“That is again another news. Never heard of any old ladies interested in handing over their money, though not unheard of their handing over their daughters to oldies like you. But that was long ago, when daughters didn’t know karate”
“Shall I show you the written commitment from her?”
“No need. I trust your words. Does the old lady knows you well, your past, present, your name, your fame?”
“Yes, she does”
“And she wants to hand over her money and daughter to you?”
“Yes, yes”
“Money is plenty and the girl is pretty?”
“Yes, yes, yes”
“No going back?”
“No, no, no. She is bent upon doing it having convinced of my honesty. What do I do?”
“If she is bent upon doing it, I have no say.
Accept both. Deposit the money in my account. Send the daughter to a good school.
When the time comes, we will perform her marriage. The balance amount, we will hand over to her”
“The money and the girl given to me belong to me and for my use”
“Then do one thing. I will give a small money now. Buy a bottle of AswagandhArishtam, from the nearest Kottakal AryavaudyasAlA shop.
After dinner for seven nights, face east and pour a teaspoon- full of that dark liquid into your mouth, without it touching your tongue. On the eighth day morning, you will getup as an young man of twenty or twenty one at the most, possessing the energy and speed of a race horse.
Go straight to that rich old lady’s house, collect the money and girl and bring home. Hand over the money to me and you keep the girl with you”
“If the girl knows karate?”
“Enjoy the company of Apsara girls, high up. We both will enjoy the money, down here, in the Earth”
“If the rich old lady comes and asks for her assets back?”
“I will hand over the remaining Aswagantharishtam to her. She will acquire the strength of a race horse in seven days when I will give back her assets and we three will live happily”
“Old lady, you were a nice woman a week ago; now you have turned into an animal”
“AswagandhArishtam, last dose!” -
Kuppuswamy, my friend
NRI boys do remove their shirts.
Many trains halted and passed through Olavakkode Junction, day and night, more during night.
Seated on the veranda of my house, by the station road, I used to watch the movement of people. From the Kalpathy villages, they used to come to receive or see off their relatives. Some of them were bare- chested and none took notice of that.
That was a Muslim majority area and many used to roam about, in the town, bare-chested, wearing lungies. None noticed them.
I too on many occasions, as a boy, had moved in towns
and villages in Kerala, and compulsorily inside temples, bare chested . None noticed.
Here, in America, I can’t have that ‘freedom’, even during peak summer.
Generally, the people here, don’t bother about others in the streets. But, if I venture to go out, with no shirt on, I will be noticed. And, my children will certainly notice and buy the best seat in the next available flight to Hyderabad, drop me in the airport, give a warm hug and see me off with a fitting farewell. “Take care, Dad!”
I won’t give that chance to my dear wards. Hence, stand here on the steps, well within a building , well-wrapped. This adequate dress is to protect me from the biting Boston winter.
An old friend of mine driver Marimuthu, used to attend weddings, in full suit and tie , during peak summer, in Chennai!
“Why, Muthu?” I enquired.
“JanvAs MAppillai Sir soodu thangama kelampittarnna, nAn poi ankae ninnukalAm illae?”
If the bridegroom, unable to bear the heat, moves out, I can go and stand in his place, right?”. He was joking. But I’m not. Wedding In May, in Chennai, used to be a punishment.
Now perhaps not so. The halls are air conditioned. The wedding fire is nourished for shorter duration, as Vadyar is busy, bridegroom, is working from home ( means he is on duty). understandable.
I attended a wedding, sometime ago, in Hyderabad. Peak summer. The NRI bridegroom was unable to sit on the floor. Understandable. He was a computer boy, good in his job. He got a chair. No one asked him to remove his shirt and so, he didn’t. They thought NRI boys never remove their shirts!
No grumble. But Kuppuswamy iyer, my friend, who had roamed bare- chested during college days, through the streets of Kalpathy, along with me, performed the kanyAdanam, in full suit and tie and hat!
Boy, I was stunned. I asked him, ” Kuppu, mad fellow, you could have at least removed the hat?’
“Your Pakakkadan budhy will never leave you” he chided me, “the bridegroom is from a sophisticated family”
Sad, my friend is no more now. He passed away, shortly after his daughter’s wedding.
I attended his last journey. There was only a white sheet to cover his body!
He was on his way to a non sophisticated family. Otherwise, he would have been in suit and tie. And a hat too, on his bald head!
P.S. Forgot to tell you. Kuppu’s last rites were performed by his son in law, who rushed from USA.
No one asked him to remove his shirt. He didn’t ask for a chair.
He sat on the dusty, ashy, wet cremation ground, bare chested!
NRI boys can sit on the ground .They do remove their shirt. I’m convinced.
-
Your playmate, our Sir!
Throw ur ball in His court
Relax.
He plays the game, get kicks.
Me?
The medal!
If I’m booted?
Rejoice!
Boy! How lucky you’re!
Ur playmate, our Sir! -
MAmiyar Murukku
MAmiyar murukku.
‘Mappillai murukku’ – some of you would have heard. I heard it for the first time, when I stayed for a couple of days, soon after my wedding in my wife’s house at Thiruvananthapuram. For evening snack, I was served, after asking me to be seated facing the auspicious East, Avil aka beaten rice and poovan pazham. The Avil was hand pounded, retaining the aroma of bran, the brown coloured, nutritious outer layer of the rice grain. The poovan pazham was soft and honey -sweet, as to earn the merit of one of the selected neivedyams, food offer, to the divine child of Guruvayoor. That tasty combination was served on a tender plantain leaf, just removed from the backyard tree, which too contributed to the aroma to the already tasty food.
I loved the food. But, absorption capacity is not unlimited. So, reluctantly, I left a part, back on the leaf, when a close relative, Athai or aunt, taunted me: ‘konthae, MAppillai murukku vendAm- child, abandon the inner reservation of a fresh son in law’
I’m not happy with my translation of the word ‘murukku’ here, but I could not find a better words. Colloquial usages lose the essence and charm in translation.
Now, back to the title of this story. MAmiyar is mother in law. The ‘Murukku’ here, in this context, is not a behavior. It is a food item- that hand-twisted circle, rice powder based, placed prominently on the wedding podium, kalyAna Panthal, along with sweet balls of laddus and sweet rectangles of Mysorepaks . it is also called kaimurukku, to emphasize the importance of Kai or hand, in its production.
Last year, before leaving for America, I visited my mAmiyar, mother in law, at her home in Thiruvananthapuram, the same good old lady, who served me avil and poovan pazham, long back. She had become old, naturally. For good or bad, I’m deep in my conviction that I don’t age, though all others do. But God is great. You can dupe your wife, you can dude even your mother in law, but never God. So, His Highness, Lord Sreekanteswaran, who could watch the happening in my mother in law’s house, just by a peep through the window, put a forceful break to my wicked thought that my mother in law had aged but not me.
This was what happened.
The gracious old lady, despite her physical disabilities due to old age, had prepared hand- twisted Murukku for her son in law. I’m sure that her weak fingers would have terribly protested, resisting to twist and turn to her commands. But twisting and turning are unavoidable for the simple rice flour paste, to become a mouth – watering eatable.
She served me a few pieces, on a plantain leaf. Chewing old stories, intermittently smiling, laughing and clearing the moistness from eyes, I bit merrily the circular charisma and consumed the first murukku. The moment, overwhelmingly proud of my strong teeth, I bit the second murukku. ‘Tup’ cracked a tooth, got dislocated from its time tested base and fell on the leaf. The honorable lady, whose ears are left with only ornamental role, could clearly hear the sound of the tooth – crack and more surprisingly, her dwindling eyes could clearly see the dented tooth, lying helplessly, amongst the murukku pieces on the plantain leaf.
With the speed of an eagle, flashing from the sky and swooping on a dove on the land, she picked up not only my broken tooth, but the remaining pieces of murukku too.
I looked at her pathetically, like a baby whose mouth feeding was abruptly stopped and asked, ‘ why murukku?’
‘Just to save your remaining weak teeth,” she said.
I turned my neck and looked at our neighbour, Lord Sreekanteswaran and asked,
” a punishment for my false notion that aging is only for others or for leaving unconsumed some avil and pazham, decades ago?”
As usual, He didn’t respond. His divine mount did.
‘For both,’ he said and shook his broad ears, as if to say, ‘take it light’.
. . -
Gone is gone
Gone is gone!
“Are you a diabetic?”
“Yes”
“BP ?”
“High”
“Leg pain?”
“There are multiple plains. Not leg alone”
“Where is your wife?”
“Escaped”
“Means?”
“She left me”
“Abandoned you?”
“A new word in the dictionary?”
“What I wanted to know was whether she went alone or with some one”
“How does it matter, whether she went alone or with a doz. people?”
“Your children?”
“Far away”
“Your home?”
“That temple veranda”
“Cash?”
“Enough to buy a chAi and pokkoda”
“How, on the earth, are you so happy, with no wealth, no health, no shelter, no kin around?”
“I’m alive!”
“I too am alive and I have everything which you lack.”
“Who said you are alive?”
“See my hands, see my legs! These are moving.”
“Movement of limbs don’t make one alive. One should feel that he is alive. You are not alive”
“How?”
“If you were alive, you would be feeling the life; the life of yours and that of trees, birds, cattle and clouds and enjoy every moment, every movement of the world, like me. You don’t need a gym- tuned body or a gorgeous woman or mansion to enjoy life.
God didn’t guarantee any of those, when He sent you here.
Instead of enjoying the silence of the sky and vibrations of the Earth, you were wasting your time in enquiring whether my wife escaped with one or ten men. In what way are you concerned as long as you are not one among those ten? Are you going to buy a flat for me in the heart of the town or in a remote village? Are you going to order medicines for a month or a week from Rogam medicals? Or you going to buy one plate of extra pokkoda for my evening Chai?”
“Sir, I’m sorry. Your BP is abnormally high. Take care”
“You take care. Your limbs are shaking”
“Oh, my God, they are shaking! Will they slip and fall from my body? What do I do
now? Come along with you and take shelter on the temple veranda and share your pokkoda and chAi?”
“No, speed up home and see whether your wife is there or had eloped with someone”
Y”Sir, with one or a dozen?”
“In what way are you concerned? Gone is gone!”
“Is that the way to enjoy life? Gone is gone?”
“One of the ways”
