For the past few weeks, a very important issue has been rocking my head, after reading the first post, later extended to several pages, as to where should one’s head be, while lying? I threw over the wall all other unimportant matters unnecessarily occupying half a page in the leading newspapers, such as swallowing billions by a simple, single dothy-clad servant of the down trodden and the treachery of a woman selling  the security secrets of our country for a few chips from the enemy.
In this series, the best question I liked and which made me motion- less for a moment  was,   “Position of Husband and Wife in bed. I mean, wife should be to the left or right of the husband.” The question was absolutely accurate and worth pondering but I made a small mistake. Unbecoming of a person of my age, I got excited at the first part of the question, and then moved on to read the remaining part. That, ‘I mean ‘ took away the glee.
Sometime, explanations expel the essence of a sentence.
Till now, I have never worried how my bed was placed  and within moments I mount it and shut the eyes, the incomparably compassionate hands of the divine damsel, sleep, hugsS me close to her chest. When I tour the villages in India, what all I needed was a  6 x3 feet space, any where in a corner, preferably under a tree or on a meadow, from where, I can look at and enjoy the moving clouds and shining stars and also look for any flying snakes in the sky of my childhood stories narrated by my grand mother. The fear of the messengers of death dragging me away, the moment I wake up facing the South was not there. ‘Ignorance is bliss’, they say.
Thanks to Sri.N.Balsubramanian’s erudite explanation, now I know which side the head should be and as a science student, I should follow his instructions.
” Man should not lie down with his head towards the NORTH”
But how to know where is the North? That exactly is my worry.
I should find out now, as I am feeling sleepy. My grand daughter looks at me wondering why I am moving around the house, holding a pillow  instead of snoring in my bedroom.
“Ananya, where is the North?”‘ I ask her. Spreading her small, silky hands perpendicular to her body, she replies in her wavy American accent. ” The sun rises in the east. when you stand facing the sun, the South is towards your right, the North, towards the left  and the West is at your back”
I  understood. Children teach us many things in life if you are prepared to hear them.
With the satisfaction of providing the right answer, she goes to her bed.(Lucky one, she doesn’t know the law of lying ).
Ananaya has slept. But my problem still exists.There is no sun in the sky to look at. It is night. How to find the East?.
My son Sharath is playing with Nikhil, the mini motorbike without wheels.
”Sharath, where is the  East?”‘
‘” How do I know,dad?”
“Unlike me, you do sandhya every day and do not know where is the East?”
‘By six, I leave for the office, you know dad. Where is the opportunity for me to see the sun?”
‘You don’t look at the sky while driving?”
“No dad, I look at the road ahead and not at the sky”
But what about the week ends? You don’t come out of the house and watch the sky?”
‘I do . But the sun doesn’t appear on  Baltimore sky, on week ends.”
He did not wait for my reaction. Once they know that they have answered your queries accurately, as my son did now,our children move away. In our young days, We didn’t do that as we  were  uncertain of the accuracy of our replies.
‘Appa, is it not time for you to strike the bed?’ Inquires Meghana.’”Why do you walk around  with a pillow in hand?’”
“There is a problem. a small one of course” I assure my daughter in law and ask her,” In which part of the sky does the sun rise?”
Stretching her long,lovely hands towards the duck, she replies,”‘Yesterday,I saw the sunrise right about the cherry tree there”
“Fine, to day the sun chose a different place, to rise ?”‘
” Could be, appa”  her reply was convincing, “being Saturday, I got up late today and saw the sun above the Oak tree there”  She points to a different direction.
Suddenly it dawns on me that tomorrow being Sunday,the sun will not visit the Baltimore sky which means I have to spend two nights without lying on the floor.
Placing my medicine chest and a tumbler of water on the side-table near my sofa,  Ammalu, without giving me an opportunity to ask her my question, which has become standard now, comments:
“Phavan Kishan kizhakkem irukkar, vadakkem irukkar (God is there in the East as well as in the  North).  In the twinkling of an eye, she has disappeared and I could hear the sound of our bed room door, closing behind her .

——I am sorry. This is not the way to treat a long-time husband. She cannot blot her mouth like a mini pumpkin and turn around when I look at her. The steaming coffee I placed before her, is getting cold as well as the hot water for her bath.
“Ammalu, you know that my character is as spot-less as the stainless-steel vessels I have just washed and my moral as white and bright as the hair on your empty head” I yell at her. “What then, makes you to sit like a marooned mouse on a house top surrounded by rising flood waters?”
‘Yes, I am an old owl with white hairs or a mini mouse with a long nose” She retorts although in a low voice, “My only prayer is that God should lift me up before the flood waters swallows me”. She prays half-halfheartedly turning towards the pooja room and suddenly withdraws her eyes to tell Lord Krishna that she did not mean it.
Wisely,  however, she pours a few drops of coffee into her mouth, apparently enjoys the taste and then continues. ” But don’t expect me to hide behind the cow- shed and play hide and seek with you”.
‘”Say again”  I plead.
She halts in a corner, after pacing for a moment and looks at me as if I am an object not worth looking at.
“And I will also not allow you to lift me up from the bath tub and rotate above your head”
“What nonsense are you talking, Ammalu?”
 
I am in  total loss to understand her romantic  poetry. I peer like a frog from a pool while she opens the table drawer and throws a bunch of paper at my face.
“I will read it for you”  She looks at me scornfully, while I search for my reading glass and continues, ” don’t claim that this is not written in your hand”
Again wisely, she enjoys few more drops of coffee,  shuts the front door and windows and reads the contents of one of the sheets in her hand.
” My lovely Belgium chocolate! My shining, dark Kozhikkode alwa! As I told you yesterday, the ideal place for you to hide is the small area behind the well and the narrow lane behind the cowshed. Remember to hide behind the doors if some one enters without notice”
She crumbles that paper and picks up the second one. After a deep look into my eyes, and  tasting a few more drops of coffee, she reads the second page too.
“And my cone ice cream! I want to pick you up from the bath tub and rotate above my head.”.
” Ha, ha, ha”  I roll on the ground like a child unable to control my laughter. Suddenly, the side door opens through which enters Mandooka Reddy, my ex-colleague Parvatha vardhanam’s husband who lives a few houses away.
“Eamaiah, neeku budhi undha?” Are you sane?  You want to lift my wife from the bath tub and roll her around your head ?  “
This is serious. Not something is wrong somewhere but every thing is wrong everywhere. How many can I carry from the bath tub and rotate above the head?
Ammalu, who was pushing her clothes into her steel trunk which she brought as a dowry,  ready to leave the house,  closes the box and laughs loudly . ”phooh, it is Parvatham, your cone ice iceream and Calicut alwa, whom you are after ?” She picks the coffee tumbler empties the contents in one gulp, throws a lavish look at me and declares , triumphantly: ” I am relieved; she is so bulky that neither you can lift her nor can she can run around the  cowshed”
The telephone rings. She picks up the receiver. It is obvious from her body movements and facial expressions that our grand children are on the other end. “Why always, ‘thatha, thatha’?” She asks the kids with a mock anger, “am I not a human being? Do I exist in the word or not, for you ?”
“Relax Ammalu!” I collect  the phone and console her.” The children were asking how I would be entertaining them when they come here shortly for vacation. You know I forget things. I had , therefore, prepared a short note so that I can convey my program over phone with out mistakes. You mistook that for a love letter and created a scene. And how do you expect me to be after a bulky woman like Parvatham, when you are there , right in front of me , so sleek, so tiny and so lovely, though a bit noisy sometime?
Anyway, I realize now that you really love me; other wise why should you be angry, illiah? isn’t it?”
“Too late a recovery” she commends , a hidden smile peering from her eyes, as if that was ur first night after wedding..
‘Avunaih, but why did you convey that message to my wife? “Asks Mr.Parvatham. He has  a valid point there.
‘Oh, a minor mistake” I assure him. ” A small confusion in dialing the  phone number”.
 
 
” Be cautious,  my friend”  He warns while leaving “ Parvathaam was pushing her clothes into the steel trunk which she brought as a dowry. She will land in this house anytime. That box is really spacious, strong and useful. I do not want to loose it. Do return it, please.
 
 
 ‘How lucky my friend is , to have a husband like you!” Ammalu comments now smiling sarcastically, while I  close the side door behind the visitor  to prevent the entry of  another  husband  scared of loosing another spacious, strong trunk box.
A minor mistake in dialing numbers can result in major mishaps, you see.

The dawn broke over the hills auspiciously on the day I left for US.  Ammalu’s   prayer before  hitting her bed  the previous night, was not in vain. ‘Nalekku kannai thorkkarathe nallatu kananame, Krishna!” –“Only auspicious things should I see when I open my eyes, tomorrow”.
When I opened the front door to welcome the heavenly glory slowly emerging from behind the eastern hill,  Ammini amma, my former colleague and wife of my friend Gopalan Nair,  staying in the opposite house, was waiting at the front gate with a bucket- full of water and a broomstick.  With wide-opened eyes I looked at her wondering  why she should  clean our frontage and before I could ask for the clarification, she started sweeping and cleaning turning her back at  me. Instantly,  from nowhere, Saniyan (that was the name given by Ammalu to my neighbor’s pet dog; actual name Sawny), came running wagging its tail, made a right turn, rested its huge body on the gate, lifted a leg and standing authoritatively  showing its  back towards me, emptied its bowl  exactly on the black granite slab laid for the purpose of drawing the kolam.
Ammalu, wiping her eyes came out of the bed room and was shocked at the awry sight in front of the house.
‘Krishna!’ she lamented to her  God, “did you wake me up to see the back of Ammani and saniayan, early in the morning?”
“What is there for you to see?” she directed her anger towards me,” Why don’t you get inside and attend to your routine?”
Gopalan Nair retired as a professor. The movies showing  American professors entering the campus with an umbrella in their hand prompted Nair to carry one with him, even while going for a morning walk. The stick is  a necessity for him as a support but his entry into our house, holding an umbrella and stick, early morning, annoyed Ammalu.
“Kodai, vadi, choolu-ini ethavathu bakki irukko-umbrella, stick, broomstick( all inauspicious objects) anything  left?”  Ammalu’s  anger was  understandable.
“Ammiarea, kappi ready ayo-is coffee ready?’” I could hear Nair’s  inquiry and Ammalu also would have heard it. Otherwise she would not have replied in a low voice, ” Kappi on mottai thalele kottaren- I want to pour coffee on your bald head”
“‘Ammalu, one cup for me too” demanded Ammini who joined us, with another bucket of water and broom stick, as the dog’s menace could not be wiped off with one bucket of water .
“Nee enthikkidi Ammini. Chumma chumma choolem morathem thookikindu kalam karthale ullevarai?”
So early in the morning why do you come so often with inauspicious broomstick ? “ Enquired Ammalu, in a pathetic voice .
“‘So what Ammalu?” ‘ I admonished her, ‘you still believe in such stupid things? As a good neighbor and friend she wants to help you as the maid servant has taken off today”
‘Mannan katta-rubbish” her husband came out with the truth. ‘Ammini wants to give you some materials to be handed over to her daughters in US. She is preparing the ground for that”
‘She has already done so” I interjected  pointing my finger to the corner where baggage was arranged, “that black suit case is full of her things”
Nair wanted to say something but paused as the panthalu from the temple was entering with a broken coconut and some flowers. ‘Meeru America veluthunaru katha, prasadam theeskkondi” . I requested him to keep the prasadam in the pooja room .
“Oru ottappattarum vandaya?’ -And you, a single Brahmin too  arrived to complete the list of  inauspicious things?).
Panthalu would not have understood a word of Ammalu’s contempt.
But I understood clearly that Ammalu had a point when Nair explained why Ammini was showing unusual interest in the cleanliness of our frontage.
“Sami, this woman is mad!” That is OK. All husbands say that. But what he said subsequently was not  OK.
“She wants to send through you, three  portable granite grinders with pestles to be delivered to our daughters in America. Those are for powdering chukku, dried ginger, for preparing chukka vellam, medicated hot water for drinking”
Sakunam (signs and signals)  is showing its teeth well in advance!
Ammalu is always right.

“This Ammini is an alpam, maha alpam (silly woman)”
“Yes, I know that”
“How do you know that?”
“you said it now, you have said it earlier and you have          been saying it for the past 4o years, Ammalu”
.
“If I say one word about Ammini, your intimate friend, you will jump at me”.
“Yes we are intimate friends. We studied together,we       worked together in the same Institute, in the same labs for 30 years, went together for tea break,excursions,picnic,   conferences and kathakali shows”
.
“There is a black mole at her back; it is so ugly”
“There is a black mole near her right eye too”
“How do you know that?’
“One night ,there was a sudden power breakdown in the Labs and all the lights went off. I noticed it, then. Immediately we came out of the room”
“Immediately you came out of the room?”
“Yes”
“Then, it is OK”
“You were enjoying her mohiniyattam in the cowshed from morning to evening today?”
.
“No.It was a rehearsal for the Kathakali show in our club for Vishu and you arranged that program. Ammini was practicing the role of Poothana and I was practicing singing”
.
” No doubt a poothana she is. But why practice in the cow-shed?.
“Then where? If we practice in our house you will yell. If we do that in her house that nil-head Nair will scream.
If practice in front of our house, neighbors will shout”.
“Are you going to dance to together?”
“No. I will be doing her make up and also help her in the graceful draping, as none here, including you, can do that job. It will take more than two hours and I do not want any one to come inside the green room”
” When do I come inside the green room?”
“We will come out.She will occupy the main stage and I will go, stand in a corner and sing”
“Then, it is OK”
“Will you give the Vishukaineettam in her hand”
‘Kaineettam is always placed on the open palm, but, as you object I shall place the coin in the opening of her blouse or tie it with the end of her sari”
‘Then, it is OK”
Love and regards,
sperinkulam
” Give a handful from your plenty to those deserving”