Oddiyanam (5). 

  Sugantha.

        Bhashyam the young Iyengar boy and Jayamma are the same age . Not only Jayamma but all inhabitants of that mansion hang on to his every word. His stories are so wonderful. Full of kings, queens, knights far away lands  and deeds of valour. Sometimes forgetting there are ladies present he would become more eloquent describing  the anatomy of some heroine.

         

           One enduring memory is of the boat ride he arranged along the Buckingham Canal upto Mahabalipuram and back.Oh what fun. Puliyodharai, thayir sadam with Vadam. Coffee in a kooja. Some of the tenants too accompanied them just to listen to him talk. The sun hiding behind the clouds was just the way they wanted it.

              

            All goods things come to an end.  He left the outhouse as he had now become a man of means . A very popular writer with the pen name Sandilyan.

              

                 One more colourful tenant was a movie actress called ...was it Durga Devi. My memory fails me here. Why she should live in an out house is beyond me. She would wear outlandish dresses and come back  from shootings with full make up . The different styles of cars that came to pick her up were of more interest to the tenant children. One fine day she left never to return and a fine hullabaloo was created by the police. Better sense prevailed and they started renting out only to  sober families.

          

         Little Sugantha meanwhile is a very good girl. Very dutiful. Studies well. Goes to Hindi classes at the Hindi prachar sabha. Very fair , very beautiful.( Again and again  I am told this . So I ask my cook who used to be a tenant in those days  and now  fallen on bad times. “ Yes ,she would always sit in her room and read. Never come out even to chase a cow eating up the flowering plants in the garden. “ Well this is very bitter illiterate women . So the truth should be some where in between.)

            In far away Pune Janamma has her first 2 children. The next 2 are born even much later. 

              Meanwhile at Kanchi the father expires. The house is divided between the children of the 2 mothers. Token rent is collected and Desigar  temple priest Thiru Dasarathy lives there with his wife Pankajam on one side. The family of 3 little boys and mother on the other.The boys remember that one of their class mates in school was  from the Nalli family. Mother and boys later relocate to Nungambakkam to live with the eldest stepbrother so as to finish their college education.

                  Sugantha is writing her SSLC exams. She has been studying at the Sharada school. One invigilator comes up to her and asks her,  “ Are you Jayamma ‘s daughter?”.

                    Now who is this gentleman who looks somewhat familiar and knows my mother’s name.