Oddiyanam (8)

   Sudarshan’s Upanayanam 

                Fearfully Jayamma looks at her brother. Now what is he going to say. He returns all of Sugantha ‘s ornaments. 

                I have fixed my son’s marriage. You keep your grandson with you for the time being , we will take over later. He should see his father atleast once a month.  

                 A man remarrying after a year of his wife’s death is nothing new. Jayamma however feels betrayed. See they have already found a substitute for my daughter. How can I face that interloper. So now every month on a Sunday the baby named Bala goes with the ayah to meet his father , stepmom and grandparents. 

                  The ayah returns and Jayamma has a thousand and one questions to ask about “that woman”. Once the ayah says , they now have a servant maid. Jayamma becomes furious.  Nothing for my daughter and everything for “her”. Every second of the day she flings curses on that  family. 

                   One day the ayah discloses, even this daughter in law has TB . Has the devil heard her prayers. Jayamma  slightly mutes her curses. After an operation in the lungs the second daughter in law recovers , but never has a baby. They try to get back the one grandchild but Jayamma is adamant . She knows how to use her tears .

                 30 years later I enter Jayamma’s household at Rameswaram Road T Nagar. For all purposes I am her daughter in law though I am in fact her grandson’s wife. What do I see . A bitter woman given to easy tears. By now she is somewhat famous as that “ mandrikkura amma”. Scorpion bites, sprains , people come to her. She does special poojas on eclipse days. Surrounds herself with an aura  of mystic and mysterious power.  

                  She is the Grand Landlady , lording over her tenants. Each coconut why even the trees ‘ fronds had to be accounted for. Woe betide if a child or adult broke  a roof tile. Let someone enjoy sitting under a neem tree listening to the transistor. Next day she would get the tree cut. You get what you pay for. Don’t try your tricks here. All this accompanied by the choicest oaths. Her younger brothers are her greatest support. 

                     I am a disappointment to her. Know no traditions. What did she expect from an army officer’s daughter who did her schooling in the North. I can draw a mean kolam and tie flowers that is about all. Can read but not write Tamil. Day in and day out I am told about that wonderful daughter who left this earth 30 years ago. Almost a God to hear them speak.

                   1996 . My airforce brother sends an invitation for his son’s upanayanam. Hey the Chattaram  is the mini one on Doraisamy Road. I tell my husband , see you can make no excuses. It is right on our door step. No he says ,I think my mother’s devasam is on the same day. We see the panjangam. No it is on the earlier day. Why do we have to conduct 3 devasam in a year I shout at him.With Jayamma gone 4 years back we do it for his grand parents and mother. People everywhere are changing. No I want it only this way. So with the devasam done to his satisfaction, next day we go to Sudarshan’s Poonal function. 

                   My brother’s family has arrived from Baroda and so  also my Baroda cousin. I am enjoying looking at  cousin Shanti’s 7 year old daughter reading Enid Blyton and think , chip of the old block. A seventy  year old woman comes and sits next to me. She points to the kid , she  is my grand daughter she says. Hesitantly she asks, do you live on Rameswaram road. Yes I say. ... In my school days I would get down at Mambalam station walk down that road and go to  Sharada school. There used to be a girl on that road....I sharpen my ears.....Actually that was her mother’s house , so she would have married and gone away. I just felt like asking.  The house with the coconut trees and Thulasi maadam . Her name  ?  Sugantha.

                          Sorry , I tell her, she passed away a very long time back. Just yesterday was her 48th thithi . ...Can you tell me something about her I ask. The sweetest thing. So beautiful. Best at studies. You know she got a gold medal for Hindi from Gandhiji himself. She had very long hair. She would tie it like a belt twice around her waist. Walking from the station we girls would stop at her house. As soon as she started  for school we would walk behind her. We were her fan club members.

                           What is that sound you hear , like air escaping from a balloon. No not a gas leak, it is my ego rushing out from my swollen head.😁

        

( yes had she been alive our lives would have been different.)