Vaithy was the earlier
of the two to rise. He was a creature of habit. Mrs. Das would hear his
sonorous tone, wafting in through her first-floor window, as he came out of his
bath every morning:
Vaksa me manascha me
Chakshu scha me Shrotrancha me Dakscha me Balam cha ma oja scha me sahascha ma
Ayuscha me Jara cha me Atma cha me tanuscha me Sharma cha me Varma cha me
Hard-work and thrift
were Thangam's watchwords, qualities she had inherited from Vishalapatti. Each
month, Vaithy would hand over a five-rupee and a ten-rupee bundle of notes to
her for the house-hold expenses. Unused notes, with the bank's band still
around them. She would carefully place them in a wooden box, covered with
velvet, inside the locker in her Godrej 'alamaari', lock the keys to it in her
steel trunk, and then lock the trunk with a Nav-Tal. Each time she went to
market, she retrieved a few notes. Never more than a few, she was a stickler
about that.
For an 18-year-old in
a strange new place, she would learn the ropes very quickly. Echchimi was her
constant help, as she learnt to bargain with vegetable vendors, admonish the
dudhwallah and motivate the maid. Within a few months of her arrival, she had
picked up the rudimentaries. "barbati kaise diya?" "athanna
kum!" "kal, teen pao dudh, teekh hai?" She had realized, that a
grasp of basic Hindi was far more important, in dealing with domestics, vendors
and at Ganesh Bhandar. Bengali would have to wait.
Her cooking stayed
true to her roots, but she learnt to use strange, new vegetables. Potol,
kundri, fulkopi, mulo, lau, shosha, kakrol, olkopi - she absorbed them all into
her larder, sometimes with advice from Mrs. Das. In return, Mrs. Das got a
taste of Thiruvadirai kalli and kaavattu, elai adai at Nolumbu, avil and pori
for Karthigai and mixture and muthuswaram at Deepavali.
The first eight years
went by quickly. The children arrived at regular intervals. First,
Pattabhiraman (Kannan), who was born only a year-and-half after his parents'
marriage. Then Ramabhadran (Papa), followed by Meenakshi (Meena). Meena was
born on Vijayalakshmi day. As he did for all his children, Vaithy cast her
horoscope and knew at once that she would bring prosperity upon herself and his
family. Thiruvonam, Makara rasi, Mina lagnam.
Two months later, Mr.
Kapoor summoned him. "KV, I am moving you to Sales, grade II. My
recommendation, okay'd by MD. Hand over to Bhattacharjee and start from 1st
February. He is a fool, but an intelligent one. Please tell Ram Sahay to bring
me two Saridon, my head is going to explode. See you on Thursday."
A few months later,
Vaithy moved his family to a two-room-kitchen flat on Sardar Shankar Road.
Thangam asked for, and got her first gas connection. Mrs. Das attended the
paalu-kachchal, leaving teary-eyed and promising to visit again soon. Kannan
was the saddest to see her leave.
In the next four
years, Shubhambal (Chuppam) and Venkitachalam (Dorai) would join them. For each
confinement, Thangam travelled home, to be mid-wifed and recuperate under
Vishalapatti's care. When she gave birth to her fifth child, she knew he would
be her last. It was a difficult birth, and Vishalapatti had to call upon the
ezhuthachan's wife for help. It was touch and go.
Vaithy had waited for
the telegram, to bring him news. When it arrived, it was terse, as usual.
"SON. TUE. 730AM. ALL FINE." When he met Thangam at Howrah Station,
when she returned with their new-born, he saw at once that she was still very
tired. He broke down.
They rode home in
silence. Once there, he took his new-born son and gently placed him on the cot
he had bought from the joiners on Central Avenue. That night, he and Thangam
went to bed on a cot for the first time in many, many years. With the baby between them.
Text by Shankar A.
Narayan. Photo credit: Wikipedia.
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