Mylapore, the name rings a bell to anyone who has been to the December Carnatic Music orchestras in Chennai ("kutcheries", they are called in Tamil). Our hero has been living here for the last 70 years now. He celebrated his 70th birthday a couple of days ago on November 14th. Alone. His partner for life, had broken her pact last year.
"Hello Chidambaram sir, how are you doing today?", called the pan shop owner."Yes, I am doing as usual. The chill is a bit on the high today isn't it? Guess the rain yesterday must have caused it. So how are your Deepavalli purchases coming along", said thaatha.
"This year hasn't been as good as last year sir. Sales have been low. So we just settled for a new set of dresses and crackers for our children. We just got ourselves a new towel for the sake of the festival."
Children. Coming to think of it, our Chidambaram thaatha had done the same thing that this pan shop owner had done almost every year when he was working in Indian Bank as a clerk. 2 sons and 2 daughters are not easy to bring up with the pay of a bank clerk. His wife Kanthamani had been a loving and caring mother. Though uneducated, she was very good in managing the household accounts and helped him keep a good bank balance in case of emergencies.
"Do you know that Ramu has sent me a beautiful watch as gift for this Deepavalli. It is some swatch or something. But it is not working, somehow he forgot to put the battery and I can't find a shop which sells that battery", said thaatha, displaying the watch in his hand proudly. Sadly it did not show the time that it is supposed to show.
Ramakrishnan was his eldest son. He was a quiet yet brilliant boy. The usual shy types. Oily hair. Specs right from the third standard. He scored good marks to secure a seat in an engineering college. Our hero would not mind spending his savings for the education of his first son. So off his son went to the engineering college. Now he works in a firm in the US of A.
"So what happened to Raghu? Did he send you something as well?", asked the pan shop owner.
Raghu, his second son, was no less intelligent than his first son. However, he was more interested in management. He took up Charted Accountancy, and later did MBA.Now he works in London. A very shrewd boy. Very shrewd indeed.
"Of course he did. My dear kuttan has sent me a parker pen. So thoughtful of him. He knows that I have started writing short stories these days", said thaatha.
The pension that he received from Indian Bank was not sufficient for taking care of his monthly expenses. 3000 rupees a month is very less given the rising rates of inflation. So he had to resort to writing short stories to Aananda Vikadan, a magazine in Tamil. This earned him another 1000 more rupees on an average, depending upon his story getting published.
"So how is Raaji, she just gave birth to her second child right? Is it a boy or girl", asked the pan shop owner.
"Raaji is doing great. I have one more grandson to add to my list of grandchildren. They have decided to name him Rahul. God knows what names they give to children these days. Rahul...what does that mean? In my days we used to give such good names as Rajagopalachari, Parthasarathy, Balasubramanian , Lakshminarayanan etc. Look at the names they give to the children these days, not more than 10 characters long, and don't know which God they name them after. She spoke to me day before from Australia to wish me on my birthday. It seems her husband is looking for a new job as he got bored of some software company."
"And how is your youngest daughter? is she doing well? Heard her husband just moved to Dubai"
"Aamam(yes). His recent project is with a client there. So they shifted there. I heard she is also expecting a child now. I hope it is a girl, that will make it 3 grandsons and 3 granddaughters in all", exlaimed thaatha.
"You are so lucky sir, all your children are well settled in life. And they remember to send you gifts whenever there is an occassion. What more can you ask for", said the pan shop owner.
A pause. A vague silence. Our thaatha seems to think about something.
"Yes, you are right. How lucky I am...... How lucky I am.....", said thaatha
"Seri, give me 1/2 kowalai (a kowalai is 12 beetel leaves). I have to get ready soon. Have a pooja to perform", said thaatha.
Perhaps...., the pooja was intended for the welfare of his children.
-- this is the first in the set of stories I intend to write on my hero Chidambaram...hope I Find time to write more about my hero.
6 comments:
Diwali falls after November 14, is it? Cant remember a year where it has been like that! Or was he asking about the purchases for next year Diwali? :)
So Balasubramanian and Lakshminarayanan are good names is it? Info...Would remember it for future.
Hmmm. Interesting start.Lets see what this thaatha is gonna be doing...
@Zealous Zygote : It has once fallen on November 21.
Oh. Thanks for the info. Which year was that? You must be remembering that as well :)
@ Zealous Zygote :Dunno which year da...but I am certain it has occurred after Nov. 14...it is possible that deepavalli falls anywhre between oct 25 to Nov 25
On "Good" names,If you remember,during our college days, one of the brahaspathis in our gang had decided to name his child "Catherine" (if it was a girl, ofcourse !).
Dont think too hard about that person, free your mind ;-)
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