A Dream Comes True

Vishalam stood outside the internet cafe. She was waiting for Ganeshan, her neighbour’s son who worked there. He seemed to be busy limping from machine to machine dragging that no good left leg of his. She sighed… Why is it that those who are good at heart suffer always? She took out a large handkerchief from her handbag that had seen better days and wiped the sweat off her face and neck.
“ Mami, ulla vaango,” said Ganeshan, inviting her to enter the small shop. She smiled and shook her head. She had to wait a good fifteen minutes before he came out with a piece of paper which she eagerly grabbed. Eagerly,she started reading the Tamil words and sentences written in English by her son, Balu… “ Naan inga sowkiyamaa vandu shernden… Room romba vasadiyaa irukku… Officila ellaam pudussa irukku… vellakkaraa pesharadonnum shariyaa puriya maattengarathu…”
She tut- tutted and grinned broadly as she read the news on the print out of the email Ganeshan had given her. So, he had reached safely, had a comfortable room to board and was finding everything new out there. But what was that about not understanding what the whites were talking? “Ada Kadavule!” she said… With what great difficulties she had put him through English medium school and later, engineering college! Now the fellow says he can’t understand what the ‘vellakkarangal’ were talking… Did they really teach him properly in the school? Should she meet Father Benedict?
She remembered the day she had sought admission for Balu in the Missionary school. For days, her son had been nagging her to get him admitted in the convent. His friends Gopal and Justin had already joined the convent in the fifth standard. He too wanted to study there. It was so easy for him to nag her… he was a child and did not know the implications of his demand. She alone knew the problems of raising three children on a meagre allowance given from her husband’s salary by a virago of a mother in law. Yet, when Balu had started a hunger strike to get his way, her heart melted and she decided to go to the convent and meet Father Benedict, the Principal.

Accompanied by Balu and the five year old Ramu she had walked with her infant Shruthi on her hips, all the way to the convent. It was bad enough getting the watchman to open the huge gates, but she was in for more disappointment when the Principal refused her son a seat. “ Admissions are over, Madam,” he said. The two sections of English medium classes are already full and we don’t even have a spare chair for your son.” “But, sir, she pleaded in desperation…My son will sit on the floor and learn… in one corner… he is good at studies… very hard working…” And as his face became a relentless mask, she said earnestly, he has a chair and table at home for his work…It belonged to my husband when he was small… Can I bring it and put it in the class room.. I mean, if there is no spare seat…”

Father Benedict pressed that bell on his table and instructed the peon, who entered immediately, to escort the visitors out. As he ushered the woman with the three kids, Andoni, the peon, felt pity stir in him… He saw the boy weep bitterly as his mother told him that he could not study in that school… Stepping close to the boy he wiped his tears… Quickly, he glanced around to see if anyone was watching. Assured that he was not being watched, he turned to the woman, “Amma,” he said, “ Go and meet the Bishop and get a recommendation letter from him… Then Principalachan can’t refuse your son a seat.” Vishalam was ready to clutch at any straw now… “Shall I go to the Church? Will I see him there?” She asked. “No… No Amma, you have to go to his diocesan house… It is in Kothanalloor. Anyone will guide you from the bus - stop. But don’t tell anyone I told you to do this.” Seeing Father coming out of his room he pulled the weeping boy towards the gate…

Vishalam walked towards her village. She didn’t know how long it would take to reach Kothanalloor. She hadn’t cooked anything in her hurry to leave for school… She wondered if she should leave the kids with her mother in law, but decided against it… She rummaged in her handbag for the small purse and found a fifty rupee note and two tens… “Okay, Balu… We will try the Bishop… But I want you to behave okay? She looked at Ramu as she said this, wondering how long the day was going to be.

The bus seemed to cover the entire district as it splashed through the rain-washed muddy roads of the countryside… She glanced at Ramu who was sleeping on the lap of an old woman seated next to her. Balu stood near her, holding on to the metallic arc of the seat in front of her. Looking at his bright face, she felt that she had made the right decision… If he studied in the convent, he would get a good job, better than his father’s and would look after them… She wondered what her husband would say about her decision to put their eldest son in an English medium school.

When the bus came to a stop at Kothanalloor, she walked to the tea shop nearby, whose owner told her it was a twenty minute walk to the Bishop’s palace. She walked with resolute steps, slowing down only to let her kids catch up with her.

There seemed to be no one in the premises when she entered the huge compound. The garden was so beautifully maintained and as Ramu ran ahead to pick a pink rose, she scolded him in an angry whisper. “Don’t touch anything,” she said, pinching him… “Stay near me.”

She climbed up the steps and hesitated at the closed door. With trembling fingers she rapped on the door with the carving of a huge cross. She was scared to touch the cross. She, being a Brahmin, had never been so near anything that represented any other religion and she was terrified. After a few minutes she realized no one had heard her and wondered what to do. There seemed to be no calling bell. Nervously, she looked at her eldest son beseechingly. Balu looked around and saw a rope hanging near the door. On an intuition, he pulled it once or twice. Inside the house they could hear the echo of a bell… Terrified, she pulled Balu, but as he was holding the rope, the bell clanged inside again and again… till frightened, Balu left the rope. Before she said anything else, she heard steps hurrying towards the door from inside. A man wearing the robes of a priest came out. Surprised on seeing the visitors, he asked them what they wanted. Vishalam stammered that she had come to see the Bishop. Why? The man asked. Vishalam was about to answer when she recalled what Andoni had told her. ‘Don’t talk to any one except the Bishop,’ he had told her as he closed the school gate after them… “Insist on seeing the Bishop or they’ll never let you in.” She shook her head at the man and told him she had to see the Bishop. ‘His Holiness is praying and will not be free for an hour,’ he said. She said she’d wait. He asked her to be seated and disappeared inside.

After fifteen minutes, he came out and told her the Bishop was really busy, and may not be able to see her that day. He told her to come some other day. Vishalam shook her head and made no bid to move. The robed man disappeared again. Ramu started climbing up the pillar at the end of the veranda, and Vishalam angrily told him to come and sit next to her. “Fold your hands and place your forefinger on your mouth,” she hissed. The child realized that his mother was in a foul mood and did as he was told. She glared at Balu, accusingly, blaming him for their predicament and he, without being told, folded his hands and placed his forefinger against his lips, eyes down.

That was how the Bishop Ambrose Sundaranayagam found them an hour later. As soon as she saw him, Vishalam stood up and not knowing how to greet him, she joined her palms in namaste. Ramu, who had stood up along with her pulled her pallu and asked, “ Ivar aarammaa?” “ Aachaaryaal daa… Kaalula vizhu,” she murmured and the two boys ran forward and prostrated at the feet of the startled Bishop. The priest who had come with him hauled them up and away from the Bishop. The Bishop asked her what she wanted. She stammered that she wanted a letter of recommendation from him for her son’s admission in the convent school. His Eminence asked her why she hadn’t gone to the Principal of the school. She said that she had but he had refused saying there were no seats. Hearing this, he shook his head and said that in that case, he could do nothing… and there was no point in waiting… She watched the huge mahogany doors swing shut in front of her.

Frustration filled her heart. Was there no mercy in this world? When a child yearned to study, why were people acting difficult? She realized that there was nothing she could do except admit defeat and let her son continue in the government school. She looked at him pleadingly and watched with a heavy heart as his eyes spilt over and his little lips quivered. It broke her heart to see him cry.

“Okay,” she said going back to the wicker chair on which she had sat earlier, “We will wait …He will come out again and I will talk to him.” She opened her handbag and took out the buns she had bought at the tea shop near the bus stop. She tore the paper in which the buns were packed, into two; placed a bun on each and handed them out to her sons.
“Eat carefully… Don’t drop anything on the floor or they’ll get angry.” She looked at her baby daughter who slept through all these commotions. When she wakes up, I’ll feed her, she thought.

The noon sun dipped towards the West and shadows lengthened. Vishalam wondered what the time was. She looked at her children. Ramu was curled up in his chair, fast asleep. Balu was reading the piece of paper which had served him earlier as a plate. The baby gurgled happily in her lap, playing with the edge of her sari.

The Bishop who came out after the vespers was startled by the sight of the woman and children in the patio. “You are still here? I told you there is nothing I can do!” he exclaimed wee bit annoyed. “ Ayya,” said Vishalam. “You are my only hope. I shall not go from here till you help me.” “Who told you to come here, by the way?” he asked. Vishalam chose not to answer, and kept her eyes averted from him as though he would learn the truth from her eyes… God knows I don’t want to put poor Andoni into trouble. The Bishop turned to one of the priests with him and said something. The priest went inside. The Bishop turned to Balu and beckoned him. He questioned him about why he wanted to study in an English medium school and what he wanted to be when he grew up. When Balu said, “Engineer”, he smiled and murmured a blessing.
In ten minutes, the priest came out. The Bishop signed the letter and the priest folded it and slipped it into an envelope. Bishop Ambrose Sundaranayagam then handed the recommendation letter to Vishalam and said, “Please don’t tell anyone that I did this for you… or I shall have no peace here. I bow to your tenacity. See to it that your son does not waste this seat.” With tears in her eyes, Vishalam joined her palms… The good Bishop bade them good bye before walking in with a curiously satisfied heart…

That was how her son had got admission in the convent school from where he topped in the board exams and won a scholarship for his college studies… He had studied in a very famous college called I I T and now he was in America… working for some famous company…Now he was writing letters through computers, like the one Ganeshan had given her… She smiled in satisfaction as she walked home…She had to go and meet her second son Ramu who was studying in an engineering college in Thiruchi… Her children were her salvation… and she didn’t mind any sacrifice for their sake. Her dreams were coming true…