A Two Penny Opera

Dear Oj-da,

You cannot even guess how long my smile was to see your post in snippets today!

I could not wait to discover what the opera was all about and upon reading it, felt it was worth every sixty four parts of the rupee and some more!

No great incident. All of us who grew up in India are familiar with beggars and most of us are more familiar with two or three of them for some particular reason. But to bring it across to readers with such enchantment is possible only for the likes of Oj-da! And you lament about not being able to and losing it etc...Well, something simple minded people like me cannot comprehend of course. You set your standards so high that perhaps even your Gorky cannot reach it. Only, Gorky's fans will think otherwise.

This little tale took me back to my childhood. It was a common practice in the households of our neighborhood to invite a Brahmin 'sumangali' lady every Friday and gift her with the auspicious 'thamboolam'..which contains the kumkum, haldi, beetlenut leaves, fruit and flower and some coins. On occassions, blouse piece or even a sari for festivals. The lady of the house believes she invokes good vibes for her and her household in doing so.

So, 'Thungamma' was the lady who came to our house. She was a frail looking old lady with silver gray hair, big round pottu (dot) on her forehead and lovely to look at. She had a great sense of humor and sang folk songs to us every time and my sis and I just used to love them..one song in particular. This song was about a couple fighting and the recurring words in the song was that of the wife abusing the husband with irreverent words. Hearing those words from her mouth line after line used to set us off in big giggles. We never used to let her go until she sang the song to us! :rotflLuckily for us, she was not into marketing and we were entertained free of cost!

("Yaklo baddimagane nan prana thegitheeya"..all Kannada speaking members will understand and enjoy!!!!)

The small and simple joys of childhood! (But looong fb!)

Hope you had a lovely celebration. Nice to see you here!

L, Kamla

 

Dear Oj-da,

this is indeed a wonderful write up. I thoroughly enjoyed the poetic description of the man's attire or the lack of it. I see the innocence of the two ten year old boys who not only had a whale of a time hearing their favorite song, but also being accomplices in doing something that can be considered 'bad'! But Oj-da, as a mom let me assure you that your own mother would have feigned innocence even if she had found a paisa missing and I am sure you know it, The feeling of friendship and the accomplishment of having heard the song over and over must have made an impression on you for you have come back with such vivid description! y favorite part of the write up is certainly the way you have described this man - I have read it a couple of times and a vivd picture seems to appear in front of my eyes! And Oj-da there certainly is in play the "survival of the fittest" of Darwin. How else would that man how to use his fierce and eyes and strong voice tell me? He must have known and Oj-da the glee with which you and your friends as boys heard him along with the house wives must have also taught him how to survive!

Enjoyed reading it thoroughly and you know what I can't help but think these are the memories that actually make up our lives and these are the kind of memories that we try to tell our children even as they form their own. I love to tell little tidbits to my kids in my India trips much to my DD's delight and to my DS's "oh no, another history lesson" even though he loves them, pays attention to them for I often hear him share these stories with his friends! So thank you for sharing this wonderful piece. Looks like the two penny opera was worth every fraction of it's value for it has left such an indelible impression on you and is remembered by you so fondly even after so many years. The lovely way you have written this explains it all.

PS: please also accept my heart felt birthday wishes!

 

Ha ha Kamla,

those lines did bring a smile, a smile of a different kind and I can see many young women nodding in understanding and still wondering how could she sing such a line! I just hope that she did it with the required spunk as well ;-)

 

My dear OJ-da,

After a long time I came to post a snippet here and after an equally long time I found one posted by you and came running to read it. First of all I found the title very intriguing.

Needless to say OJ-da that I savoured each and every sentence with great relish. The description of the old man, his clothes, his singing .... I totally agree with Cheeniya sir when he says that your writings elevate the level of IL in general and that of the "good to read and write" section in particular.

This story reminded me of a beggar who used to come once or twice every week at around 5 in the evening calling out "seeta ram baba". I used to be waiting with a 10 paise coin in my hand (yes, by the time I was born inflation had probably brought down the value of the 1 paisa coin of your times to 10 paise!) and would want to be the one to rush and put it into his bowl. I don't know when he stopped coming and I suddenly remembered him one fine day and wondered where he had gone. Probably he had stepped onto the road to eternity by then, God bless his soul.

Such characters get etched in one's mind for a lifetime and are the stuff of which many an evening's tale for grandchildren are woven. :-D

 

Dear oj
What a masterpie e this is.I read all the comments n I too want to add that u r a genious n u brighten up induss no doubt as for not receiving comments at times well it happens to me too oj.dont bother about typos look at my posts haha

 

Hello Kaku..
Good to see you back entertaining us as usual with your wonderful sensitive post.. while reading it I was grabbing onto every detail and really enjoyed every bit of the characters .. Ratan.. yourself and the frail old man..
It a pity that nowadays the kids grow up without experiencing this "innocent mischief" but I guess change is most inevitable in all spheres and we have to accept and move on.
And Kaku for heavens sake please stop being harsh on yourself about the missing "style" in writing why not look at it from the other angle that maybe this is THE NEW style you are developing??... after all its just a question of looking at a glass as half full instead of half empty!!!
Kerman

 

OJ, looks like inflation hits even the songs! Great blog.