Story of a killer nine yard sari!

Story of a killer nine yard sari!

It was a Friday. Sowndarya got up early in the morning. She will never skip a Friday without taking oil bath. She would also give oil bath to her three daughters. She lighted the mud oven ( vennir aduppu)with fire wood at the bath room which was at the back yard. She put the brass handi ( Vennir thavalai) on top of the oven and filled it with water drawing from the well in the open air.
She went to the kitchen and prepared coffee for all. Her husband who was an army officer had come on holiday. He was posted in field area at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace>Kashmir</st1lace> for three years where they were not allowed to keep their family. Hence Sowndarya was staying with her bachelor younger brother at Kancheepuram who was an officer at a nationalized bank.
Sowndaryar’s parents were at <st1:City><st1lace>Madras</st1lace></st1:City> as her younger sister was working there.
She had three daughters and two sons and the age difference between them was just one year and nine months. The eldest daughter was eleven year old. Sowndarya went to take bath after serving coffee to all. She had already applied oil on her long dense hair. She went to the bath room to take bath and found the water too hot. She took out some hot water and poured it in to a bucket. Then she went to the well and drew water and filled the hot water vessel. Again she went to get some more water from the well to mix with the hot water in the bucket. Her sari caught fire and she did not notice it. Only when she went in the open air the fire shot up in flames. She got panicked and tried to remove her sari, but kept running in side the house. She was wearing madisar and the knot was so tight that she could not open it. Her hands were burned and she came and stood in the court yard like a towering inferno. Her husband who saw her did not even recognize her as there some more ladies of the house owner also were staying there. He instantly brought a rug and covered it with that and rolled her on the ground. By this time the fire God had played havoc. Though she was wearing a cotton sari only, it had burnt and got stuck up on her body.
The children started crying. Sowndarya’s brother called for an ambulance and took her to the Government hospital and got her admitted.and he also informed his parents. There at Madras Sowndarya’s sister suddenly was not feeling well.. Her mother also was telling that she had some burning sensation in her stomach for the past three days. Yet when she heard the news, at once she left to attend to her daughter. Perhaps these were the signs of warning for the calamity that was to happen.
Sowndarya’s mother had told her husband to take care of the other two daughters and that she would send message if there was any thing serious. But here both sisters could not rest in peace and they urged their father to go and see the sister. They all left for Kancheepuram and at about <st1:time Hour="18" Minute="0">6 p.m.</st1:time> they reached the hospital and as they entered the emergency ward they could only see the ventilator and other life saving gadgets being removed. A life bubbling with energy was lost due the knot of the madisar pudavai.
Perhaps it was God’s will, but how can be so cruel to act like this, making innocent children motherless?
This happened long time back and many years had rolled by. The children suffered a lot, but now they are all in good position by the Grace of God. This is a true life story. Sowndarya was my beloved elder sister.