Vaidehikku Kalam Vandachu

VAIDEHIKKU KALAM VANDACHU

The Sarmas were very affluent and the grandchildren total in 6 were all too mischievous to handle, still Vaidehi had to do it, she in her 50’s was unable to move around so easily due to her arthritis, still the little imp Sakshi always ran up while drinking milk and Vaidehi had to climb the stairs to go up and get her to drink the milk, by promising for a nice bed time story.

Sakshi is totally 4 and yet to go to school so once the Sarmas went to work on their business of automobile Sakshi was holding Vaidehi’s pallav and waving happily to her parents, it has been nearly 5yrs since Vaidehi came here, there was no news about her husband Kittu short for Krishnamurthy, and she had no place to go, so stuck on with this family, as she had no children it was easy for her to shower all her love on to the children. The gardener, cook, driver, all took orders from Vaidehi so she had more than she can handle at a time but 5yrs is long enough for her to muse about it..

One day Vaidehi started telling about Kittu to the children, he was a great Sanskrit pandit and had a very good command over the language and none could find fault when he conducted the ceremonies, he also made a trip abroad taken by MR. Vishu and family for their grahapravesam so he got to stay there for a whole of a year because Vishu wanted that Kittu should do the bhoomi pooja of his house and by the time the construction was over it was a year and he took up vaideeham around and became very popular amassing a lot of wealth, he was from Ammayppan a very small village with the stream running through and they had a Ganesha temple to their name where Kittu’s father had taken the trouble of installing the idol, now it was taken care by Subramanian his elder brother, who stayed there along with his family, also taking care of the ancestral property.

Once Kittu returned and he had changed a lot, started fluently speaking in English along with his local dialect and “a yeah and really” where his expressions added which Vaidehi has never seen him with before. He came into contact with Pramod who was a realtor and thought after all his dear Vaidehi and he should never suffer in old age and get them self a decent house in a nice locality with phone and latest amenities so he could maintain his foreign returned image in full..

Pramod showed him a nice place and also tempted Kittu to buy the adjacent house so that he could give it on rent and they could spend days, when he retires from his work, Kittu was very happy with the thoughtful suggestion of pramod and they went about the business of contacting people and in the process he trusted pramod a lot and helped them in pujas and other matters…

One day suddenly Pramod died in an accident and Kittu was at a loss for words and now all his money and planning every thing got lost, Pramod’s brother Sonu finished up all the cash and refused to part as Kittu had no receipt, that was when Kittu vanished and it has been six years and no information about him, by the time she could finish her story, the children were asleep and only the elder one Pradeep was sad and went to his room.

In a remote village away from the city, Kittu had taken up some prohitham with an <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1lace>amman</st1lace></st1:City> temple and was very sad he could not meet his wife. While his puja was going on some times he cried to the deity why has she put him in such dire situation and sometime he shouted at her, each of his emotion were only with amman, as he grew attached to her spiritually, his woes were no children “so what! am I not bathing you daily, and turmeric kappu, sandana kappu and all the abhishekam I do think you’re my child now why do you forsake me, don’t you have any pity on Vaidehi, or has she not thought of you, why this period of silence and separation for a childless couple, how do I face her won’t you look at us Mathey…”

He decided to visit his brother Subramanian one day and when he got down from the bus he was very sad to go there, as he had never kept in touch with them, how could he forget the episode where he walked out with Vaidehi over the childless matter, he had told suppuni that he need not slog so much in the field and while away as he had no children and wanted to go to the city, and he can take care of the temple here, suppuni also had agreed but warned not to be lured by money and loose his self respect wherever he was.

Today Kittu stood at the Mayavaram bus stop to go to Ammayappan, and slowly got into the bus and once he reached home, he was so weak with sunken eyes and unshaved beard and tattered clothes, that Suppuni could not hold himself, he came running to him enquiring what happened to him, when Kittu narrated every thing Suppuni though was very angry still pitied his helpless stage and made him sit down have bath and food, then asked his wife Annapoorni to get the pass book and handed it over to Kittu, “here your share of the yearly yield and profit has been deposited don’t worry go and either bring Vaidehi here or settle down well don’t loose this money too.”

It struck hard on Kittu how he had shouted at his mother whom he daily did the puja and alangaram and all the while she had her own plans for him, so he asked her to pardon him if she can as she is a mother to the universe, not only his.

When the letter arrived that Kittu is coming to collect her, Vaidehi, nicely combed her hair and today applied kohl to her eyes and after making a bun of her hair put some jasmine, kanakambaram and marukozhundu flower string and it was a great contrast for her salt and pepper hair, she had only her front part a lot whiter than the rest and her nose ring in tact which Kittu had got her from his American trip and the earring all full of glitter and to day she wore her favourite saree of maroon nine yards with 4” zari work which was good cotton given by Sarmas wife, and looked really nice, one pearl double chain which again Sarmas contribution, all ready but as she searched for Sakshi the child was missing and they searched all over, only to find her hiding in the kennel, so Vaidehi picked her up from there and said she would come back not to worry and so on, the child has not known her parents so much as Vaidehi, so was miserable and Mrs Sarma took her and as she was consoling, the jhatka came into the house along with Kittu and when Vaidehi saw him all so weak after so many years still that yearning for her husband will never diminish, as they took the jhatka and waved to the sarma’s . Their journey together started to move further to fulfill their dreams together…..regards sunkan

 

dear tdu,
we belong to anda kalam, and pasumaiyanadu, we can carry the love even after the death of a spouse, but not the latest in the crop..thanku for your feed back. i like it this way any day...sunkan