The Mysterious Visits (now edited)

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"Oh no, Beauty, you mustn't push your way inside like that," Kala said, gently pushing back the group of pigeons that were circling the balcony impatiently  as they waited for her husband Karuna. "Your boss is late today. Just wait till he comes."

She drew the curtains and night turned to day all of a sudden in the room. "Wake up, Karuna, she said. Your friends are all waiting  impatiently  for you. Helloo!..." and she gave him a light shake.

 Karuna seemed more and more withdrawn lately. His affinity with the birds was perhaps the only normal quality openly visible.
 He felt stiff and cold as his body rolled over. "NO... she screamed. You can't do this to me, Karuna, you can't..."

                        *      ..................*..................*.......................*.....................*

Priya was surprised to receive a call from her sister Kala so early in the morning.
"Priya," the voice said faintly. Priya... and then there was the sound of a thud and of the receiver dropping.
"Irresponsible burden,"  Priya's husband Bharat said as he cut open the lock to  enter Kala's door. "Had he been more responsible we wouldn't have had to bother so much about Kala," he grumbled, giving the door a good push.


 Kala was lying unconscious by the phone. Priya ran to get water and sprinkled it on Kala's face. Kala blinked her eyes open and was shocked to see Priya and Bharat by her side.Then fear swept over her face and she pointed towards her room. "Karuna's dead," she whispered.

In fifteen minutes the place was swarming with people.
"He shouldn't have resigned his job," Jim a neighbour said.
"Yes, that was how their troubles began," Jim's mother said.

Outside the house little Gopi gave a flower to three year old Shalu and she  accepted it shyly.
A  small piece of cloth moved all by itself across the grass. Janaki watched it in amazement and then followed it half with fear and half with curiosity. A rat got dismantled from under it and entered a hole in the ground leaving the cloth at its entrance.

Meanwhile the drummers arrived and started to beat the  flat drums as they do during funerals here. These typical drum beats indicate death and helps spread the news faster. When Kala's mother arrived the drummers beat the drums fast and loud. Loud beats indicate the arrival of a close relative or friend of the family.
"Kala, oh my Kala, see the plight he has left you in!" Kala's mother slapped her own forehead to express her grief.

Karuna's relatives began to come in too.
"He didn't look too good lately. Must have started on alcohol or something. Once that comes in, life is lost automatically," Karuna's brother Muthu confided to their father Arasu, privately. Arasu was an independent  man who had his own views. He knew that Karuna took after him but now he wasn't too sure that it was good on the whole.

Shanmugam, a one time friend who turned into a rival in Karuna's past business came too. "Poor Karuna had brains. If only he had stuck to his old business, all would have been well. Only his venturing out to strange places  made his foot slip. The places he's been visiting recently is notorious.

'Irresponsible, drunkard, gambler, womaniser'?  More salt in her wounds. None of this fit in with Kala's idea of Karuna, though she couldn't give a valid explanation for the places he was visiting or of his other strange behaviour. He used to visit some hill tribe area more  out of interest than for monetary gains. But there was the practical problem of debt. So he was depressed and had a heart attack...

The elders arrived to conduct the last rites and rituals. Holy water was poured here and there. Men washed themselves to ward off any curse that might continue to follow the family. And then they lifted the body.

Nobody noticed a stifled whiff of air come out from the inner room. It circled Kala's head and then followed the body hesitantly.

Kala suddenly remembered a cupboard in her husband's study. She was sure it wasn't connected with any business. Yet Karuna had been using it a lot lately.

After the crowds left she opened it quietly.She was right. Karuna had fought and won the rights of the tribal women of that village.Opened schools,brought water connection to it and made the women aware of their rights: against the lust of the men.

It was just like Karuna to work with the right hand what the left was unaware of.  

*                                       *                                           *                                *


                                        Basic idea given by Ashok Kumar

The last laugh

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I woke up

 and looked

around me :

My body ached,

A sense of loss

engulfed me.

I took a breath deep

and set out afresh.

I worked

I earned

I gave my mother

A sustenance

She smiled.

My younger brother

hiding behind her

smiled too.

Twenty years later

I am still

toiling for nectar

while he smacks

the honey.

Mother relishes

his company

                                                           And will not send him out.                                              

 I wonder

when

 I'll ever

have the

 last laugh.

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Inventing a Thoughtoscope (poem)

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I'd like to invent

A thoughtoscope

to read (at a glance) people's thoughts

behind the smiles

and behind those silent tears

To know

analyse and understand

what caused them

or what people hide

from others and why.

And thus

cover the Earth

and record under columns

each one's thoughts;

Then add up everything

and see

what weighs more:

Wild thoughts or noble,

Happy thoughts or sad

foolish or wise, cowardly or brave 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                free digital photos.net

 But then

such a multitude of thoughts 

will weigh me down

when I can't bear even my own.

I'd disagree with most

Then how do I host

 problems that man causes man

even his mother and father

sister and brother

We can only form a chain to unite

to radiate

Positive and strong thoughts

and pass them along

in a stream of goodwill

letting them multiply its force

as each player lends a hand

to volley them through the

courts of life.

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It's a Birthday song

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                                                     I am 1 year old.

Dear Readers,
Thank you for your continual support and encouragement. I've been irregular for the past few weeks because I'm trying to get some of my work published. This being the first time please bear with me. I'll let you know as soon as I have any news.
Yours,
Wini.B. Solomons

A bubble bursts...(now edited)

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"Shanthi Villa?" the auto (tuk tuk) driver was obviously surprised. His shocked expression frightened me. Why? I asked hesitantly. "No, nothing," he said. "It's just that the house is  deserted  and  I haven't seen or taken anybody there so far."

"Yes, it's 16 years since I was last here.  My mom lives there." I said."Was bedridden from an accident. Now that I can travel I've come  here at last."

 "Good of you to remember your mother," he said.

"Isn't it natural?" I asked. "Anybody else,maybe as you say.But how can one forget one's mother?"

"That's what you and I think. But  not everybody thinks so, Sir" he said. He looked around 30. Too young to be so philosophical, I thought.

"You seem to have experienced it personally," I said. He nodded.
"You've roused my curiosity. Mind sharing it? I asked.

He sighed and started,"I was working on a farm and learned everything about it. Then one day my owner called me and said,"You've done a great job, Chandru. I can't find another as dedicated as you. My daughter who is abroad is calling me to settle down with her. I'm also getting old. I can trust only you to love the farm and look after it as your child,just as I did all these years."
Thus saying, he wrote it all on my name and left. You won't find such a good man as my master, Sir. So I did just as he said and developed it well.

 Then my eldest brother comes to me. "Chandru," he says. "Only you can help me. I can't live without Meera. She haunts me day and night. But you know my income. How will her father, a central government employee give her to me as long as this automobile shop doesn't even provide enough for me?"

 "But I don't have enough in hand, Maruthu. How can I help you?" I ask.
"You have a large farm to support you, mother and your family," he says again and again. Finally I mortgage a portion of the farm and give him the money. He starts a cloth shop and it picks up by and by.

He was just talking of returning the money to me when Logesh, our second brother says that a friend had promised him a government job. But he needed cash immediately for the 'under the table' and 'over the table' business. So Maruthu and I pool up enough cash to take a new loan and we give it to Logesh. Within a year he gets married and then slowly both my brothers disappear without a trace....just like that.

He shook his head and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. A fully loaded lorry passed by, almost grazing against our rickshaw. The auto swayed but Chandru steered it back deftly.
"I'm not in a hurry. Maybe we should stop  here for a while," I suggested.  But he shook his head and continued...

"Eventually the farm goes out of my hand and my mother, wife and 3 month old baby move out into the street.

We were passing by the bridge of a four way. He slowed down. "See this nook between the bridge and the street? I tied a sheet here at this very place for privacy and we lived here - my old mother, my wife, my child and I. Believe it?" He looked  majestic and  lost in thoughts. I tried to imagine him in this place but couldn't. He didn't fit in.

"My mother couldn't bear it. My brothers should have kept her at least. She became mentally affected. My wife gave me the last of  her jewels . I mortgaged them to treat my mother. She's better now but has to take tablets all her life.

"When I was at the hospital I met an old classmate of mine. He's a doctor now. I was embarrassed to see him  right then...tried to escape, but he saw me and waved,hastening towards me.He hugged me and said, "Chandru, I miss you, da. You always had that zeal for life. I remember you whenever life gets tough."

 I couldn't control myself  and the tears started flowing. Shouldn't have done it at that time and place but I just couldn't stop. Only then I realised that I had so much tension in me. Told him my story and he got me this auto - just like that, without any fuss.

"I know you and your principles," he says. "Look after your mother for me. I've eaten so many meals made by her : the unforgettable Susheela Aunty. Take my children to and from school everyday. That'll be your way of paying me back."
 He didn't listen to any explanation. The world has this kind of people too.

We reached Shanthi Vilas, my destination. But by then I remembered something else.
" Susheela Aunty - was your father's name Murugan, by any chance?"
"Yes, of course. But.. but how do you know?"he asked.

" My father's name was Ganeshan. I vaguely remember mother saying that your dad had some misunderstanding with grandfather and got separated. She used to worry about you people." I said.
"So?"
"So welcome home my dear cousin," I say and grab his arms.

                                                                                     

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The Ring

The mother's last wish -

"Come here Ritu," my friend's mother called me to her bedside. "I could not go out and find such a student as Sandosham would have wanted. As you are involved in Social service with village students, you'll be in a position to find a suitable one as he would have liked." Thus saying she placed a small box in my hand and closed her eyes. Her daughter Jackie had just gone abroad after the delivery of her second child and wouldn't be able to come back immediately for  her mother's funeral. So I   humbly free digital photos..net 
 accepted the mother's last wish.

Ten years ago -
I can still see it in my mind's eye. The front door is opened and I step in. The curtain is open and in the inner room is a young man. My friend's mom gives him a small jewellery box.
"Gowri left for her husband's village in a hurry. So she couldn't give it to you herself - told me to give it to you."
He opens it and starts sobbing. The scene looks somewhat private, something emotional. So I think of coming later and try to excuse myself. But my friend and her mother stop me. "Stay," they say. "We are unable to comfort him. See if you can help."

"This is Sandosham, our old neighbour,"  Jackie, my classmate says. "He was an Engineering student. Brilliant. All rounder : if he imagined something, he'd do it. On his farm or at home with his mother. If he thought a gadget would help to make things easier, he'd think about it and within two or three days he'd create one in full working condition. This is the only time he's failed to get what he wanted.

It started when another neighbour's kitten fell into their well. It's owner, a girl cried for help. Sandosh who was passing that way jumped in and rescued the little one.The girl, Gowri was awed by the fact that such a brilliant guy could be so humble and helpful, not hesitant to dirty his clothes or even risk his life.

                                                                                                                             free digital photos..net  
When she finished her +2 she consulted him regarding what course she should choose later. And after opting for BSc Physics she'd  ask him for ideas relating to project work and exhibition. Then she did her BEd but in the midst of it her father fell ill and had to be admitted in hospital. With money needed there, she was not able to pay her fees. She stayed at home, looking after her dad. Meanwhile Sandosh heard of it and arranged for the money.

Give and take -
"Pay me back whenever you're able to, if you're so particular," he said.
Once when some rowdies were chasing  Kousalya his younger sister one evening, Gowri picked up a thick stick and gave one of them such a whack that the others ran away. Then Sandosh suddenly lay down with jaundice. Gowri knew just which herbs could bring about a fast recovery. This way with give and take from both sides, the bond between these two grew.

Then Gowri's father got well and came back from the hospital. He disapproved of the relationship right away as Sandosham was of a lower caste. All Sandosh's good qualities did not matter in his eyes. He called a worthless relative of his, arranged for some garlands and asked Gowri to marry him at a nearby temple immediately. When she refused, he picked up his gun and turned towards the door. She hurriedly did as she was told. (In those days children didn't go to police stations and complaints against parents weren't entertained).

The next day she hurriedly told Sandosh what had happened. "My father would do what he had threatened to do,"she said. "How could I let anyone die?" and bursting  into tears, she turned and went away.

" She was referring to me. I've never seen such a noble human as Gowri," Sandosham said, neither among men or among women.
Promise me one thing, Auntie,"he said suddenly to Jackie's mother, wiping his tears.
"Of course son," she said.
"Keep this ring for me and use it to help any needy student, please. I can't bear to see it any more" he said.

That was ten years ago. And this was the ring that was passed on to me now. It seemed heavy because of the responsibility, the sacrifices involved. I sighed, prayed for wisdom and turned  towards my house.