Kuttan Nair was returning from his daughter’s
house. The village road was almost empty.
The sun was approaching the
western horizon. A group of cranes flew over the green fields. In the nearby play
ground children were playing football.
Suddenly he remembered that he had forgotten to take his house keys. When he came
yesterday to his daughter’s house, he had kept it over the
table in the sitting room. He turned back and started walking towards his
daughter’s house.
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Kuttan (Ku) Nair was staying in a remote village in Kerala. The
house was constructed by his ancestors years
back. It was
made out of mud. Even in summer,
the inside of the house was quite cool His wife Sulochana (Su) and daughter Parvati (Pa) were with him. There were a large number of coconut,
arecanut, jack fruit, teakwood trees in the house compound. Also he
was nurturing a quite big vegetable garden. The surplus vegetables
were sold in the nearby market. In his
house compound there was a small pond.
Water was drawn from the pond. In front of the house there was a small stream.
Beyond the stream was paddy fields.
Altogether it gave really a
panoramic view.
Ku’ spent most of his time in the
field and garden. He was able to raise
sufficient money from the sale of the agricultural products. There was a
Krishna temple near his house. Pa’ and
Su’ used to go to the temple regularly in the evening. Once in a year in the
month of October there used to be a pooram festival in the temple. The
celebration lasted for three days. Various cultural programs like Ottan thullal , Dance, Chakyar kooth etc were being enacted during this period.
Su’
spent her spare time in reading books. There was a small library near to her house. She used to get books
from there. She was interested in painting also. She taught few student painting.
Pa’ was studying in a nearby college.
She took part in various cultural activities and won many prizes. She also acted as the Editor of the college magazine.
After graduation, she joined as a teacher in the nearby school. At the same time she continued with her cultural activities. By the time her parents started searching a suitable boy for her marriage. They gave advertisement in a local news paper. Pa’ told her parents that she was not interested in marrying a boy working in the middle east. She wanted the boy to be near to her place. After lot of searches, they could identify a boy from the neighboring town. He was working in the state government revenue department.
The marriage was solemnized in the
traditional style. Only close relatives were invited for the marriage After marriage, Pa’ shifted to her husband’s house. She was
happy with her in laws. Father- in- law was a retired government servant. The
school was very near to her house. She could come to the house for lunch also.
It was a Sunday evening. Pa’ was seeing a cinema in the TV. Mother in law was in the
kitchen preparing evening tea. At that time
she got a whatsup message. After reading the message, she started crying loudly. Mother in law came running from the
kitchen enquiring about the reason of the cry. Pa’ was not in a state to talk.
Mother- in- law sprinkle some water on
her face. Then she murmered that her
mother was no more.
Pa’ along with her husband
immediately rushed to her house. Almost all the neighbors were
there. Her immediate neighbor started
consoling her. She paid respect to her departed mother and sat near the dead
body. She could not imagine that her mother would meet such an untimely death. She
was told that mother was watering the kitchen garden. Suddenly she felt some
uneasiness and fell down. She was immediately taken to the near by
hospital but was declared as brought dead. After the death -
ceremonies she returned to her
husband’s house. She requested her
father to come and stay with her. But he did not agree. He told hat he has to
look after his paddy fields and vegetable garden. But he agreed to come to her house in the week
end.
*****************************
Ku' walked a bit fast. It was getting dark.
Children in the nearby houses started chanting prayers slightly in a louder voice. He opened
the gate of her daughter’s house. Walked towards the portico of the house. He was about to
knock on the door. At that time, he heard a conversation in a
very low tone between Pa’ and her
husband.
“I don’t
think the old man will die in the near future.”
“He is keeping good health now also.”
‘When he
dies, I want to sell
the property and purchase
a new flat in
the town.”
“That will be
nice. I am completely fed up with this
village life.”
Ku’ could
not believe his ears. He was till now thinking that his
daughter was not so greedy and was loving her father very much.
Ku’ collected the keys. He could not tell any thing to Pa’. He came out of the house and started
walking to his house. Old memories cropped up in his mind.
He could not control his sorrow. Tears rolled down from his eyes.
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