Who are you? The 85 year old granny asked me the question for the third time. I'm Elango's son, I repeated the answer the third time. oh! Elango Paiyan ah? Elango ku yethana pasanga? She continued. Her mind was slowly giving way. After 85 years of holding fort. She is my Grandmother's sister.
She had got a medical seat in the famous Christian Medical College in the late forties. But her father refused to let her study. "I am already having difficulty finding a groom for your sister because she had become a doctor, I cannot do this again, said her father". Different times those! Oh ya, she carries the hurt deep within; yet as those times were, she married and followed her husband faithfully all her life.
How different times were then?
I bought my cycle for Rs.150/- said the grandpa, her busband. I was ordered by my superior to buy it immediately as soon as I got my job, I refused him! I could not afford a cycle. Only with a few months of salary I could afford it, said he. His eyes lit up as I probed further. Oh, we worked all over the place. I was always put in the most difficult places since I refused to bribe.
How was it living without the mobile thatha? I asked. Mobiles? Oh, we never missed them. It had always been letters. I write a letter once a month to my parents asking for money! They gave whatever they had. Half way through my brother fell sick and so the family asked me to discontinue studies. Through some well wishers I managed to continue.
Was there an innocence in their lives which we miss? Are our lives a lot more complicated since our communication systems are a lot better and our basic needs are taken care off better? I mean, they thought only about the daily food. And the occasional travel. Education itself was an afterthought.
Listening to him made me grateful! For all their lives. For all their struggles. For without their hard and sincere labour we would not have been where we are.
And listening to them makes me miss my grandparents more. How I wish they had lived long enough for me to gather all their life's stories.
She had got a medical seat in the famous Christian Medical College in the late forties. But her father refused to let her study. "I am already having difficulty finding a groom for your sister because she had become a doctor, I cannot do this again, said her father". Different times those! Oh ya, she carries the hurt deep within; yet as those times were, she married and followed her husband faithfully all her life.
How different times were then?
I bought my cycle for Rs.150/- said the grandpa, her busband. I was ordered by my superior to buy it immediately as soon as I got my job, I refused him! I could not afford a cycle. Only with a few months of salary I could afford it, said he. His eyes lit up as I probed further. Oh, we worked all over the place. I was always put in the most difficult places since I refused to bribe.
How was it living without the mobile thatha? I asked. Mobiles? Oh, we never missed them. It had always been letters. I write a letter once a month to my parents asking for money! They gave whatever they had. Half way through my brother fell sick and so the family asked me to discontinue studies. Through some well wishers I managed to continue.
Was there an innocence in their lives which we miss? Are our lives a lot more complicated since our communication systems are a lot better and our basic needs are taken care off better? I mean, they thought only about the daily food. And the occasional travel. Education itself was an afterthought.
Listening to him made me grateful! For all their lives. For all their struggles. For without their hard and sincere labour we would not have been where we are.
And listening to them makes me miss my grandparents more. How I wish they had lived long enough for me to gather all their life's stories.
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