That was a beautiful twilight. The golden sun which peeps after three
days of a heavy rain and the drizzles which glowed like diamonds slowly fell on
the ground.
Man runs like machine in a meaningless search. Man continues to run
without feelings and emotions. He runs even after his emotions are dead and
never stops. The path he came is filled with substances. By the time he stops
running, his expectations won’t stand still. When he searches for love,
affection and care, he will be isolated in a desert. Man realizes this when he
is old.
Sellathurai and Sivamani belong not to this machine world. They spent
each and every moment of their life in pure love. Now their life continues
accompanying each other even after the embracing of oldness.
They are sitting on their veranda and admiring the soft drizzles which
sparkle after the heavy pour of rain. Sellathurai was once a teacher, now in retirement. He proudly wore the Veshti and National dress worn by the
teachers of that time. His handsome appearance and the smart and steady walk
made Sivamani glow in pride.
Now he is sitting peacefully revealing the identities of his old age.
His aged, lose and soggy skin dangles, a black rounded spectacle sits on his
nose hiding his shrunken eyes and grey hair is visible here and there. He takes
the red shawl from one of his hunched shoulder and places it on the other. He
slowly takes the snuff tin in front of him, takes some powder using his thumb
and index finger, turns his head slightly and puts it into his nose. He looks
at Sivamani breathing loosened air.
Sivamani, gazing at the lane covers herself using the head piece of her
saree. The Kungkumam she wears on her
fair forehead shines brightly. Even though she is ten years younger than
Sellathurai, she looks very much the same like her husband in oldness. Her
beautiful face gives an impression to others that she was once a charming girl.
“Did Chinnavan call today?”
Sellathurai asks Sivamani
adjusting his black spectacles. Sivamani observes Sellathurai sighing
disappointedly.
“No Aiya, he told me last week
that he has a bulk of work to be done. Poor boy, he was very tired. He is
attending some official work this week far away.”
Sivamani has never lied to her husband. Now she tells lie after lie and
proves herself as one of the mothers who never give up their sons and
daughters. Sellathurai very well knew his wife throughout their fifty years of
married life and quickly understands the fact that she is lying. He smiles
slightly and looks at Sivamani lovingly.
*
Sellathurai passed the Senior School Certificate exam when he was twenty
years old and was appointed as a teacher. He was well known as a practical
idealist. His life continued with school and house. How Sivamani came into his
life is an interesting story.
One day Sellathurai was returning after work and stopped stand still in
front of a house. Sivamani was placing the neatly cut lemon to dry in order to
make pickle. Something tapped Sellathurai’s mind when he saw Sivamani. He
wanted to look at her beautiful eyes. An unknown feeling rose above and he
stopped moving. Sivamani found that someone was looking at her keenly and
quickly went inside the house. After this incident, whenever Sellathurai passed that house,
disappointment awaited him.
“If I wait anymore, somebody will come and take hold of her”
Sellathurai’s instinct urged him.
Sellathurai cleverly collected all the details about Sivamani and slowly
told this matter to his father Nadesu Chaddambiyar.
“What are you telling? I pampered you so much because you are a
motherless child and spoiled you. How can I go out if people knew about his?”
Nadesu Chaddambiyar put both his hand
on his head. Sellathurai approached his father slowly, wiping off the sweat on
his forehead.
“Aiya, I am telling this to
you, only after knowing well about Sivamani. You told me to tell whatever I
like. That’s why I…..” Sellathurai dragged the sentence.
“If I remain silent this boy may elope with that girl” This idea
suddenly arose in Nadesu Chaddambiyar’s
mind.
“hmmm we’ll see” Nadesu Chaddambiyar
told this to the expectant face of Sellathurai and left the place.
Sellathurai’s happiness cannot be measured. Day and night he was
thinking about Sivamani.
*
Nadesu Chaddambiyar was
sitting on the easy chair and fanning himself using the hand made Palmyra fan.
He took a betel leaf and slices of areca nut, stuffed it into his mouth and
called Sellathurai. Sellathurai understood that his father is going to talk
about Sivamani and appeared before him.
“I went to their house and talked. They really like to make a proposal
with us. That girl is pretty. Her father is also a retired government servant.
Everything seems good but…..” he stopped.
Sellathurai’s heart beat increased when he saw the sudden change in
Nadesu Chaddambiyar’s face.
He continued “They didn’t write a horoscope for her.”
“So, what? Nothing is there in horoscope.” The result of Sellathurai’s
idealism
Nadesu Chaddambiyar looked at
Sellathurai aggressively. “What nonsense are you talking? Everything is
depended on horoscope. You have “Sevvai
Thosham”. We don’t know whether that girl also has the same in her
horoscope. On what belief I could proceed this? Who is responsible if anything
goes wrong ah?”
Sellathurai became highly disappointed. Tears poured down from his eyes
forgetting the socially constructed norm that a man should never cry.
Nadesu Chaddambiyar felt sympathetic
towards his crying son. “Ok, we’ll do one thing. We’ll ask God Murugan and his decision will be the
final one. I’ll tell the priest to wrap up two coloured flowers (white and
red). We’ll place them on God Murugan’s feet
and take one knot. If white flower comes you can marry her. Or else you must
forget everything.”
Within a few days God’s permission was granted to Sellathurai. Sivamani
did not know Sellathurai’s face or name until the moment Sellathurai tied the “Thali” knot around her neck. She
wholeheartedly accepted the unknown man as her husband.
Sivamani gave birth to four children in the life span. All of them went
into four directions due to exodus, education, profession and marriage. Now
this hunched old man and the fair lady are living for each other; abiding the
concept, I am for you and you are for me.
*
Sellathurai looks at Sivamani’s face distracting himself from the
thoughts of his past and asks Sivamani “Do you know what day is today?”
Sivamani looks at him thinking what it is. Sellathurai meets the same look
which smashed him down fifty years before. He smiles within himself. “We are
completing fifty years of married life today.” He said.
“Oh! Yes today is the day. I forgot you see” Sivamani reveals a long
peaceful sigh which reflected her own life.
Sellathurai looks at Sivamani again and says “I did not hide anything
from you during these fifty years except one thing. Today I am going to tell it
to you.”
Sivamani looks at Sellathurai puzzled thinking what secret was it. Not looking at Sivamani Sellathurai starts telling, his gaze fixed on
the lane.
“As you don’t have a horoscope, my father told me that he was going to
seek God’s permission using the flower knots. We took a white flower and a red
flower, tied them into knots and placed it under God’s feet in our temple and
asked a small child to take one knot. He said I can marry you only if white
flower is chosen. Priest’s son is my close friend. So I asked him to put white
flowers in both the knots. He helped me and in return received a promise from
me that I must not tell this to anybody. Not even to you. He is no more. I saw
his obituary notice in paper three months before.”
Awe-struck Sivamani’s
shrunk cheeks glow like a pink petal.
*****