A minor incident
Grandmother had become adamant this time and why shouldn’t she be she has been insisting for about a year or two that she wanted to visit the temple. The temple that was famous for the miraculous power of its deity, repertoire included a man who was wheel bound for a decade, a darshan of the deity he was reported to have start showing extreme signs of ecstasy, next he was seen leaping out of his wheel chair and dancing in frenzy before collapsing and shouting in praise for the lord, an old woman who has been blind for all practical purpose, a visit to the temple she was seen guiding people even on moonless night. Another case was of a boy who never could read despite all kinds of allurements –like feeding him his favourite dish, allu poori in this case, if he read atleast a line aloud or even a word, the boy refused and kept his mouth clenched as if he held a secret, and not trifle concerned about threats –including leaving him alone in the dark room at the far end of the town that is known to be abode of mysterious old woman who it is believed broke fingers of children who don’t listen to elder. Needless to say nothing worked so here he was brought to the temple as a last resort, it is quoted by the witnesses that the moment the boy entered the sanctum sanctorum he insisted on thickest book available, which quite naturally happened to be Mahabharata, and read it aloud for one whole day to the consternation of people around. Some said he is an incarnation, others insisted this is just another of the miracles of illustrious deity. Then there were other small miracles like for instance a man who lost all his savings in stock exchange after a visit to temple went back home to find gold biscuits in his fridge and so on. The name of the deity spread to faraway places.
What annoyed grandmother the most was that they stayed about four hours from the temple town and still hadn’t visited this powerful god, and not that buses were not infrequent –there was one every half an hour. Sure they only shifted to the town from the village a year back after his son got a job. Kuttappan was always busy and with a new born in the house his wife too had less time even to feed other two children on time. It had become grandmother’s task to remind, Vijayamma replied “oh mother why don’t you feed them, can’t you see i am busy with the baby”, so finally it was grandmother’s task to round up the children. Sanal was manageable it was Sindhu who had become naughty “that rat of a girl” muttered grandmother in exasperation. What finally restrained the girl –as always- was an offer of exciting story. So grandmother had to invent something new, or as she did innovate the oldest one’s and recycle as fresh, perpetually she would mix up the ending probably she became complacent as the last few bites of food were left and she was in a hurry to finish the story and be done with it. Mostly her stories were from puranas sometimes she included modern elements to make it palatable for the children, though she avoided it recently after a particularly unsavoury incident. It so happened that she was telling one of the stories from Ramayana, Sanal insisted to know how could bow and arrow that lord Rama carried could be that powerful to kill a demon with ten heads. Grandmother explained that the power of divine and force of truth cannot be defeated by evil. Sanal wasn’t convinced “that is fine but how could he with bow and arrow!” his mind still focused on the mechanics of warfare and not on celestial. Grandmother tried to avoid but he was insistent so she said “bow and arrow have the power like guns”
“You mean like machine guns?” Sanal was ecstatic, and howled “trrrat trrrat” pointing his hand to the roof as if he was holding a machine gun. Later that night while they had dinner Sanal demanded that he wanted a gun like the one used by Rama before he could start eating
“What gun?” asked a very perplexed Kuttappan
“Like the one used by Rama” said Sanal animatedly
“Who told you this nonsense?” asked the angry father with his face clenched.
Sanal knew that he has crossed a line here, afraid he moved close to his mother.
“Sanal Kumar I am asking you who told you this” Kuttappan’s voice was steady and controlled the kind that hid smouldering rage that could explode any moment.
“Grandmother told me” Sanal’s eyes were brimming with tears
Kuttappan glared at grandmother, grandmother in turn glared at Sanal. Sanal in the meantime sneaked behind his mother.
So that was it no more modern analogy of mythology from grandmother.
Coming Monday was Janmashtmi and so a long weekend and grandmother was adamant on visiting the temple. Vijayamma too was keen, what added the credence was the auspiciousness of the days. So it was agreed that Saturday morning they will leave and return by Monday evening, apart from temple it was decided to go to the nearby hill for a picnic. Children were jubilant “We are going for a peecneec. We are going for a peecneec” shouted both of them running around their parent in circles. Mother told them to stop the ruckus and go finish the homework if they wish to come.
Saturday came as soon and the family was ready by seven. They carried a small suitcase while grandmother picked up her pair of cloth in a plastic carry bag that had advertisement of electric equipments on it. She also carried a whole coconut enveloped in newspaper that she wanted to break in the temple, it was meant to ward off evil. Children though bleary from sleep were excited, holding tightly to their parent as they waited for the bus while the baby slept suckling its thumb wrapped under mother’s sari. Sanal wore his favourite shirt that was red colored with green chevron running across the breast. Sindhu on the other hand was wearing pink colored frock that had mauve yellow flowers imprinted all across, she pressed her fingers over the flowers to straighten the shrivelled ones. They occupied the seat somewhere in the middle of the bus. While there was a minor scuffle by the children as to who will sit next to the window. It was resolved rather swiftly by grandmother occupying it as she felt nausea while travelling. So the protesting children were made to sit between mother and grandmother while Kuttappan occupied a seat behind. By the time the bus hit the main road it was already eight. It was a bright mild summer morning, cobalt blue sky spread across the horizon filled with patches of fluffy clouds that stood still. Children immediately insisted on the comics and an annoyed father had to search it out of the box. While Sanal read Superman, Sindhu’s book had collection of Jataka tales. It was a flat straight road and the bus seemed to have attained a constant speed, the engine made a soft droning sound broken by piercing noise of oncoming vehicle that faded as instantly. Occasionally when they came across new buildings grandmother said “now that really is quite a big building” shrugging Sanal to look, who made a cursory glance and said “oh i have seen bigger, stop disturbing me” and went back to his story back
“There are too many vehicles these days. Are they not?” grandmother spoke loudly apparently for mother, who was patting the baby back to sleep. The baby made a wincing face as if it was going to cry. Vijayamma told grandmother to not speak loudly, grandmother arranged her hair and asked mother to hand over the baby. She knows better than anyone else how to handle children she claimed. The baby instinctively clenched its hand as it was unceremoniously navigated across. While the baby was being passed Sindhu covered her nose with her fingers in an elaborate gesture and asked Sanal to do likewise, who refused and said he thought she was ugly. Sindhu pinched him on his thigh. Sanal gave out a yelp that shook the baby, it instantly started to yell. Grandmother went into control-the-yelling-baby mode dexterously, shaking it patting it and smothering with kisses. The baby momentarily stunned by the tactics tried to raise the pitch but was quelled by another series of urgent kisses across the body, very soon the baby seemed to have been convinced against approaching calamity and was seen smiling. In the meantime Sindhu had started to sob, mother seemed to have dealt with her misdemeanour. Grandmother pointed to passing sights to the baby “see the tree seeee” “see the man on bike seeee” the baby looked at these with not much interest, sometimes she blankly smile looking exactly opposite to what grandmother was trying to point. The sibling exchanged their books. Sanal has been thinking and he asked Sindhu “So what do you think Superman is stronger or Hanuman?”
“I think it is Hanuman” said Sindhu evincing mild interest
“Superman can do all that what Hanuman can” Sanal countered
“Hanuman carried whole of sanjeevani mountain did he not” Sindhu had now taken it as a challenge, she blamed Sanal for recent mishap that left her sobbing “can anyone jump across ocean? I don’t think anyone in the whole world can. Hanuman is definitely stronger”
Sanal was not to be cowed he quoted all the instances from different comic series as also movies that he happen to see on cable where Superman is known to have accomplished similar tasks
“But superman cannot grow in size can he” Sindhu placed her trump card “Hanuman can grow in size to be hundred feet. He can even make his tail heavier than the heaviest thing and use it to burn whole of lanka. Your Superman cannot do all that can he? He is no super” she laughed. Sanal was furious but vaguely convinced. Yes there is no instance where superman grew in size, he doesn’t even have a tail. He still had his doubts, he queried grandmother. “Who is superman?” Grandmother asked. Sanal took it as an insult and refused to speak to her again.
By noon the bus was at the bus stand of the temple town, people came out of the bus drowsy and disoriented from the travel as if tumbling down from a sack. Mostly families they reorganised to chalk out their plans. Some went straight to the temple for immediate darshan while others looked for lodges to stay overnight still others rushed to the nearest restaurant for a quick bite. Kuttappan and family stood in the shade to gather themselves, siblings were asked to hold each other’s hand as also one of them should clutch grandmother tightly, under no circumstance anyone should loosen their grip. They were to follow their parents closely. It was decided they will have light refreshments before looking for accommodation later after getting fresh towards the late afternoon visit to the temple was planned. Though grandmother had some reservation on this as she wanted to visit the lord the earliest “without much delay” she said otherwise it may be seen as discourteous by the god. Vijayamma vetoed that saying “we need to make ourself presentable before the god”, and she really wanted to wash herself and the baby -who now looked around with increasing consternation also attempting some monosyllables and occasional clapping. Sindhu insisted on masala dosa first before anything else. Since grandmother was thirsty they decided to have some lime juice from the nearest shop. Happy children held each other’s hand, Sindhu even tried skipping and simultaneously straightened the flowers on her frock that were shrivelled during the travel –her immediate concern seem to be the one on the stomach, while Sanal clutched on to grandmother who in turn held wrapped coconut on one hand. Grandmother had started to say silent prayers. About a minute later a dull explosion was heard followed by mushrooming brown smoke that rapidly rose into the sky. There were screams of people “there is a bomb explosion run run” shouted someone while people scrambled away from the scene. Sindhu’s half charred body still was clutching to Sanal who had most of his missing –it was just a lump of mass with smoke coming out of it. Kuttappan was thrown few meters away his body lay gruesomely twisted. The mother and child were slumped against the wall, the baby holding mother’s breast, one would have thought they were alive. Grandmother was missing.
It was reported that there has been a mild explosion at the small temple town located at the southern part of the country, five people are dead including three children, all it seems -though not confirmed- belong to the same family, few are injured. For about an hour it was ‘breaking news’ in most news channel. Later in the day it was confirmed by the experts to be improvised IED but of mild nature. It was also reported by the TV channels that a great tragedy was averted as the bomb couldn’t explode to its maximum capacity due to some malfunction. In the end it was classified as minor explosion and by the next day was no longer on the main news and relegated to small column in the newspaper. A week later grandmother who was grievously injured by the flying shrapnel on the head –she had miraculously escaped the impact -and was in the ICU too died. Not many people knew about it.
Grandmother had become adamant this time and why shouldn’t she be she has been insisting for about a year or two that she wanted to visit the temple. The temple that was famous for the miraculous power of its deity, repertoire included a man who was wheel bound for a decade, a darshan of the deity he was reported to have start showing extreme signs of ecstasy, next he was seen leaping out of his wheel chair and dancing in frenzy before collapsing and shouting in praise for the lord, an old woman who has been blind for all practical purpose, a visit to the temple she was seen guiding people even on moonless night. Another case was of a boy who never could read despite all kinds of allurements –like feeding him his favourite dish, allu poori in this case, if he read atleast a line aloud or even a word, the boy refused and kept his mouth clenched as if he held a secret, and not trifle concerned about threats –including leaving him alone in the dark room at the far end of the town that is known to be abode of mysterious old woman who it is believed broke fingers of children who don’t listen to elder. Needless to say nothing worked so here he was brought to the temple as a last resort, it is quoted by the witnesses that the moment the boy entered the sanctum sanctorum he insisted on thickest book available, which quite naturally happened to be Mahabharata, and read it aloud for one whole day to the consternation of people around. Some said he is an incarnation, others insisted this is just another of the miracles of illustrious deity. Then there were other small miracles like for instance a man who lost all his savings in stock exchange after a visit to temple went back home to find gold biscuits in his fridge and so on. The name of the deity spread to faraway places.
What annoyed grandmother the most was that they stayed about four hours from the temple town and still hadn’t visited this powerful god, and not that buses were not infrequent –there was one every half an hour. Sure they only shifted to the town from the village a year back after his son got a job. Kuttappan was always busy and with a new born in the house his wife too had less time even to feed other two children on time. It had become grandmother’s task to remind, Vijayamma replied “oh mother why don’t you feed them, can’t you see i am busy with the baby”, so finally it was grandmother’s task to round up the children. Sanal was manageable it was Sindhu who had become naughty “that rat of a girl” muttered grandmother in exasperation. What finally restrained the girl –as always- was an offer of exciting story. So grandmother had to invent something new, or as she did innovate the oldest one’s and recycle as fresh, perpetually she would mix up the ending probably she became complacent as the last few bites of food were left and she was in a hurry to finish the story and be done with it. Mostly her stories were from puranas sometimes she included modern elements to make it palatable for the children, though she avoided it recently after a particularly unsavoury incident. It so happened that she was telling one of the stories from Ramayana, Sanal insisted to know how could bow and arrow that lord Rama carried could be that powerful to kill a demon with ten heads. Grandmother explained that the power of divine and force of truth cannot be defeated by evil. Sanal wasn’t convinced “that is fine but how could he with bow and arrow!” his mind still focused on the mechanics of warfare and not on celestial. Grandmother tried to avoid but he was insistent so she said “bow and arrow have the power like guns”
“You mean like machine guns?” Sanal was ecstatic, and howled “trrrat trrrat” pointing his hand to the roof as if he was holding a machine gun. Later that night while they had dinner Sanal demanded that he wanted a gun like the one used by Rama before he could start eating
“What gun?” asked a very perplexed Kuttappan
“Like the one used by Rama” said Sanal animatedly
“Who told you this nonsense?” asked the angry father with his face clenched.
Sanal knew that he has crossed a line here, afraid he moved close to his mother.
“Sanal Kumar I am asking you who told you this” Kuttappan’s voice was steady and controlled the kind that hid smouldering rage that could explode any moment.
“Grandmother told me” Sanal’s eyes were brimming with tears
Kuttappan glared at grandmother, grandmother in turn glared at Sanal. Sanal in the meantime sneaked behind his mother.
So that was it no more modern analogy of mythology from grandmother.
Coming Monday was Janmashtmi and so a long weekend and grandmother was adamant on visiting the temple. Vijayamma too was keen, what added the credence was the auspiciousness of the days. So it was agreed that Saturday morning they will leave and return by Monday evening, apart from temple it was decided to go to the nearby hill for a picnic. Children were jubilant “We are going for a peecneec. We are going for a peecneec” shouted both of them running around their parent in circles. Mother told them to stop the ruckus and go finish the homework if they wish to come.
Saturday came as soon and the family was ready by seven. They carried a small suitcase while grandmother picked up her pair of cloth in a plastic carry bag that had advertisement of electric equipments on it. She also carried a whole coconut enveloped in newspaper that she wanted to break in the temple, it was meant to ward off evil. Children though bleary from sleep were excited, holding tightly to their parent as they waited for the bus while the baby slept suckling its thumb wrapped under mother’s sari. Sanal wore his favourite shirt that was red colored with green chevron running across the breast. Sindhu on the other hand was wearing pink colored frock that had mauve yellow flowers imprinted all across, she pressed her fingers over the flowers to straighten the shrivelled ones. They occupied the seat somewhere in the middle of the bus. While there was a minor scuffle by the children as to who will sit next to the window. It was resolved rather swiftly by grandmother occupying it as she felt nausea while travelling. So the protesting children were made to sit between mother and grandmother while Kuttappan occupied a seat behind. By the time the bus hit the main road it was already eight. It was a bright mild summer morning, cobalt blue sky spread across the horizon filled with patches of fluffy clouds that stood still. Children immediately insisted on the comics and an annoyed father had to search it out of the box. While Sanal read Superman, Sindhu’s book had collection of Jataka tales. It was a flat straight road and the bus seemed to have attained a constant speed, the engine made a soft droning sound broken by piercing noise of oncoming vehicle that faded as instantly. Occasionally when they came across new buildings grandmother said “now that really is quite a big building” shrugging Sanal to look, who made a cursory glance and said “oh i have seen bigger, stop disturbing me” and went back to his story back
“There are too many vehicles these days. Are they not?” grandmother spoke loudly apparently for mother, who was patting the baby back to sleep. The baby made a wincing face as if it was going to cry. Vijayamma told grandmother to not speak loudly, grandmother arranged her hair and asked mother to hand over the baby. She knows better than anyone else how to handle children she claimed. The baby instinctively clenched its hand as it was unceremoniously navigated across. While the baby was being passed Sindhu covered her nose with her fingers in an elaborate gesture and asked Sanal to do likewise, who refused and said he thought she was ugly. Sindhu pinched him on his thigh. Sanal gave out a yelp that shook the baby, it instantly started to yell. Grandmother went into control-the-yelling-baby mode dexterously, shaking it patting it and smothering with kisses. The baby momentarily stunned by the tactics tried to raise the pitch but was quelled by another series of urgent kisses across the body, very soon the baby seemed to have been convinced against approaching calamity and was seen smiling. In the meantime Sindhu had started to sob, mother seemed to have dealt with her misdemeanour. Grandmother pointed to passing sights to the baby “see the tree seeee” “see the man on bike seeee” the baby looked at these with not much interest, sometimes she blankly smile looking exactly opposite to what grandmother was trying to point. The sibling exchanged their books. Sanal has been thinking and he asked Sindhu “So what do you think Superman is stronger or Hanuman?”
“I think it is Hanuman” said Sindhu evincing mild interest
“Superman can do all that what Hanuman can” Sanal countered
“Hanuman carried whole of sanjeevani mountain did he not” Sindhu had now taken it as a challenge, she blamed Sanal for recent mishap that left her sobbing “can anyone jump across ocean? I don’t think anyone in the whole world can. Hanuman is definitely stronger”
Sanal was not to be cowed he quoted all the instances from different comic series as also movies that he happen to see on cable where Superman is known to have accomplished similar tasks
“But superman cannot grow in size can he” Sindhu placed her trump card “Hanuman can grow in size to be hundred feet. He can even make his tail heavier than the heaviest thing and use it to burn whole of lanka. Your Superman cannot do all that can he? He is no super” she laughed. Sanal was furious but vaguely convinced. Yes there is no instance where superman grew in size, he doesn’t even have a tail. He still had his doubts, he queried grandmother. “Who is superman?” Grandmother asked. Sanal took it as an insult and refused to speak to her again.
By noon the bus was at the bus stand of the temple town, people came out of the bus drowsy and disoriented from the travel as if tumbling down from a sack. Mostly families they reorganised to chalk out their plans. Some went straight to the temple for immediate darshan while others looked for lodges to stay overnight still others rushed to the nearest restaurant for a quick bite. Kuttappan and family stood in the shade to gather themselves, siblings were asked to hold each other’s hand as also one of them should clutch grandmother tightly, under no circumstance anyone should loosen their grip. They were to follow their parents closely. It was decided they will have light refreshments before looking for accommodation later after getting fresh towards the late afternoon visit to the temple was planned. Though grandmother had some reservation on this as she wanted to visit the lord the earliest “without much delay” she said otherwise it may be seen as discourteous by the god. Vijayamma vetoed that saying “we need to make ourself presentable before the god”, and she really wanted to wash herself and the baby -who now looked around with increasing consternation also attempting some monosyllables and occasional clapping. Sindhu insisted on masala dosa first before anything else. Since grandmother was thirsty they decided to have some lime juice from the nearest shop. Happy children held each other’s hand, Sindhu even tried skipping and simultaneously straightened the flowers on her frock that were shrivelled during the travel –her immediate concern seem to be the one on the stomach, while Sanal clutched on to grandmother who in turn held wrapped coconut on one hand. Grandmother had started to say silent prayers. About a minute later a dull explosion was heard followed by mushrooming brown smoke that rapidly rose into the sky. There were screams of people “there is a bomb explosion run run” shouted someone while people scrambled away from the scene. Sindhu’s half charred body still was clutching to Sanal who had most of his missing –it was just a lump of mass with smoke coming out of it. Kuttappan was thrown few meters away his body lay gruesomely twisted. The mother and child were slumped against the wall, the baby holding mother’s breast, one would have thought they were alive. Grandmother was missing.
It was reported that there has been a mild explosion at the small temple town located at the southern part of the country, five people are dead including three children, all it seems -though not confirmed- belong to the same family, few are injured. For about an hour it was ‘breaking news’ in most news channel. Later in the day it was confirmed by the experts to be improvised IED but of mild nature. It was also reported by the TV channels that a great tragedy was averted as the bomb couldn’t explode to its maximum capacity due to some malfunction. In the end it was classified as minor explosion and by the next day was no longer on the main news and relegated to small column in the newspaper. A week later grandmother who was grievously injured by the flying shrapnel on the head –she had miraculously escaped the impact -and was in the ICU too died. Not many people knew about it.
