When I was nine years old, our family lived in Tamil Nadu. We had a neighbour, Ambujam maami, a Brahmin widow. She was married as a child and at the age of 15, when she became pregnant with her first child, her husband died.
Maami gave birth to a son and was forced to follow the customs of widowhood. She would wear a nine-yard saree and cover herself fully, from her shaved head onward. That was the custom of Brahmin widows those days. She followed the customary practices very sincerely.
Her affectionate son was a very bright student. He didn’t like to see his mother treated as a widow in all aspects. He wanted to take her somewhere else after his studies. He then got a good job in Singapore and wanted to take her with him. But as a mother, she wanted to get her son married; he was married to her brother’s daughter.
Her son took his wife to Singapore and they became the parents of two children within five years. He did not visit India as frequently as before and maami put the blame on her niece for this change.
Once, a friend of theirs visited her son in Singapore. The friend then told maami that her daughter-in-law was always watching a petti (box) through which she could see what was happening in the ulagam (whole world). Maami was worried endlessly.
Then she got another shock. Her son passed away in an accident. His wife returned to India as a widow with two children. Maami, with her knowledge, explained why her son died: Yama Rajan (the God who takes away life) used to see the world through a petti to decide on the lives of human beings. The daughter-in-law used that kind of, so Yama got annoyed and took away her son. Her laments continued and both would quarrel with each other.
Years passed by and my life also changed. I had settled in another place. After 23 years, I visited our native place. My brother told me that Ambujam maami’s daughter-in-law studied and became a teacher. The grandson had become an engineer and the granddaughter, married. My brother took me to maami’s house. Maami invited me happily and gently she switched off the TV. She shared many things with me and at last she said, “When they go to work I will be alone and the television is my sole companion.” She continued, “The invention of TV is a special blessing of God. I realised it.”
G Philomina
Email: phiemgee@gmail.com