To: oneandonlyoneson@yahoo.com

Subject: Nothing Urgent…still…

Dear Son,

Something strange happened yesterday and as with everything ordinary and extraordinary, I want to share it with you. Your mother acted very, very strangely yesterday… I noticed that she was not herself around lunchtime. Now don’t ask me how I came to know… When one has been living with one’s wife for 32 years, one is apt to sense these things, you know… you will come to know when you are married and have spent good many years studying your wife’s  psyche ( without her knowledge, of course)… As I was saying, she was acting strange, and I knew it. First of all she did not wash the vessels after eating lunch as she normally does… She was distracted while folding the clothes that I had brought from the terrace…( my baniyan was inside out…yet she folded it as it was…so unlike her!) She forgot to keep the Marie biscuits along with my cup of tea…( No…no… I didn’t create any scene…my curiosity was aroused, by now…)

Then she did something very, very uncharacteristic… YOUR MOTHER JOINED ME BEFORE THE TV TO WATCH THE CRICKET MATCH! See! I can see that now you are surprised too. Your mother and cricket? That’s what exactly I thought too… There was some kind of restlessness about her… some suppressed excitement which shone through her eyes…( you know her eyes…they are so expressive, they have not hidden anything from me in these 32 years…I could always tell by her eyes, if she had bought herself a new sari, without telling me…or if she had given you money without informing me…) I didn’t want to insult her by expressing my surprise at her sudden interest in cricket matches…God knows I have been trying to get her to watch matches with me in these 32 years…but she once told me that TV was like my Chinnaveedu for her and Cricket her Shakkalathi.. I suppose you are grown up enough to understand such terminology…though we have never used such terms in front of you…

So I sat there through the semi finals watching your mother watch TV rather than watch the match myself… another first time incident in my life… I watched most of the drama in the action replay and the highlights…so engrossed was I watching covertly, your mother! Right from the Toss till they signed out at the studio, she sat there glued to the TV… No acknowledgement of the good bowling… no joy or shock at the catches and run outs… It was like watching a robot watch a match... In between, she would be  restless, twisting the pallu of her sari and sitting at the edge of the sofa peering into the screen…But there was nothing to feel so agitated about there…

Thus she sat for four hours… and at the end of it all, muttering something she upped and left… I asked her if she had enjoyed the match and she gave me a tormented look before disappearing into the kitchen…

Now I am restless. First, I did not get to watch a sensational semi- final because of your mother’s idiosyncrasies… and secondly, I am curious about this brand new idiosyncrasy of hers… Is your mother going senile? Don’t tell her I am writing to you like this… She may feel offended… The thing is, recently I watched a program about Alzheimer’s and I think it has left an impact in me… I don’t know when you will get time to open this mail, but when you read it, just email me about what you think of it all…

I am sure you must be studying well… only four more months to go for you to finish your studies and come home. Have you made plans for the future? Will you be working in India or there itself? When you make your plans, let us know… We miss you no doubt… but parents will always miss their children… But we don’t want our love to come in the way of your success and happiness…

Eat well and do your Sandhyavandanam everyday. Gayatri Manthra is very, very powerful and will keep you safe in the strange land. Shall email tomorrow.

Yours affectionately,

Appa

To:  swami_tyagu@hotmail.com

Subject: FW: Nothing Urgent… Still…

Dear Appa,

Read  the mail now and  could not help laughing and feeling guilty at the same time.

 Laughing because, you, Appa have actually MISSED a cricket match for the first time in your life…that too a semifinal match of your favourite team…

Laughing because, Appa, you have become an amateur psychologist….

Laughing Appa, because even after 32 years, you have not understood Amma…

Guilty… because all these things happened because of me!

I called Amma yesterday…You were not home. I told her I am going to watch that match live… in the stadium and that I will wave to her. And to you ( I don’t want you to feel jealous…) She was probably there looking out for me. Gosh! I did not know that she would be so much agitated about it… We friends did not, in fact, get tickets… they were sold out… and like you, I too watched it from my room. Thank God for Cable TV…

Don’t worry about Amma and Alzheimer’s… I think it is high time I made decisions about my future… But first let me finish my thesis and project… Please tell Amma that I am sorry I disappointed her… No… I will call her and explain to her personally… She’ll be happy then. Now I have to go for my classes…

With respectful regards to you and Amma,

Your affectionate son,

Vignesh

• Chinnaveedu: second wife's or mistress’ house
• Shakkalathi :  second wife or mistress