Marks and Mayajaal

If the nurses and the nursing assistants were one part on my  home adventure there were other sidekicks  who created  excitement in what was supposed to be a disciplined, routine household activity. Those were the days of too many couriers and speed posts and plenty of visitors and opening and closing of the many gates to our house became an arduous job for aging father in law.

 My sister in law , a mother superior in the interiors of Vellore who came for a visit said that a new girl had come to her convent as assistant in the kitchen  and she could be helpful to dad in the day to day activities to  act as a gate keeper and clean and sweep  the garden early in the morning and draw the kolams  in the frontage, read the bible whenever he wanted and in case anyone of the helpers is absent she could easily chip in.

She was a peculiar girl for her age, an ordinary rasam (milgutanni soup) rice can satiate her hunger and with a movie of a particular actor she could even forego that meal. She is more of a Buddhist with 'one day one meal' routine and a deep meditative mode, not on the Divine but on her favourite actor. My father in law was a worried man. A girl in her teens should eat well. Even though she pretended to listen to his sincere  advice on health it fell on the deaf years.

On a week end I called our cook aside to find out the facts. She burst out "Only when she gets married and begets a child she would understand her disrespect for food”. While the nurses and assistants gorge on the food and scrap the vessels clean, this girl sits around chatting and joking. But she complains of stomach pain now and then and if ever he gave her a special treat she would pass it on to the nursing assistant on sly. "

Then I called the girl. She endeared herself by pretending to listen carefully. But at the end she opened up. She had been in a hostel for six years and used to plenty of snacks packed from the house as well as outside and regular food was unknown to her system. The orphanage food which was prepared carelessly with smelly rice and moldy vegetables was not her forte and when the nuns were not looking around she used to throw it over the wall. On the pretext of taking her sick class mates or friends to the hospital she would gallivant the town with them and pooling the resources go for tasty snacks.

"Till which class did you study..?" I asked

" SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) akka (sister)" she replied

" Have you passed?"

After some hesitation and scratching of head she said "I think I have failed in one subject."

"Which subject..."

She was not very sure.

I am a fan of my mum who (in those Godforsaken days girls were stopped from school with elementary education and trained in house hold activities) was a sort of revolutionary sending all her 6 girls for higher education and being her daughter I decided then and there that I would coach her up to finish her SSLC.

The communication to send her certificate was sent home and when it arrived we had a surprise of our lives to receive four of them instead of one! Yes our girl has passed one subject at a time and thus completing one subject per certificate with the minimal pass mark of 35 out of hundred!! Heart in heart I wished that the subject she had failed should be social studies  and never math or science, my enigmas! But it was not to be. She had bunked in science. I was sad. To pep me up my hubby appeased me not to worry and that he could take care of that . After all it was tenth standard science. But the happiness didn't last long when the book arrived!

 One look at the book threw him off the balance!

"But it's in Tamil.." he exclaimed

"What did you expect, an English medium student from the rustic depth of Tamil Nadu..?" I replied

My husband didn't study much Tamil. Though his spoken language was good his writings and  the reading and writing  was not his forte! He did his metric in a seminary  aiming to become a priest and hence his second language was Latin.

We were in a dilemma. Then I told him that the biology part of the science was ok with me and even  chemistry was manageable  but the physics was not a good friend. We arrived at a compromise. That during the week end when both of us were free I would sit and listen to his explanations and in turn  would do my best to convey  the things right!!

Thus started our pilgrim's progress. We too had many temptations. She would love to distract me with many an anecdote. When someone died in the village, the grievance would end with a public show of a movie by their favourite actor! Similarly any celebration with the VIPs and politicians attracted cinema shows. Her father a pious man who hated watching movies once saw her in the crowd and that day was the worst day in her life with him beating her in the public and continued it unto the house too!. But in spite of it she could deceive him by taking her bed sheet and cover herself lest he saw her! Bringing her back to the pendulum theory was indeed a Himalayan effort! She would create as many excuse as possible like  'hearing thatha's call'  'basic nature calls' 'unfinished work' 'her forgotten food' and so on.

Coming back from office when I was tired, it was indeed an effort that both of us could sit together for long  in this distractive ambience. But weekends provided a somewhat better duration in spite of all her devious ways.

She wrote the exams privately and we didn't expect much from her. A pass mark indeed would have made us happy. And she could own her 5th certificate! On the day of the result my husband who saw the result on line came from his room to announce that she had passed with 53percent , her highest score in SSLC! She was all in tears.

"That's not my mark...." she cried

" We know....... we know...... you studied and got the better mark this time." FIL cajoled her.

" No thatha (grandpa), this mark is too low..... I expected a higher percentage......"

Everyone was aghast!

But finally when my husband came out with a smile to declare that she passed her science exam with 83 percent  all she  could do was  to cry copiously to the bewilderment of the motley crowd of nurses, assistants cook and of course all of us!

"What gift would you like  for this wonderful achievement ?" my husband asked her

Without winking her eyelid she said " The latest movie of my hero  at  Mayajaal ( a famous theatre in Chennai) please"!