Political Stories- 10 Walls – Part 2

Political Stories by Volga

Political Stories-10 Walls – Part 2

         Revathi unlocked the door and walked into the house and Chandrika followed her. Just as she entered the house, the grief Chandrika held under check thus far bubbled up. Making a strenuous effort not to burst out, she collapsed into a chair. Looking around she observed how comforting and clean the house was. It always looked like this no matter what time of the day you came here. How did she keep the house like this? She wondered.

         “Why don’t you freshen up?” asked Revathi.

         Chandrika went into the bathroom. The place was just as clean as her drawing room. A bucket filled with water, a soap box that looked new and clean, a tablet of soap more than half used up but looking new. The soap and soap box looked dry and inviting, as they always were here. In her house the soap box always held water and the soap remained soaked, falling apart into smudgy pieces when picked up.

         Br the time she washed her face in cold water and emerged from the bath room, Revathi was there with a towel It was an old towel, but without a stain anywhere. How was it possible? How did one keep an old towel so white and clean?

         Chandrika wiped her face with the towel.

         Revathi went into the bathroom and pondered the situa-tion. What was bothering Chandrika? Was she thinking of abortion? Or was it about resigning her job? Ravi always complained about her job. Maybe he said, ‘If you don’t work outside, we can live happily: But Chandrika would not agree to give up her job and be dependent upon him. Hopefully their argument did not reach a point where they had de cided to get a divorce. If that were the case, she wouldn’t take Ravi’s side. She would admonish him. Chandrika was a good woman, a self-respecting woman, a hard working woman and one who respected work. It was easy to find women who would dutifully cook, clean and slog for you, but hard to find self-respecting women struggling constantly to preserve their dignity. People like Ravi could not understand the value of such women. They just wanted comfort.

         Self respect, struggle – how could people who don’t need to think of these understand their value?

         Revathi came back into the drawing room, wiped her face with a towel and hung the towel on a clothesline. She looked around for the towel used by Chandrika and having found it in a wet ball on a chair, she snapped it hard a couple of times and hung it also on the clothesline.

         “Attagyaa, I don’t know how you do things so well. How do you remember to hang the towel immediately after use?

         How do you keep an old towel looking so clean? How do you manage to keep the house so clean?” Chandrika asked a flurry of questions before she realized what she was do. ing.

         Revathi responded with a quiet smile. What else could she do? How would one respond to a sudden question like that and condense into a sentence the story of a lifestyle acquired over a life time? How would she describe the struggles she had gone through to settle in her present ways? What would she tell about the twenty-year-old woman, the mother of a year-old boy, reputed to be deserted by the husband and left to fend for herself?

         The effort she had made to keep her house and furniture free of dirt and grime so everybody could see how clean she was dwarfed in comparison to the effort she made to prove to everybody that her body and mind were equally pure and unblemished. But the world did not know that she had often hated this cleanliness and purity. She felt like filling the house with dirt and grime and smearing her body with soil and mud and challenging the world, I will not be pure. What the hell can you do? Why do you care how I am in the first place? Why should I care what you think? Have you ever stood by me and my child? But she never did that. She allowed the rebellion in the confines of her mind while she remained clean and pure. She engaged in fierce battles with her body and mind to remain that way. She tortured them, mercilessly suppressed their cries.

         How would Chandrika understand all of that now? How could she explain all that to a youngster who kept her at a distance? Revathi wondered.

         She wished Chandrika would hear het out just this once She was confident Chandrika would understand her Inspired so open up to her and tell her everything, Revathi looked a Chandrika eagerly.

         She saw Chandrika’s eyes watering up. Why? What had hap. pened? Did somebody say something? Did Ravi say some. thing thoughtlessly and hurt her? Did he hit her? If that was true, she would scold him and bring him to his senses.

         Revathi gently laid her palm on Chandrika’s shoulder. Tears welled up in Chandrika’s eyes and slid down her cheeks.

         “What happened, dear?” Revathi asked, anxiously.

         Sarat has been expelled from his school, Attaya. He has been falling back, failing in every subject, and causing all sorts of problems. It looks like he hit a boy on the head yesterday with a stone. The boy needed stitches. Today they called me to the school to tell me they are expelling him.?” Revathi understood the situation and her anxiety came down a notch. But Chandrika remained distraught. ” Attaya, you think I don’t know how to raise children? I have been doing everything I can, but he hasn’t changed. I don’t know what to do now. And Ravi says I don’t know how to raise chil-dren. What should I do?”

         “Idiot! When he was a kid, he was more trouble than Sarat.

         I lost count of how many children he beat up. And he was no good with studies either. Just a stupid kid.”

         “Really?” Chandrika’s reddened eyes showed a glint of sur-prise.

         “Of course.” Revathi narated an embellished story of

         Ravi’s troubled childhood.

         “To start with, Sarat’s school isn’t all that good. The teach. ers there beat up the kids all the time. ‘They just don’t know how to interest the kids in learning, Let us get him into a good school. By the way I read about a school in the papers just a couple of days ago. They don’t beat the children; the kids don’t even have to carry a load of books to school, no home work, nothing. Let’s get him admitted there”

         “Is there is a school like that? Really?” Chandrika wondered if Revathi was just trying to console her.

         Wait, let me look for it.” Revathi got up from her chair, searched through a pile of recent newspapers and brought back the one with news about the school.

         Chandrika looked relieved.

         “Don’t pay attention to what Ravi says. He is a man. What does he know about the problems of mothers?”

         Revathi’s sympathy brought a glow to Chandrika’s face, and Revathi didn’t want the opportunity to slip away. She talked, and talked, until it dawned on Chandrika that she was in the company of another woman just like her.

         “I was afraid of the ‘mother-in-law from before marriage, in fact, right from my childhood. I was afraid of the very word. You know how mothers-in-law torture daughters-in-law. I used to hear that daughters-in-law committed suicide because they could not put up with their pestering mothers-in-law. I decided, even before I met Ravi, that I would stay away from my mother-in-law. When I came to know that Ravi was your only son and you didn’t have anybody else, I was terrified. I thought you would be afraid of losing your control on him and torture me for fear that I

         would exert any control on him. After I met you, my fee Noubled. You were perfect in everything I never did any houschold work, didnt know cooking, and I was wording hot vou would criticize me and make fun of me. I used o be worried whenever you visited us, always anticipating chi. cism and adverse comments, That is why I alvays tried to

         stay away from you.”

         Revathi looked at Chandrika affectionately and sympatheti.

         Cally: Women are colored with repurations, Mother in day, daughter-in-law, sister in-law, cach is painted with a reputa. tion of her own. Can the society that forcibly created these caricatures really suppress a woman’s natural behavior? How weird have human relations become? If two women could not understand each other in four years, what does it say about such relationships?

         For the first time, Chandrika looked at her mother-in-law with her mind at ease.

         “You crazy girl, you cried so much that mascara is all over your face. Go wash your face,” Revathi said.

         Chandrika washed her face thoroughly with soap in the bath-room. She wiped her face with a towel that Revathi handed her, snapped the towel dry and was going to hang it on the clothesline.

         It is ok. Leave it there, we can do it later. From today I will learn to be a bit lazy. We will see what happens,” Revathi said playfully grabbing the towel from Chandrika’s hands.

         “No, attayyaa, it was just that I don’t have the habit or disci-pline, but it is certainly better not to postpone things”.Chandrika said as she hung the towel.

         Everybody does the best they can. Don’t worty too much about it” Revathi said as she went into the kitchen to mix coffee.

         Chandrika followed Revathi into the kitchen. She had more to say to her mother-in-law, but was hesitating to let it out.

         Her conscience was urging her to speak up now that the Awo women have struck such a good friendship between them. Chandrika rehearsed mentally while Revathi mixed coffee and the two came into the drawing room with cups of coffee in their hands.

         After taking a sip, “Coffee is very nice, attayyaa. Would you like to stay with us? Shall we all stay together?” asked Chandrika, with her head bowed and her gaze on the floor, as if admitting a folly.

         No, dear. I like it the way it is now. Immediately after your wedding I did feel bad, but today, I like it the way it is. I do what I want, when I want. I don’t have to worry that I might be inconveniencing anybody. It is better this way without troubling anybody, and without being troubled by anybody.

         I have to say that you helped me, indirectly in a way. I have been doing whatever I like for the last four years. Before that – there was some responsibility or other. Anyway, I will surely come to you when I don’t have the energy to be on my own.”

         Revathi tried to erase the feelings of guilt in

         Chandrika and strengthen the bond between them.

         For the first time, Chandrika saw Revathi as a human be-ing, not as a mother-in-law.

*****

(To be Continued-)