The Invincible Moonsheen
Part – 28
(Telugu Original “Venutiragani Vennela” by Dr K.Geeta)
English Translation: V.Vijaya Kumar
(The previous story briefed)
Sameera comes to meet her mother’s friend, Udayini, who runs a women’s aid organization “Sahaya” in America. Sameera gets a good impression of Udayini. Four months pregnant, Sameera tells her that she wants to get a divorce and the circumstances are conducive to it. Udayini asks her to listen to the story of “Tanmayi” and pursue her to make her own decision after listening to the story. Tanmayi and Shekhar, who met at a wedding ceremony, go to marry with the permission of their elders. After the marriage they started their new life in Visakhapatnam. A boy was born to the couple in a year of their marriage. Tanmay engages in her studies deeply and enjoys the friendship with her colleagues forgetting all about her household disturbances. Her parents came to stay with her for a month while Shekhar is away on his long-term camp.
***
Tanmay threw back into the past what had happened sitting on a bench outside the lawyer Viswa’s office room. The letters on the paper were wet with tears.
The same question repeated, “Why did he do this?”
She asked lawyer Vishwa the same question.
Vishwa took the papers, looked at the first line, “Satyamev Jayate,” and read all the pages seriously.
Then he kept a paperweight on the papers and said, “ Karl Marx said, “All human relations are economic relations” You are educated, and everything is known to you. I could understand from this inference that he married you for monetary benefits. He couldn’t extract from you what he expected. Above all, he wanted a slave rather than a wife confined to the kitchen, but not a woman with great expectations!”
He continued, “It was his bad luck to get away from you. He is such a scoundrel that he claimed one of your thali bottu in his court notice, demanding on the pretext that since it was from their parents! Further, he forged a document that his salary was 300/ and the alimony paid accordingly after the divorce…”
Tanmay, who was listening to him patiently all this, held her head up and said defiantly, “Dear sir, I am sorry to state that I don’t leave so easily that fellow who dragged my life into streets in the name of love and marriage…I will prove myself innocent and file a case against him for divorce. I won’t allow his divorce or go with him. let whatever happens and run the case”
***
Returning home, Tanmay wept for a long time, hugging his son. She couldn’t control herself. She thought, “What mistake did I commit? What was wrong with me?”
The kid wiped her tears with his tender palms, and a few minutes later, he began to cry.
Jyoti ran hurriedly and remarked, “Why? Can’t you control yourself?”
She couldn’t say anything. How could she say that? How can she explain the rascal’s crooked strategies in marrying her and the deceptive motto behind it? I would have respected my mother’s suggestion about my marriage. She sat beside her mother, leaned into her lap, and sobbed silently.
Jyoti consoled her, “That’s why I told you not to stay alone at Visakhapatnam. See now… how you became helpless and unarmed. If you continue to be distressed, how can I be courageous to look after your kid and your sick father?” she wiped her eyes.
To avoid her sleepless night she took a pill and slept.
While she was half asleep, she heard her mother on the phone, with relatives.
“…She loved him wholeheartedly and…she couldn’t bear the divorce notice…”
Soon she fell asleep.
***
Tanmay attended the court for the first time in the following week. She was scorched under the sun outside the court premises. The surroundings were dirty, like her disturbed mind, scattered with fallen leaves and rubbish. The air was hot and filled with dirt. The clerks under the sloppy sheds with type machines and the apprentice lawyers were bustling busy with clients. The people with their withered faces anxiously wander here and there. The family court was set in a corner. Except in movies she had never seen any court. She couldn’t believe a courtroom would be in such a way.
The miserable women waiting outside under the shady trees for their turn. The egocentric male looked down on Tanmay confident that the system was always with them. They laughed cruelly, crushed the cigarette butts hatefully spat on faces vilely.
Tanmay suddenly felt weak in her legs and collapsed under a tree. She was brought up in a congenial atmosphere where men never behave cruelly to women.
The sun was sharp and prickly. The shade was too sparse to protect from the sunlight. Tanmay wound her saree around her shoulder and head. She was suddenly alarmed at the sight of a vehicle driven by Shekhar in black goggles. She felt disgusted at his appearance and her blood boiled.
Shekhar, noticing her there, parked his bike away from her and walked to his lawyer, waving his goggles stylishly.
A woman sitting beside Tanmay remarked at her husband as if she intended Sekhar, “Yawk! what a style to this ignoramus idiot!”
Tanmay suddenly remembered his first admiring look at her. Then she turned her head in disgust.
“Yawk!” She shook her head violently with a repulsive feeling.
The scorching sun made her irritable, and in her fit of rage, she wished him hacked into pieces. She controlled herself. After waiting an hour, Lawyer Viswa came to her and led her to the courtroom. The room was old-fashioned, the cement flakes from the walls were already worn out. The judge was seated on an elevated desk and the clerk with his typewriter sat near him. The lawyers from both parties submitted papers and soon they started arguing something inaudible to others except to those three themselves.
Tanmay was asked to stand beside him. She felt a caterpillar was crawling on her. She couldn’t bear his presence near her. She felt she was boiling with hatred and the inaudible arguments of those people were unbearable to her.
She was back in her spirits when lawyer Viswa asked her to come out after ten minutes.
“Somehow I convinced the judge, and the hearing was postponed to next month. As you wish, we bring him around the court as many times as possible. Please come to my office next week!”
She nodded in response looking at the Shekhar’s vehicle that sped away rudely.
***
She picked up a bus and said to the conductor, “Ramakrishna Beach”
Then she started walking the shore. She took off the chappals in the sand. The noontime sun was very harsh and burned the soles. The turbulence in her mind was also boiling her like the sunlight. She picked up a fistful of sand, crushed it violently, and threw it towards the dashing waves.
She held her head high and said firmly, looking at the sky, “Oh, the World! Even though you knock me down or drown me again I will rise and stand upright again!”
Though the waves seemed to draw her in, and the sand under her feet melted away, she stood straight up. The tears she felt were more saline than the seawater. She walked out and started towards the home. Two miscreants who came on her way commented something awkward. She controlled herself to spit upon them, but she took off a chappal, staring at them angrily. They shrank and fled away. She came home, collapsed on the floor, and started weeping.
Ananta solaced her patting and said, “Don’t worry! everything will be alright with people like you! Tanmay cheer up! A call letter from Vivekananda School waiting for your interview!”
Tanmay snapped it hurriedly and opened it.
It’s a call letter for an interview but not for teaching faculty. They required tutors and wardens.
Tanmay somehow reconciled herself and prayed. “Yes, of course, it would be something like a straw in a drift. Perhaps it may be more fitting under these adverse circumstances!
She closed her eyes and said silently, “Thank you, my friend! Thousands of gratitudes!
***
The next day, she got the bus to Vivekananda School and had some tea on the university campus.
She was accustomed to tea instead of lunch. She had lost her appetite, and now and then, she felt something like bowels syndrome recently. She was experiencing twisting and flaming pain in the abdominal area adding fuel to her psychological distress. Of course, it’s nothing before her goal.
After a long one-hour travel to the Madhurawada junction, she walked on foot to the residential school. It’s on a hilltop, and when she climbed down to the other side, she found the parked school buses and five to six buildings.
She didn’t expect such massive structures for a school. She headed forward and put a sign in the entry register. She heard about Corporate group schools but never witnessed them. She walked into the Correspondent office in the first building and there she found a bronze statue of Vivekananda standing erect at the reception in the waiting hall. The feet of the statue were adorned with Deva Ganneru flowers.
She was called upon after half an hour.
The person seated in the chair looked simple and down to earth. She was surprised at his mediocrity in white cotton clothes and chappals. His unfaded smile added an extra trait to his humility. Tanmay felt happy at his grandeur in simplicity.
Raghavendra Rao Garu, offering the appointment letter, rose from his seat and said, “It’s indeed not a job for your qualification. We will think of your services as and when any faculty position happens. Welcome to Vivekananda School! Let me introduce the school and its ambiance.”
He walked out keeping his hands back while I followed him.
She asked about her son’s admission while coming back.
“Admit him in pre-school. We provide kid-free lodging and boarding, nothing to worry about!”
She felt relieved and happy with his offer and thanked him for his decency and decorum for not going into further personal details.
***
The classrooms were built on either side of the footpath, and the Deva Ganneru flowers bloomed all the way along. A big Vivekananda statue was there at the last building, and the Ramakrishna Paramahamsa prayer hall was at the corner. The adjacent pond was filled with lotus flowers. The residential hostel rooms were a bit away from there. The surroundings were exceptionally peaceful and cool.
Tanmay thanked his unknown friend, “You led me to a splendid place!”
She felt satisfied and heaved a sigh of relief.
Raghavendra Rao Garu introduced the chief wardens of the boys’ hostel, Venkat and Murali.
In her traditional way, she respectfully held her hands together and wished Murali.
He is fair and cool, looking respectful.
Men wore white pajamas and kurtas while the ladies white sarees.
Murali looked exceptionally peaceful with his clear, bright eyes, something different from others, with a vibhoothi mark on his forehead. She felt his smile was someone like a familiar friend.
He invited her warmly.
Venkat looked different. His personality seemed not to fit into the hostel walls! An active bloke!
We returned after seeing the new girls’ hostel building.
Raghavendra Rao Garu introduced the computer lab on the second floor. He suggested, “We offer computer training to staff, you should better undergo a certification course”
Venkat added, “Of course, we are learning the basics in Lotus Certification just now…”
Now she understood why he was there. This was her first interaction with a computer lab. She watched the moving letters on the black and white screen curiously. She had doubts about why they should learn and why a certification was needed.
Understanding her confusion, Raghavendra Rao Garu smiled and said, “Shortly, you will acquaint yourself with it and know the importance, of course. It was my American dream, just accomplished here!”
Tanmay, surprised at his simplicity and looking at him appreciatively, said to herself, “Good heavens! How great it was! He established the school after coming back from America! Wow!”
***
The next day, she vacated there and shifted to her new lodgings.
Knowledge is Strength – Weakness is Death
She looked at her favorite quote on the Girls’ hostel hall.
She stepped into the corner room adjacent to the girls’ dormitories and began to set up the luggage.
She took out an idol of Swami Vivekananda and kept it on the shelf. In the reception, they offered 4 white sarees from which she wore one. She kept a bindi on her forehead and crossed it with a vibhoothi line.
She looked into a mirror and looked at Sanyasini in her twenties.
Where she started, where she ended her journey! Oh my God now I have plenty of children, not a single one! Everyone is my child now!
The job chart includes supervising the meal session, attending to the needs of the girls, responding to parents, and counseling.
When the kids go to classes she would attend university classes and can come back before the girls get back to the dormitories.
She asked for excluding midday meal supervision.
Instead, she would attend tutorial sessions held in the dormitories.
The consolation was that her kid would be engaged by the caretakers. The school provides lodging and boarding facilities with Re 800 pm.
She can meet her petty needs and her university fares. The atmosphere was pleasant and peaceful.
She felt gratified with her position for the time being.
Everyone attends the Yoga session at 5 o’clock at the prayer hall every day.
The Om echoed in the morning hours, making everyone solace and melting away the sorrowfulness of life and the adversities of kama, krodha, mada, and other negative evil elements of life. The physical entity transcended into a spiritual being, and everything felt cleansed away.
She enjoyed the experience of Yoga, a real cleansing of her adversities.
She could relate to the effect of aura on her colleague Murali’s face.
She thought then that it was indeed the practice of Yoga that brought him the grace and aura on his face.
*****
(Continued next month)
A post graduate in English literature and language and in Economics. A few of my translations were published. I translated the poems of Dr. Andesri , Denchanala, Ayila Saida Chary and Urmila from Telugu to English. I write articles and reviews to magazines and news papers. To the field of poetry I am rather a new face.