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The Invincible Moonsheen
Part – 33
(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 wished to visit the Ph.D girls’ hostel.
It was located not as the PG hostel at the beach but near the university campus, two stops away from the Telugu Department, and walkable. Everyone experiences the uniqueness of roads in Visakhapatnam that are uphill and down travels, making exhaustion easy. Tanmay profusely perspired when she reached the campus. She appreciated the kid who followed her footsteps, not pampering all along the way.
Nobody was there at the gate, and it was looking as if it was falling apart into pieces very soon.
It was an old building altogether untamed with thorny bushes and grass. A footpath led them to a hall through the grassy field. A customary stool was allotted to the watchman in front of the room. Ten to fifteen dirty plastic chairs were scattered around the TV in the hall. Four to five girls in nighties in the hall turned off their faces looking at me. The oilless hair was knotted on their heads.
Tanmay waited for ten minutes hesitantly while the kid fixed his eyes on the TV screen sitting on a chair.
There was no TV in the Vivekananda School. So the kid was very curious after watching it for a long time. She suddenly remembered her first encounter with the TV screen.
When she was in eighth a few affluent families in her village bought black and white TVs. Her bench mate next to her family was one among them. She joined a team to visit their house and got a place to sit at the end of the last row in the hall. When the switch was on the screen started blinking with bubbles and scratches. Some went up to adjust the antenna, and others adjusted the tune on the TV, communicating with each other with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ s for a stable picture. Once the picture resumed on the screen after a lot of struggle and sweat there, the audience burst out in delight, clapping hands.
When she recalled this funny memory her face blushed in delight.
After a while, she moved away from there to another location, feeling uncomfortable there. The kid ran behind her. She felt something unusual about the girls’ attitude who were indifferent even to the small kid.
When she approached the new building she felt surprised at its massive structure like an ancient Raj Mahal. The building was built with rocks in the old style on a vast area with stairs on either side. Undoubtedly, it was as ancient as a royal Mahal, and the cracked walls with grass blades stood as marks of its long past.
Tanmay was dubious about it as the area was desolated.
She heard some radio voices in the surroundings.
She looked back but she couldn’t see the gateway which she passed in because of the first building. This massive structure is invisible from the outside. She looked at the locked room on the left side but the front door of the right side room was left open. Suddenly the kid wriggled from her grip and ran into the second left side room.
Tanmay hurried up behind him. It was a great hall larger than four common hostel rooms; shallow curtains were hung on the door.
A middle-aged Christian woman who was on her knees in prayer, alerted by the sound in the entrance, suddenly woke up to her spirits looking confused.
“I’m sorry…my kid unknowingly ran…here,” Tanmay said, faltering.
The woman with a smile inviting Tanmay said, “It’s okay…get in please.”
Tanmay felt elated and happy at her cordial invitation.
“I am Tanmay…joining as a Research Scholar…wanted to have a look at the hostel…”
“I’m Mary, no formalities, please, call me Mary. Would you mind taking some coffee?”
“No, thank you so much, will you please tell me where I can meet our warden?”
“Sure, we will go there; by the way, I think this cute boy is yours! Hey kid, will you be in the girls’ hostel?” She smiled at him funnily.
“Yes…” the kid nodded happily.
The short and fatty girl smiled brightly. Though she looked serious and above aged her smile is childlike.
Tanmay looked around curiously. There was a stove in the corner and a few cooking vessels were there. A table with a lamp and neatly arranged books and clothes on shelves. A photo of Mary on the wall. The room was large, and in the other corner, a cot, table, and chair were kept unoccupied.
“Only for 2 people this much larger one?” Tanmay exclaimed.
“There are 25 rooms in the hostel. But the scholars are only 15. A few prefer single rooms and others combined. I stayed alone from the beginning. If you don’t have any objection, you may stay with me.” Then she took out some biscuits from a box and offered them to the kid.
“Oh, it’s my pleasure! I’m grateful to you!”
Tanmay loved the room and its maintenance in such a neat and peaceful way.
The pink curtains around the windows and a white satin bedsheet on her bed expressed her taste. The households were neatly kept.
Tanmay loved everything with Mary.
“Your kid is cute and white! I am looking darker than this little kid.” Then she laughed, looking at the child who was busy in somersaults.
Tanmay remarked, “Oh, come on Mary! Beauty is just skin deep. But what we count is personality.”
Mary looked at Tanmay admiringly and said, “True dear, okay let’s go to the hostel warden.”
She locked the door and started walking, Tanmay followed her.
Mary, knocking at the door, said, “Aunty, a new inmate came to join!”
A robust woman well past her middle age opened the door, knotting her hair with a big bindi on her forehead.
“Which department?” She frowned.
“Telugu.”
She enrolled the name in the register. When she observed the child playing around she remarked, “Who is this?”
“My son”
“If you stay here will your husband look after this one?”
“No…He will stay with me…”
“Nope…hostel rules do not allow kids…this is a lady’s hostel, not a mothers and babies hostel!” She stressed the words.
Listening to her words the kid ran to her mother and wound around her legs in fright.
“Ummm!” She expressed her pain hugging her child tightly.
When Tanmay was about to say something, Mary snapped her and said, “It’s okay, Ma’am; we know you are strict!” and she walked out, dragging Tanmay with her hands.
“Hey, Will she be with you?” The warden shouted at her.
“Yes, You enroll it”
They came out from the warden’s room and walked into Mary’s.
Mary led her to her bedding and said, “Don’t worry, everything will be alright.” She offered water and continued, “We can have a look at the hostel later, take a rest and be cool.”
“Any problem Tanmay?”
Tanmay hesitantly told her about her.
Mary, moved by her story, hugged Tanmay and said with tears, “Don’t worry, my dear! It’s horrible at your age!”
Tanmay felt consoled by her kind-hearted words and suddenly remembered her bosom friend Vanaja. She said to herself, “ If she would become a friend forever, it would be a good thing for me. would she?”
Somehow, Ananta was a great solace after Vanaja left far away from her…when she remembered both her soulmates, suddenly she felt emotional, and tears welled up.
She said to herself, “I’m grateful to you my anonymous friend! You are always helpful to me as and when I get entangled in trouble to show someone to help me out!”
Thanks a lot, my dear anonymous friend!
***
All along her way back she was thinking about her son. In the worst case, if the kid is not allowed to stay in the hostel, what would be the solution for it? It’s impossible to stay outside the hostel, and to keep the child with her mother is altogether unlikely.
“What’s then? What to do?”
She remembered Mary’s suggestion.
“As you have already left Vivekananda School you may leave this child at home for a month and join Ph. D first of all and come back to hostel. You can decide later on what to do further peacefully.”
Maybe she is right. Staying alone outside with a kid is unimaginable!
Can she lead a lonely life in this crooked world? She couldn’t even dare to go to a movie in her life! She felt disgusted about her cowardliness. Then Shekhar clutched her memory.
His memory made her loath with aversion.
“What mistake did she commit? Why was she so badly cursed?”
She touched the child’s cheeks gently, whispering, “Forgive me dear, leaving you a while again…it’s unavoidable, nanna!”
She reached home, but when she found her mother’s inept attitude, she felt worried. She could understand what her mother had on her thoughts and felt low about her failure as a housewife and her marital status. Father’s health was also badly affected and he is looking beaten by destiny.
It’s a damned life for one who couldn’t make her parents happy. She cursed herself. The whole night she couldn’t sleep well.
***
When Tanmay got up from her disturbed sleep she heard some familiar voices from the veranda.
The kid was running restlessly when she saw him waking up. She caught him and wiped off the traces of milk. It seemed Jyoti gave him milk.
Tanmay found a five-star chocolate in his hands that looked like Chinni Krishna with a soiled mouth.
“Where do you get this chocolate early in the morning darling?” She kissed him lovingly, taking him into her hands.
“Amma…what is the meaning of… wanton…?” the kid asked his mother inquiringly.
Tanmay felt shocked at his words, “Who said such bad words to you, nanna?” She felt aghast at his words.
The kid lisped, faltering, “Daddy there…outside…I asked where did you go…he said… ‘Your mom is wanton…so I went away’…”
Tanmay raged with anger…that stupid is even spoiling the child! What an ugly person he is…!” She grinned her teeth in anger.
She heard the voices of other family members of Shekhar as she walked into the middle room. Her father’s weak voice was also heard from his reclining chair.
“Woke up? come here!” Jyoti said indifferently.
Jyoti from the kitchen called Tanmay to serve coffee to the guests. As she was still in the same mood, Tanmay felt rage. Why did these people come without her notice?
Moreover, the mother was keeping tight-lipped with her as if she was wrong. Tanmay posed the same question impatiently to her mother.
“You are also blaming me? Go ahead, this is the damn fate we deserve! when they said we are coming to see the child, I expected one or two… who knows, a gang would come down?” She was altogether impatient.
She took the tray from her mother silently and walked out. Not even lifting her head she kept the tray on a teapoy.
Shekhar’s grandfather said, “Amma, hope you are doing well! Please bring me the coffee here”
She served him silently and walked in not bothering others.
She felt disgusted to serve others, particularly Shekhar. She lost her sensibility long back whether that man looked at her or not.
After half an hour Bhanu Murthy called her.
“Tanmay please come out”
Tanmay dashed out, knotting her hair in her usual attire, not caring about her dress code, and looked at her father questionably.
Shekhar’s grandfather asked her to sit.
Tanmay impatiently remarked, “Don’t worry, I am fine…tell!”
“Ma…please be seated…we want to talk to you for a while…”
Meanwhile, Shekhar’s uncle interfered, “ma…We should settle the divorce issue peacefully…why should we go for divorce unnecessarily? Why can’t we go for a justified option?”
Tanmay, looking at him seriously, remarked, “Who proposed divorce? Me? Or that one?”
“Of course… Let’s leave that to whoever proposed it. Let’s go to amicable terms now…”
Shekhar was looking out, not caring about anything that was going on there.
When Tanmay remembered his inhuman behavior before the house owners and the meanest attitude on the court campus, she felt disgusted. She loathed him deeply for what he did to her and inflicted her wounded heart many times. Even just an hour ago he talked with his son with abusive words about her!
When Tanmay was about to say something, suddenly her father remarked, “Oh, it’s fine…Babu…whatever you suggest we will go with it…”
Tanmay was shocked at his father’s senseless approval of what they proposed, not even showing any least of concern from her side.
How could he think of it so stupidly? She shouted impatiently, “Father!”
The kid hugged his father tightly, not bothering anything about his absence all these days.
Tanmay was surprised at his gesture. She couldn’t assimilate it as an act of childish behavior. She felt weak and vulnerable to the things happening around her without her will. She closed her eyes helplessly.
Father’s acceptance made her dumbfounded and the indifferent attitude of her mother’s left her excruciatingly painful. She didn’t even take part in the discussion.
Shekhar, who felt a hint of support about his father-in-law’s words, came out with a proposal.
“Hey everyone, I have a condition!” He suddenly broke, clearing his throat.
Shekhar’s mother, meddling in the conversation, said aloud scornfully, “Tell them everything clear what you want.”
Shekhar’s pinni felt amused and enjoyed the occasion curiously.
Tanmay felt disgusted at the development of such nasty proposals.
Bhanu Murthy hinted, “Tell us what you want Babu…”
“Let her do whatever she wants to go with…but she must hand over her salary to me every month. You might know that I was keeping a girl who would continue with me in the next portion. We will take a house adjacent to our grandfather’s house. One more thing is she must inform her every moment before leaving for any place…” Shekhar said every word of it with force and demand.
Tanmay felt humiliated and disgusted with his meanest conditions. She couldn’t bear to keep quiet. She would have slapped him with her chappal if she wore them at that moment. She yelled at him uncontrollably, “Get lost!”
When Bhanu Murthy tried to stop her, she stopped him and said curtly, “Stop it, Daddy!” She cried impatiently at her father folding hands at him.
“Who asked you all to come here? get out of here!” She was shaking with uncontrollable anger.
Shekhar’s face reddened with humiliation but he pretended as if he was cool and collected and said, “See…how she is barking…I have told you before we are coming here…that one never compromised…”
Shekhar’s mother and pinni broke up.
“Hey ! Stop it! Why do you yell like a mad fellow? My son wished a deal to compromise the issue on cordial grounds thinking positively about your son! If any other person would have…”
“In such a case why this fellow left the kid and dragged me to the roads mercilessly? In that case, why is that fellow keeping a girl with him? Why this divorce notice?” She grabbed the desk and threw out the divorce papers.
“Hey everyone! Listen to me! Not that one giving me divorce…I am giving to that fellow!”
“All of you go to hell combined or drown in the water but I don’t care! One more thing, you should pay back the money to our family and never be allowed to see my son! get lost…” She yelled and dashed inside, grabbing the kid by hand.
The kid was shocked at this unusual behavior of her mother and began to cry at the top of his voice when she had beaten him indiscriminately. Tanmay banged the door as soon as she got in and broke into tears. When her mother started crying aloud, the kid looked at her helplessly, unaware of anything about the things going on.
She took the child close to her and sobbed continuously.
The kid was in shock and began to cry watching her mother so helplessly.
*****
(Continued next month)
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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.