A postcard from the countryside: Homecoming

The tecoma, which had hardly any flowers when we left last month, is flowering, although the yellow bloom is yet to reach the fullness of spring. The same thing can be said about the pink bougainvillea. (Alas! I needed three attempts to get the spelling right!) The hibiscuses, which flower in all times, didn’t disappoint us either. The tiny beds of spinach and fenugreek too are doing well. And a few aubergines are ready to be plucked. On the whole, it was a happy homecoming: the spring is in the air.

The following day was perhaps the International Caterpillars' Day. In the morning, I saw more caterpillars together than what I had seen in the rest of my life. There were hundreds of them on the courtyard and on the roads near our house. Seemingly homeless, they were moving aimlessly in every direction. Was there a political strife in their habitation? Were they migrating? 

Our domestic help Gomathi Amma is exceedingly smart. Although we don’t have a common language, she understands everything we tell her and shapes out her ideas effectively in her limited Hindi and English vocabulary. She came as soon as she knew we had come. 

Gomathi Amma (who is some other Amma actually) is one of the countless women of our country who are treated harshly by life. Mother of a grown-up son and a daughter, she is a widow. But the passing of the abusive husband hasn’t given her freedom. Her father calls the shots in her life. Gomathi Amma supplements her income as a domestic help by tending her father’s 50 goats. She is naturally free-spirited. She is never absent, but comes to work anytime between 10 AM and 4 PM when she wishes. Her employer (my far better half) has accepted the arrangement because Gomathi Amma is great at work. 

Her son works in a factory and the daughter is married in Bengaluru to a man almost twice her age. The son doesn’t give Gomathi Amma any trouble, but the son-in-law does. The daughter is illtreated and beaten up. She wants to return home but cannot. Her mother is reconciled, but her grandfather won’t allow it. The old man, a factory worker and goat farmer, thinks it would be dishonourable for the family. (Indeed, there’s no dishonour in getting beaten by one’s own husband!) 

For Gomathi Amma, the new year didn’t begin on a happy note. Her son had an accident early in the morning of January 1. Karthik was going to a temple near Hosur with a friend. They were on a motorbike, with Karthik riding pillion. At four o’ clock when it was pitch dark, they crashed head-on with a bike from the other side at a sharp bend on the road. The biker on the other vehicle died on the spot. Karthik’s friend, who had a helmet but hadn’t strapped it up, was badly injured in the head. His helmet had flown some distance away upon the impact. Karthik, who had never had a helmet in life, had stitches on his face and a broken jaw. Gomathi Amma said Karthik had had “plastic surgery” and “clamps” have been fitted to fix his lower jaw. The words I have put within inverted commas, she said in English. For the jaw, she demonstrated it with her own. He cannot eat anything solid; it will take some time before he can. 

Gomathi Amma has already spent a lakh and thirty thousand on Kathik’s treatment. She borrowed most of it on interest, at 4% per month. (I have seen this everywhere, if the rate of interest is usurious, it is always given in months. The poor doesn’t think it is 48%.) But before leaving, she said, ‘I am not worried about my son. He will recover anyway. But I do not know what will happen to my daughter.’ 

I felt angry about Gomathi Amma’s son-in-law and son. Perhaps more about her son. How can he be so irresponsible that he doesn’t have a helmet although he has a bike? But later, on more tranquil reflection, the thought came to my mind: is Karthik really to blame? 

Or should we blame the complete lack of education that the country offers to her underprivileged, even in Tamil Nadu, the best managed state in India? Or, should we blame the state of the economy which has made motorbikes affordable but basic awareness impossible to achieve? What are our priorities, why are schools closed when shopping malls are open during the third wave of the pandemic?

08 January 2022