As the giant over-aged contraption in the name of the clock,struggled with its long brass pendulam to complete the 5 strikes that was expected of it in the evening,it was ably complemented by the familiar sound of the rickshaw bell being clinked against the wooden shaft of the rickshaw outside the house.
The sound grew louder indicating that it was time for Apsara to come out of the house and pick up her 9 year old brother's heavily loaded school bag,his shoes and socks and lunch basket , as he nonchalantly jumped off the vehicle and vanished into the house every evening!
The old rickshawman,through the years had developed a special bond towards the poor girl and had been awestruck by her perseverance and caring towards her brother every evening,that he patiently waited for her to come running out of the house crying loudly...
"Rickshaw Maamaa...Don't come so soon tomorrow morning!Thambi is not even ready by the time you come to pick up!"
She would then stand at the gate waving 'tata' to her favorite Rickshaw Maamaa as he disappeared around the street corner.As she trudged back to the house,she would exchange her routine pleasantries with the next door neighbour - Paati.
"Paati...Did you have coffee and also your medicines?
Shall come to your house after washing vessels to pluck flowers for your pooja!Okay?"
Paati was a widow in her eighties,who used to sit in the frontal portion of her house called the 'Thinnai' fiddling with the'Rudraksha' chain on her right hand,as she continuosly uttered 'Rama,Rama,Rama'the whole day.Years had passed since she had lost her husband and not a day in the last 10 years had gone by without her uttering her trademark dialogue to Apsara...
"Appumaa..
Medicinesaa?..illamaaa...athulaam vendaam!!Porum..Avarae poyaachu..Inimae enaku enna irku? Pogara vayasu aachae!AVAN kuupta pogavandiyathu thaan"
Apsara's father Chakravarthy,who was a junior engineer in TNEB and mother Kanagavalli struggled hard to make their ends meet and provide the basic amenities for their family of 7 and by default there wasn't any bandwidth of affection and care that they could spare to their first daughter.Having married a girl out of his community and religion, Apsara's dad had been branded an outlaw and there was no interaction between him and his relatives.
It was that day of bountiful joy that Apsara looked for every month when she was mildly rewarded for having done all the activities starting from cooking in the morning to cleaning the house to putting all the other kids to bed for 3 days continuously when her mom would never even venture into the house or kitchen,from the Thinnai!
Her mom used to give her 6 Rs as a reward to watch a tamil movie at the adjascent theatre with the condition being that she had to take 2 of her syblings along with her.
The guy at the ticket counter had been accustomed to Apsara's trick of carrying both her brother and sister on each side and just buying 1 'Thara' ticket for the show,thereby saving 3 Rs for buying peanuts and Son-papdi in the interval!
Apsara learnt more about life from the movies that she watched than from the meagre education that she had received till 4th grade,when she was forced to stop schooling considering her family circumstances.Life had been reduced to those secret conversations with her alter ego in the well;to her adolescent dreams of meeting the heroes she watched in the movies; to her trademark bubbly laughter by recounting and reliving the comedian's jokes and finally to the never-ending burden that she had in the form of chores in the family.
To be continued.
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh | 
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