Hard Thoughts

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On finishing my School Finals in 1957 from Muthukur, I was shifted to do my one-year Pre-University Course in the College at Ponnur where, as my luck would have it, the Principal was my Uncle under whose care and roof I spent that year.

I was barely 13 and had no pocket money to speak of...every legitimate requirement of mine was met by my Uncle's household.

My cousin GVR was then doing his post-graduation at Vizagh and was visiting home for a fortnight on vacation. He was very much a lovable dude and had a wallet and some small currency tucked in it. And he used to take me along for a cup of coffee here and there in Ponnur.

Then one fine morning there were guests in the form of three rather rustic boys from Nellore visiting us for three days. They knew my Uncle and so were put up in our house. They came to appear in some Civil Services Exam held in our College. They were rather shy and reticent and kept very much to themselves.

The evening before they were to get back to Nellore, their Leader shyly proposed to GVR that they wished to give him a Party in one of the dhabas near our house.

GVR took me along and the five of us had sumptuous dosas and vadas and sweets and coffee.

When the time to quit arrived and GVR was waiting for our hosts to pay the bill, their Leader abruptly gestured to GVR to go ahead and pay.

GVR was rather shocked and stunned as was I. But he recovered and scraped his wallet which luckily had just about the required cash.

And we walked back in silence to our house and they went about their studies.

GVR pulled me aside and both of us concurred that there could be nothing more uncivil than the behavior of these dehatis.

And that night I spent cursing them inwardly, just short of going and banging them on my cousin's behalf.

Next morning, when the time came for them to leave, their Leader gently pulled GVR aside and asked him shyly if he could return the Rs 100 which they gave him for safe-keeping on the day of their arrival, after 'cutting' the dhaba bill of Rs 10.

GVR had forgotten it clean and fished the Note out from the secret pocket of his wallet where he had hidden it away from thieves.

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As soon as I retired, I visited Nellore where I had bought an Apartment a few years back and which was being looked after by my Sister and B-i-L who were residing nearby.

I was their guest for a fortnight and I was daily going over to 'my' Apartment and getting things done to make it livable, like 'grilling', marble polishing, wall painting and such.

My hosts were then getting the vernacular newspaper Andhra Jyoti daily which was beyond my comprehension since I practically forgot reading my mother tongue and was unaware of the local politics.

They knew that I was hooked to DC in Hyderabad where I contributed to it some prize-winning Letters.

One fine morning when I was sipping her coffee my sister came rushing to me with the day's DC in her hands quite demanding to know if I had ordered it to be delivered.

I was taken aback and said, 'Of course, No!'

After a few minutes my B-i-L rushed to me asking the same question.

I was rather mortified.

That evening, both of them were awaiting my arrival smiling rather contritely.

It turned out that there was a copy of DC in the balcony of every Apartment in their Complex that morning, supplied free as advertisement for its newly started Nellore Edition.

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Most of the romantic stories, dramas and films of our youth were based on this 'formula' misunderstanding epitomized by Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy.

Here is the plot of a prize-winning story of the genre:

Those days, rowdy youth always had a fancy for wearing dark glasses so that they could see and ogle without getting 'fixed' (Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the wizard of similes, used to compare the Paramatman residing in the hearts of all of us to the burqa-clad beauties of Hyderabad who can see everyone through their double slits without exposing their beautiful face to anyone...one-way traffic).

One day a young and vivacious lady entered the compartment of her train and took her regular window seat.

And noticed, after settling down, that a handsome youth wearing dark goggles was occupying the seat opposite hers and staring at her quite steadily and shamelessly.

She got angry and tried to avoid his stares.

But he bent down as if to recover his luggage and quite clumsily started groping her legs.

She got wild and slapped him hard.

So hard that his goggles fell away to reveal a blind handicapped soul.

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Recall Bharavi's Atonement on hard thoughts?

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/07/bharavis-atonement.html

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