This here is the re-post of an old blog written on 4th Sept 2006 at Yahoo 360, the year I had started blogging and when Goofy had been with us still.
“Amma, someone’s at the gate!” says the junior son.
“Where’s Goofy??” he asks and adds, “He is already inside the gate, with his cycle!”
“Inside? And on his cycle too??” I ask surprised.
Who could it be??
I walk out, after asking him to lock up Goofy, our dog.
I find the man parking his cycle.
“What do you mean coming inside like that??” I ask him. I am abrupt most times with strangers who flout decorum. “There’s a dog here!!”
He parks his cycle, smiling deprecatingly. I relent seeing the old man.
He is selling winnows.
I don’t need any. I tell him so.
But he walks up to me, folds his hands and says,
“Amma please buy one! It’s Onam and if you buy something it will help me and my family. My wife is unwell and we need the money so much.”
He looks tired.
He folds his hands again and says,
“I have not had even water since morning Amma. I am trying to sell at least some”
My heart bows down with weight.
I have been out shopping yesterday and my refrigerator is stocked full of goodies that will last me for over a week. Mother Hubbard’s larder is full.
The unfairness makes me want to cry.
There must be more like him out there, trying to make both ends meet for just a square meal a day.
Tomorrow is Thiruvonam, the most important festival day for all Keralites and he is trying to collect as much as he can. Perhaps he has a grandchild too. Or maybe it is just for the medicine for his wife like he said. I wouldn’t know. I am glad he is not begging, but trying to earn his living with dignity.
I don’t need any winnows, yet I buy two of them. I don’t even know if the price he quotes is above the usual. I don’t care.
I walk inside with the winnows on the pretext of getting the money.
Instead I walk to the kitchen and make tea for him.
With tea I walk back only to find that he is a diabetic and cannot have sugar. I go in and make a second cup without sugar. No, he doesn’t want anything to eat, he says, in answer to my question.
I watch him sitting on my doorstep drinking the hot tea; a small dark man, in a shabby mundu and faded shirt, salt and pepper hair, a little bald.
A thought comes to my mind, is he Maveli?
He finishes his tea, folds his hands in a namaste and leaves, pushing the cycle along.
I cannot shake the thought. Had that been Maveli come to my house in the guise of a man selling winnows??
I will never know for sure, will I??
Wow…it did happen is it?
you are very kind Shail…I will be honest here and confess that I wouldnt have done that..make tea, go back and make another cup…I learnt a lesson today..thank you
@R’s Mom,
Yes, this happened 🙂 I read once that Sri Ramakrishna on one occasion, just sat down and cried with the poor and sick people he had come across, because he had nothing to help ease their condition. Not that I haven’t got. Neither am I that great a soul. But when I see the desolation what I want to do is share whatever I have. Just that I don’t have the strength or perhaps life’s pragmatism (even if I give them everything, what about when that too gets over?), self preservation and pure selfishness takes over. That’s when I feel a similar urge, to cry at all the unfairness of life.
Interesting very interesting. As a matter of fact I didn’t knew the story of Maveli and the Onam aspect.
On a very different note if Maveli being an Asura who was ruling Kerala and till this time his visits are celebrated 🙂 it is quite paradoxical that Kerala is called God’s Own Country 🙂
@Prats,
Not paradoxical at all 🙂 “Sura means a being with more positive thoughts and asura means a being with more negative thoughts. According to Hinduism, sura will become asura by entertaining negative thoughts and asura can become sura by entertaining positive thoughts. Mahabali, having been born into an asura was verily a sura, on account of his character and innate nature” (source Wiki)
The Gods who were jealous of Mahabali and asked for help from Vishnu were supposed to have been told, being jealous would make them asuras. (Wiki)
Asuras and suras are not permanent demarcations. They depend on what you make of your own self. Of course I wouldn’t call mine God’s Own Country based on that premise regarding the populace, but based on the just king who ruled long ago, it is indeed God’s Own Country,
Hmm very interesting .. Well not sure if he was Maveli or not but then dont we say God is inside us all .. So wont that make all of us ..
If we look and treat someone with compassion and care and love then Job done .. and you did do that ..
Bikram’s
@bikram,
Yeah, that is our part of it. Rightly said Biks 🙂
Yeah it must have been Maveli
and boy would he not been happy
glad with your action so lovely
that there are people in his country
who still act compassionately.
Happy Onam to the Family. 🙂
@Govind,
Thank you. Happy Onam to you all too 🙂
Happy Onam to you and Family! It could be…You will never know but if the thought came to your mind, then it COULD BE so.
@Rashmi,
Yes, the thought did come to me because it was such a strange occurrence. No one ever opens the gate and walks in like that. Most houses have dogs. And on the first day of Onam there usually are no vendors. Well more than any of that, it was just a nameless feeling that I could not brush away, if you know what I mean 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Happy Onam. Reminds me of a tale my grandmother used to tell, about Shani, dressed up like an old destitute who visited a family performing yagna. When they treated him with courtesy, he blessed them with lots of good fortune. Perhaps this happened with you
@Phoenixritu,
Perhaps… or maybe he was someone who I owed something?! Or someone who had done me a good turn some time somewhere? Makes for a plot for fiction I guess 🙂
@Shail, Write it … I would love to read it
@phoenixritu,
🙂
I am touched. Specially when you made a second cup of tea. Happy Onam to you and family.
@BlueHornbill,
Thank you. He looked so tired and careworn. I would have loved to feed him as well, but he refused.
Ooooh…lovely! Am sure that was the lovely Maveli alright!
Happy Onam 🙂
@Scorpria,
Perhaps he had been 🙂 I felt so 🙂
Happy Onam to you and family too! 🙂
This is precisely the reason why I read your posts and wait for them so eagerly. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. I would like to meet you someday, Shailji; for the words, which are undoubtedly beautiful and also meet the ‘thinker’ of these thoughts.
@Anita Menon
Awww…. thank you so much. Well we can surely meet someday. I’d love to taste some of those yum things you dish out! *drool* 😀
Atithi devo bhava, right? You did a beautiful thing, Shail. may your generosity come back a thousand fold.
Thank you Chhavi. I don’t know how I missed responding to your comment. Really sorry! Welcome to Shail’s Nest 🙂