Seetha Kalyanam Vaibohame

Birds with wings

Ranju, for the first time, was going to be separated from Shivu. The school that they were currently in did not have 11th and 12th standard. Ranju had scored good marks in her 10th public exam and was looking forward to take commerce group. She had plans. She wanted to become a professor. She found Economics very interesting. So she got enrolled into an all girls school, Adarsh Vidyalaya. This school was not close to home and Seetha was not comfortable with Ranju riding her cycle to school. So she had to walk to Panagal Park and take a bus from there to Peters Road.

This was a new experience for Ranju and she did not enjoy it. Coming from a co-Ed environment, getting accustomed to an all girls school was annoying. None of her friends from her previous school went with her. Although Ranju was friends when she was younger, she had grown to become an introvert who spent most of her free time helping her mom or reading books. Now, she realized that she had to make new friends and none of them seemed to have the same wavelength as hers. Soon they all isolated her assuming she was snobbish. Since she was studious, teachers loved her and that only added fuel to the fire but she did find one girl, Raji, who became Ranju's friend.

Shivu was busy with his preparation for his 10th public exam. He was always the king of procrastination and sports always was his priority so he needed a lot of help from his sister, who tutored him and used the opportunity to boss him over. They were all growing fast. Sowmy too was in 5th standard by now and it had not been difficult to wean her from her father. She had discovered the concept of friends and she was a social butterfly. She had friends not only in school but also in the neighborhood. So she had a schedule. As soon as she returned from school, she sat down to finish her homework first. Then she had a snack and rushed out to play with the kids in the neighborhood. She loved dancing so she took Bharathanatyam lessons and also learnt music from her mom but only because her best friend, Gayu, was learning it too.

Now Seetha too, had settled with her own life apart from home, kids and music. She had a bunch of friends with whom she went on temple tours since the kids were now a little older. She also had chits where the ladies put in some money every month and bought sarees from a guy who would bring his best collections to them.

Thus they all became busy with their individual lives and slowly forgot and failed to notice that Arun was becoming lonely. Arun was an introvert. He did not make friends. His life had always revolved around his work and his family. He always encouraged his family to go out and spread their wings but he forgot to do the same. Although he was happy to see them happy, it hurt him internally that they failed to realize that he needed them too. It was heartbreaking for him to see that even Seetha did not realize it.

According to Seetha, Arun had always wanted her to make new friends and explore new areas. The last thing he wanted for her was to stay home and be dependent on him for everything. He wanted her to fly but unfortunately, he ended up becoming a home body.

On many evenings, the idiot box became his only companion.

Brinda Subramanian