New Beginnings....

Musings & Reminiscing

P: Ethana naal ah nammae veetu gate leh, anthe To Let board thonguthu... Yarumae set avulae... Dhanam, Appa kitte phone panni Kathir ingae thangattuma nu ketta... Ennakum seri nu thonuchu... Adhan seri nu sollitom.

M: Ennathu? Amma...naan angae oru family vanthu vazhvange nu nenaichitirunthae...

Par: Ithu ungae Appa eduthae mudivu, ethuva irunthalum avarae kettuko...

Murugan works as a supervisor in an oil field in Qatar. He comes home for 1 month every year... They talk everyday over WhatsApp video call... She does not wish to trouble him with these trivial questions.

Par: Ethir veetlae thirittu pochu leh, appo eduthae mudivu ithu.. Yaro oruthar vanthu thangurathukku.. Kathir thangattum... Appa rent vendam nu sollitaru aana, thambi otthukavalae....

M: Amma yarachom ethachom nenaikkae porangae ma...

Paarvathy gets angry...

P: Mullai...nee ennae pesittu irruke.. Kunnakudi lenthu nerae inthae veedae vangittu vanthu 15 varsham mudinju pochu... Verum pakkathu veetu bai amma thavarae yarachom oruthar nammae kitte pesunangalae? Avangae ennae nenachalum ennaku kavalai illae...

M: Nee sollurathum correct dhan...

P: Seri poie Kathir kitte anthae shelf lenthu extra pillow, biro lenthu rendu puthu bed sheet kuduthuttu vah...

M: Aven veliyae poierkkan... vanthathum neeyae poie kudu ma...

Pa: Mullai! Unnaku nallae theriyum ennaku kaal vali irrukunu...

M: Seri seri.....kuduthu varen...

Mullai sits with Mahi and watches cartoons for sometime...

M: Mahi... Time up ma... Vah...poie alphabets ezhuthalam...

Mh: Mummy please.... Five minutes....

She asks opening her chubby fingers wide...

M: Ok... Naan vanthu kupudren...

She goes inside the bedroom to arrange the study table for Mahi, the entire day, her mind was waiting to think about Kathir but she put a block to it and concentrated on her work...now that she was finally free, the blocks tumble down...

Her mind immediately goes to her childhood days in Kunnakudi...

He was such a huge part of it, they were the best of friends and on rare occasions the worst of enemies.. Everyone said their names in the same breath, where Kathir was, Mullai was bound to be there as well... They were like conjoined twins who were joined at the hip... Jeeva used to tease her saying that the only place where she didn't follow him was the bathroom.

She still remembered the pain of separating from him... How both of them wept.... He was a strapping lad of fifteen and still didnt shy away from shedding tears.. They made promises to write every week, call everyday and would always be there for each other...

But as the weeks turned into months and the months into years... The letters became infrequent and so did the phone calls... And after a while, they stopped all together..

She saw him previously, ten years ago at a wedding...

They had greeted each other with joy and spent the entire evening taking a trip down memory lane and when they parted....this time they never made any promises or childish pledges...

She thinks back to how different she was back then... A naive and an innocent Mullai... The Mullai who thought that life was easy peasy, that life was as uncomplicated as eating a ghee mysore pak...