TRUE LOVE: THAT WHICH SACRIFICES ALL. PART - 2.

Once her mother returned home from the hospital, Nallamma who was hardly seventeen years of age had to juggle her time between managing the idlly shop and her ailing mother. The doctors had prescribed a lot of medicines and Nallamma spent all the meagre savings that the old woman had accumulated on buying these medicines for her mother. The medicines that the doctor prescribed were very costly and Nallamma had to shell out almost Rs 75 per day to buy these medicines, while she hardly earned Rs 50 per day as profit after covering costs from the iddli shop. Nallamma came to such a state that the future, in fact, the very next day was awaited with great trepidation. Even the golden Mangal Sutra or Thali as it was called in Tamil, which the old lady had kept in memory of her late husband was soon sold by Nallamma in her bid to keep her mother alive.

It was at this moment of penury that Nallamma met her old friend Kavitha who had been her friend during her early years in the slum. Kavitha had been married off at the age of twelve to a guy who was twice her age and had been sent off to her husband’s house in another slum. Nallamma had then lost touch with Kavitha. Kavitha had now come back after almost four years to visit her parents. Kavitha looked wealthy with a lot of gold ornaments adorning her. After they started talking Nallamma started sharing the problems in her life with Kavitha.

Kavitha in turn told her that after her early marriage she had found that her husband was a drunkard and that her parents had been cheated into marrying her off to this drunkard with no income. Kavitha told Nallamma about how she had suffered without any money until one of her husband’s friends who had brought her husband home dead drunk one day had offered her a hundred rupees to sleep with him. Kavitha had initially been angered at his offer but her husband’s drunken friend had forced himself upon her and had literally raped her while her husband slept blissfully drunk and unaware of what was happening to her. The friend had been true to his word and had left 100 rupees on the floor near the sobbing heap of Kavitha’s body. After this the same friend kept returning every night and performed the same ritual.

Initially Kavitha had been disgusted and repulsed by this and had even tried to commit suicide but gradually she began to reconcile herself to her fate and even started to look forward to the hundred rupees she obtained almost every day. After a while the friend began bringing his other friends along with him and they too would perform the same abuse upon her after which they took leave leaving a hundred rupee note. As the network of friends began to widen Kavitha soon found that she was earning on an average, five hundred rupees per day. Soon her husband became suspicious of how she could get so much money to give him that he would get drunk. When he came to know how, he couldn’t care less and only began to demand more money from her. Kavitha also told Nallamma that though she was not really happy with all this, she still continued to do this as it would at least be able to make her future secure by saving a little bit of money and wisely investing it in a house and gold ornaments for the sake of her family that she hoped to one day raise up with her husband.

Having heard Nallamma’s sorry state of affairs Kavitha gave Nallamma five hundred rupees to take care of her immediate needs. She also suggested that in case, Nallamma did not mind living like her she could put Nallamma on to some of her clients since she had more clients than she could handle in the limited time at her disposal. Nallamma was surprised and even angered that her friend could even think of suggesting such a thing. Kavitha apologized for angering Nallamma and said that she had only suggested such a thing as Nallamma was in financial trouble, Kavitha then left Nallamma after giving her address and telling her to feel free to approach her if she ever needed any help.

The next few days went by smoothly thanks to the five hundred rupees that Kavitha had given her and Nallamma could concentrate on the iddli business. However business was not as good it was when the old widow had been handling the cooking for Nallamma was not too adept at cooking. The quality of the idllies had come down as Nallamma had tried to save money by buying inferior quality rice. The chutney and sambar that was served along with the idlly also was not as tasty as it had been when her mother had prepared it. Nallamma did not know the right proportions of ingredients and as a result the sambar would be too salty one day while it would be too spicy on another. Standardization was something that Nallamma could never get the hang off. As the money began to dwindle Nallamma began to worry again. She thought of going to Kavitha’s house and asking her for some money but then hesitated as she was scared that she may yield to the idea that Kavitha had mooted for right now Nallamma needed money and she had even reached such a situation of desperation that she was ready to do anything. 

                                                                (To be Contd.)

Tags: poverty, serial story, fiction, oldest profession

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