Translated from Tamil by Saravanan Karmegam
...................
“Tamil sir… I am thinking of sending Arputha Mariee home with
her T.C" 1 the headmaster told.
“Which Arputha Mariee are you talking
about?” I asked.
“You ask this question as if there
are umpteen Arputha Maries in this school. Don’t you? She... that one! ...the
one studying in tenth class.”
I tried to recollect Arputha Marie’s
face, folding up the daily newspaper, kept aside. Yes…I got her. The
belligerent face of a girl student—always chomping chewing gum as a sign of her
utter disregard for school, teachers, boys, girls, rules, and regulations
alike, discourteous and impudent as if saying, ‘I don’t give a damn about all
of you…you blokes are just nothing to me’—came over my mind. She was my student
too.
“Sir… Why do you want to issue her
the T.C.?”
“For why? I believe you are only in
this world. Aren’t you? She is your student, I guess. Isn’t she?
“Yes…she is. She comes to the class
at times whenever she feels comfortable, as if she is doing favour for
me.”
“You have seen her yourself what type
of a student she is.” He threw an attendance register heavy enough for two men
to carry and a couple of files in front me.
“See…see it yourself. She had
attended the class for just twelve days during the last six months. I am also
writing letters to her home every month. She wasn’t even bothered for a second
to visit the school campus at least for the sake of courtesy to enquire about
the bugger who had written that letter. Has she? Never. She remains least
bothered about anything, no matter if it was me or my letters. We are
considerate to admit her with a medical certificate, but how could we do it
without her coming over here? She comes to the school just like our
D.E.O.2 as per her whims. Doesn’t she? Even during such rare occasions
of her attendance, she is not coming like a student. Is she? Che…che…che… How
could I describe her impudent attitude in my words? She comes by a French
bicycle as if sitting on a calf, wearing pants. It is pants…pants! You know
what kind of pants they are? She comes with skin-tight pants like a frame of a
photo, making every one of us anxious with a fear that it would tear off at the
slightest of a movement. You have seen her shirts. Haven’t you? She comes with
her shirt, with the top two buttons unbuttoned. Above that, a chain like a
Brahminy blind snake. It is swinging here and there like a tail of a fan. She
should be modest enough in her dress in the presence of boys. Shouldn’t she?
Pitiably, no uniforms, rules, or regulations are respected in this school. I
know you must be enjoying all these. Right!
“You are mistaken, sir…”
“I know… I have spent forty years
dealing with this kind of affair. I know human psychology, Mr. Tamil.
“Tamil sir… I know psychology. How
old are you?”
“Twenty-nine years, sir.”
“My experience alone is forty years.”
“Sir… But there is no such rule
banning pants and shirts in our school. Is it?”
“There is no such rule permitting the
students to roam around naked either. Is it there? She is just eighteen years
old. After repeated failures, she had reached tenth standard just a year ago.
During my time, a girl of eighteen would have given birth to two children, with
one sitting in the waist and another on the shoulder. Apart from that, they
will be expecting one more baby too. Do you know what she did that day last
month? I mean, the day she came to the school as if she was doing some favour
for us mercifully. Within the six hours…hardly it was six hours, sir. She was
standing at the school entrance, chit-chatting with some rogues—the ones you
guys would call urbanely ‘friends.’ Our history teacher Mahadevan…you know him.
Don’t you? He went to her, advised her not to behave inappropriately at the
school entrance, and requested her to come to the class. Do you know what she
had told him?”
“mmm… Carry on, sir.
“She had asked him if he was jealous
of those guys, that too, in front of those rogues. He was close to tears, came
to me, and wept. When I asked her about it, she told me, slamming it in my
face, that I was responsible for the affairs only inside the school compound
and I didn’t have authority over her outside the school compound. To whom did
she say this? To this Narasimman!!....”
The headmaster’s face was reddened,
as he was working up to his fury.
“Her audacity didn’t stop with that
alone. She fought with the physical education master in the evening. He taught
her physical exercises, inadvertently touching her body as a part of teaching.
It appeared that he might have touched her inappropriately. Do you know what
she had told him?”
“She must have told him not to touch
her inappropriately.”
“Had she been a human being, she must
have told that. Mustn’t she? But do you know what that girl had told him?” The
headmaster was holding his head with his hands, his face in cold sweat. “She
asked him whether he wasn’t sleeping with his wife. That poor fellow PET Master
Padmanaban had gone on leave immediately. Now, enough is enough. I too have
four children. I can no longer bear this torment of these kinds of rogue
elements and take ill with blood pressure. Let’s get rid of that ass.”
“If we issue the T.C. now, she
wouldn’t be able to appear for SSLC3 this year. Her whole life will be
spoiled.”
“That ass itself is not worried about
it. Why do you worry about it?”
***
I couldn’t remain unconcerned about
her. It is not my character either. Moreover, Marie, a kid, is a small girl.
She has not committed any big sins. Has she? Even if committed, is there any
big deal about it? I am not a clean, virtuous man to throw stones at her,
killing her? Am I?”
I told everything to Sumathi. She
also repeated what the headmaster had told.
“Why are you inviting trouble for
yourself unnecessarily like this? From your words, I could understand that the
girl appears to be a mischief monger. She might not take your words seriously
and insult you,” she told.
I convinced her somehow and took her
to Marie’s house one evening.
Her house was not very far from my
house. Her house was an old house, with a veranda and a frontal area thatched
with tiles, located adjacent to the rear side of the row of houses situated
just opposite to the railway station. It was twilight. The veranda was dusty
and found not mopped for a long time. There were some costly chairs and sofas
in her house. But they were lying disorderly like a marriage hall.
“Marie”—I called her out. After I
called her thrice, a voice came from inside,’ ‘Who’s that?’ Marie came out,
wearing a lungi, hair dishevelled and crumbled clothes as if she got up from
bed a moment ago.
She was surprised at seeing me, and
it was very much visible on her face. She must have been doubly surprised at
seeing my wife.
“Please come in, sir… Please come
in…” She welcomed both of us together and arranged the chairs in order. I and
Sumathi sat on the sofa. She sat on the chair in front of us at our
behest.
“Have I woken you up…ma?” I asked
her.
“It’s alright, sir.” She bent her
head down shyly, adjusting her hair falling on her face.
“How come you are here?”
“Just nothing. We were going to the
beach. Your house is on the way. We just entered your house as I thought of
meeting you because it has been a very long time since we met. Uninvited
guests. Are you unwell?”
“You have smelt balm. Haven’t you? I
have a light headache, sir… What would you like to have?”
“We had it already. Is there no one
at home?”
“You call it home. Don’t you? Home
means there must be a parent. But my father is gone. I don’t mean that he is no
more. He had just left us. However, my mother has not left me fully. We meet at
times. Even if we meet once in two days, it will be too much for us. That’s why
I termed it is not a home. I feel that I am staying in a lodge.”
Her words troubled me indeed. She
looked like a poor child begging for alms with a crushed aluminum plate in the
nights.
“How do you manage your food?”
“Most of the time, I will eat
wherever I like when I am hungry. Only from hotels. When my mother stays at
home, she prepares something. But I would prefer hotel food to my mother’s
cooking. I don’t say it would taste bad. I couldn’t eat, thinking it was my
mother’s love. She wouldn’t cook thinking it was for her daughter
either.”
Sumathi asked her presumptuously.
“Isn’t she your mother?”
“Yes. She is. But she is living with
someone now. I don’t like that man. He also doesn’t like me. Later, I
reconciled myself that they are living their life, and I have to live my life
somehow.”
A pall of taut silence descended upon
us. I was looking at the wall clock that had stopped long ago as it was not
wound up.
“Marie… If you come to the school,
you will feel the change. Won’t you?”
“For whom? For whom should I study,
sir?”
“For you”
“Ppchh,” she sulked. I thought that I
should stop talking about anything more.
“Can we go to the beach? You may also
join us.”
“Can I come too, sir?” She asked him,
astonished.
“Please come.”
“I will be back in minutes.” She
sprang to her feet. Ran into the house.
I looked at Sumathi.
“Poor girl,” Sumathi told.
“Who else is not poor? Isn’t her
mother, who had left her living somewhere, poor? Isn’t her father poor? All of
us are, in one way or the other, poor anyway.” I told her.
Like a just-blossomed flower, a
roadside tree that got wet in the rain, and a pebble of a stream, Marie
appeared in front of me. She was wearing pants. She had tucked in her shirt.
She was looking beautiful in that dress. A dress is something that one wears
for comfort and matching their physique. Isn’t it?
“You look smart,” I complimented.
“Thank you, sir…” she laughed
heartily.
We were walking towards the beach. I
was walking in the middle, flanked by them on both sides.
The beach was looking happy. The
children were playing merrily, riding on the stone horses. The parents enjoy their
children playing. Young boys and girls infusing life into the world. Tasty
grams roasted in the sea sand.
Adding colours to the life of
children, the balloons were flying. We sat on a chair, bought ‘Pea
Sundal from Iyer, and ate it.
“Get me a kara vadai,
sir,” Marie asked. I got one for her. She ate it.
“I didn’t have lunch in the
afternoon, sir… Felt lazy. Slept well.”
“You will have dinner with us
tonight. Will you? Sumathi asked her.
“Let me have it the other day,
akka.”
“No…another day. Today you are
coming.”
While coming, Marie held Sumathi’s
fingers with hers, walking a step behind her, and chit-chatting with her. I was
walking a step ahead of them.
Sambar and fried brinjal were only
available in the home along with some dried anchovy deep-fried in the
afternoon.
“Fantastic, akka…!! Sambar and dried
anchovy are a terrific combination, akka, Marie told.
*********
Marie was visiting my home these days
regularly in the morning and evening without fail. She had idli, the regular
breakfast, only at my home. We prepare either idli or dosai in the morning all
throughout the 365 days of a year. “Marie… If I hide the grinding stone,
Sumathi will have a heart attack. You know!” I would tell her. On hearing this,
she would laugh incessantly as if about to be rolling on the floor. During
evenings, her life was mostly spent only in our home. It would be fun to look
at her sitting on the floor, folding her legs with difficulty due to skin-tight
pants and assisting Sumathi in chopping onions.
“Hi… Marie… You are a modern girl
roaming around the town on a bicycle. But here, you are cutting the onion for
her. Aren’t you?”
“It’s only very thrilling, sir.
Chopping the onion with tears up in my eyes is nothing less than a terrific
experience. Aiyo… this terrific experience!” She told.
“Sir… Can I ask you one thing?”
“Why one? You can ask more.
“Sir... I am asking you seriously. I
hope you don’t get troubled by my frequent coming to your home. Do you?”
“Certainly not.”
She remained silent for a while. Then
asked.
“You are able to accept me, who has
been branded as a spoiled brat, and feed me at your house. Aren’t you? Why do
you do all these, sir?”
I felt like laughing.
“You mad, girl! Who else isn’t
spoiled in this world? No one can be spoiled. Do you know that? I presume that
you feel guilty about yourself as a spoiled one. Right! Please come out of
that. Not only you, your mother, your father, and anyone for that matter; no
one is bad here.”
“Just to avenge my mother, I am
behaving like this, sir,” she told.
“I know that,” I told her.
It must be about ten days, I
think. Marie asked me one day. “Why didn’t you ask me that I am not attending
the classes?”
I looked at her face. Two drops of
tears were about to fall down from her eyes.
“You must rebuke me, sir… You must
slap me and ask why I hadn’t attended the school. Just because there is no one
in my life to reproach me for my impudence, I have become a spoiled brat like
this. No one has showered love on me like this earlier. Only those who give
love have the right to admonish. Don’t they?”
“I was just waiting to see you have
this realization for yourself. No big damage has happened yet.
Better late than never. Let’s start anew from today. Just think that you have
joined tenth standard today. We are going to the school from tomorrow. Aren’t
we!” I told her.
Marie sobbed inconsolably, covering
her face with her hands.
***End***
Note:
1. Transfer Certificate—a certificate
issued to a student after the course is over.
2. District Education Officer
3. Tenth Standard (Secondary School
Leaving Certificate)
