auroraborealis

Sitting in the verandah of the Tharavaadu, she watched with a detached mind, as the wind played with the leaves that carpeted the  ground.  Some of the leaves were lifted and carried hither and thither while some cartwheeled across the ground to form heaps here and there.

She could smell the monsoon that would soon envelope the house and the village, with a cool refresh.  She loved to watch  the water cascade, as the rain fell in sheets,through the gutters in the roof and fall in the inside courtyard of the house.  She could not bear to trade that for anything else.

The holidays were over,the laughter and noises and the thwack of open palms against the balls made of palm leaves had been replaced by heavy silence.  the bags were packed, goodbyes till the next summer were said with a hint as to when the tharavaadu would be carved out in the name of partition.

How life changes - from children who would run to her or her husband for the hug or lying on their laps as they sang lullabys or asking to be fed - their demands had slowly changed and from happy siblings  to a competition to curry her favor as to who would get the choicest portion of the property.  Siblings in name only it seemed - what mattered most was who would get the piece de resistance? It was  the house.  It was huge and they knew  it would fetch untold weatlh in the real estate market. It was constructed with the finest of timber and of solid foundation that many people had expressed interest in purchasing it. 

Each one of them was more interested in whispering ill about the other.  Even their spouses were none the worse. It was not as if her children were poor or in want.  They  were very well off with enough to feed atleast a couple of generations - yet the all encompassing greed  had them in its unforgiving embrace.

She was both happy and sad that her hubby was lucky to take the early journey out to the great beyond, leaving her with the burden of dealing with her children.  Her children would call her to go live with them, but she could not bear the thought of leaving her beloved house - and also she knew they would tire of her just as easily and then would start passing her around like a hand-me-down . Here she was in her own world, she could do what she wanted and had to answer to no one.

Here she had the help of Janaki, who had been staying with them ever since she was born - her mother, whoever it was, had left her on the verandah of the house and from then on she was part of the family - she went to school with her children, and after Sharada’s husband died Janaki stopped school and stayed back home helping her with everything.  Why she did that Sharada never knew and never asked. She learnt long ago never to ask Janaki anything - she did what she wanted minus an explanation and what she did was for the good of Sharada.

“What will I do Janu, what will happen when I am gone?”  she would ask Janaki time and again.  “Amma, don’t worry, things will always have a way of turning right.  Especially for those with goodness in their hearts” Janaki would patiently reply each and every time.  “I don’t know Janu, I don’t know”, she would sigh.  Janaki would just shrug her shoulders and scold her for thinking such thoughts. 

The family gathered in the main hall on the house.  The cremation was over a few days ago. It was as if there was no one called Sharada who existed there.  Other than a few gloomy faces - which was mainly probably in anticipation of the reading of the will there was a sense of relief in the air.  Each sibling  walked around as if they would get the house and already started planning as to what needed to be done.  Janaki left after the cremation to live with a friend of Sharada who was elderly and need some help and who lived in another town.  She did not want to see the bickering and the ensuing “battles” that may be fought and she also knew that they would have asked her to leave anyway.
They eagerly waited for the reading of the will. The lawyer Sankara Narayanan without much ado went ahead with the proceedings.  The basic things like vessels, furniture, etc etc were divided up amongst the siblings.  No one was interested in that. 

“The house, the house”,Sankara Narayanan  intoned “is to be shared by all the siblings” - no one sibling would get the house.  This was met with anger - and each of the sibling cursed their mother, but then what the hell, they could still sell it make considerable money and yes they will have to share in the spoils along with the property whcich would be divided up.

Continuing with the will Sankara Narayanan paused, a strange look played upon his face, he blinked, rubbed his eyes again and then gave a small smile, and then burst into laughter.

“Why are you laughing?” the siblings demanded?  “nothing, nothing but here is the way your mother willed the property surrounding the house.  It all goes to Janaki” he said.  “What” the siblings were incensed - she of unknown parentage gets the property. Mother how could you?”  They cussed her and cussed Janaki, but then they calmed down. They will buy the property from Janaki at face value and then sell it, but still thinking of having the part with some money made them upset.

  “That is not all”,said the advocate.  “Janaki cannot sell the property till she is 65.”