I love ajji very much… she’s nice, tells lots of stories (I love listening to them before having my nap on hot summer afternoons, although I’m well past the age for them, and have heard them a hundred times over, till now) and she cooks really good food… especially chicken…
If there’s only one thing about ajji that I get irked about, is that sack of stupid superstitions she carries everywhere with her. It surely is such a heavy burden, especially for us, the people around her on whom she forces it all the time… and inspite of being too old to learn anything new, God knows how she’d keep adding to her repertoire of these bad omens… every now and then, she’ll surprise us with something new, unheard of in ordinary adage… this is the only reason for discord between me and her who otherwise, are the best granny-grandson pair ever!
We completed the last leg of shifting from the old rented place, where we’d spent the last four years, to the house Dad had newly built, today. And thanks to ajji and her omen-presence, it’ll remain a memory for all the wrong reasons… Shifting, I know is a harrowing experience for everyone… but ours, more so, coz it was the day of ajji and her omens…
Dad was on a leave for three days, to finish the shifting business. He had some other work on Sunday, and wanted to rest on Saturday after three days of hectic work. So he wanted to finish it off by today, i.e. Friday evening itself, much to the annoyance of ajji… why?? Coz it was Friday the 13th. And Friday the 13th too, was bent on siding with ajji. Right from 9 to 9, am to pm…
Furniture was the last thing that needed to be shifted. And since the Packers-n-Movers guy had a flat tire on the truck assigned to us, he’d sent us a Tempo, with lesser space, and no door on the back-side. We wanted to avoid making the 14 km trip to our new house twice over, on rain-battered-and-potholed roads… So we attempted to use every cubic cm of the packaging space in the Tempo. Although we’d later come to know, that the former was a better option.
The Packer’s laborers broke the mirror on the wardrobe in the master bedroom, while moving the cot out. Ajji came running… and began yelling at them… And not an iota, because we had to pay to it to get it replaced. “You lousy, lazy chaps!! You fleabags!! (She used the native version of this word!!) You broke the mirror!! That’s seven years of bad luck!! You people can’t do your work properly!! (Blah blah…)…” Dad and I came in from the living room, and saw the pieces of broken mirror. Dad was visibly livid… and for the right reason. “You guys will need to pay for this. I’ll call your owner and tell him about this.” The laborers, Ajith and Somu, hung their head in shame. “And Amma… you please come here and sit. Don’t take too much tension. Your BP will rise!!” Ajji came out and sat on the sofa, still jabbering abuses and apprehensions of some impending doom.
Mom was sweeping the hall. Her face told it all – she was exhausted from the two days of shifting. I went to help her, and asked her for the broom. When she was about to hand it over to me, ajji shrieked “Don’t pass over the broom from hand to hand” Amma was so much taken aback by the sudden outburst from ajji, that she suddenly jerked back, trying to drop the broom down. She slipped and fell down, sitting hard on her back side. Ajji shrieked again. Amma let out a moan. Dad came running again from the living room. I helped mom to slowly get up and lie down on the divan. She was in pain. And the exhaustion made her condition worse. She slowly drifted to a sub-conscious state.
“I’d told you putta… when you stepped on the crack in the washing area two months back… that your mother’s back would break!! (Woh!! That was a new one from her!! OMG!!)… And three weeks back, there was a crow, cawing from the window sill… I think my time is up now… I told your dad… that today is 13th … and that too a Friday… we could have shifted tomorrow… Now look at all these…”
Dad had already got some Volini gel and was applying on Amma’s back. As if to drown ajji’s voice, he told me loudly… “Go call Doctor Uncle… Quick!! And also get some glucose powder when you come back.
On my way to call the doctor, I was wondering about Dad’s patience… How could he tolerate such crap from ajji, and refrain from saying anything to her, despite not heeding to an ounce of what she said?? It was as if he was stone deaf to such stuff from ajji. I was amazed, and kept hoping I’d develop some patience like that!!
The shifting work was withheld till after lunch. Doctor Uncle came, checked Mom, suggested her to rest, and prescribed her some tablets and syrups, which I got from Robert Uncle’s medical shop down the road. He said that Amma didn’t have any major injury to worry about, and that her back ache would subside soon. Her exhaustion had done her in.
And while the work was stalled, I picked up an argument with ajji.
“Ajji… how do believe in all this rubbish… bad omens and all that?? And how do you know about 13th the Friday?? That’s not there in Hindu scriptures?? And about that crack and Mom’s back??”
“Oh… that!! Hilda told me all this... You know... once… (Blah blah...)…” Hilda aunty was Robert’s mother. Although she was about two decades younger than ajji, both of them would get along very well… Now I traced the origins of those “global” superstitions ajji would dole out every now and then!! No wonder some one has said rumors and omens don’t need much to spread, and are more contagious than a pandemic!!
After two in the afternoon, Amma rested on the divan, while I and Dad, with Ajith and Somu’s help, tried to cram all our furniture into the Tempo. The kind of strategy we had to device, to make optimum usage of the space in the Tempo, reminded me of the game FreeCell… Both of them were so similar!!
By 5:30, we were all done. The satisfaction of having achieved something Herculean, was reflecting on everybody’s faces. We went back into the house, to see if anything was left behind, and also to say our final goodbye to our abode of three years. I woke Amma, and helped her into our car. We locked the house, and started off, with the Tempo in the tow.
Barely had we driven for ten minutes, a black cat crossed our path. And as expected, ajji shrieked again. Owww!! Here we go again, I thought. Dad stopped the car. The Tempo behind, which was following us closely screeched to a halt. “Lets take a different route… enough bad has happened today… now this cat…”, ajji pleaded. Dad turned around and looked hard at ajji. “We have already wasted a lot of time today. I want to get done with this fast. So please sit back and don’t worry. Nothing is gonna happen. Please let me drive with concentration” Ajji still kept mumbling something. Dad continued driving.
We reached our new home in 45 minutes. As we set out to unpack the furniture, Ajji came to back side of the Tempo and saw the broom. She shrieked again, for the nth time in the day!! “Who got this broom along?? You foolish people!! Don’t you know you must not bring the broom along!!...” And before anyone could stop her, she tugged at the broom and pulled it off. Three chairs stacked in Tempo came down like an avalanche. Ajji was very fortunate that she was not standing in their way, and the chairs narrowly missed her. She was panic-stricken… “I told you… all because of this broom… I told you… lot of bad things…” she began to sob.
Dad stopped her curtly in the middle and said “Its not at all because of the bad omens that any of these happened… It was just because of how you reacted to it. None of these harmless things can spell any doom. That broom was put there, because those chairs weren’t staying in place… And they fell because you pulled the broom. Now before anything else happens, please go inside and take rest” he remarked angrily. This was the first time I’d seen Dad say anything against ajji and her omen-theory. Ajji walked in slowly, whimpering.
Another two hours, and we were all done with unpacking the furniture and arranging them in the house.
At the end, dad wanted to pay the Packers, and he emptied his wallet to settle their bill, of course, minus the cost of the wardrobe mirror. I’d asked him for some money to buy a book, the previous day, and he’d told me he’d give it to me after he paid the shifting charges. I wanted the money by tomorrow afternoon. Now, seeing that he had no more cash in his wallet, I asked him “Dad, I told you I wanted some money urgently…”
“Don’t worry beta… You want it by tomorrow afternoon, right? My left hand is itching. So it looks like I’m gonna get some money. Don’t worry, I’ll give you the money by tomorrow afternoon… He patted me on my head, and turned and walked inside.
I stood there, dumb-struck, with my mouth wide open.
*****
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