The House in Pudukkottai That Woke Up at 5AM
By 5AM, the house in Pudukkottai was already awake. The old tape recorder would be blaring Pithukuli Murugados songs somewhere inside, and above everything else you could hear the steady creak of the wooden swing moving back and forth. My athai paati — my grandfather’s sister — would often be on that swing, singing “Gopala Krishna Swamy Gokulathiley,” a soft Krishna lullaby . She had been widowed young and lived the rest of her life in that house, and to me she always felt like someone straight out of an RK Narayan story. For us, summer meant Pudukkottai and Gobichettipalayam. A couple of days after the final exam, we would take the overnight Trichy Express from Bangalore, then a bus onward, and by the next morning we would be inside that long, bustling house full of cousins, relatives, and noise. Athai Paati with the kids on the swing The house itself stretched from one street to another, a lon...
Hey Dude.. :-) seems you are missing your bathroom at Malleswaram !! :-))))) Just to add to what you said... These people even do not have an outlet hole in the bathroom. Incase you split water outside... man you need to swipe it clean. :-) It was the same in Germany, Remember??? :-))) They will never get the pleasure of Indian toilets. Forget it.
ReplyDeleteMy God ! what all u miss out there ! phew...
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