My Friend's Aunt

Virtues of Village

Long ago I used to visit an old lady who used to live in a remote village of Kerala along with her widowed daughter in law. She was the aunt of my friend and was of my grandmother’s age.  She was an embodiment of   honesty, sincerity, simplicity, love, affection, compassion etc.  (In one of my articles I wrote “our moral standards have gone down to such an extent that human virtues like honesty, integrity, sincerity, simplicity, morality,  love, affection, compassion etc have been confined to dictionaries”). In those days I had to walk 2 kilometers from the nearest bus stop to her house. Her sons were settled in USA and they rarely visit her. Even when they come to India, most of the days they will be on tour and they do not like to live in a remote village.   She was excited and overjoyed on my visit. She used to provide me all the materials for taking bath in the “Kulam” (Pond) like Thorthu (Towel) Dhoti for changing after bath and Kachiya Enna (medicated oil prepared at home). After taking bath, a sumptuous lunch will be ready with a variety of “Kondattans” (Vegetables like Bitter gourd, capsicum, lady finger etc salted and dried to be fried in oil)and homemade pickles. She sits beside me while I take lunch and persuade to eat more and more.  From the moment I arrive there and till I depart, I felt that I am flooded with love, affection and care.  When I bid adieu in the evening, her face will be filled up with emotions trying to control the tears. I promise her to meet during my next Kerala visit and I never failed in my promise and continued to visit her on all my Kerala visits till her death.

This is my experience that the farther you go from the cities; you will see the finest people. Many people in the remote villages, in many parts of the country I visited, are unaware of dishonesty, fraud, cheating etc and real innocent people you can find in villages only. I enjoy visiting villages rather than going for package tours. I have visited many far off places to attend marriage of colleagues, ex colleagues, their children etc. They repeatedly say that “you came all the way from…” I get happiness because I could many people happy.  Many people criticized my practice of proceeding without considering the cost and without any financial benefit, despite working in Finance for several years. Knowing my habit, one of my junior colleagues apologetically told “Abhi hamare ghar me 15-20 saal thak koyi shadi nahi hoga” (There will not be any marriage in our house for the next 15-20 years.) I quipped “Shadi nahi toh birthday toh hoga?”. (If there is no marriage there will be birthdays).  Note: Courtesy Pankaj Kapur who in a popular comedy serial acting as a Doctor tell the patient who was fed up with repeated blood tests and laments that all the blood exhausted due to blood test “Blood khatam ho gaya toh urine toh hoga. Uska test karvado” (If there is no blood you get your urine tested)

During my next visit to Kerala I will be visiting another remote village which is the home of not an ordinary person but legendary athlete O P Jaisha. When I expressed my desire to visit her house, she was hesitant saying that there were no facilities and not even a chair to sit. I told her that I want to visit such places to see the grim realities of life.  I also told her not to prepare anything special for me and I would enjoy eating what they normally prepare whether it is Kanji (Rice water), tapioca or any other wild grass or root.  However, the love, affection and care they shower, has to be experienced to be believed.