Chellaiah: The true congressman
The rains lashed the city and there was hardly any visibility. She drove the car carefully through muddy and deep waters and made it to her street. As soon as she was about to turn into her driveway she realized that there was a small obstacle in her path.
A scooty was parked in the middle of the road in such a way that neither could she get inside the gate without toppling it over nor could she get down to remove the irritating piece of metal from her path.
She honked lightly and the sparse crowd dispersed and a man jumped out of the way of the menacing looking black metal piece. He also hurled a choicest piece of abuse he could think of at the woman and clutching his umbrella, walked away towards the bus.
She now looked out for the old watchman who was expected to cater to such emergencies. In this case, the watchman was happily guzzling some brownish or was it light brownish liquid out of an equally brown bottle. She thought for a second and then waved madly to get his attention.The watchman finally caught sight of the black piece and the woman inside it. Feeling flustered, he came rushing towards the gate. He quickly realized the issue and shouted at the owner of the scooty. The owner flaunted his vocabulary and the watchman grew highly flustered. He then used the best from his vocabulary and also added his opinions about the lineage of the scooty owner. The owner slinked away realizing that the watchman had been a detective and knew everything about his lineage and removed the obstructing piece of metal.
The woman quietly drove inside and parked in her usual place. She was about to get down when the watchman realized he had to share a lot of his knowledge about the politicians and the Congress party. He trudged forward and stopped her in her tracks. She looked at the watchman and politely urged him to say what he had obviously come to say.
Now, Chellaiah, the watchman, all of 74, was a great orator and had been lonely since 6:00 p.m. and was waiting for someone to come in so that he could shoo away his great enemy, boredom. He was also lonely and scarred.
After 1.5 hours, when she stepped inside her house, she knew everything about Chellaiah, the watchman. He had been an avid Congress party worker since the age of 16 and had campaigned readily come rain or shine. As a 21 year old he had cycled 22 miles to stick posters for an upcoming party campaign. He had received 2 paise as a reward. He thought it was less and that the guy who had doled out the peanut had been mean, but the urge to grow in the ranks of the party was so strong that he ignored such feelings and trudged along.
He eventually married and had 4 kids, 1 son and 3 daughters. He married off the daughters as soon as they realized they were constructed differently from the other 2 creatures. Thye had their own kids when they were little more than kids. 1 daughter died in the struggle to increase the population of the country and the other siblings mourned her death for a while. Chellaiah's wife mourned the longest. He eventually moved to moved to different states and cities and built a small house in his native town, Tirunalveli.
Now, Chellaiah's story doesnt end here and is not possible to transcribe the entire conversation in this small place. The woman took away the below from the conversation (should it be rather a monologue):
A scooty was parked in the middle of the road in such a way that neither could she get inside the gate without toppling it over nor could she get down to remove the irritating piece of metal from her path.
She honked lightly and the sparse crowd dispersed and a man jumped out of the way of the menacing looking black metal piece. He also hurled a choicest piece of abuse he could think of at the woman and clutching his umbrella, walked away towards the bus.
She now looked out for the old watchman who was expected to cater to such emergencies. In this case, the watchman was happily guzzling some brownish or was it light brownish liquid out of an equally brown bottle. She thought for a second and then waved madly to get his attention.The watchman finally caught sight of the black piece and the woman inside it. Feeling flustered, he came rushing towards the gate. He quickly realized the issue and shouted at the owner of the scooty. The owner flaunted his vocabulary and the watchman grew highly flustered. He then used the best from his vocabulary and also added his opinions about the lineage of the scooty owner. The owner slinked away realizing that the watchman had been a detective and knew everything about his lineage and removed the obstructing piece of metal.
The woman quietly drove inside and parked in her usual place. She was about to get down when the watchman realized he had to share a lot of his knowledge about the politicians and the Congress party. He trudged forward and stopped her in her tracks. She looked at the watchman and politely urged him to say what he had obviously come to say.
Now, Chellaiah, the watchman, all of 74, was a great orator and had been lonely since 6:00 p.m. and was waiting for someone to come in so that he could shoo away his great enemy, boredom. He was also lonely and scarred.
After 1.5 hours, when she stepped inside her house, she knew everything about Chellaiah, the watchman. He had been an avid Congress party worker since the age of 16 and had campaigned readily come rain or shine. As a 21 year old he had cycled 22 miles to stick posters for an upcoming party campaign. He had received 2 paise as a reward. He thought it was less and that the guy who had doled out the peanut had been mean, but the urge to grow in the ranks of the party was so strong that he ignored such feelings and trudged along.
He eventually married and had 4 kids, 1 son and 3 daughters. He married off the daughters as soon as they realized they were constructed differently from the other 2 creatures. Thye had their own kids when they were little more than kids. 1 daughter died in the struggle to increase the population of the country and the other siblings mourned her death for a while. Chellaiah's wife mourned the longest. He eventually moved to moved to different states and cities and built a small house in his native town, Tirunalveli.
Now, Chellaiah's story doesnt end here and is not possible to transcribe the entire conversation in this small place. The woman took away the below from the conversation (should it be rather a monologue):
- Women abuse as much as men in Chennai
- Men are no longer respectful towards women because of their promiscoud ways
- People in general no longer respect Brahmins because they also abuse and eat meat
- Jayalalitha should not talk about Sonia Gandhi because Sonia is a decent married woman and J is not
- Kani should be jailed because she is a bastard child of one-eyed K
- Young women are equally responsible for the break ups of marriages
- Marriage has lost its sanctity in Chennai/India
Quite a refreshing read. More than the wisdom (though some of it is debatable) of the watchman, I think what enriched you was just the interaction with someone whose world view or life we hardly have access to or share. wishing you to spend more time with such people...they definitely open newer windows to this big world.
ReplyDelete:) :) :) ....yesssss I agree...Chennai has hurled tons of profanity on me ...I am an alien, a alien looking obvious Punjabi whenever I travel ...I expect ridicule and being overcharged for everything ...I smilingly take it ....everything is compensated with the divinity of food ....Murugan Idlis opp the basant nagar beach ....and many years ago ...A falafel at New Yorkers opp the US Consulate ...Chennai folks have no idea how lucky r they with food ....
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