Time's Up: Every Moment Counts

by Vasu Velamur

  “Ooh, so easy. Start we can do that with ease”. Ranga looked at Vindhya and whispered to record the story on her phone.

  “It’s there with the boys, Kiddo” she replied “so listen and answer it fast and get going from here. I hate this lady”

  “What’s going on there, petty gossip between yourself”.

  “Nothing Patti, she is hungry it seems” adjusted Ranga.

  “I am also” jumped in Vashist, who was hit on his head by Vindhya, indicating to shut up and stay still.

  “Stop your clown activities and listen to my story first” the old lady ensured attention was there

  “Start the story, we are keen” Ranga reiterated he wanted to get it over quick.

  “Let me see where I can start” looking at her house inside and thinking for some time. Then she started “OK I was born in Kumbakonam and raised there till I got married at 13.”

  Vashist was quick at his reactive mode “Unlucky 13” he said but in a low voice.

  “I got married to this person who has a maths teacher here in Thirukoshtiyur. So I came here immediately after marriage. Then within a year I had my first child, a beautiful boy, and named him Raghavasimhan. He was a beautiful child, but we had a problem till he was 3 years old. He did not make a sound. We thought he was speechless. So my in-laws started blaming me for the child’s ability. I was very sure it was not my mistake and so begged them all not to talk like that. Within a year I brought another child into this world, a girl child. We named her Soundravalli, and she was a normal child. With the second kids born, my in-laws gave a lot of attention to Soundravalli. Raghavasimhan was always neglected. This as a mother I could not tolerate and so I used to shower my love to him only during the night after they all slept.”

  In the beginning, the 3 of them were not interested in the story at all. Because of Patti's storytelling method, they got engaged in the story more and more than before it panned out. No sooner did Vindhya hear the name “Soundravalli” than her fears got confirmed. It was her aunt’s name, but the saving grace was that her aunt was the only child. Hence she got relieved a bit and listened to the story with a relaxed mind.

  “As the days went on, the discrimination between the children was very clear to the kids as well. It was only in his 4th year did Raghava uttered some sounds. So we rushed to the doctors. They said that he had slow brain development and hence every action of his learning would be slow. So we tutored him at home and only sent Soundravalli to the convent school.”

  “Wasn’t there any special school for kids like him, Patti?” asked Vashist

  “Iyooo mental fellow, in this city there is only one English school and the other is a Veda patashalai. In both places, they will not entertain this kid, what should I do? So I also sat with him and started teaching him all the subjects. He preferred math very much” continued Patti. “Time went by and the discrimination affected the boy as a teen. He used to cry all night alone about his state and yet was friendly with Soundravalli. Unfortunately, she was not reciprocating the same. Since she enjoyed all the comforts and my mother-in-law influenced her thinking a lot. She was looking after him but the sibling bonding and compassion was missing”

  “Why did you not try to teach her, Patti” enquired an interested Vindhya

  “My power within the house is confined to the walls of the kitchen, so I never had time to teach her. She got trained in vocal music, also dancing training. Then put into the shloka school but poor Raghava was not given any chance. He only had a poor student as his tutor and me as a teacher for his hobbies. I never missed a chance to teach him anything that he missed. So I started teaching him the 4000 Dhivya Prabhandams daily. As the years passed, his memory started increasing, and he learned it quickly. Because of his learning, I also started learning a lot, and he got ahead of me. He used to sit outside the shloka school, listen to it, and memorize it. I was feeling thrilled for him”

  “Then what happened, did he get into the Shloka school?” asked Vashist, as he was very enraptured by the story.

  “No, I tried but my in-laws refused to let him do so, saying that he would get bullied and their family name would get spoiled. Although I thought he had become somewhat normal yet there was something slow in him. His speech was not quick and also he always refused to have eye contact when he became furious or insecure. Otherwise, he was a very obedient and hard-working person. I always used to save money for him to enjoy those stick ice cream once in 6 months. He always longed for it.”

  “What, Ice-cream once in 6 months? God, I cannot survive a day here” said Vindhya.

  “Girl, you may come from a zamindari family, but mine cannot afford all these things you know. Also, my husband is a very strict person with money. He will never part with a quarter anna with ease.”

  “Keep quiet Vin please, Patti you continue” said Ranga as he looked into the device timer. They still got around 1 hour left since the timer now ran at 4X speed.

  “Yes, yes, so the times moved on when Raghava needed to join a college. We put in the math section and he started doing good. One exception was that he had no friends and made no social contact with anyone else other than his family. Things were going on fine when one day his father came running home and told the news. He told Soundravalli that there was a mathematics competition. And the winner would get a job as an auditor in the local municipal office. She was thrilled but Raghava also overheard this news and wanted to go somehow.”

  “So I guess there was some kind of entry fee and he did not have money”.

  “No, thambi, you are wrong as always. He was anxious when I went to his room and so I asked him why. He said he becomes very nervous when many people are there. I gave him some confidence and told him to go. So he went without telling his father and my in-laws.”

  “So what happened, how did the event go?” asked Vindhya with a lot of enthusiasm.

  “Patience is a virtue, my dear gal. Please wait. My throat is a little thirsty” she said and reached out to the water can and sipped. They all waited for the lady to continue her story. She stood up and went inside the house, telling nothing.

  “Hey Vin, should we also go inside the house along with her?” asked Vashist “She has not completed the story yet”

  “Dumbo, sit down here. We don’t even belong to this time frame. Keep quiet and we wait for some more time. Then let us act” said Vindhya, trying to peep inside the front door.

  There was some rumbling noise, which stopped after a few seconds. Then it restarted again. The curiosity was on. At one side the timer ticked and on the other side, the storyteller vanished. Each second got elongated, and Vashist could not handle his curiosity. While they waited outside they heard a wild scream, “Ewwww aaaaa”. All the three of them got frightened and froze. They did not expect this and did not know what to do.

  ∞∞∞

  Chapter-6

  Confirm The Answer

  Saturday 10:47 AM

  “Why are we waiting outside, can we get in and see what happened?” Vindhya shouted frantically.

  “We know nothing about Pitchamma, or the layout of the house. Is there anyone inside and you are asking us to go inside” Vashist listed down the logical problem.

  “So we have to stay put here and wait till someone comes out. That’s not humane at all”

  “So what do you say we do?”

  “C’mon guys let’s not be chickens, get inside and see what help we can do”

  Vindhya walked aggressively, followed by Vashist. Finally Ranga also joined the group, but he always had his eyes on the timer. They had around 24 minutes left and god knows what would happen after that. He was more worried about the end, while the other two worried about the present moment. The maturity of his stopped a small quarrel that was about to burst. He cared about his friends more than anything.

  As they entered the mansion, there was a big living area that had a huge swing. It had pure teak wood as its base, since it was very heavy to move it. The chains had lots
of engraving in them. It looked very attractive and caught the attention of Vashist. He also spotted an old easy chair he had seen in my grandfather’s house. While he explored the furniture, Ranga surveyed the house for an electrical outlet. Vindhya was the one who actually ran towards the end of the house. She entered the last room, which was a kitchen. There she found Pitchamma standing on a stool, shivering, with a long spoon in her hand.

  “What happened Paati, we heard a cry”.

  “Nothing girl, it’s simple there is a big lizard there” she pointed very next to where Vindhya stood.

  The moment Vindhya looked down, she too screamed “Iyoooo Helppppp meeeeeee”. She sprang on top of a sack for safety. It was a sack full of rice grains. In fact, there were 4 sacks in total.

  The guys in the living room panicked. Vashist started his conspiracy theories aloud “My thought is that the Paati is gone”. He further added “might be a heart attack or she would have slipped and hit her head”

  “Stop this nonsense and come behind me” shouted Ranga, who pulled Vashist with him. They both rushed towards the kitchen. The moment they entered it, Vashist got a shock. He saw both the women standing on top of some furniture and looking petrified.

  “Why did you shout Vin” asked Ranga

  She was too afraid, and she pointed to the ground near Vashist nervously. She also gestured to them to move aside from where they stood. Without understanding her communication, Vashist stepped back hurriedly. Then they all froze for a second. Then everyone laughed out loud. He did not know what struck them as funny. One second ago, they were frantic and speechless. Now they all laughed over their heads and nothing made sense to him.

  Then Pitchamma pointed her fingers towards his legs. He looked down. He saw what he had stepped on, a lizard, and it had attained nirvana.

  The comical jumping that Vashist did then got everyone relaxed. In fact, not only did they get relaxed, but they also got back to normal. Then Paati directed Vashist to the bathroom, which was the last room in the house. It was half a kilometer from the entrance door. He went to get cleaned while the others gathered near the swing.

  Paati was thrilled now and explained why she went in without warning them. She had gone to get something to eat for all. She gave them many sweets which these people didn’t even know the taste of. They had only heard about these sweets.

  “What are all these paati, they are delicious,” asked Vindhya when she finished one of the fried balls.

  “What you are having is a nei-appam,” replied Pitchamma. She then continued, “the white one is Paal Poli, the other is Vella Dosia finally nokkal”

  “Wow, all these are wonderful” said Ranga while he pulled more nokkal from the plate.

  “Please keep some for the other friend of yours”

  “He does not like sweets but loves junk food and snacks”

  “Junk food, how can food be junk, boy. I understand nothing you talk”

  “No paati, anything which is not healthy is junk food”

  “Why then will anybody eat anything if it’s not healthy? Don’t understand any bit of it”

  “Paati it's very difficult for you to comprehend this, so why don’t we leave it.” Ranga tried to bring them back into context. “Let us continue with your story please” he pleaded. He was the one having the time bomb in his hands, the device with the timer. It now had less than 15 minutes left.

  “Yes, yes Paati please continue but I need some more nei-appam please” asked Vindhya. She actually was hungry since they had nothing to eat since they got to this place.

  Then Paati went back to the kitchen and got more of all the sweets. A special plate for Vashist while he returned after a partial shower.

  “So where was I in the story” asked Pitchamma

  “The night before the competition Paati. You were giving him confidence” replied Vashist.

  “Ok, so that night I spent a lot of time with him and gave him a lot of confidence. Yet in the morning before having breakfast my in-law found out where he was going to somehow”

  “How is that possible” asks Vashist since he does not find it logical.

  “Well, usually Raghava will go out only in his Vashti with a towel wrapped around his waist. That morning he got dressed all in silk. I did not know he would do that since last night I only instructed him to dress in formals. I thought that would impress everybody. My mother-in-law de-motivated him a lot more than usual that morning and he was completely down in morale. He ran to his room and cried. I rushed to the room and then prepared him again for the competition.”

  “So, did he finally go for the competition?”

  “Yes, he went, and he went with full confidence. That was the only day when I felt tired of anticipating his return. Daily my pastime was to sit outside and look at what is going on in the street. Then head back to kitchen work. That day I was so eager for the result” she stopped there with tears flowing through her eyes.

  “What happened paati, he did not do well in the competition,” Vindhya asked anxiously.

  “No, towards the evening when the sun was about to go down, he came home running. His face was a little stunned, but there was no joy in him. His behavior was very calm and mature.”

  “Did he win or not, please tell me that”

  “Yes, he won it and that was the happiest day of my life”

  Vashist interrupted the flow and barged in “Paati, what was the competition about?”

  “I don’t remember well, but it was something to do with mathematics. I remember him stating that the last round was to solve one puzzle. He told something like ‘The Goldbach’s conjecture’ and that he had proved some theorem”

  “What do you mean?” wondered Vashist. “This problem was not solved for many years since 1912 and you are saying something like this”

  “Whatever it is, I don’t care since I do not know what it is”

  “Paati, let me explain it to you easily” Vashist paused for a few moments. He tried to figure out how to explain a complex problem to an eighty-year-old easily. Then he sprang up once again “Listen to me with focus. The problem given to your son is to express every even number as a sum of two prime numbers”

  “I was clear when Raghava told me and now you have confused me here”

  “Wait, if I give you an example, then you will get it. For example, see here 6 is 3 + 3, 8 is 3 + 5, 10 is 3 + 7 or 5 + 5 and so on.”

  Now Ranga hit Vashist on his head and showed the timer, which was down to the last few minutes. Ranga in anger shouted, “Hey Vashist, enough of the math, and let us get down to the bottom of the story”. He then looked at the old lady and instructed her, “Paati, don’t stop anywhere and complete the story fast”

  “OK, from the beginning I have been watching this person and he is very timid and tense. So for his betterment, I will finish the story with no breaks from now on. The competition was a big one with over 100 entries. In the last round, it was Srinivasan, Soundravalli, and Raghava. Even Soundravallii was reluctant to admit in front of all that Raghava was her brother. They behaved like strangers on the stage. The test was for 30 minutes and Raghava came out giving his answer paper within 20 minutes. The other 2 finalists took the full time.”

  “Great job paati, your son is a genius,” said Vashist. He was also happy to know one more person than him who is passionate about maths.

  “The jury also expected only Srinivasan or Soundarvalli to win. They never had an iota of thought that Raghava will win. They had never heard about Raghava since he was home tutored. This made them think he was a pushover when he left the hall in 20 minutes. They thought that he had given up but after looking at the answers they were shocked to see his paper. The other two had not even completed half the task, but Raghava had completed it in full, it seems. Even the jury did not know what the answer was and how he proved it but the end is that he was the declared winner”