Wanderers in Eternity – Chapter 1 (Page 4)
March 4th, 2006“Come, come,” she said. There was one roti left from morning.
As the beggar woman came to the shade of the section where the hearth was, Thangamani brought the plate with the roti from within the shed. The old woman sat on the bench and asked for some water.
“Janaki, go get some water.”
From Thangamani’s order, the girl filled a coconut shell with water and gave it to the old woman.
“A lot of merit to you, sweet child,” the beggar woman said before taking the cup of cold water with both hands and drinking.
Thangamani hurriedly made a sambol by scraping some coconut and crushing an onion and a couple of red chillis with it and squeezing the juice of half a lime into the mixture.
The old woman swallowed the roti with this concoction hurriedly and greedily.
“These little ones were scared when I recited the poem,” she said afterwards. “I did not say it to scare the little ones.” With the water left in the coconut shell she washed her mouth and her hands and gave thanks to Thangamani and the kids with a lengthy twaddle. None of this was understood by the others. The two kids listened while hanging onto their mother.
“My name is Suduhaminay,” the woman said.
“What is the name of this daughter?”
“Janaki.”
“And the brother’s name?”
“Ranganadan.”
“Appa, that’s a beautiful name. Those days I also had a beautiful long name. Now I am just Suduhaminay. Those days I also lived in a big house. In Atthanagalla.” Suduhaminay’s eyes were filled with tears. “I also had children. My daughter ran away. My son’s wife chased me away.”
Janaki filled the coconut shell with water once more and handed it to Suduhaminay.
“Oh, this dear girl will have the best of everything wherever she goes. May she get all the comforts… at the end of all worldly comforts and heavenly comforts may she attain Nirvana.”