Wanderers in Eternity – Chapter 1 (Page 9)
Coming to the front porch she stumbled against a young novice monk. Without hearing the words of the robed one, she walked down the steps to the sandy ground and ran in search of the shade of the Bodhi tree.
The noise of the crows was endless. The Bo leaves parched in the sun rustled from a soft breeze. Thangamani had fallen asleep from hunger and weariness. Ranganadan was still lost in his own world while drawing lines on the sandy earth.
Janaki hugged her brother.
“Sister is good. Sister is good.”
“Brother is bad…. Brother is bad…”
Not allowing Ranga to cry, Janaki rocked him to a rhythm and then with him laid down next to their mother.
Thangamani opened her eyes as the sun went down. Until then she had been in a deep coma like sleep at the edge of the temple wall. Hearing someone’s voice she opened her eyes and saw an old woman sweeping the sandy grounds. Then she saw the two kids sleeping next to her. Both of them had the pottu marks she had placed on their foreheads. A certain fear enveloped her heart. She wet her finger with spit and wiped away the marking on Janaki’s forehead. That was when Janaki opened her eyes. While the girl was still lying still Thangamani erased the pottu on her son’s forehead.
“Let’s get going,” saying this to Janaki, Thangamani took off her earrings and the necklace and hid them in the bundle. She picked up the boy and gave the parcel to Janaki. The sweeping woman stopped her work to look at them and shake her head. As if not noticing her, Thangamani walked out of the temple grounds with the two kids.
Darkness gathered around them.
“Amma, when are we going to eat? Don’t we have any food?”
Thangamani who ignored her daughter’s nagging, heard her son’s cry. “Don’t cry, don’t cry,” she tried to console him.
She turned towards the railroad without a thought. All she wanted was to go home. By some divine miracle Sundaram may have returned home, she thought.
On the lamp posts, feeble lights appeared. While everything that happened during the day haunted her like a horrible nightmare, Thangamani tasted the continuously flowing tears with the tip of her tongue.
As they passed the common well, she could hear the sloshing of the water. People were pouring cold water over their bodies to wash away the heat and the sweat of the day.