Panchami

Ungrateful

Nikunjam was a small tiled house on the outskirts of a rubber plantation. The dense thicket made the surroundings shady during the day with just the dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves. The nights were darker and eerie with all kinds of shrieking insects and seasonally lit by glimmering fireflies. A wide marshy road bespattered with sludge connected many small houses, all belonging to poor or middle-class people. Narayanan (Appa) had inherited this property from his father who was a diligent farmer. After his matriculation, Narayanan got employed as a labourer in the Indian Railways. His wife Pushpa (Amma) was a dedicated housewife and they had two children, Panchami and Maniyan.

Panchami was very delighted, that her age was going to become a two-digit number shortly - 10 years old. Maniyan had a twinge of envy since he had to wait for another three years to celebrate such an event. Even otherwise he had the diffidence that he was the most ignored person in the family.

Little did Panchami realize that her responsibilities also increased. Slowly, Amma started handing over the charge of the pieces of domestic equipment to Panchami - the brooms, the mops and the dusters. It became Panchami’s duty to clean the house, dust the furniture, mop the floors and discard the domestic waste.

It was a Sunday morning. The children and their Appa usually got up late on Sundays. They were woken up by the smell of hot dosas and sambar that emanated from the kitchen. As soon as Panchami entered the kitchen, Amma had work to assign.

“Panchami, after your breakfast you should clean our outhouse today. It’s almost a month since I swept that place”

The outhouse was about a hundred meters away from the house, a thatched hut where the rubber sheets were stored. Amma had also made it a place to pile up some firewood.

After her breakfast Panchami made a long face and picked up the broom and the basket. Maniyan suddenly sensed impending danger, that he might be called by Panchami, to assist her in the work. So he ran to his room and started reading his English textbook loudly, to convince others that he had a lot to learn.

“Maniyan, are you coming with me to clean the house?” Panchami enquired.

“Amma, tell Maniyan to come with me,” she yelled.

“Can’t you see he is studying?”

Panchami stamped the floor in anger and headed towards the outhouse, carelessly hitting a cat that came on her way. The dry leaves of the rubber trees lay scattered around the outhouse and Panchami had a tough time sweeping them into small piles. A large number of huge black millipedes repeatedly frightened her and she shrieked aloud every time she saw one. Some wild plants, crept up towards the roof, covering a huge part of the hut, some branches peeped in through a window that was left partially open. With her little fingers, she pulled with all her might to bring down the creepers which got squeezed and released some sticky sap in her hands. Suddenly she heard the loud chirrup of some birds. She pulled the creepers once again and two birds flew away from the creeper. Panchami became curious; she held the window sill and climbed up on the window. Her eyes gleamed with wonder and happiness when she saw a little nest in the creeper with four small eggs inside. The frightened parent birds chirruped aloud and Panchami did not want to frighten them further. She walked away slowly without disturbing them.

As soon as she reached home, she told Maniyan, all about seeing the birds and their eggs. He wanted to see the nest desperately, but they decided to sneak out in the evening.

It was evening. Panchami was busy completing her homework while Maniyan played with his toys. Suddenly there was a bout of thunder and lightning. The wind blew hard, sending the curtains high up in the air.

Maniyan shouted in excitement, “Panchami, it’s going to rain!”

“Yes, the sky has become very dark!”

“Panchami, will you go to school tomorrow?”

“Why not?”

“Your umbrella was leaking badly last time……I got a new one. Can we exchange our umbrellas? I don’t want to go to school tomorrow……..,” Maniyan suddenly squealed, “Panchami!! Will the birds get drenched? Will the nest fall down in this wind and will the eggs break?”

Panchami got up with a jerk and she looked upset, Maniyan was right behind her. They took Maniyan’s umbrella and headed towards the outhouse. Amma was busy in the kitchen and she did not notice the children going out.

When they neared the outhouse, it was getting dark. Panchami gave the umbrella to Maniyan and she climbed up the window. The birds were wet and sat helplessly on a branch nearby, looking up at the sky and winking. Water flowed profusely into the nest also. Maniyan had forgotten to wear his slippers. He stood on his toes to have a glimpse of the eggs. He felt a cracking sound under his foot. He looked down and started crying aloud, “Panchami, I have stamped on the baby of a black snake!! I think I have killed it. Yakh!! It’s sticking on my foot.”

Panchami jumped down and noted that Maniyan had squashed a huge black millipede into a pulp. “Don’t worry, it’s not a snake, only a millipede.”

“Will its poison cripple my leg?”

“I don’t think so. We will ask Amma”

Panchami climbed up the window once again. She lifted the nest, lowered it and showed the eggs to him. He jumped repeatedly with excitement. She placed the nest safely in the creeper and tied the creeper to the window grilles so that the rainwater did not fall into the nest. By now she was completely drenched. They got frightened by another bout of thunder and lightning. They ran homewards. Amma was furious and she shouted at Panchami, till they explained the series of events to her.

“Amma. I stamped on a huge millipede. Will it be safe for me to go to school tomorrow?”

“It’s not poisonous but sometimes its acidic secretions can burn the skin and don’t try to find excuses to cut your classes”

Maniyan walked away, limping slightly to show his mother that squashing a millipede was a painful event and might require a bed rest the next day.

Monday mornings were tougher to manage after the Sunday lethargy. Amma ran around busily preparing food and in between, she repeatedly called out, “Panchami, Maniyan, have you got up? Get ready for school.”

Maniyan got up and checked and rechecked his foot to detect any signs of the previous day’s event. He wanted to limp with evidence but there was no tenderness, no burns and not even a redness. He got disgusted and started getting ready while Panchami continued sleeping.

Amma became furious, “Panchami, it’s 9.AM and you haven’t got up till now. Come on get up!!” She shook Panchami, who opened her eyes and said feebly, “Amma, I am not feeling well”

Amma touched Panchami’s forehead and exclaimed “Oh, dear! You have a very high fever, it’s all because of drenching in the rain yesterday”

Appa came rushing to Panchami’s room. He was very upset and he dialled the local clinician. Meanwhile, Maniyan repeatedly pulled Appa’s shirt and asked, “Appa, should I go to school today? There is no one to accompany me.”

Appa yelled out at Maniyan, “Don’t be so lazy, come on, run quickly to your school!!”

Days passed by . The local clinician visited the house frequently. He gave medications to Panchami. It was a very bad flu, which later became an upper respiratory tract infection. After days of treatment, finally, Panchami became better. She started taking her regular food. All these days Maniyan tried hard to get the flu so that he could abstain from school for a couple of weeks. He made it a point to stay near Panchami always, but still, he did not contract the illness.

It was another Sunday. The sky was clear and Panchami got up early. She was surprised to see a lovely new pink frock with laces and beads, kept on the table. Appa had brought it for her birthday. She was very happy and admired the frock from all possible angles. She was ten years old; her age became a two-digit number. Suddenly she seemed to remember something. She left the frock aside, got up immediately and walked towards the outhouse to see her birds. She gently climbed up the window and was shocked to see that the nest was empty. She got down immediately and rushed homewards almost crying. “ Amma…………… Amma……”

Amma looked anxious, “What happened Panchami?”

“Where are the birds and the eggs? The nest is empty!!”

Amma smiled and said, “Oh, my dear! We took care of your birds. The eggs hatched, four teeny weenie birds came out. The parent birds fed them well and one fine morning all of them flew away.”

Panchami sobbed and asked, “Amma, how can they be so ungrateful to me?”