In Praise of "C"

There are certain times in ones life, and that certain times, often at times revisit to our helplessness, consternation and awe. And those certain times sometimes stays as the pleasurable fun moments of ones life even if one is a little peeved.

There are quite a few of such times. The  first such a time was way back in 1988 and was during the honey moon times I guess. We were living in Cochin. And one day I and C went to the Tandoor restaurant off the Woodland hotel for dinner. Those days that was one of the few respectable eateries in Errnakulam and affordable too. As places like Sea Lord, Pandal and the Malabar were out of financial bounds. It was also an occasion to shadow impress my spouse and also an occasion to showcase that I have a pretty and beautiful wife .ha!!!The restaurant was full with people. I was sitting opposite C and sported an air. Subconsciously and furtively watching if people around were noticing us. And to my glee indeed they were!! The steward took down our order of dishes and placed the array of tanginess and sauce on our table. And C began to investigate the sauce. She poured the tomato sauce on to her plate. And when she poured the solution came out in full, and began to almost overflow along the bottle I expected her to casually wipe the sauce of the bottle edge, but to my utter panic she started consuming it off the bottle edge. And she began relishing the sauce all on her fingers. I could see the people around wide eyed. How I wished I buried myself down under!

Many years later we were traveling on the Tea Garden from Coiambatore to Ernakulam. The train was leaving at almost midnight and I was longing for a berth to sleep. I was allotted the top most berth and folded up immediately. The last thing I noticed before I fell asleep was C engaged in animated discussion with a middle aged well dressed man .Some time later I was shaken awake by C. She was leaning on the berth and whispering to me to come down that the guy is a minister. Fantasies flashed through my mind and saw myself becoming a minister’s chum, sure that will do a lot good to my business. I hurried down shook hands with the gentleman and sat opposite. C said that the gentleman wanted to visit our factory. I nodded in acceptance. He stretched across to me his business card. I accepted that in glee. And there it was imprinted on the glossy surface, “Brother Paul Arokyaraj,”

                                                 Minister of The Lord

I almost jumped out of the running train but scampered back to the top berth without a word.

This friend of mine took fancy to star gazing. He, prompted by his new found interest joined some astronomy society and began his quest to know and study the night sky. Honestly at times his monologues  on stars, constellations

 and signs was an unavoidable bore. Unavoidable because he was a nice person.C was impressed with his lectures.I guess she picked up a bit of knowledge from this guy. And she was quite indulgent in impressing me about the things she learned about the twilight skies. One night we were sitting outside in the verandah of our home. The

 sky was well lit with stars. She suddenly jumped up  pointing her fingers at the southern skies. 'There the Southern Cross',

 in all its glamour. I gazed at the spot she was pointing and asked her how I can identify the constellation She said “come on even a child can figure out   , dey a mukkonam kandille, that is the Southern Cross”. Since that day I decreed that this astronomer friend must not utter a word about stars when he is with us..( she meant didn't you see that triangle that's the southern Cross).

A couple of years ago we made a private trip to the USA. I was always fascinated with the Yellow Stone and the Canyon. So the journey was a fulfillment too. The journey was financially well thought out. I got the tickets from my airline miles. And the time being the days when the US was plummeting into recession we could get a good overall bargain in hotels food etc. My friend’s sister who lives and works in a tour operating company in the US arranged and booked our stay and inland travel. She got us an amazing resort hotel inside the Yellow Stone Park called “The Snow King”. The hotel was on a hillock overlooking the town of Jackson. It was exciting, the touch down of the aircraft deftly flying between the Rocky Mountains and taking a veering position for landing. The drive from the airport through the Elk refuge into the typical cow boyish town of Jackson. We checked into the hotel and the concierge told us that we have reservation for a King- Queen suite. We checked into the room. The room was wonderful. C literally jumped in and ran to the huge window which had thick curtains drawn across. She pulled back the curtains and called out to me in awe and wonder... I was in the bathroom. She yelled ‘dey come on and have a look at the Alps, how fantastic they look”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Later C told me that her subject was Economics and not Geography Ha!!!!

The previous month R was home for a while before her ISCE exams. Her mother promised her that she will teach her Math and History. She is quite sticky with Math. Perhaps she took after me. Math was always my Waterloo.

And Ara too! Math is his nemesis. We were at the dinner table and I mentioned my pathetic performance in Math in school. But I opined that if a mental block or aversion takes over early then Math as a subject will be ones grave yard. C interjected. She said well for me as well Math was a big impossible labor.  I have been given zero in the exam in school. But I always wondered how could that ever have happened? After all it is so easy to score marks in Math. I did remember writing 1 +1 = 1. , and they gave me zero for that. How could that be??

The children yelled and howled. Ara put his arms around his mother and implored ‘Amma please do not teach R Math. She will learn by herself”

C still did not understand the yelling, catcalls and howling.