Saturday, July 23, 2011

Agony Aunt

Short Story-
If Agony Aunt means the one who solve others problems then this is not true about mine… I may have to rephrase it. My Aunt, my father’s sister was a small, fragile and lean old lady in appearance, any one seeing her for the first time, may ask me “This small lady is the agony aunt..? I would say without beat of a second that she is indeed and is capable of many things…

Courtesy: Google-Draper painting
My school vacations were always spent at my native, the calm nostalgic village in the outskirts of Trivandrum, I spent the entire time in there in 2 parts, one with my dad’s kin and the other with my mom’s folks.. I enjoyed my time in both these places, partly because of the popularity and weight-age I gain because, I was the only kid in my family growing up in a big city! And partly because of the other kids of my age… they were bored with each other and my company was a treat to them.. I liked to bask myself the best in this lime light showered.. little did I know that “distance breeds familiarity and longing”, and these kinds would get bored of me also if I stayed more.

The only place that was boring was my aunt’s, her children were grown up and well settled in Dubai. So, it was me, her, my uncle and the 2 dogs in the big house. After few boring days, I found a new entertainment for myself, accompanying my aunty throughout her errands. Where ever she went I went with her. She was more than happy to show-off her brothers daughter, the pretty little girl, Oh I am not swaggering here that was how she called me.



I watched and mimicked her proud walking style across the lane where she would stand leaning on her neighbour’s fence and chit chat. She had a special talent of absorbing others moods, she was like a mirror. If they brag, she brags more, if they are gloomy about their bad luck, then she paints them a picture of herself, the most unlucky women of the world. At times she get very much involved and carried away, that a few tears lingered. These little plays made me smile, I keep wondering if her talent is getting better and better, for every time she wins, either her opponents feel pathetic for her or green-eyed over her prosperity.

On one such day in my 8th standard vacation, I was accompanying her when she said that we were going for a sad event, a condolence to a virgin widow. For my enquiry of what virgin meant, she said, that this girls husband left her on the wedding day to military and was killed in the war. So she never got to live with him and that was virgin, though I deny the meaning now, back then I was a kid and swallowed it without water.
As we reached there, only few people were standing outside the house, judging by the mood, I guessed that the incident was at least a week old. It was not all sad, people stood and sat in group merrily gossiping, my aunt joined a group and they spoke in hushed tone for some time until the girl’s mother showed up at the door. The mood of the group changed like the unpredicted weather alteration, they were sighing and letting out all sorts of sympathetic clatters and words. My aunt spoke with the mother and went into the bed room with her; I followed her, and held on to her hands. In the room I saw a beautiful young woman, the despair and melancholy was misplaced in her face which was supposed to be merry. After some customary exchanges, my aunt gave away her traditional consoling, and then started talking about her own pains, and burst into tears, thereby creating a big scene and few people came to pacify her.

I wondered, my aunt, the decision maker of her house and at times our house, who is filthy rich, who lived a happy married life and whose kids are well settled is comparing herself with a virgin widow of 25! a sudden shout from my aunt, stopped my train of thoughts..
She yelled “Oh.. my.. you little witch what are you doing!” and pushed me away, In my unconscious musing, I had pressed deep into her hands with my nails and in-between her rubbings I can see vivid marks of my 5 finger nails. I felt happy to have hurt her, and yet ashamed of her, that I moved away from her, the hatred might have been too visible in my eyes, the lady (widow) took my hands in hers and said,
“I wish I was like you..   Young, innocent and happy”
Being engrossed in pampering the wound, my aunty seem to have only heard the first half of her words, and said, 
“Oh dear.. Don’t say so.. at least your life is not as bad and sad as mine..”
 The lady said with a smirk,
“You are right Aunt, it is not as           as yours..” and looked at me..
No one heard it fully, and none other than me heard what she said in the middle..

Was it “Silly? Or “filthy?”

13 comments:

  1. Such people are everywhere....and they really make you feel pathetic

    love your writing style...following!

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  2. Hi Girl with a silver pen! thank u for stopping by... and u r rite..! I just feel that they are funny! they just want to be the center of attraction.. harmless I guess to some extend..

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  3. absorbed a very nice flow in this story...i would rate 4 out of 5.Was blown away by the Vocabulary,very good standard throughout the story.

    Good work KP..I am an avid reader and I believe you wont stop writing like many other rookie bloggers.Got the curiosity to read other articles as well!

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  4. Your post shows it got your aunt attention alright...:D

    My pleasure visiting your blog :)

    Keep Writing.

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  5. Hi Sambath, Welcome to my blog! and thanks a lot for the encouragement..! I am not planning to stop as of now! we will see.. and u r most welcome to read through the older posts..! don't forget to provide feedback!!

    @ Girl with a silver pen... that is a good one he he..! may be I should add a clause..
    "All characters in this story are fictitious.. any resemblance to real time is a mere coincidence!! :D

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  6. lol from where I come from, every old lady is a talented like your agony aunt.

    Nice post :)

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  7. Hi Abhishek.. thank you.. I have seen a lot of them too! (but not my aunt) ;)

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  8. Language was lucid as well as lovely...the incident is interesting...enjoyed...and thought provoking too!

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  9. Hey that was nice.. happy to know that it is funnay and thought provoking too.. we see a lot of these people and to be frank we do have a part in us too..:)

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  10. The aunt deserved not only your hatred but also the last statement of the lady.
    Great post. Extremely well written.

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  11. It's very trouble-free to find out any matter on net as compared to books, as
    I found this piece of writing at this web page.

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  12. It's a pity you don't have a donate button! I'd definitely donate to this fantastic blog!
    I suppose for now i'll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
    I look forward to new updates and will share this website with my Facebook
    group. Talk soon!

    ReplyDelete