Confession of a Hindu Mother

Just to perk up my mom, who aged 83+ hasn’t been keeping well, I asked her (as a joke) whether she would feel better if I can bring her cinema favourite ’Captain’ Viyayakanth (on whom she has a crush!!) to meet/greet her, so she will start eating better.  Her response totally astonished, and shook me.

I present the interaction almost in Toto;:
You little twit (that’s me) do you know what leaders I have seen?  As a 9/10 class student in Lahore (she was born in Madurai, TN, but my maternal grandpa was Engineer in the then NW Railways, of Indian Railways) I’ve seen Sardar Patel like you stand before me (2 feet).  I have seen Pandit Nehru in the same place about 10 paces away.  And she was thrashed by my grandma (whom I’ve seen and remember) for the frights.

Later, after independence, I (she) had the opportunity to garland the same gentleman (Nehru) when he visited where I (she) worked.

Then, I interrupted her to ask whether she had ever met Netaji Subhas Bose.  She confessed never, but my (long dead) father had met both Netaji, Mahatma Gandhi, Subranamanya Siva, Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathi, VOC Chidambaram Pillai and others when the first ‘smabhandhi bhojanam’ (castless dining) was organised in my Paternal Grandpa’s home at Salem.  And that EVR Periyar was almost a family friend.

I gave her hug.  Followed up with two more for not we realise what freedom means.

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