Tales of the Wanderlust

The wails of her younger sister wake up Anju. ‘Don’t sleep like a buffalo, get up and attend to your sister’ screamed her grandmother, in between her bouts of cough, caused by the oven than burns damp firewood. Anju got up, rolled her mat, picked up her younger sister and soothed her. She had a couple of hours before she goes to Rathi madam’s house to wash clothes and clean vessels. Today, madam had asked her to come early. Her son, daughter in law and grand children have come from New York. She is planning a special lunch. Anju always liked the family, as they are nice generous people. Anju knew that she will get some money, chocolates and so she was looking forward to her work today.  There was a lot of work to be done, the now Americanized daughter in law of Rathi madam felt guilty about how people were treated in our country. She gave Anju 100 rupees as bonus! Anju thought she should buy some trinkets for her and medicines for grandmother. The rest she has to give to gran...

                Sita Lakshmi was in her late sixties. Her exact age did not matter anymore, not to her at least, all she did was lie down all the day and wait to be woken up by her son for being fed or being bathed or for being cleaned. ‘ Madhava ’ she would call out irrespective of him being inside the house or not ‘ give me some water, my throat is parched ’. More often she fell back to sleep forgetting to have water and wait till her son comes home.                 Madhavan, 32, unmarried, was working in a local grocery store. He made sure that he visited home thrice during his work timings from the shop, to take care of his mother. This has become a routine since Sita Lakshmi was affected by Alzheimer's. He had no qualms about this. His mother has done so much for them and she has gone through so much and the least he could do was ...

It was raining heavily, pouring down - a welcome respite from the heat of the past week. Huddled under the small over-crowded bus stand, I was waiting for the rain to let up so I could walk back from work, when suddenly, out of nowhere, she came walking towards me, and then asked in a breaking voice, brother can you give me something to save my child? She almost startled me, her eyes were deep with sadness and her red sari was torn. I have never seen such a potent sorrow which hits a person like something solid. Her child seemed sick and was shivering. Could be just a ruse to milk money out of innocent bystanders, being the crook I am I stood wondering if she thought I was as naïve as I looked. I practiced looking naïve as she practices looking sad, like her child who practices being sick. The child was the best actor amongst us; he was shivering like a scared calf, I thought to myself as she started walking away. I could hear her murmuring in tamil ‘probably he thought I was cheater...

"I have this feeling for the past few days that my mother ship is trying to contact me. I am getting this very strong vibe from strange places and at strange times since when I lost my transiterator. Not surprising, since they would be worried. They can never think that I lost it; they might actually be thinking that I am imprisoned by you guys and you are trying to interpret their signals. Little do they know that you are these puny little fellows and simple minded too" said the mad man sipping the tea I bought him. It had become a routine for me. I would buy him tea, biscuits or food and he would keep me engaged for some time with his words. I started this just to ridicule him and for time pass but I found that he actually has some interesting stuff to tell. But lately he was being ridiculously weird. "You earthlings have an ego that is bloated enough to assume that you are moving fast towards the fringes of science when you have not even managed to enter the realms o...