Anna

Sundaresan had invited his younger brother Murali,his wife,his younger sister Malathi and her husband Sridhar home for lunch.They had assembled in Sundaresan’s house.The ladies were busy in the kitchen giving finishing touches to the lunch prepared.They all sat down ,enjoyed the meal and were having jokes at the expense of each other as usual.Lunch was over,the table cleared and all of them assembled in the hall.The reason for this get together of the brothers and sister with their spouses was not a casual one,They were going to discuss something very important, which concerned all of them and they had to arrive at a consensus.
Sundaresan was a chartered accountant and being the eldest among those present, started the conversation.
“So,what do you people think about our house in Karur,where Anna is staying?”
He looked at his audience and continued,”Our house in our native place, karur is quite a big one.By today’s standard, it is a palace.I enquired with some of my real estate friends ,they all feel that the house would fetch not less than eighty lakhs of rupees!”

“Eighty lakhs? I know that the value would have gone up by now,but I never thought that the house would get so much!,”exclaimed Malathi.Malathi was a graduate in Economics and got married immediately after studies,she was a full time house wife.Her husband Sridhar held a senior position in a private company.

Sundaresan nodded his head and continued,”My elder son Raghu has finished his MS in cardiology and he wants me to help him in setting up his clinic.My younger son Balan has decided to go abroad for further studies, once he finishes his M.Tech.The youngest Ramya is in school and Iam getting old.I must have some money kept aside for her marriage.”
He turned to MuraliMurali was a software engineer and held a good position in a multinational company. He was listening to his brother with total attention.

He said,”Sundu,I agree with you.I also need money,you know.Iam the only one who lives in a rented house.The prices of flats are going up like anything.Two years back my FIL showed me a flat in Nanganallur.It was twenty five lakhs.I thought that the price was too much,besides I did not have that much money.Now my FIL Says that same flat is costing not less than forty lakhs.Can you believe it?If I don’t buy a house now,I will have to stay in a rented flat only,as long as I live.”His wife Radha’s face had become small.
Sundaresan who observed this felt sad for her.He said,”Why should you continue to live in a rented flat?There is no need for that.We have a solution,that’s why I called you people here”.
In the meanwhile,Malathi interrupted him,”Anna,we are also sailing in the same boat only.House is not a problem for us.My FIL has left his ancestral house for us only.But,you know Anna,Kamala and Lakshmi are ready for marriage. Having two daughters ready for marriage and not having enough money, gives us sleepless nights,you know”.
Malathi’s voice broke and her husband Sridhar held her hand to control her.
Sundaresan kept quiet for a minute and then continued,”You see,all of us need money,a lumpsum money will help us a lot.I have in my mind our house in Karur..”
He did not finish,Murali interrupted,”But,Sundhu,Anna is living there,no?.How can we ask him to leave that house?”
Sundaresan was a little exasperated.He said,”I am coming to that point,Murali.Please allow me to finish saying, what I want to tell you people.”
He continued,”Look,All of us have equal share in that house.If we sell the house, we will divide the sum into four equal parts, which may come to nearly twenty lakhs each.Anna will also get his share.We can either get him a small flat in a good location,or he can put that money in fixed deposit and stay with me.He can use the interest from the fd for his personal expenses,what do you say?”
Sundaresan’s wife coughed,a signal beween husband and wife,Sundaresan looked at his wife,understood what she conveyed through her cough and said hastily,”What I suggest is Anna can stay with all of us by turn.He can stay with me for a couple of months,he can then go and stay with Murali for a month or two and then Malathi can take care of him for a couple of months…”
Murali said,”Anna could have stayed with us permanently, but both I and my wife are a working couple ,no?so as Sundhu says,Anna can stay with us for a couple of months in an year”.So saying, he looked at his wife, who nodded her head and gave her approval.
Malathi said,”Anna can very well come and stay with us . But I live in a joint family with my in laws.Anna may find it difficult to stay with us for long,but as you said he can stay with us for a couple of months in a year”.
Malathi after some contemplation asked the brothers,”Do you think Anna would agree to our suggestion,what if he refuses to our idea of selling the house?”
Sundaresan smiled,”Malu,is this what you know about Anna?He would never say ,”no”,to us.He has spent his entire life bringing us up and caing for our welfare,if we explain to him, the need to sell the house,he will happily agree”.

So,it was decided that Sundaesan,Murali and Malathi with her husband sridhar would visit Karur They sent a message to Anna about their visit to Karur through a local common friend and as per their plan, they left for Karur.It was quite late in the evening when the siblings arrived in Karur at their elder brother’s house.Anna was waiting for their arrival, he was happy to see them together.
After the initial pleasant exchange of enquiries of each other’s welfare was over,Anna looked in the direction of the front room which was also known as the camera room and called out,”Padma, come and see who have come"
The woman referred to as Padma by Anna came out of the room and entered the hall.She was quite tall,very slim,very fair with a round face and her eye lashes seemed to be very fond of her soft cheeks,they were touching her cheeks, when she fluttered her eyes.
Her arrival in the hall was like the splash of a lightning,brightening up the hall.Suddenly there was the sound of a baby’s wail and Padma went back to the room from where the sound came and when she returned to the hall, she was carrying a small child in her arms.The child looked less than an year old.Padma gave the child to Anna in a very natural fashion and Anna also took the child in his arms and began to rock him on his shoulders.Malathi looked at Padma,the child and Anna Her eyes bulged and thousand thoughts went through her mind in a splash of a second.Anna attended her youngest sister in law’s marriage that was held in Chennai some three years back.After that she is seeing him only now,so Anna got married in this interval.Why didn’t he tell us?We would have been very happy for him.Sundhu anna came to Karur an year back,even he did not tell us,may be, he also did not know of this sudden development in Anna’s life?” So went Malathy’s thoughts, wandering all along the unknown areas.She looked at Sundhu to get some message from his looks,but Sundhu refused to meet her gaze,so also Murali, who suddenly found examining the tiles on the floor of the hall, a very interesting pastime for the present.Sridhar sat there with a calm and composed expression unmindful of others’ sudden silence.
Since the siblings had taken their dinner on the way to Karur,all of them went to sleep.Anna conti nued sitting in the easychair in the hall for some more time,after all of them went to sleep.He remembered Malathi’s shock,confused expression and the arguements and counter arguements that went on in her mind and reflected in he face, once she saw Padma in their brother’s house.He felt like laughing aloud and at the same time, he felt very sad for her.Finally he also got up and went to the thinnai outside to sleep as was his practice since a long time.
Sundarsan,Murali and Malathi were not able to sleep.Although they wee lying down in different rooms,their thoughts were the same and about the same person .
Anna was the eldest son in a family of three elder brothers and a younger sister.His father was a clerk in the post office .His mother who was a very weak woman died giving birth to Malathi.Anna whose name was Narayanan helped his father in taking care of his younger brothers and his little sisters.He would ush back from the school to cook,to care and to tender his family,he loved his little sister.The entire neighbourhood marveled at the ay he took care of his father,his brothers and his sister.Somebody’s evil eye must have fallen on the family,otherwise why would Narayana’a father who looked a healthy peson die of a heart attack all of a sudden.Narayana had completed two years of his graduation course, when this happened.He did not flinch,he did not weep,he did not break down.He rose to the occasion.He got a job in a shop to write accounts in the evenings and with great difficulty,he finished his graduation.A retired IAS official who had come to Karur to settle down in his native place admired Narayanan when his neighbours told him about the young man and he used his goodwill to get him a placement in the postoffice where his father worked.
Life moved on.Narayanan’s younger brothers and sister called him Anna, meaning elder brother and the entire neighbourhood called him Anna, since Narayana became a benchmark for all elder sons in any family.
Anna was very strict with his younger brothers and sister where studies were concerned.They had to do well in their examinations.He also instilled in them values and principles.His brothers and sister were kind,courteous and very well behaved youngsters ,thanks to Anna’s upbringing.
He was particularly attached to his younger sister Malathi whom he literally brought up from the time she was a baby.He combed and plaited her hair,when she attained puberty ,he requested the mami next door to explain things to Malu and to teach her how to wear a saree.The mami wept,seeing his affection for his sister.He remained a bachelor so that his attention would not get diverted from his family responsibilities.
To his siblings he was like God.Sundharesan passed CA and got a vey good job in Chennai.
Next it was Murali’s turn to make Anna proud by securing university rank in the exams.He also got a job and left for Chennai.Malathi finished her graduation and Anna found a very good alliance for her and she became Mrs.Sridhar.
One by one the birds flew away from the nest and the guardian bird stayed in its nest, to take care of itself.

Morning dawned and Anna and his brothers and sister were once again sitting in the hall chatting up,when Padma carrying a tray with coffee tumblers approached them.After giving them coffee,Padma went inside and came out carrying a cloth bag.She looked at Anna and said,”Appa,Iam going to the market to get vegetables.Please keep an eye on your grandson,he is still sleeping” so saying,she flashed a friendly smile at Malathi and walked past them.
Malathi was shocked and surprised.”Appa”these words rang in her ears again and again.Why did Padma call Anna Appa?Malathi did not know what to say to whom and her face had become red.
Anna who sensed her confusion and agony,did not want to keep her in suspense any more.
“Sundaresa,I think that you people want to know who this girl is.I myself wanted to tell you people.”
Anna cleared his throat and continued,”Some eight months back,I had gone to Trichy on some work and I returned to Karur by the night train.I got down at Karur and came out of the station.It was raining heavily,so I was looking out for an autorickshaw ,because under normal circumstances I would have walked home,when I saw a young woman sitting at a corner outside the station and crying uncontrollably.There was something pathetic about her.I went near her and asked her who she was and what was she doing there at that time of the night.I asked her many questions because I wanted to take her to her mother’s or husband’s house,it was dangerous for her to sit there alone in the night with a baby in her hand.But the girl did not reply at all.There is a teashop near the station.The owner of the shop knows me.He saw me talking to the girl and came to me.
He said,”Sir,thus girl seemed to have come from some nearby village.She refuses to say who she is and where is her house.I feel sorry for her sir,because one can see that she is from a decent family.I would have taken her to my house,sir.But I live in a slum,sir.You know how those people are.They will be nice to her in their own way ,sir.She will get enough to eat ,but I I can not promise about other things,you know”.
He said to me,”Sir,you please take her to your place.In the morning you can either take her to her house or do what should be done,sir.She should not end up with the police or with rowdy elements”so saying he went back to his shop.
I talked to her for some more time and finally persuaded her to come with me to our house.Padma lost her parents when she was a child,her aunt brought her up, got her married to a good boy.He worked as a carpenter and what he earned was enough for them.They were a happy and content husband and wife and even God must have envied them,when Padma was in the eighth month of her pregnancy,she got the nws at the hospital where she had gone for her monthly check up, that her husband had died in an accident.She could only blink,she did not have the strength t even to cry.

Once the aunt had got her married,she washed her hands off her.So Padma gave birth to he child in the hospital and when she was discharged, she realized that she had no where to go.Her husband was an only child, whose parents left him in the care of the God at the local temple and went away.He grew up on his own.So Padma was left to fend for herself and that sadness and bewilderment only drove her to the railway station.She had decided to leave the child in the platform and to commit suicide when I entered the picture.”
Anna’s siblings and Sridhar were all ears.Anna continued,”I have given her the front room to stay with the child.My pension money is more than enough to feed the three of us and this girl has become my daughter.Anna turned to Malathi whose face had reddened and tears welled in her eyes.
Anna said,”I thought that I would take care of her but on the otherhand it is she who is taking care of me.She sees to it that I take my food in time and take rest in the afternoons.If I happen to get drenched in the rain she shouts at me,if I take food late,she does not talk to me for two three days.She says that Iam her father and mother”.
Anna looked at Sundaresan and said,”Sundhu I think that you people want to sell the house,am I right?I know that all the three of you need money,so go ahead and look for a buyer.I will make only one request”said Anna.
Sundhu looked at Anna and Anna continued,”In my share of money,buy a small flat for me to stay with Padma and the child.After my passing away,see that she gets the house and please do take care of her and her child”Anna’s voice broke.
All of them became emotional,Sundhu said,”Anna,foget our wanting to sell the house.That is not important now.Please continue to stay hee.But I want to tell you something,Anna.At your age you should not be taking such a big responsibility,you know?Taking care of a young woman like Padma and her small child is too much for you”.
Anna laughed,”Sundhu,do you know that you are far from the truth?Sundhu, after you people got settled at Chennai and Malu got married and went away, I became very lonely.Not only that, I felt that I had aged a lot.There was nothing to look forward to in life,no challenge,to put it in your language,there was no goal in life. So I became a vegetable.Do you know,ever since Padma came here, I have regained my faith in myself.There is something to look forward to in life.”Anna turned to look at the small child sleeping on a mat with a peaceful expression on his face.
“I have to live long for the sake of this child.I have to bring him up the same way, I brought you up and God should help me.”
He looked at them and said,”Sundhu,Murali,Malu and Sridhar,I know that I will fulfill my ambition.But, incase I meet my end before that, all of you should take care of my daughter and my grandson.Thats what they are to me,this is my only request to you”.
Sundhu who had by this time become vey emotional patted his Annas’ hand and went out.Malathi kept her head on Anna’s lap and shed silent tears.Anna stroked her head lovingly.Padma had returned from the market and had started cooking.It was Murali who sensed that Sridhar was not there.
“Malathi,where is your husbad?He has disappeared suddenly?”He said.Anna said,”He would have gone to the temple nearby or to meet his friends.”.Malathi nodded her head.
It was four in the evening and when Sridhar did not return home, they got worried.”Anna,do you think my husband is angry with us, on some account?He has never done this before.Even if he goes out to meet his friends, he always tells me and goes.He left his mobile also here ,you see .Iam worried”Malathi really looked worried.
At the same time a taxi came and stopped in front of their house.Anna came out with the others to see who had come to their house.They were surprised to see Sridhar get down from the taxi , followed by his parents and last came out Sridhar’s younger brother Ramesh.All of them were stunned to see Sridhar accompanied by his parents and his younger brother.Malathi hurried to receive them.
“Amma,how is it that all of you have come down,did you come to Karur to attend any marriage or any other function?”
Malu’s mother hushed her up.”First let us go inside,Malu ,your husband will explain everything to you”said the elderly mother.
Once they went in,Sridhar took Anna inside a room,others followed them.He said to Anna,”Anna,I listened to you today morning.After listening to you,I could not simply keep quiet,at this age you have the mental strength and the desire to give fresh lease of life to some one who needs it.You said that you felt younger because you have something to look forward to in life.Your words influenced me,Anna.I am young,I too need to take the first step to do something worthwhile.I went out and rang up my parents.I told them what was in my mind,my mother said,”Sri,you are a priceless gemda,to think like this.Ofcourse we are with you”and gave the phone to my father .My father listened to me and said,”Dey,subhasya seekram,let us go ahead, anyhow talk to your brother.He has to say ,”yes”.My brother listened to me and said,”Sridhar,we are blessed to have Anna as an elder of our family.He is my role model,I will definitely go with you all the way,but the girl has to like me ,you know.She should not feel that Iam obliging her,I want to marry such a fine young woman”.So,here Iam with my parents and my brother.”There was pin drop silence in the room.Anna sank in the chair next to him.
Sridhar said,”Anna,my brother is a B.COM graduate and is working in Tanjore in a private company.He is a fine fellow,I don’t have to tell you.you know him very well.Will you give your daughter Padma in marriage to my younger brother Ramesh?”
What followed was a very emotional scene.Anna wept with joy and took both the hands of Sridhar’s father and thanked him profusey.
He turned to Malu and asked her to go and talk to Padma whether she would be interested in marrying Ramesh.
All of them were sitting in the hall.Padma,wearing a simple cotton saree and looking like an angel ,came to the hall ,did namaskarams to the elders.She took her child in her hands and went in front of Ramesh,She said in a small voice,”He is my child”tears flowed from her eyes.Ramesh took the child from her hands and said smilingly,”No,Padma,he is our child from now on.”While some wept all clapped their hands.
The marriage of Ramesh and Padma was celebrated in a grand style by the family and the entire neighbourhood felt so happy, as if it was a marriage in their family.
Ramesh said that he would opt for a transfer to Karur or he would look for a job in Karur.He was firm that the grandfather Anna and his grandson would not be separated at any cost.

Sundaresan,Murali,Malathi and Sridhar were sitting in the train which was leaving for Chennai .There was peac e in their hearts and a joy the reason for which they had no explanation.
Malathi turned to Sridhar and said,”I have been thinking about my family,my daughters and my welfare all along.I failed to see that there is a world beyond my family.I have learnt a lesson from Anna.I feel that we should take up the responsibility of conducting the marriage of a girl from a poor family.There are so many young girls ,carrying dreams in their hearts of getting married,but their parents don’t have the money,so their dreams sometimes remain as dreams only.Let us take care of one girl atleast.What do you say?”Sridhar nodded his approval and put his hands around his wife’s shoulders.
Murali thought,”My owning a house can wait.I will sponsor the education of a poor boy and see that he settles down in life.I will do this at any cost”He felt peaceful.
Sundaresan said,”You are right ,Malu.Iam well off.Still Iam always thinking about my family and my children.Iam going to adopt a mother .There are so many old people who have no one to take care of them.i will take care of one elderly person as my mother, till she breathes her last”so saying he closed his eyes that had misted.

The train blew the whistle.That night, the whistle sounded longer and louder,may be the train was proud and happy that it was carrying the brothers and sisters of Anna, the matchless man and these brothers and sister were going to prove worthy of being his siblings.

 

My dear noorie,
Iam happy that you liked the story.Thank you for your fb.
love
mithila kannan

 

My dear sri,
I was so happy to get that wonderful FB from you.Your words have always given me the encouragement and the desire to write more.
Yes,we have a responsibility to the society..in which we live.We take so much from the society we also have to give in return.No ne need be a Mahatma Gandhi,but let us be a little thoughtful towards others who need our help.Then we will live in a more peaceful atmosphere.
love
mitila kannan

 

My dear arunasudha,
Thank you for the FB.
lve
mithila kannan

 

Dear chocolate,
Thank you for the ;lovely FB. Iam happy that you liked the story.
love
mithila kannan