Just one stop he had to wait. Mr Dharmalingam was standing in that bus and was travelling to some place he was eager to visit. The road was full of speed breakers, making him bounce up and down. His mother, Mangammal, a ninety-year-old woman, was seated on the conductor's seat as all other seats were taken. She just had a maroon-coloured shawl shrouded all over her demeanour and it looked dirtier as if it was dipped in liquid tar. It was wrinkled and crinkled and had all the dried stains of spilt foods and gravies. All her skin was wrinkled worse and her skin was hanging like thin pouches from all over her body. Her face showed her skull to the fullest and her lower jaw was shaking up and down frequently, which made other passengers wonder if that was because the bus is jumping up and down over the road. Her arms were not stable, and vibrating continuously like a tapped tuning fork. Her head barely had any hair, revealing the baldness in middle, her hair was all filled with dandruff and mites and dirt as if dipped in wet cement.
Finally, Dharmalingam's stop has now come, he led his extremely old mom down the bus and then he got down. The scent of neem and soil spread around him through the winds, which gave him the feel of his childhood. There at the bench beneath the bus stop long ago there was a wooden ledge, on which thirty-seven years ago Mangammal used to feed him the rice-maize porridge. He was three years old at that time, and Mangammal had been a deity of beauty in that village. There was no transport at that time, barely some bullock cart would go by the highway. But now, for each minute a car or a bike would pass by that side. Dharmalingam held his mother's hands, which were hard with any flesh, and cursed, "You aren't even walking properly, what shall we do, because of you, every time I and Sudha have to look after you whether you were alive or not!"
Mangammal then thought about the disputed she had since she got Dharmalingam married to Sudha. Sudha always had an eye for getting dominance, but until Mangammal is there, she couldn't. Hence Sudha always used to find a bit excuse to start a quarrel and bring a bad impression upon Mangammal. Mangammal never gave up, she fought and won all the time, until she aged that she couldn't speak louder. Sudha and Dharmalingam got annoyed to look after Mangammal. Now, Dharmalingam brought Mangammal home. He and Mangammal were in the city for two years at his brother's house, for Mangammal's treatment for Diabetes and Heart failure. Sudha gave a mug of water to Dharmalingam to wash his legs and dragged the old lady and made her sit on a punctured mattress. Sudha laughed, "You wouldn't even be able to lift a tumbler of water, what will become if you live?" and walked away in disgust.
It was as rotten as Mangammal has left two years ago, Sudha didn't even think of touching it. Mangammal was given a glass of buttermilk and her daily medications along with an insulin needle. She lay on her stinky mattress staring at the roof, it was the roof under which she delivered Dharmalingam. And under it, she is laying now. She closed her eyes and remembered a day she won't forget ever. It was on a night when Dharmalingam was five years old. Mangammal's husband Veludhurai had fits at that midnight, there was only a small lantern. Mangammal didn't know what to do at that time, all the other neighbours were going to a festival to the next town. She had to do only one thing, she picked her husband and held him on her two shoulders with all her strength, and held a lantern in her other hand and walked out of the cottage. It was very dark and the winds were chilling outside, and soon there were thunders and lightning. Owls squealed and wolves moaned from far away from the darkness. Soon droplets of rain began to fall all over. The soil became muddy and she couldn't walk any more steps. But still, she tried and reached the bullock cart of her relative Vetri mama and lay her husband on it and drove the car over the main road.
Soon floods ran over the road and her lantern went off, but she has now reached the nearby government health care centre. But only to know that her husband is already dead. And that was a nightmare, an eternal dream of evils for her. She once did such things, but in her old age, she lost her ability to even lift an empty steel glass. Dharmalingam left to buy provisions and pay the electric bill, while Sudha is cooking in the kitchen. Suddenly, some sound of scattered vessels and broken things banged from the kitchen. Mangammal didn't know what to do. Later, when Dharmalingam came home, he found that Sudha had died and Mangammal is laying unable to even lift her head up. After the doctor came, it was known that Sudha had fits, and as there was no immediate treatment, he said that she would have survived if someone would've carried her and gotten her to the nearby health care centre. The only thing that made Mangammal lose her husband in one night, and Sudha to lose her life in one hour, is the same, the Change. Anytime it will come.
#327
Current Rank
5300
Points Earned
225 Readers have supported this Story
Rate and help Bhargava with this contest
10Points
20Points
30Points
40Points
50Points
Description in detail *
Thank you for taking the time to report this. Our team will review this and contact you if we need more information.