Ramchandra was travelling to Kerala from Bombay because he had fixed his marriage. He was going to his village first and then he would travel to his future wife's village. Yes, he smiled, even as the wind blew onto his face through the train windows, when he thought about how smart he had been.
He had met his to-be-wife's older brother Appukuttan through a common acquaintance. The person had given Ramchandra the details of the family and had fixed a meeting for them. It had been a humid September day when he met Appukuttan at the tea stall under Appukuttan's office building in Mumbai. It was 1963 after all and they weren't in Naadu* anymore. He and Appukuttan were the heads of their respective families and they would make all decisions. Even that of their own marriages. Both of them were already in their thirties and it was high time they settled down. As they spoke to each other, both men were acutely aware that more than arranging their own marriages, they were fixing a deal that would benefit both families.
It was decided. Appukuttan would marry the oldest unmarried sister in Ramchandra's home. Ramchandra in exchange asked to be presented to the oldest unmarried sister who was younger than him. He did not need her to be educated or to have a job.
Satisfied with their discussion and decision and knowing that both their fairly impoverished families, would be benefitted by this. Ramchandra and Appukuttan shook hands to seal the deal. They both now knew the names of their future wives. Ramchandra prepared to go to Kerala in October and get married to Ammini.
As he entered the village home of Ammini, Ramchandra was greeted by the older family members. Appukuttan hadn't been able to travel back for this meeting because of his job in Mumbai but had informed the family by letter. He would travel in a few days as things would move fast now. In a week, both these men would marry the other's sister in a temple wedding.
Ammini's mother was a woman who had lived a hard life. She spoke little and Ramchandra being a social butterfly offered them a lot of information about the city and the life there. Ammini brought him a glass of water and a cup of 'chaya' or tea while he sat on the wall of the porch of the ancestral home. The porch was large and bright and seemed extremely large to the couple as they acknowledged the other's presence. Neither of them looked directly at the other. No one did that sort of thing. Ramchandra saw Ammini wearing a simple saree. In reality he just saw her feet move towards him and a glimpse of her face as he lifted his gaze to take the glasses from her outstretched hands in front of him. She was quickly gone. He should have waited for her to place the glasses on the wall next to him instead of grabbing them, thought Ramchandra just after he'd done so.
His practical side had already accepted the match and so to him it was a done deal. He sipped on the chaya and the thought that she looked good enough for him, crossed his mind. This was not something he had thought about actively until he saw his bride-to-be for the first time.
Ammini on the other hand could hide in the dark shadows of the inner room and look at Ramchandra. The brightness outside made the dark rooms inside look darker when looked at from where he was sitting. She tried her best to be discreet as her older married sisters went about doing their rounds. The younger sisters had been sent to the field behind the house to keep them out of sight of the prospective groom. Many a planned match had been upset by a potential groom choosing a younger sister to marry. Ammini was very happy that she was not going to have any of those problems today.
She was happy that she was soon to go elsewhere. Her house was full of rules and discipline and simmering frustration and anger that was caused by decades of poverty. She looked at the man she was going to marry and besides the delight of seeing a strikingly handsome man in front of her she also saw in him a door to another world, a door away from the village and its superstitions and the punishments of being a woman of no means. She was now 28 and was ready to run away if needed to achieve her freedom she thought. But without an education, she had nowhere to go and no options of a safe life elsewhere. She saw that her future husband always had a small smile on his face. She'd observed him for at least ten minutes and the smile hadn't left his face. He carried in him something she'd not seen often and had not experienced before this.
He wasn't rich, is what she'd gathered. He had siblings already settled in Bombay is what she'd heard. Nothing mattered. She felt in her gut that her life was about to change forever as Ramchandra left and her mother returned wearing the satisfied air of a done deal as she came back inside the house.
chaya - tea with milk
*naadu - village
Like this story? You may not want to miss any new post on my blog by
You may like reading these stories about my mother
Ammini Amma - Chapter 1 - The Chronicles of the Youngest Child
and
Ammini Amma - Chapter 2 - The Chronicles of the Youngest Child
and
Ammini Amma - Chapter 4 - The Chronicles of the Youngest Child
or
Ammini Amma - Chapter 5 - The Chronicles of the Youngest Child
Ammini Amma - Chapter 6 - The Chronicles of the Youngest Child
or this one about my father
