A Kitchen in the Corner of the House by AMBAI

Author:AMBAI [AMBAI]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2019-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

When her younger brother was four years old, he insisted obstinately on going along with them. On that occasion, Amma gave Marudayi the round sum of three rupees. As soon as they came out of the temple, Marudayi bought them javvu mithai, and as they were licking their elephant, rabbit, and deer, she said, “Mythili, there’s a Tamil film running at Central Talkies. Shall we go?”

“M…m,” Mythili murmured in assent.

Thambi was primed to reply properly to Amma’s catechism. He learnt to repeat correctly, in telegraphic style.

“How did you get to the temple?”

“Jutka.”

“What did you see there?”

“Mari saami.”

“What did you eat?”

“Pongal.”

“And what else?”

“Orange drops.”

There was a huge crowd of women waiting for the afternoon show at Central Talkies. When Marudayi had bought six-anna bench-seat tickets, taken them to the toilet, and then ushered them inside, the film started straightaway. Because they were seated so close to the screen, they had to crane their necks upwards to see. The faces on the screen looked gigantic. In a very short time, it became apparent that the hero was up to something wicked.

“Corpse of a fellow,” the maami next to them cursed.

“You’re in for an evil time, da. Your wife is a chaste woman, da, a pattini,” another woman put in.

“Look at your face and your chin! You’ll go to hell,” Marudayi commented, cracking her finger joints.

After the interval, just when they had finished their ice-lollies, and the film started again, Thambi began to whimper that he wanted to go to the toilet. Marudayi led him outside. When she came rushing back, she asked the neighbouring maami, “What’s been happening, maami?”

“I tell you, this lecher has gone and fallen for that whore of a woman,” the maami answered.

“Look at the way the slut is showing her teeth. Her mouth is wide and her cunt is wide,” said Marudayi.

In the end, the man who had done wrong returned to his wife, and the audience roared its approval, “That’s right, come to your senses, now!”

They came out, caught their bus, and arrived home. As usual, Amma touched their foreheads with kumkumam, and then asked, “Where did you find your jutka?”

Out of the blue, Thambi announced in his shrill voice, “Amma, we went to the cinema.” Then he added, loud and clear, “A lecher fell for a whore. That slut’s mouth was wide and her cunt was wide.”

After that the excursions to the Mariamman temple ceased. Amma began to set aside some money in a yellow cloth for Mariamman. And with many prayers that Mariamman should not get angry, nor mind that the money was going into the safekeeping of the modest Kannika Parameswari, the offering was deposited in the hundi of the Parameswari temple.

Whenever their numerous uncles and aunts came to visit them, Mythili had the chance to see many films such as Guna Sundari, Kanavane Kankanda Deivam, Tuukku Tuukki, and Manohara. But without Marudayi’s and the other women’s special commentaries, her heart was not in it.

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