All You Need Is a Hug by Kriss Venugopal

Author:Kriss Venugopal [Venugopal, Kriss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781543702583
Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
Published: 2019-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

26

Story tellers are born

A few words go a long way in life. Jeffrey Archer’s interview on radio was playing on Kannan’s car, loud and clear. The monotony of the daily commute to the office was broken by the only companion radio. Questions and answers about his books, scam, politics and the most desired question from the interviewer grabbed Kannan’s attention.

“What would you suggest people who want to be writers?”

Quick was the reply from Jeffrey, “Story tellers are born.”

There was a brief silence and it meant a lot. It was a blow to the question and Kannan’s indelible marker in the mind wrote it down in the mind forever. He was reminded of the story with vivid explanations and expressions given to it by Thatha.

The smell of the night, the flowers, the familiar smell of holy ash and the freshness of the soap, Thatha chewing his pan, his dhoti after his prayers, all rushed to Kannan’s mind. He became the same kid who sat next to the easy chair where Thatha sat chewing the betel leaves and started. (The story has many lines in Tamizh and the translations are in the parenthesis. The language is retained to keep the authenticity and the way it is told.)

“Once there was a man who never wanted to work. He was married and his wife was sick and tired of the laziness of her husband. She shouted at him…,” and Thatha’s eyes had all the expressions for Kannan and Akka to see the character in the story well in his face.

“Don’t you feel like taking care of the family? Won’t you earn a single penny?” Thatha narrated wiping a drop of the red spit from the pan he was chewing with a hand towel he had covered his shoulder.

“Dum dum dum,” he continued, “And the person from the palace was announcing….,” he changed his voice like the announcement from the court of the kind.

“Lend me your ears of lover of letters, the Royal court of Raja Raja Chozhan hereby announce a sum of 1000 gold coins for the best poem about his majesty Raja Raja Chozan, the lover of letters.”

Hearing this Kannan and Pachai opened their eyes wide with hands on their cheeks with amazement.

“Hey you mannunnimaappilayae (lazy bones). Listen. At least write something and get the prize money”, the wife shouted and threw a pot at her husband,” said Thatha. Kannan chuckled along with Pachai.

Thatha continued with the story, “… and he set out with packed lunch of thaiyir saadam (curd rice) and pickles. He walked to a nearby temple and sat in the shade. He started to try and write a few lines and wrote the first thing that came to his mind mannunni maappilayae (Lazy bones) and looked up the tree and saw a crow and wrote kaakrirae (You sound like a crow), then he turned to see a nightingale sing and wrote kookirayae (You hoot like a bird). And he was hungry and ate the whole lunch,” Thatha said patting his stomach as if he had had the lunch.

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