A Jackfruit Banana Life Lesson
Our home in Kerala has a backyard that has a huge Jackfruit tree (വരിക്ക ചക്ക) & few varieties of banana trees(വാഴ). We have given that two storey building for rent.
After my father’s death, our house is maintained by a family who has helped us for decades now — Vatsala Chechy & family. She was a school going girl, when she started coming to help Amma with home chores, after school. Her whole family is closely integrated with us. Even after we moved to Bangalore, our strong bonding with that family continue (“touchwood”, thankfully) to this day! So, where is the problem, right? Wait, wait…😊
Well, our ground floor is given out for rent to a Sanskrit Professor & Family. They are “practicing Hindus”, doing “sat-sangs”, closely associated with teaching Vedas, Sanskrit etc. They are Brahmins, deeply religious, doing lots of poojas etc. Our ground floor is filled with people who attend these “sat-sang” conducted by that family. 🌞
And Vatsala Chechy is a devout Christian. She & her family with extreme hard work, slowly, meticulously climbed up the so called “ladder of life”, uplifting themselves from being domestic help, to educating her kids to be salaried employees & earn a living. 🌞
It swells our heart with pride to say, that today we have rented out the first floor of our home to Vatsala Chechy, the very house she had come to as a domestic help, years ago! 😊
Before I go on, I would like to point out the difference between the two families, in terms of the “religion ladder”.As per societal norms, one of them is a “poojari”, a “close associate” of God. The other is much lower down, a simple devotee.
Well…you got the picture right? Ground floor — devout Hindus & first floor devout Christians. 🙏
The backyard with these fruit bearing trees is the rental property of both of them. We have not staked claim on these or laid down rules as to who has the right to enjoy these fruits.The backyard is maintained by Vatsala Chechy & family -putting the fertiliser to the trees, cleaning the premises up etc. The cost of maintenance is adjusted by the yield of the coconut trees in our house premises.
A few months ago, these trees bore it’s respective fruits. And, this -”who has rights to enjoy the fruits” — became the proverbial “bone of contention” 😏between the two families!!
The spark that ignited the 🔥 (fire) was the way the ground floor family addressed Vatsala Chechy as people who did “Dasya-Vrithi”(maid servant), and what right they have to question “Learnt Pandits” like them…or some tone like that…
The verbal spat became so extreme that apparently, they became raw human beings — stripped of all the decency & good manners learnt to become polished people!!
They both called us — high pitched, emotional rantings. We listened to them both, patiently.
Honestly, some of the verbal abuses I was told they spoke to each other, in Malayalam, I have not heard so far in my life!! 🙄
Anyways, to bring a long story short, I would like to showcase how my mother handled the situation. The Brahmin told her -”We will do special prayers tonight, seeking God to avenge that “Dassi”, the common maid, who insulted us”!!
My mother told him — “Go ahead Sir. Do your pooja. But the good lord knows the difference between rice & husk. (നെല്ലും പതിരും തിരിച്ചറിയും). He will come & listen to you for sure. But, he will first go to the common maid (Vatsala Chechy). Listen to her first. Then come to you. Your family had started the insults. Being economically weaker does not mean being morally & spiritually weaker!”
My! What a punch line! In hind-sight, her reply is plain pure satire — veiled insult, it’s called I guess. And really funny! 😁😁
