The Invincible Moonsheen
Part – 37
(Telugu Original “Venutiragani Vennela” by Dr K.Geeta)
English Translation: V.Vijaya Kumar
(The previous story briefed)
Sameera comes to meet her mother’s friend, Udayini, who runs a women’s aid organization “Sahaya” in America. Sameera gets a good impression of Udayini. Four months pregnant, Sameera tells her that she wants to get a divorce and the circumstances are conducive to it. Udayini asks her to listen to the story of “Tanmayi” and pursue her to make her own decision after listening to the story. Tanmayi and Shekhar, who met at a wedding ceremony, go to marry with the permission of their elders. After the marriage they started their new life in Visakhapatnam. A boy was born to the couple in a year of their marriage. Tanmay engages in her studies deeply and enjoys the friendship with her colleagues forgetting all about her household disturbances. Her parents came to stay with her for a month while Shekhar is away on his long-term camp.
***
Tanmayi and Jyothi with the kid reached Hyderabad just as dawn broke. It was Tanmayi’s first time seeing the city.
Though Visakhapatnam is also a city, the differences between the two were stark. Visakhapatnam’s winding hilly roads and lack of broad lanes beyond the main streets made it feel smaller, less developed in its outskirts. Yet it was beautiful, with its sea, hills, and greenery—a city hard not to fall in love with.
Hyderabad, however, felt like stepping into a new world. Wide roads, dry weather free of humidity, unfamiliar language, and crowds. Pushing through the station’s chaos, they hired an auto. Jyothi showed the driver the address written on a slip.
“Maaloom nahi” he replied in Hyderabadi Urdu.
Mother and daughter confused, unsure how to explain further. “Let’s head to the general area first,” Tanmayi suggested, reading the address aloud.
The auto sped recklessly through the streets. The kid, excited, stood up to look around while the women clung to the sides. After half an hour, the driver declared, “This is what you search for.”
After circling a few gullies they found Pramila Peddamma’s house. The driver demanded ten extra rupees. Jyothi argued, but Tanmayi, not caring her frustration, paid him five extra.
A large two-story house stood before them. The ground floor was rented out. A maid sweeping the courtyard pointed them upstairs. They knocked on the open door, hoping Pramila Peddamma would warmly welcome them. Instead, the maid said, “She’s bathing. Sit.”
Nervously, they sat.
Jyothi whispered, “I knew they were well-off from films, but not this much rich.”
A man in the adjacent hall sipped coffee, flipping through papers, ignoring them.
“That’s Peddannaya. Seems he didn’t recognize us. Last I saw him was at a wedding when I was fifteen,” Jyothi murmured.
The house felt coldly opulent—glass cabinets filled with trophies, expensive decor. The kid wandered off, but Tanmayi gestured sharply for him to stay close.
Pramila Peddamma entered, adjusting her embroidered saree. “How was the journey?” she asked, her eyes briefly flickering with annoyance as the kid fidgeted around uncared.
“Say namaste,” Tanmayi prompted the kid.
“Tell him to call me “Aunty” not Ammamma! My son isn’t even married yet,” Pramila corrected, pushing back her shoulder-length hair back.
Jyothi deflected, “When’s his wedding?”
“We’re looking for matches. Maybe this year,” Pramila replied, eyeing Tanmayi probingly. “He doesn’t resemble you. Must take after his father. Where is the guy, by the way?”
Before Tanmayi could answer, Jyothi lied, “He couldn’t get leave from work.”
Eying at Tanmay’s neck without a mangalsutra on the chain suspiciously, Pramila showed them their room—a sparse space with a worn double cot and a bathroom. “The maid will bring meals. We’ll return by evening from a wedding,” she said, leaving.
Jyoti said, No problem Akka! we will take care of ourselves!”
As soon as she left, she turned to Tanmayi and said, “Why don’t you hide that chain inside, we won’t be able to hold everyone’s gaze.”
“Doesn’t the old lady know?” Tanmayi said in disgust.
“Whether she knows or not is not the question, why should we make a fuss ourselves? Is this something to be admired at all?” said Jyoti.
Tanmayi’s eyes filled with tears. “What did she do wrong?”
Jyoti turned her head and changed her words as if she didn’t say anything wrong, “Pramila’s aunt doesn’t have any children. She is raising a boy. He is now in America.”
After the kid’s bath, Tanmayi got ready herself after a nap. Her mind was more tired than her body. The bitter experiences she faced wherever she went made her life difficult. Society holds women responsible for even the mistakes of men. She thinks that her relationship with Shekhar has been severed, and this society is not letting her forget him.
“Oh Anonymous friend! Save me from all the suffering.” She closed her eyes.
As her body was exhausted by thoughts, she immediately fell asleep.
Jyoti woke her up for lunch. “It’s already very late! get up!”
Tanmayi ate something forcefully and sat down with her books. She thought of leaving from there. She had read somewhere that she should exercise restraint only when faced with undesirable situations in life. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened the book. As soon as she opened the book, all the thoughts disappeared like clouds. She continued.
In the evening, she asked the maid at tea time, “When will your lady come?” Looking seriously at her mother Tanmay said, “Mother! I have an interview tomorrow for certificate verification, Remember?”
Seeing Pramila getting down from the car from above, the boy excitedly ran over to her mom and asked, “Mom, mom! Shall we go by car tomorrow?”
“No dear, we’ll go in an auto,” Tanmay said softly, patting his head.
“Umm, I won’t come in an auto,” he said pampering.
While Tanmay was trying to calm him down, he said, “Let’s go on a bike.” He had become quite obsessed with it lately. Hero Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Yamaha bikes have become affordable for the middle class on loans, and the couples make their kids sit in front and their older children in between. Tanmay noticed the kid often looked at such people eagerly. Her goal was to raise the kid without such allurements. But it seems impossible.
Struggling with thoughts, Tanmayi went up to the third floor, where the water tank was. All the buildings on the street were three-storey buildings. In the distance, people living in empty spaces covered with tarpaulins seemed to have returned to their homes as the evening approached. Children were playing on the muddy grounds. She felt sad thinking about those slumdogs.
“Tanmayi!”
Tanmayi came into this world at the call of Jyoti from below.
“Grandma is calling”
Until then, the person who was named as Pedananna, watching TV, stared at them once, smiled, and went inside as if he had something urgent to do.
Pramila and Jyoti were engrossed in watching the serial “Ruthuragalu”…Washing powder Nirma…Onida TV… ads poured continuously. Tanmayi got bored. The serial started again.
“Sage…. Jeevana… Raagam…”Yes, life goes on… without ending anywhere”
Gathering up her courage, she said, “There is an interview for me Peddamma. “I have to study,” Tanmayi said, getting up.
“Oh… fine go and study. What job are you preparing for?” Pramila mockingly asked.
“I think the salary of a lecturer may be handsome, but you are an only daughter. When you get a job, take your mother and father to your place, how long will they be alone in villages?”
Tanmayi became quiet.
Jyoti replied hurting, “Why? We will live our lives rather than stay at our daughter’s house.
Tanmayi did not want to stay there even for a moment and walked quietly to the back room.
After a while, Jyoti came and said, “You should learn to control your anger Tanmay! What my sister remarked, do you know? ‘Didn’t you even teach your daughter how to behave properly when she came out to a new place?'” she whined.
Tanmay without any reply, absorbed in her reading.
The next day, they got ready to go to the College Service Commission office and came downstairs.
They met Pramila at the gate.
“We are going out, Peddamma,” said Tanmayi.
Just then, her husband, who was about to get out of the car, glanced at them and gave a free advice, “If you walk to the main road, you will find autos easily,” and hung up.
“Will you come for lunch?” said Pramila, looking at the file in Tanmayi’s hand.
“We don’t know how long it will take there… in this big city, when we will get the address is also unimaginable,” said Jyoti.
The kid looked at the car in despair and then at his mother. Tanmayi looked at him as if she understood, gave her wallet and file to her mother, and started walking to the auto stand.
While walking, her mother said, “When people have money, they don’t see others. That one at least helped us to auto stand not leaving in this scorching sun carrying a child…” she kept muttering.
Tanmay learned a lesson that no matter how much money we earn in life, we should never forget to value people.
“Dear! When you grow up, we will also buy a car. Then we will take all those who walk like us…Okay?” she said, caressing his cheek.
The kid nodded happily.
The auto was speeding past, the people were running in a hurry. Looking at the people, Tanmayi remembered her village. In her childhood, she had never seen people running in a hurry, except when something bad happened. On the way to school, the next-door aunt, uncle, aunty, the next-door school master, the farmer, all lived quietly. Even though they used age-old ovens, the food was ready on time. Even though they earned ten rupees a day, life was happy and peaceful.
Now everyone is migrating to the cities. What is there in these cities? Except endless suffering!
Jyoti hurled at the auto boy questions with her little Hindi. Mridul sat between the two and looked around silently. On the way, when the Birla Mandir was passing by a high hill, the Auto Wala remarked,
“Pura Marbal, two eyes are not enough to see it,”
“How wonderful it would be to see Birla Mandir in the moonlight!” Tanmayi closed her eyes and remembered. She had asked Shekhar many times to go to Hyderabad and see Birla Mandir.
That guy senselessly remarked. “What bloody things do we see outside? We have plenty on our own!”
She jerked off the thoughts of him immediately.
After about an hour of travel, they reached the office, and around two hundred people had come for the verification of certificates.
On the third floor, they stood at the end of the line.
Some people standing in the line were eagerly asking questions of those coming out, and when they said, “Oh, I don’t have a Xerox with me,” and they fled.
Tanmayi brought everything carefully, However, she checked again. It was almost noon when Tanmayi’s turn came. Tanmayi felt it would be better to leave them alone. Five or six clerks sitting behind separate tables with large files piled up began calling those who came one after another. The clerk kept them waiting for about half an hour, ticking off the documents, like tenth class, intermediate, degree, PG, certificates, mark lists, originals.
Someone was talking next to her.
“Three lakh attempted the written test, but two hundred called for an interview, just for fifty jobs!”
Tanmayi calculated. That means four people competed for one post.
“I don’t expect one out of two jobs in my zone.”
This whole interview process is a farce, everything will have sold out by now.”
Listening to such despairing words, my legs ached as I stood in line, and my head started pounding.
I remembered Mary’s words. “Don’t think in advance whether you will succeed or not, regardless of your efforts.”
“If this is how it is with all the certificates that you have brought, what about those who haven’t!”
Tanmay’s interview was on the next day.
It was very difficult to stay with someone who did not show any concern. After the certificates were verified they relished samosas and Irani tea and Paani Puri outside the gate. It was the first time they ate the Hyderabadi food which they loved.
She sincerely hoped, “If I get the job…nearby”
A prayer was heard from the mosque.
Even though she didn’t know what it meant, she prayed in silence that her attempt would be successful.
*****
(Continued next month)
A post graduate in English literature and language and in Economics. A few of my translations were published. I translated the poems of Dr. Andesri , Denchanala, Ayila Saida Chary and Urmila from Telugu to English. I write articles and reviews to magazines and news papers. To the field of poetry I am rather a new face.