Catharine had a smile on her face for she knew that Shankar was having fun. She stopped looking out the window and when the lady was not looking at them, she winked at him, as if suggesting, come on, embark on another of your story telling trips.
Nothing much happned for the next one hour. The lady was busy staring at Catharine, the kid and Shankar, not necessarily in that order. One could say that she was thinking hard. Her pursed lips were trying to say something but her motor responses were bent on concealing it.
When she could not control her self, she motioned towards Shankar and asked, � Do your parents know about your marriage?� He realised that she was getting too personal, but then he was an Indian too and understood the curiosity levels of his contrymen. She was getting too comfortable, but then, if that was what she wanted, that is what she would get.
�Yes, infact, we are coming from my parents place in Madurai,� he exclaimed. At this the lady looked sky-wards, let our a chuckle and turned away from them. And when she turned back..she had tears in her eyes. She followed this up with another gesture which went on to say that she was looking at some kind of support � she pulled the kid near her and held his small hand till he winched in pain.
Shankar had always been very susceptible to women with tears in their eyes and he needed no second excuse as he inched closer to her and held her wrinkled hands.
�I had a son just like you, must be 25-26 years old,� she said and started sobbing again. He knew that he had to say something but words failed him. To loosen up a bit he turned towards Catharine to translate what the lady had just said, but she, with a raised hand indicated that there was no need.
He pulled deep into his resources, squeezed her hands gently and enquired, �So, where is your son now?�
�My son, the only one I could call my own has left me to fate,� she said in a voice that felt like hot lead being poured into his spinal cord. He let our a shiver � one that accompanies the feeling of helplessness.
++
Her son had one day brought home a pretty girl and said that he was going to marry her. Though they say only a woman can completely understand another woman, both the girl and his mother never understood each other. On the third day, she and her son parted ways because the son felt that his fiancee was not being given the due respects in the house. She had never seen him since.
�It has been three years now,� the old lady said, `and my daughter is getting married in a weeks time.�
Without another prompt, she added, �I am going to visit her uncle to borrow some money so that I can conduct the marriage.�
Catharine looked on as Shankar played with the lady�s hands, not knowing what else to do to comfort the deeply affected. Though a foriginer to the intricacies of life in India, she completely understood what the old lady was going through. She had realised long back that she had taken life for granted till she had set foot on the Indian soil, where everyday was a survival. While in her country people were being spoilt with too many choices, here in India people had been waiting for ages for a chance. To prosper, to live life.
