Kala Ramesh
For Chellamma
He owned a grocery store in a congested part of the city of Madras, as it was called then. Such a kind man — he would offer to give away provisions when his customers had no money. They always said they would pay later, but that ‘later’ never came, and he never asked. The two girls saw their father’s health deteriorate, and their mother lived with his strange disease, where a bout of coughing always ended with blood.
a doctor
pronounced
the dreaded word
TUBERCULOSIS
their world collapsed
on sleepless nights she saw the colour red everywhere — all their tomorrows devoid of colour
The store was closed.
The wife had a gold oddiyanam, a waist belt, from which she would break little pieces to sell, to feed the family and the mounting hospital bills. The gold oddiyanam and the family’s hopes dwindled rapidly.
India celebrated her freedom on 15 August the day that “kind grocery man” died in the sanatorium
I am the third generation to hear this story. A story about a brave woman, who fought a battle single-handedly and lived to tell it.
About the Author
Kala Ramesh is a renowned pioneer in the field of haikai literature in India. Her 2017 book Beyond the Horizon Beyond was awarded a Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize Certificate.