"It is good to be merry and wise,
It is good to be honest and true,
'Tis well to be off with the old love,
Before you go on with the new.
Anon. (modern verse of an old song)
"And if I loved you Wednesday,
Well, what is that to you ?
I do not love you Thursday -
So much is true." Edna St. Vincent Millay, Thursday.
"To say that you can love one person all your life is just like saying that one candle will continue burning as long as you live."
Tolstoy, The Kreutzer Sonata.
"We walk by faith, not by sight." New Testament, II Corinthians, V 7
"One by one, like leaves from a tree,
All my faiths have forsaken me." Sara Teasdale, Leaves
"But the noblest thing that perished there
Was that young faithful heart! Felicia Hemans, Casabianca, st 10
The office hours in those days were only from ten in the morning to five in the evening with lunch break for half an hour. It never used to be half an hour in reality. It used to be one or one and a half hours. So, Latha could go to office without hurry and her mother cooked food in the morning for Latha and Bhaskar. Old time practice was eating a breakfast of idlies, pongal or dosas followed by good filter coffee. At noon one would take a regular south Indian meal of rice mixed with sambar and then with rasam and finally with curd, accompanied by dry and gravy vegetable preparations; appalam and pickles of mango or lemon were additional attractions. This regimen was suitable in earlier times because after the breakfast at seven to eight in the morning, people would start work at eight. They would open their shops or go to their workplace and, government district officials would go for site inspection and outside assignments. Engineers, as a practice would start the day at eight to go to the construction site to give instructions for the day's work. Even office goers with desk jobs in collector's office, accounts offices would follow this pattern of breakfast of tiffin and coffee or tea in the morning. As south India is a hot region, people used to prefer attending their outside work in the morning and then go to their offices by eleven or so, to meet people. At noon, lunch would be of items mentioned above and it was the main stay as a meal. It was a sumptuous meal, making the man happy and sleepy after eating. There was no great fear nor any catastrophe that overtook the people by eating fried things and taking ghee with rice. The food was traditional and was well balanced. Pepper, dhania, jeera, methi, kari and coriander leaves and tej patta, turmeric and tamarind used in proper proportions in the side dishes and sambar, rasam, kootu, porial, etc kept at bay the proliferating modern life suckers like cholesterol, diabetes and digestive disorders. Rice and dals were mostly unpolished and in virgin state for cooking; vegetables and fruits were not grown with copious chemicals and sprayed with toxic pesticides; spices were not cleverly adulterated. Hence the people did not land up in unhealthy miserable state though they ate well to their satisfaction. The agricultural produce were without traces of pesticides and fertilisers. The grains had nature's healthy coating over inner pulp, whether it was rice, wheat or dal. The unpolished rice did not make rice the culprit for diabetes, as of now, because the present highly polished grains and lentils ensured quick digestion coupled with high adverse glycemic index.
Such a lunch cannot be eaten in a hurry. Many people working in the shops, offices and factories would go home and eat such a meal of at least two courses of rice with sambar or rasam and with curd along with one or two vegetable as side dishes. After such a meal, some rest is essential. A pleasant snooze for half and hour or so replenished the energy to go back to work with vigour. Even schools and colleges would start at 10 am and gave one hour lunch break at 1 pm to enable pupils to have a good meal. Office goers who do not or cannot go home due to the home being far away, would get their meal brought to them at their workplace by meal carriers. Tiffin carries with four or five separate vessels stacked over one another, containing rice and the dishes, and secured by clasp and with a roll of plantain leaf tucked would be collected from the home, carried in a basket mostly by women and delivered to the people waiting for the food in their workplace. There were no hot carriers and the tiffin carriers were made of stainless steel or brass coated with zinc inside to keep the food unspoilt.
The plantain leaf was provided so that the rice and dishes were ladled out with the clasping spoon of the tiffin carrier, on to the leaf and eaten and hand is not directly put into the receptacle. Whatever remains as uneaten was left fresh and untouched by hand. So the woman who had to take back the tiffin carriers would take out the remaining food and dishes, collect them all and clean the carriers with water. The collected food would not be wasted. It would be given to poor people like rikshaw walas or coolies. No food was wasted in those days and wasting food was considered a sin that would make a person wasting food plunge into misery and poverty. Think what is happening now a days in the buffets of restaurants, especially of star categories. In the buffet lunches and dinners, there would be hundred or more dishes from cuisines of different parts of the world. Many people would be piling on their plates large portions of all items and leave most of it as uneaten to be carried away by bearers. Some of the restaurants even declare the number of kilos of such discarded food wasted every day.
The systematic full meal tiffin carrier culture remains in practice even today only in Bombay. Should I say Mumbai ? Possibly because in Bombay the people live in far away places and have to leave their houses quite early in the morning to catch the suburban trains, allowing no time for the wife to prepare a full meal. There would be time only to eat a scrappy breakfast. The 'dubba carrier system' has got established and stays even today doing exemplary service to people. The not so educated dubba carrier and the system he works out are so perfect that it is a wonder even for foreign management experts.
Latha and Bhaskar would eat a regular three course meal in the morning at nine o'clock and go to the office at ten and that was possible because the office was only three bus stops away from Latha's quarters. In the noon time lunch break, they would order some snacks to their room from the office canteen. Mostly the venue was Latha's office room as it had attached toilet and wash basin. Such office rooms with attached toilets were usually given only to lady officers. Latha was quite happy to have lunch with Bhaskar and discuss things with him and chat with him. Sometimes Bhakar would ask Latha to invite her friends to her room so that they can eat together and gossip. Geetha was the one who always loved to come and join them and it was very welcome for Bhaskar. When she arrived with her meal basket of food and water, he would welcome her as a long lost friend. Latha could easily perceive this extra attention but she kept quite. She was also in the advanced stage of pregnancy and was not very energetic to move around freely and talk very much. She had started eating properly after initial months of revulsion to food, as it is so with all pregnant women. She was quite justifiably expecting greater attention and care from Bhaskar and not any diversion of his attention towards anyone else. She felt that one should know these things without being told. She one day even said jokingly to Geetha, "Geetha, When you marry and become pregnant, I am sure your husband would be more solicitous than Bhaskar. And Bhaskar would also be there to advise. So you should marry soon. Is it not so Bhaskar?"
"Yes, Yes", Bhaskar jived in.
"So, Bhaskar, you promise me to see through my pregnancy, now itself. Hey." Geetha asked. This appeared in the lighter vein but it did not obviously go well with Latha.
The number of lady officers coming and taking lunch in Latha's room increased as Bhaskar had a way of inviting other lady officers known to him and some to Latha. There were quite a few working in different offices in the same building. He introduced to Latha those she did not know. "How he has come know so many of them?", Latha started wondering. She had met them in the foyer, in meetings and functions. The only interaction between her and them was mere exchange of pleasantries. Possibly Bhaskar had more time and interest to pursue their contacts. She was feeling hurt and sad at heart. Is it because she was now in the family way and cannot go out often with him that he was finding other pastures to keep himself occupied ? Is it like the Tamil literature of the Sangam period she had read. She recalled the poems of the Sangam relating to the behaviour of husband depicted in the fertile agricultural land of 'Maruda Thinai'.
As the months went by the date of delivery drew nearer. Latha took maternity leave a few days before the expected date of delivery. The winter was setting in and November was becoming quite cold. Her father who insisted on wearing his pancha kachcham dhoti and angavastram was not able to combat the cold. The nice woolen shawl bought by Latha for him was not sufficient as he was old and as he refused to wear shirt, sweater and trousers. Therefore, in order to be, as he wanted, he had no go except to go back to Madras; and he did that. Latha's mother could manage well as she was more adaptable in these matters of dress and changing as per demands of weather and location. She chose to be with Latha as the delivery date was nearing. Latha felt happy at her kindness. Her husband Bhaskar was slowly and steadily becoming distant from her. She could not understand how such changes could take place in an individual. Possibly the real quality of a person becomes explicit only after immediate demands are fulfilled and euphoria of newness and exuberance of wooing and wedlock ebb. No doubt there is a saying in Tamil that infatuation lasts only thirty days and desire sixty days. It may not be exact number of days ! The message is that these emotions and desires wear off after a short period of time; the wearing off and duration, if it wears off, depends upon individuals and the presence of alternative attractions. Alternatives do come up in many ways for many people. But persons with genuine affection and love do not get overpowered and remain steady in their relationship. Latha was becoming unknowingly philosophical due to the flow of events and behviour of persons around her.
There was no long period of maternity leave available at that time, as given to lady officers of the government now a days. So, she had to go to office even when she was in advanced stage of pregnancy. She was planning, as others do, to take more leave after the child birth. Bhaskar started spending more time with Geetha. She had purchased a new car and was turning to Bhaskar for learning to drive. In the early hours of the morning, before the traffic set in, he used to take his car and say that he was going to Lodhi gardens to jog and enjoy the morning walk. But he would go to Geetha's flat and use his car to teach her how to drive. He felt elated at the proximity of Geetha while giving driving lessons. Correcting the steering now and then, trimming the course of the car by maneuvering the steering wheel gave chances of touching the bangle jingling hands of Geetha and afforded much physical nearness to her. She also did not protest even if not so much needed maneuver as resorted to by him. Women are more sensitive to these things and have inborn perception on the slightest crossing of the line of decorum and normal behavior. It is a trait that has developed over generations in the case of fair sex and they would sense immediately the feeblest signs of advancement by men. This acumen, possibly is a natural development that blossomed from the time of Cro Magnon period, as predatory tendencies of the male human species has a long continuing history. This helps the fair sex to protect themselves from unwanted advancement and to curb them. It also enables them to subtly encourage advancements desired and enjoyed by them. Geetha was happy about the extra attentions of Bhaskar. But how the course of life would take one's matrimony, due to the omissions and omissions of a partner, time alone could unfold.
Meaning of non English words:
tiffin : popular word for snacks in south India.
Sambar : A thick liquid south Indian preparation made of lentils with vegetables and tamarind and spices.
Rasam : A thin liquid preparation like sambar.
idlis : soft lentil cakes baked in steam.
dosas : a crepe like preparation made out of lentil and rice batter.
appalam : a dried flake made of lentils and fried in oil or roasted over coal embers
dhania : coriander seeds.
Jeera : Cumin seeds.
Methi : Fenugreek.
Kari leaves : Curry leaves.
Tej Patta: Bay leaf.
Kootu : A stew of vegetables.
Porial : A dry vegetable preparation without gravy.
rikshaw valas : persons who earn a livelihood by taking passengers on two or three wheel transport.
End of Chapter 11.