Amma's coconuts

[sarit11]

I suggested to her that I could stop going to college and give her a hand in the tea-shop. But she would not allow that, even though our financial conditions were fast becoming from bad to worse. During my father’s long illness, we had to borrow heavily from our friends and relatives. They were now coming to our house almost everyday and demanding their money back. We were in a desperate situation.

It was during this time that a woman in our neighborhood told my mother that an old couple in our locality was looking for a servant-woman who could do all the household work and take care of them by staying with them in their house. My mother and I went to see this old couple. We found that they were in their early sixties. The old man, who was called Vasu, was a retired college-teacher. His wife’s name was Parvathiamma. They had a son and a daughter who were now married and were settled in different places. When my mother expressed the desire to work in their house Vasu and Parvathiamma asked her if she had any previous experience of working as a servant-woman. My mother told them that she had the experience of running a tea-shop for more than ten years. This seemed to satisfy them and they were ready to take my mother in as the servant-woman of their house. They warned her that she would have to do all the work alone, and without any complaints. My mother agreed.