Amma's coconuts

[sarit11]

Most of what my mother earned as salary was spent on my education. Often it was not enough. Sometimes when I asked for money to buy books or other things she would go and borrow from the old couple. Vasu would show readiness to help immediately. But the old woman would initially show some reluctance, but eventually she would give in. She would tell my mother that the borrowed amount would be cut from her next month’s salary. But often my mother would get the full salary itself; the old woman would ask her to forget the money she had borrowed. The old woman was kind to my mother in many other ways also. Often, when her son or daughter visited the house and brought presents, she would give something or the other to my mother. I used to wonder why she was being so kind to us. But soon Parvathiamma was to ask something from my mother in return for all the kindness she was showering on us.
One day I was in my room studying for my exams. My mother was in the kitchen. Parvathiamma came to the kitchen and struck up a conversation with my mother. At first I was not paying any attention to what she was talking. Then when I realized that she was discussing Vasu’s sex life, I naturally began to listen attentively. The old woman was saying that in his youth her husband had been rather shy. He had not taken much interest in sexual activities. It was only during the later years of their married life that he began to show a keen desire for sex. After their children had grown up, Parvathiamma had little desire for sex, but Vasu, on the other hand, had started craving for flesh so much that her disinterest in the subject angered him. At that time he had quite openly expressed to her about his hidden lusts, often embarrassing her with his statements. She would laugh at him and this would make him more frustrated. And once, the old woman told my mother, he said to me that he wished to see me in the arms of another man. He would love to watch it, he said, another man making love to his wife. Parvathiamma laughed loudly when she said this to my mother. My mother was clearly embarrassed. She tried to pass it off with a few remarks of exclamation and embarrassment.