A Tribute to Poongodhai.

I was barely an year old. I had not learnt to walk then but i could crawl. My hands inspected anything that was lying within an arms distance. First, my hands then the taste-buds would inspect the object. Just when the object is about to touch my tongue, my mom’s hands would come swishing down to take it away.

One day she was sitting on the rocking chair sewing a piece of cloth. The spectacles hung precariously on the edge of her nose.I spotted a gleaming object and started crawling towards it. After the survey, i decided it was safe to be handled. As soon as i picked it up, my mother's eyes looked at me. Now it reminds me of 'The eye' in the 'Lord of the rings' movie.The way it turns when Frodo wears the ring. She gave me this go-ahead-and-try-it stare.She trusted me not to lick it. This lowered my courage and she became confident that the sharpener will be put down.That is where she eased the glare and i swallowed the sharpener.My mother calls for my sister who comes running from the bed-room.Both get really tensed and are in short of ideas.My sister pulls out my tongue and puts her fingers through my mouth, in a futile attempt to make me vomit.The clock was ticking and real problem was my asthma.The astham attack could strike any time now.The inhaler is of no use with a sharpener in mouth and and excited situation in hand. My mother makes the call, she decides to rush me to the hospital.

The nearest hospital was 20 minutes away by auto.My asthma attack will surely strike me sooner than that.The auto-man was our friend, he had come running to start the auto without any question.It must have really scary to see a mother carrying a child upside down. My sister was in tears for the sharpener and me(grammar prevents me from using me and sharpener, no other reason).

15 minutes into the journey i get the attack. My head kept rocking back and forth. My mouth was gasping for air. It would be a few minutes before i started shaking my hands and then, the legs. We reached the hospital, it was a government hospital. The hospital was on strike. My mom nearly collapsed there. The auto-man and my sister had to hold her. She was trembling. I knew what she would have thought then "God, I’ve done so much to you, not this, not my son! Not this young!” For the only time in her married life, my mom shed tears in front of her own children.

Private hospitals were costly, but with that as the only option, the auto-man suggested that we go to ‘Apollo’. It was 45 minutes away, but auto-man swore he could do it in 25. Two minutes had elapsed since we got out of the auto. Those were the longest minutes for my mom and sister.

We were about to get in to the auto. We see Poongodhai getting down from another auto. She was my childhood heroine.She was the servant maid, who worked in our house even when we had no wages to offer her.She came and saw me, then my sister and then my mother. The look was that of a colonel or a sergeant. She took me by my legs and made a scary face for a fleeting instant. Immediately, the intensity of my thrusts and gasps reduced. Her knuckles came down hard on my spine and throat.Swift and clean, the sharpener was out. My mother immediately gave the inhaler and everything stopped. No laughter, no tears, no words. All that remained was deafening silence. My mom thanked Poongodhai. My sister picked up her sharpener and flung it high into the air. Poongodhai took me and held me by her shoulders. I started laughing again and she threw me up in the air, only to catch me again. My mother had a surging desire to hold me, but she knew better, she gave the moment to my heroine, a moment she truly deserved. My mom went to the temple that evening like any other normal day. Faith, keeps her alive and that day it kept me alive.

She kept me company when i had measles. My mother couldn't come near me because then my sister had to be taken care of. For 3 days and 3 nights she sat beside me and brushed me with tree leaves. She gave me a lot more than her sleep and kindness. When I grew up, I got answers to all my questions.

Yesterday, i got terrible news. Poongodhai had passed away on April 12th.The news is delivered to us nearly 3 months later. I couldn’t shed a single drop of tear. I hated myself for being such a cruel Human being. What if i had got the information on 12th, would i have bunked my semester exam and traveled on unreserved. I fear to answer the question in this world. ’Practicality’ is a word which I am trying to understand. If Poongodhai had been that way i wouldn't have been here.

Today, i stand appreciating Ayn Rand's philosophy of selfishness and profit. I have to accept that a few things are beyond reason and beyond my ideals here in my country.