It's the twelfth day after Dharmettan had passed into eternity. The family had invited the neighbourhood for the traditional feast and we'd gone to his house by about 1000h. Sathiamma cried on seeing us with her teary-eyed daughter sitting beside her.
The twelve days that had gone by had blunted their grief a little but on seeing us, I suppose, had broken the floodgates of their tears and we could only, watch them helplessly relive the agony. Choking through her tears, she touched upon the final days with her husband and a few of those incidents/conversations are reproduced below:-
(a) The dhoti and the shirt that we'd given him as 'onakkodi' was a prized possession and he
used to wear them on all important functions that he attended subsequently.
(b) He used to talk about the last Diwali which he said was the best that he'd participated in, after
what was a long time. I'd even pressed a few crackling sparklers into his hands which he was
mortally scared of.
(c) He kept telling her that she could find a job at our place after his death.
(d) He'd rice and prawns curry(his favourite food) prepared by his daughter, 22 days earlier after
which his physical condition prevented him from having anything but milk! Vomiting blood
had by then become a regular phenomenon and he used to be racked with severe pain.
(e) He also did recall his daughter's wedding and about the time that we'd spent with him on the
occasion.
Before we moved out of the house, we'd paused in front of his garlanded, smiling photograph to say our silent prayers and bid him a final farewell. A bowl of rice with his favourite prawns curry was kept as an offering in front of the photograph. His soul must have been around, desperately wanting to tell his near and dear ones that he didn't require them anymore as it was getting ready for its ultimate flight into eternity!
Tailpiece.
Dharmettan's ashes had been immersed at Panchavati, a coastal hamlet about 25 kms north from here, last Sunday.
The twelve days that had gone by had blunted their grief a little but on seeing us, I suppose, had broken the floodgates of their tears and we could only, watch them helplessly relive the agony. Choking through her tears, she touched upon the final days with her husband and a few of those incidents/conversations are reproduced below:-
(a) The dhoti and the shirt that we'd given him as 'onakkodi' was a prized possession and he
used to wear them on all important functions that he attended subsequently.
(b) He used to talk about the last Diwali which he said was the best that he'd participated in, after
what was a long time. I'd even pressed a few crackling sparklers into his hands which he was
mortally scared of.
(c) He kept telling her that she could find a job at our place after his death.
(d) He'd rice and prawns curry(his favourite food) prepared by his daughter, 22 days earlier after
which his physical condition prevented him from having anything but milk! Vomiting blood
had by then become a regular phenomenon and he used to be racked with severe pain.
(e) He also did recall his daughter's wedding and about the time that we'd spent with him on the
occasion.
Before we moved out of the house, we'd paused in front of his garlanded, smiling photograph to say our silent prayers and bid him a final farewell. A bowl of rice with his favourite prawns curry was kept as an offering in front of the photograph. His soul must have been around, desperately wanting to tell his near and dear ones that he didn't require them anymore as it was getting ready for its ultimate flight into eternity!
Tailpiece.
Dharmettan's ashes had been immersed at Panchavati, a coastal hamlet about 25 kms north from here, last Sunday.
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