One of the major time pass for us during our visits to Aunt’s
house was to prepare her day sheets for two or three months at a stretch. The
same used to be done with innovation as every date’s entry should to tally and
match with Aunt’s travel bills. So after two days of rest on landing in aunt’s
house we would be requested to sit and do the same religiously. The exercise those
days was done with a little attention & care gave me an insight into
learning and doing the art of mastering my travel plans and meticulously way of
submitting the bills in time to avoid complications.
Once I set out on tours, all bills used to be collected and
kept in one single envelope neatly numbered with proper dates. At the end of the
travel it would become a child’s play to assemble and submit the travel bills
to settle the float taken!
There was Live Stock assistant staying in front of the aunt’s
house. His name was George. Though he was only a Live Stock assistant he used
to be called Doctor by the village folks as he used to attend to the needs of
cattle and pets during spare time. He had two daughters and as they were of our
age we could pass time playing with them board games as well as cards! I still
recall a visit by Dr. George to a pet owner’s house whose German Sheppard dog
had eaten chemicals placed for fly control in their home. Dr.George had antidote
ready with him and on giving the necessary IV injection the dog recovered
instantly. The whole family was so thankful to Dr. George! I could see for the
first time way of doing Artificial insemination in cows and buffaloes. This
came handy when I moved to learn Dairy Technology.
By the end of vacation, Aunt would take us to a local clothe
shop in the town Poolawadi and get us clothes to stitch dresses. We used to get
a pair of shirts and trousers. We were aware that aunt was taking the materials
on credit and would pay installments to settle the bills. It was indeed so very
kind of her do such a shopping as the same helped our dad immensely during school
reopening.
Aunt was to retire soon when we entered college. Our visits
became infrequent as we moved to higher classes. We used to write to her often.
But she would not reply as we knew she was always hard pressed for time and
busy with her work schedule.
Then all of a sudden we came to know of a sudden twist in
her life. As I was in college hostel, I came to know though my dad of the same.
Aunt was preparing for her retirement. One day she was visited by a couple from
nearby town Karur. They were bank managers in nationalized banks. After calling
on Aunt for the first time they stated that they were descendents of Aunt’s
husband side. They had come to know of the existence of Aunt and about her
short lived marriage to their relative. As the household then had already two widows,
as per the then living conditions they could not keep Aunt in their house. As
she was married into their family they were supposed to take care of her. The Patriarch
of the house hold had dictated them to trace her back and do the needful to
Aunt’s on her retirement.
Aunt was skeptical and immediately contacted my father and
uncle. There was a hurriedly called for family meeting. It was then suggested
that Aunt would visit the family in Karur and find out their living condition,
life style, family values etc. Then she was free to decide whatever she wanted.
After a few visits Aunt had found out that the couple’s intentions were genuine
and they wanted to do real service to Aunt. She moved with them after
retirement. My dad used to visit her on and off. He was happy that Aunt was
comfortable and leading a decent life.
Dad used to insist that Aunt should become more spiritual.
As someone who had lived all her life time in her own terms she never turned
religious or spiritual. But true to her birth star’s prediction she ruled her world!
She passed away peacefully after three years of retirement!
One simple secret…Aunt was in fact elder to my dad by at the
least four to five years. But those days there was no system of recording births
and deaths. She had given a false record in the office during initial employment.
On account of that, though her official retirement age was 58 she served beyond
63 years and retired!! So she never wanted to live as a burden to anyone at any
point of time!!
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