Creative Writing

Short story: Visit of Minister's wife

Jayantha Ratnayake

Everything started just after the lunch. It was a Friday. Since it was school holidays, the children were at home. A telephone call came through, no sooner Mrs. Thalawila sat down and started reading the land deed which she could not finish before "attending to daily chores at home".

By habit, Mrs. Thalawila is always courteous on the phone and hence seems as if she assumes a lullaby - tone in answering any call. Therefore everybody at home used to tease her. Today, it seems as if she used a bit more of her "phone charm" in answering this particular call.

End of the call was the beginning of a hasty logistics move of their family in their hitherto-remembered-history.

"Putha.... Putha...., you remember my friend. That Minister's wife. She is coming here. Come and help me quickly."

That was the first signal given to son-Thalawila of an impending long-drawn logistics plan.

"Minister's wife? Why she wants to come here Amma?" daughter-Thalawila wanted to know.

"Oh! She wants to get some letters typed in Sinhala by me. Something to do with our association. Come, you too Duva. Stop asking questions!"

Having said that Mrs. Thalawila rushed into the house to attend to something and I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about the background of Thalawila family.

Mrs. Thalawila started working as a Notary Public recently, after retiring from her job. There were mainly two reasons that prompted her to sit for the qualifying examination for a Notary Public.

The first reason was that her pension and her husband's salary together as family income was thought to be insufficient to run the household and therefore she wanted to enhance the family income. (Here I have to request you to keep in your mind, that Mrs. Thalawila went on retirement prematurely.

If she happened to know that I have used the term "pension" loosely without qualifying it, she would bring forth all the strength in her vocal codes stressing the fact that she is not of retirement age though she went on pension and I will be too in trouble).

The second reason was she thought that the children could be cajoled to concentrate more on their studies and she could feed them properly and on time. Also she thought that she could give them motherly care, love and protection, only if she be in their vicinity.

However, the undercurrent of this placid and innocent stream of expectations was her wish to own a house in a " better and decent environment among respectable neighbours .." using her new additional income and her savings.

In her view, Kottawa where they live, is not fit for the people of their status. Besides, the house is also 'old' and 'old fashioned'. This house was built by the Senior-Thalawila; her father-in-law.

Though they wanted to they could not improve the appearance of the house with the salary which Thalawila couple earned as teachers at the time. For a teacher couple, the house was not bad. But not so when her husband became a CAS officer.

That is ten years back and now he is already a Deputy Commissioner! However, Mrs. Thalawila continued as a graduate teacher. When the Government allowed Govt. Servants to go on pension prematurely, she availed that facility and went on retirement.

When Mr. Thalawila became a CAS officer, Mrs. Thalawila had very high hopes of beautifying the house, buying some modern furniture, electrical appliances etc. etc. But even after ten years, still those expectations remained unfulfilled.

Combined family income was barely sufficient to support the family with rising cost of living. Children's tuition fees, bus fare, occasional wedding presents, medicines for Senior Thalawila, food items, utility bills etc. consumed money in a much rapid phase than enhancement of family income came by way of annual salary increments and occasional travelling expenses and subsistence earned by Mr. Thalawila.

This is one of the reasons why Mrs. Thalawila spent a lot of sleepless nights and endless hours in memorising the landmark judgments in the tedious process of getting ready for the Notary examination, no sooner she retired (Of course prematurely!). (I can hear the clatter of the furniture and the brass display items in the house; surely an unmistakable sign of Mrs. Thalawil giving a quick sweeping in preparation for the visit of her distinguished guest.

Like any other pensioner, Mrs. Thalawila too started doing some social work. She joined one of the Welfare Associations for Women and volunteered to give legal assistance to them. Most of the office-bearers of this association were either pensioners or widows or those whose husbands are working abroad.

They were generally well to do, kind-hearted ladies; often with round faces and ample waists. A wife of one of the Govt. Ministers was attached to this Association where Mrs. Thalawila worked. It was quite an ego-booster for her to get to know this lady and moreover very fact that she could address her by her first name made her soul elated. After all they were co-workers there!

Therefore, all the Thalawila family members not only know the Minister's wife's appearance , the way she smiles, her favourite dishes, the type and colour of her car but also where and when she went on holidays, whether the flight was on time etc. etc. 'You know Bunty, Shashi was so nice. Like a child.

She has no airs, though she is a wife of a Minister.." she used to say at the daily dinner-gathering or...' you know Duwa, today, when I was with a visitor, Shashi brought to me my tea... no! "See how nice she is?'

So, one day when this worthy lady enquired whether there was anybody around who can help her with some letters in Sinhala, Mrs. Thalawila volunteered to do so. But for a fraction of a second, she did not think that Shashi would come to her house to get the letters typed.

But this unthinkable is going to happen? It is Minister's wife who phoned a while ago to inform Mrs. Thalawila that she will be coming in two hours time so that she can get some letters typed and take them back with her. Mrs. Thalawila was...

What to do now? Can a decent lady like Shashi be invited to a house such as ours? See, the road is full of pot-holes. Gate is rusty with broken iron bars and faded paint. The court-yard is full of dried-mud and sand brought in by running water whenever there is a little shower... Our settee can hardly be called by that name.

How many times did I tell that-one to buy a new settee, at least on instalment basis? But he just does not care. Oh! this species called men. They only care about their office work. On top of that the people in this house.

Here, you have a father who goes on smoking cigars like a steam engine and spitting all over the court-yard. House is stinking like a cigar boutique. There, you have that hairless, 'Miser'; the dog.

That useless dog; he always makes it a point to sleep on the carpet at the house-entrance. Oh, what a dreadful place, I am living in!! Neighbours! Oh! My God! I won't be surprised if any of them get a heart attack to see Shashi at our place. I don't know what they would do?

"Putha... Putha, Ane! Putha, run to that bakery at the road bend and
bring a good cake".
"Putha... Putha... where are these children?"

"Now look at your shirt. Don't come near that aunt with a shirt like this. Put on a good Tea shirt, comb your hair, wash your feet... Oh! how many things I have to look at".

"Now, run to the bakery".

She just managed to send him off to the bakery.

"Duwa..., put on a new frock. Tidy your room. Put a new bed spread too". Oh! If she says, she wants to see our room.... finish! That-one's sarong must be still on the floor like a "Daranuwa" as he changed it to the office suit in the morning. How many things I have to look at?

There is no end to the worries for Mrs. Thalawila.

"Ane, Duwa, please tidy our room also a bit. Take the flower vase from the table in the living room and put it on our dressing table".

"What is this Amma? This is as if the President is coming no"? daughter-Thalawila grimaced.

"Yes. You are the typical daughter of your father no? Only I will lose my face with them. "Ane Amma, please don't shout. I will do tiding up. "Daughter-Thalawila is very much scared of her mother's anger and shouting.

"Ok... Ok..., Do go now and do as I said?"

Now I have to see to the house-front. Oh! Before all that I have to arrange Thaththa... Mrs. Thalwila next went to her father-in-law's room.

"Thaththa, in a short while a lady known to me is coming here. She is a wife a of a Minister. They are big people. So Thaththa, can you avoid smoking cigars today: at least while that lady is here", she asked.

Father-in-law likes her daughter-in-law and therefore he readily agreed to avoid smoking cigars and also volunteered to remain in his room as much as possible.

Thereafter she convinced her son to tether "Miser" to the pomegranate tree in the rear of the house. "Miser" protested vehemently and argued on canine rights in vain.

Ultimately having been tied-up to the tree, he started displaying his displeasure in an unbroken stream of howling.

Nevertheless, after an hour or so, she thought that she made the house a bit presentable. She had hardly any time to treat herself with a quick wash and change into a new frock, when Shashi's car turned into their garden.

Mrs. Thalawila glided towards the car to receive her with a broad smile. Minister's wife alighted from the car raising her sun glass to the forehead and looked around with a pleasant smile.

"Oh! Dayani, What a wonderful; garden you have? So much trees. It is so nice and shady", she said.

An electric shock ran through Mrs. Thalawila's body but luckily it grounded on time lest she would have succumbed.

"How many times did I tell that-one to cut these useless trees and clear this jungle? she muttered to herself in anger. For him these trees are everything and will kill himself on them. Shashi may be thinking that we are living in a jungle." "No Shashi, we are planning to cut those trees. But it is so.. difficult to get a man Ane..."

"To cut the trees. Why Dayani. It is so beautiful and cooling to have trees no! If I had enough space, I also would have grown trees like this.."

Having heard those words, the blood flow resumed normalcy in Mrs. Thalawila's veins. She exhaled-out her tension through a long breath. May be she too likes trees. May be, it could be true after all. Everybody who comes here says that our house is cooling.

The reason could be these trees", she thought.

"Come... Come Shashi, Come inside. We shall be here only till our house at Nawala is completed. Don't you know? These are the houses built in those days no". Mrs. Thalawila breached the Fourth Precept and looked at the two children as if to say.

"Remember... what I told you? You little brats!"

"Ah! You are going to live in Nawala?"

"Yes, Ane! this area is not that good. But it will take little more time for us to move out.

"Leaving such a beautiful surrounding? But Dayani, to be frank, I am fed up with Rajagiriya. You have only the walls around you and when they together with the roofs get heated up, Oh! It is as if you were in an oven."

Mrs. Thalawila was shocked to hear the way a Minister's wife speaking. You get so much amenities and entertainments in the city. So many respectable people to associate with unlike betel-chewing rustic chatter-boxes you get here.

Shashi sat in a chair in the Verandah. But Mrs. Thalawila did not like it and invited her into the living room.

"This place is very good. Nice blowing also. Is it ok by you, if I sit here Dayani?"

When Shashi asked, Mrs. Thalawila had to agree. Thereafter she went on introducing her two children to her friend.

"Ah..., Putha, How are you?"

"I am fine Aunt. What about you?" son-Thalawila answered in English dutifully following the instructions given by Mrs. Thalawila bidding them to speak to Minister's wife in English.

In spite of this excellent start, when Shashi went on asking more information about their schools and educations etc. in Sinhala, they too switched over to more familiar Sinhala language. A little later she came with a drink which Shashi finished quickly.

"Your drink is fantastic Dayani", she said and this made Mrs. Thalawila much elated.

Thereafter these two gracious ladies went to Mrs. Thalawila's 'office room'. One of the rooms situated in the verandah, was used by Mrs. Thalawila as her office room whilst the other room was occupied by her father-in -law; father-Thalawila. This time, the old gentleman was in the room and also to the great relief of Mrs. Thalawila, the door was also closed.

When they were just about to finish the letter typing, daughter-Thalawila called her mother. "Amma... Thaththa has come home".

"Is that so? Tell him I am just coming", she called back and resumed her work.

"Your husband has come home? But yet hardly six O clock. Isn't it?. Shashi asked as if in great surprise.

"Yes. He comes home everyday at this time".

"How wonderful Ane! You are so lucky Dayani. My husband never comes home at this time. Everyday it is after 9 0 Clock", Shashi said.

"Yes, that is true. Up to now it never occurred to me how good it is that he comes home early", Mrs. Thalawila thought. She suddenly remembered, when she was still working, her friends used to complain of their husbands late home-arrivals, nocturnal outings and weekend activities with friends or going to their respective workplaces on the pretext of doing OT.

Generally, they were never in! But Mr. Thalawila, beginning from their married life, made it a point to come home right after the office and seldom went out after coming home or in the weekends to see "friends". I did not realize these things till now, Mrs. Thalawila thought. She got up and went inside the house and a little later came with her husband and introduced him to Shashi.

Mr. Thalawila, who expected to see an arrogant middle-aged woman of elephantine stature, had a rude shock to see a lady of pleasant manners and girlish look which is quite different from his stereotype of a politician's wife! His brief talk with her was quite enough for him to realise that this is a woman who still has a touch with mundane word, unlike his own wife.

Finally the letter typing being over, the two ladies came out. As they come out of the room at once Mrs. Thalawila's extra-keen sensor system caught it. Cigar smell! Finish, she thought. Mrs. Thalawila tried to take Shashi to the courtyard feigning to show her flower plants.

"Shashi, do you know this? This is "Re Kumari" I got it recently. Pretty isn't it?" "I do not like growing flowers much. But if somebody plant them, I water them", Shashi laughed.

Having said that she turned towards verandah and seemed as if smelling something. Mrs. Thalawila saw this and immediately got the second shock. Finish. She thought. She has smelled the cigar stink. How unlucky?

"I get a smell of cigar", Shashi said.

"Yes, yes that is my father-in-law. Ane! However much we want him to stop smoking these stinking cigars, he won't stop it no? Don't you know the old people No?", she tried to downplay it as much as possible.

"Dayani, you know something?" This smell reminds me of our ancestral house in the village where we lived with our Seeya and Achchi. Seeya used to smoke cigars. I remember very well he used to relate very interesting stories to me and my sister. Smoking cigars whilst resting in the reclining chair in our verandah.

I like very much this cigar smell which brings me those pleasant memories in the past. What a good time we had, when we were there years back.."?. She kept on talking with a dreamy countenance. In the meantime the strange voice in the court-yard reminded hitherto silent Miser. Of course, after a lengthy barrage of abuse at the humans, of his duty and started barking.

"Ah! Is that your dog? He is tied-up no. What is his name Dayani? Shashi started walking towards Miser. The dog started wagging his tail as Shashi approached him.

As he started losing his hair, to the greatest delight of Miser, his weekly bath given by Mrs. Thalawila had also been stopped. But with that he was banned from entering house, though Miser persistently but silently, fought for his place in the verandah on top of the coir carpet.

"You seem to be sick no Patiyo?", said Shasi patting Miser's willing head. "Yes Shashi, Poor boy! We took him to Vet many times but still he is not well."

"We also had a dog like this. The vet prescribed a spray and some vitamins which healed him and now he is well" . Shashi said.

"Ah! Is that so? Putha, ask Doctor about a spray or something like that for Miser when you take him to the Vet next time", Mrs. Thalawila advised Son- Thalawila.

After some time, Minister's wife left. Everybody at home talked good of her. Daughter-Thalwila seems to have fallen in love with her!

"See Amma, that aunt is very nice. Do you understand now how good it is to have a garden full of greenery and the opportunity to hear the chirps of birds", she asked.

"Yes Amma, she asked you to take the Miser to the Vet as well. It is you who ignored and stopped taking care of Miser when he started losing hair" son-Thalawila used the opportunity to vent out his frustration on the treatment meted out to his canine friend by other family members.

"Yes that is correct. I also think that she is someone who has her feet firmly on the ground though she is a wife of a Minister's wife", Mr. Thalawila added. Undecided whether to get angry or to be happy to hear the comments made by the family members extolling the virtue of her friend, simultaneously pin pointed her lapses, Mrs. Thalawila silently walked towards house.

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Profile of a scribe:

Amitav Ghosh - He weaves Indo-nostalgic elements to his themes

Amitav Ghosh born in 1956, is an Indian-Bengali author and literary critic known for his work in the English language.

Ghosh was born in Kolkata and was educated at The Doon School where he was a younger contemporary of Vikram Seth; St. Stephen's College, Delhi University; and the University of Oxford, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in social anthropology. Apparently Ghosh once showed Seth some of his poetry, prompting Seth to advise him to stick to prose.

Ghosh lives in New York with his wife, Deborah Baker, author of the Laura Riding biography In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding (1993) and a senior editor at Little, Brown and Company. They have two children, Lila and Nayan.

In 1999, Ghosh joined the faculty at Queens College, City University of New York as Distinguished Professor in Comparative Literature. He has also been a visiting professor to the English department of Harvard University since 2005. Ghosh has recently purchased a property in Goa and is returning to India. He is working on a trilogy to be published by Penguin Books India.

Ghosh's latest work of fiction, The Hungry Tide, was published in April 2004. His other novels are The Circle of Reason (1986), The Shadow Lines (1990), The Calcutta Chromosome (1995) and The Glass Palace (2000).

The Shadow Lines won the Sahitya Akademi Award, India's most prestigious literary award. The Calcutta Chromosome won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for 1997. Ghosh's fiction is characterised by strong themes that may be somewhat identified with postcolonialism but is difficult to label.

His topics are unique and personal; some of his appeal lies in his ability to weave "Indo-nostalgic" elements into more serious themes.

Apart from fiction, Amitav Ghosh is also involved with writing non-fiction. His major non-fictions include 'Countdown', a book on India's nuclear policy, the 'Imam and the Indians', a collection of essays on various topics such as history of the novel, Egyptian culture and literature, and 'Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma'. Amitav Ghosh was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

Ghosh joined the faculty of the Queens College in the City University of New York as a distinguished professor in comparative literature. Since 1995 he has been the visiting professor to the English Department of Harvard University.