Following are two incidents which highlight the personalities and prejudices of Achayan and Ammachi. The characters of Achayan and Ammachi were quite different in several respects. Achayan was outgoing and gregarious. Ammachi, though friendly, was to a great extent reserved.
Achayan was very particular that no guest should leave the house without atleast a cup of tea. Once, when Achayan was out of station, his friend from Munnar, Mr. A. Mathai, visited us. Ammachi offered him tea but he refused politely. Achayan on returning home was sorry that Mr. Mathai had left without drinking tea. He asked several times why she had not persuaded Mr. Mathai. Exasperated, Ammachi finally retorted that she had tried her level best and the only alternative left was to keep Mr. Mathai forcefully prostrate and spoonfeed him.
Another incident I remember was when I was studying in 5th or 6th standard. At that time TV was unheard of. I had no chance to go to the cinema theatre. Yet I was fascinated by the cinema world and eagerly lapped up cinema news in periodicals and newspapers. However Ammachi had a low opinion of cinema artistes.One day I expressed my desire of becoming an actor. Her instant reply was " It is preferrable to be a beggar than an actor".
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2 comments:
I had tears in my eyes and couldn't stop giggling - this has to be the funniest one so far. I can easily imagine VinuA telling this story in his dry witty way but he has written it down with such few words yet the punchline is so clean - genius!
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