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( 81 )
When I got an idea about getting a radio, I was really excited. But I didn't express any of my feelings on my face. One day, I went to grandfather's house, crossing the paddyfields. My grandmother was very lean and almost all the time, on the bed. I asked grandfather whether he would give me his radio for some months to hear the news. I assured him that I would return it definitely. I returned to my home with the radio. When I remember it today, I feel that it is a wonder. It was after that time that I had got a chance to hear the songs from movies & dramas. But when the English news started, my mother would shout at me to stop the radio. "It is very difficult to survive here", I would think.
( 81 )
When I got an idea about getting a radio, I was really excited. But I didn't express any of my feelings on my face. One day, I went to grandfather's house, crossing the paddyfields. My grandmother was very lean and almost all the time, on the bed. I asked grandfather whether he would give me his radio for some months to hear the news. I assured him that I would return it definitely. I returned to my home with the radio. When I remember it today, I feel that it is a wonder. It was after that time that I had got a chance to hear the songs from movies & dramas. But when the English news started, my mother would shout at me to stop the radio. "It is very difficult to survive here", I would think.
Whenever a strike occurred in my college, I would return to my home as early as possible because I thought I could spend my time for my studies. But how far away was I from learning ? I know that the educationists would find out many remedies - psychiatrical treatments, counselling, special attention from the part of Teachers etc. But nothing of this kind of approach was available to me in my educational institution. I think even today, students from broken families couldn't find a place in the campuses of India. When I return to my house, my father along with my mother would have completed collecting the latex . By that time, my mother also had started working with my father in collecting latex. For that, she was also given a small amount of remuneration. The reason for this additional work was that the increase in the number of rubber sheets - I forgot the number of rubber sheets obtained from the rubber plantation. When I return from college due to a strike, my father & mother would be collecting it, climbing down the steps and going to Puthiyaveettil house. I remember my father's fiery eyes. His looks made me guilty. I thought why such a 'grown up' woman like me make my father working for me and I sitting always relaxed. I thought like that because I was always called as a 'grown up' woman.
Towards the end of that academic year, suddenly I got another idea. I thought that why didn't I ask the help of grandfather to complete the work of toilet. By that time, grandfather had built toilets in my father's brothers' houses. One day, I went to his house and told, "grandpa, the toilet's work has left incompleted. Would you please help me to complete it ? Now, I am a grown up girl. Without a toilet, it is very difficult to live here". My grandfather took it seriously and quickly, everything was done. The door was not there, I thought my father would bring one from a shop. But, I saw a wonderful thing - he made two doors from palm-leaf. When the toilet was ready to use, on the same day, my IInd year Pre - degree class began.
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