THE  SUNDAY STORY

(A  short story telling us about the condition of a family with a man addicted to  alcohol )

“yella, chitra! Anthiri¹”, Ponnama was trying to wake her 8 year granddaughter on the first Sunday of the month. Chitra was crawling in her mat,  fighting with her day and night dream. “Un thambiku unakum koolu vachuruken, koodichudu²”, Ponnama told her granddaughter with an affectionate smile in her face. Chitra replied her grani by nodding her head with a sleepy face. Then the 60 year old women instructed her granddaughter to cook some food for their lunch with the help of dal and rice she bought from last day’s earning. “Appo nan viyabarathuku poren³”, as she informed she left that place with a basket on her head and some money in her kitty bag to buy cucumber for today’s business.

After a 10 feet walk she looked back at her home with a worried face. She was thinking about her motherless grandchildren and her son who didn’t return home last night. When she reached the market, she could see that most of the shops were closed.

 But there was one shop opened with many men lining up to buy. She saw a man laying down around 30 years of age near that shop. At one glance she was sure it was her widowed son near the TASMAN( wine shop). She kept the basket down and leaned near her son with a teary eye and disappointed face, “ naan petha makka, ippudi kudichu un voodamba neeya keduthukeriya? ⁴”  .

This is a story written by me. I am a middle class TAMIL girl and  I am extremely angry towards these people who spoil their health and spend half of their daily wage for drinking alcohol. This is the tamil language and this is how the illiterate and village people speak. 

1)    Yella,chitra! Anthiri -  hey chitra! Wakeup

2)    Un thambikum unakum koolu vachuruken, koodichudu – I have prepared porridge for you and your younger brother

3)    Appo nan viyabarathuku poren – then let me go to my business( a very small scale business costing of rupees 200 investment daily )

4)    naan petha makka, ippudi kudichu un voodamba neeya keduthukeriya – my dear son, who i bore! Why do you have to drink and spoil your own health?