55. Will it Rain Today?

"Don't you have the practice of lighting a lamp in front of God's portrait in your home, Priya?" asked Padma, Priya's mother-in-law.

"We do have, aunty" replied Priya.

"Then, why didn't you do it today?" demanded Padma.

"I didn't want to light a lamp before taking a shower!"

"So, you have been cooking food before taking a shower!" exclaimed Padma, as though shocked by Priya's behaviour.

"I am cooking food just for my husband. I will cook for you after taking a shower."

"You want to cook food for each of us separately! Won't it result in wasteful use of cooking gas and  provisions? Moreover, you will be straining yourself by cooking twice!"

Priya mentally thanked her mother-in-law for showing concern for her, knowingly or unknowingly.

"I can't help it, aunty. He has to leave for work early today. I had to prepare some food earlier so as to give him packed lunch."

"Some days, he would leave for work early. On those days, I would ask him to have his lunch in some restaurant. I won't cook lunch for him. This was the practice before you got married to him!" told Padma.

"He told me that I need not cook lunch for him and that he would have his lunch in a restaurant. But I insisted on my cooking and packing the lunch for him lest he should spoil his health by eating some unhealthy food at the restaurant."

Though momentarily Padma was struck by the typical feeling of a mother-in-law 'Do you have greater concern for my son than I do?' she nevertheless felt happy about Priya's concern for the health of Padma's dear son. 

However, not willing to relent in her insistence on adherence to established practices, she told Priya, "Look, Priya. Under no circumstances should we deviate from religious practices. It is an established practice in our family that women should take their shower, light the lamp in front of God's portrait and then only start cooking. You can't deviate from this whether it is for the sake of serving your husband or serving the king!"

'A king will have many people to serve him but my husband has only me to take care of his needs' thought Priya.

After Priya's husband left for work, Priya took her shower. When she returned from her shower, she found that Padma was cooking the flour slurry for making vaththal*.

"What aunty, are we going to make vaththal today?" asked Priya.

"Yes. Come and join me quickly. Only if we mould the flour into vaththal now, it will dry by the evening" said Padma.

"I think it may rain today" said Priya, with concern.

"It won't rain in the month of Chiththirai**. Perhaps you are misled by the sun's rays being a bit dull today. You will see that after a while the sun will begin to scorch and the vaththal pieces we mould will get dried by the evening" said Padma, with confidence.

But even as the two women were moulding the cooked flour into vaththal, rain drops began to pound, their force intensifying within a few minutes.

*vaththal - a dish made by casting cooked rice flour into moulds and drying them. The dried pieces can be preserved for long and and can be served after frying in oil.

**Chiththirai is the first month inthe Tamil calendar corresponding to the period between the middle of April and the middle of May.

Thirukkural
Section 1
The Path of Virtue

Chapter 6
The Worth of A Wife

Verse 55 (In Tamil)

dheyvam thozhAL kozhunan thozhudhezhuvAL
pey enap peyyum mazhai.

Meaning:

Rain will pour down at the bidding of a wife who worships her husband rather than God.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'mazhai varumA' by the same author)

Verse 56 (Soon)

Verse 54