186. Shenbagam's Moment of Shock

Shenbagam and her friend Jagathu would chat over phone at least twice every day. Each conversation would go on for twenty to thirty minutes.

Both of them have been making the best use of the 'unlimited talk time' offers made by mobile phone service providers. 

The conversation would invariably be about their mutual friends and acquaintances.

They would discuss the interesting happenings in the families of other people and evaluate and judge their actions, branding them as stupid moves, blunders, dishonest and cunning acts, humiliations suffered by them etc.

Sometimes, one of them would share information known to her with the other and at other times, they would discuss matters known to both.

Apart from conversing over the phone every day, once in a week, the two friends would meet in person in the evening in a temple. After worshiping the deity, they would sit at a quiet place inside the temple premises and chat for about an hour.

After going through the matters discussed over the phone during the week, they would share the latest updates, if any.

It can be said that speaking about other people's problems and exchanging slander enriched their friendship, more than any other thing they had in between them.

"Then?" asked Jagathu.

"Nothing new. Everything is just old story!" said Shenbagam, feeling bored.

"Does Janaki's husband know about her paying fifteen hundred rupees for a cheap sari from a street vendor, believing his misrepresentation of it as a silk sari?"

"What do men know about saris? Janaki's husband would have thought that his wife had bought a silk sari at a bargain price. Later on, if she shows some other silk sari to him and tells him that it was the one she bought at a bargain price, how is he going to find out?"

"Fortunately, she has no mother-in-law or sister-in-law living in the house. If any such person had been there, her bluff would have been called!"

"Now that you mentioned about calling of the bluff, I remembered another matter. You know Suguna's husband has been sitting at home for the past two months, without going for his job!"

"Yes, of course. Suguna told us that he had taken leave and been studying for some examination."

"No. I just came to know from another friend that she had been telling a lie. Her husband has been suspended by his company, because of some irregularity committed by him. Nobody knows whether he will be reinstated or not. Suguna has been covering up the truth, by claiming that he has been preparing for some examination!"

"How cleverly has she spun a tale! Can you and I have the skill to spin such tales?"

The conversation continued on these lines for some more time, during which, matters relating to a few more women were discussed.

Shenbagam was unable to get Jagathu's mobile number for a long time. She was repeatedly hearing the message from the telephone company stating, 'The subscriber is talking to someone else.'

Thinking that there could be some problem with Jagathu's mobile phone, Shenbagam called Jagathu's landline number.

It was Jagathu's daughter who answered the phone. She said, "Mummy is talking on her mobile phone. I will call her."

She then told her mother in a loud voice, "Mummy! There is a phone call for you" and went away to attend to her activities.

Shenbagam was able to hear Jagatu talking to someone over her mobile phone. Though Jagathu was a little away from the fixed line phone, Shenbagam was able to hear her words clearly. 

Shenbagam who, initially was listening to Jagathu's words passively without paying attention to them, became interested when she heard Jagathu mention her name. With Jagathu walking towards the fixed line phone even as she was talking, to attend to the call received on the fixed line, her voice was becoming louder and clearer for Shenbagam to hear. 

"Yes. I am talking about our friend Shenbagam. She had kept cash concealed at various places, carefully hiding it from her husband. When the government suddenly announced demonetization of currency notes of five hundred and thousand rupees denomination, she took out the concealed cash from various places. Can you believe it? It amounted to twenty thousand rupees... There was no way she could have got them exchanged without her husband's knowledge. So, she had to confess the truth to her husband and get the money deposited in his bank... Wouldn't he have been enraged? He got furious, when Shenbagam told him about the demonetized notes in her possession and shouted at her, saying, 'On several occasions, I had struggled without having even one thousand rupees cash with me. But, you have stashed so much money and did not even offer to help me during the times I was in dire need of cash. What kind of a wife are you?' She told me about her husband's angry outburst and cried, telling me how much she felt hurt by his words. But,the story does not end here. Just two days back, she discovered that she had kept demonetized currency notes of five thousand rupees in an empty container in the kitchen. She was shocked... How could she disclose this to her husband? The deadline for exchanging the demonetized notes is already over. If she were to tell her husband about this new discovery, he would tear her to pieces. I wonder how she could be so stupid and careless. We have all been thinking that she is smart. But, she has been such a stupid woman. Pathetic, isn't it? Ok. I have got a call on the fixed line. I have to take it. I will talk to you later. Bye...Hello, who is this?"

Shenbagam disconnected the call, without saying anything. 

Thirukkural
Section 1
The Path of Virtue

Chapter 19
Refraining From Backbiting

Verse 186 (In Tamil)

piRan pazhi kURuvAn than pazhi uLLum
thiRan therindhu kURappadum.

Meaning:

One who smears another behind his back, opens himself up

to similar smear, with his faults being slandered.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'seNbagamE, seNbagamE' by the same author)

Verse 187 (Soon)
Verse 185