194. Parvatham's Regret

As he was stepping into his house, Vinayakam asked, "Where is mom?"

"She has gone out" said his wife Sumathy.

"The marriage of her granddaughter has been fixed. Cant't she stay at home, even during this time?"

"Is she going to do the marriage arrangements? She has to spend her time somehow. She will go out, talk to some people and come back" said Sumathy, defending her mother-in-law.

"I don't like my mother visiting her friends and chatting with them at this age."

"Aged people need to find ways to spend time. Why should her going out and chatting with others disturb you?"

"I think you will be the only daughter-in-law on the earth, who defends her mother-in-law!" remarked Vinayakam, smiling.

At that time, Parvatham, Vinayakam's mother entered the house."

"Where did you go?" asked Vinayakam, sounding casuall. 

"I was sitting on the pial of our house. I noticed Rukmini sitting outsider her house. I went there to have a chat with her" said Parvatham.

Vinayakam didn't say anything.

Vinayakam came home, looking exhausted.

"Are you coming from the bridegroom's house? Did they say anything about the marriage arrangements?" asked Parvatham.

"Did you talk to anyone about Sumathy's mother?" Vinayakam asked Parvatham, without answering her question, 

"Why should I talk to anyone about Sunathy's mother? She is a nice lady. If at all I had any complaints against her, I would tell you, not others."

"Mom! You visit your friends' homes and chat with them for long. I don't know what are the things you talk about."

"What are you implying? I visit old women like me and talk for a chat. We talk about things happened in our lives in the past and about things happening in the village nowadays. What do you find objectionable about this?"

"You say you talk about things that happened in the past! Sumathy's mother doesn't belong to our caste. Sumathy's father loved her and married her. This was something that happened in the past, wasn't it?"

"What about it? When the proposal for your marriage with Sumathy was being considered, I din't make an issue of Sumathy's father marrying outside his caste. Though I am a person who had been conforming to traditional practices, I didn't consider Sumathy's mother hailing from another caste, an issue. I consented to your marriage with Sumathy, without even mentioning this issue."

"Yes, mom! I have been proud of your liberal outlook and broadmindedness. All along, no one in our village had known that Sumathy's mother belonged to another caste. Now, many in our village know about it. Did you mention this fact to anyone?" asked Vinayakam. 

 

Parvatham started saying, "Why should I..." But she stopped in the middle and bit her tongue, remembering something.

"Tell me, mom? Whom did you talk to about this?"

"Two days back, while talking to Kunjamma, I mentioned it. It was a slip of a tongue that happened, when we were conversing about the proliferation of inter-caste marriages these days. But, what harm could result from it?" asked Parvatham, shifting to a defensive tone, from an apologetic tone.

"Don't you know that Kunjamma has a loose tongue? She has carried the information shared by you to quite a few people in our village. The news has even spread to the nearby villages and reached the bridegroom's family."

"Oh, my God! Was that why they had sent for you? Hope you were able to mollify them?" asked Parvatham, feeling remorseful.

"I wasn't. They have rigid views on following the caste system. So, they told me that they had dropped the marriage proposal" said Vinayakam, with disgust. 

Both Parvatham and Sumathy looked at Vinayakam, with shocked disbelief.

However, Sumathy quickly recovered from the shock and said, "Consider it a blessing in disguise. If the bridegroom's family had come to know of this after the marriage, they would have made a big issue of it. Our daughter's marriage life would also have been affected. Let us accept the situation calmly. Our daughter will get a better match than this, soon."

But, Parvatham remained unconsolable. "Like the proverbial frog bringing harm to itself by its unrestrained trill, I had been the cause of my granddaughter's marriage getting stopped, because of my loose tongue" she kept lamenting. 

Thirukkural

Section 1
The Path of Virtue

Chapter 20
Avoiding Vain Speech

Verse 194 (In Tamil)

nayan sArA nanmaiyin nIkkum payan sArAp
paNbil sol pallAr agaththu.

Meaning:

Vain words spoken before an assembly will make destroy all gains and goodness.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'Ur aRindha ragasiyam' by the same author)

Verse 195 (Soon)
Verse 193