TEA IN THE LAND OF COCONUT TREES
By Sushi
————-
Anila sipped her tea slowly while her grandparents fought in the next room.
“You mind your own business, woman,”said her grandfather.
Her grandmother roared:
“Your health IS my business.”
The old man exploded.
“Stop being mad!”
Anila was about to get up when her phone beeped.
“Whatcha doing?”asked Prem.
“Sipping tea.”
“Who drinks tea in the land of coconut trees?”
She laughed.
“Come to Nepal with me,”said Prem.
“Why Nepal?”
“We could get married there.”
“Not so soon,”said Anila.
“You don’t trust us, do you?”asked Prem.
“I will call you back.”
Anila’s grandmother sat next to her with a piece of yam when Anila’s phone pinged again.
She ignored it.
“Why are you ignoring such a good boy?”asked her grandmother.
“How do you know he is good?”
“Your mother told me.”
“Ha! She can’t judge men well. Isn’t that why she left my father?”asked Anila.
The old woman rubbed some oil on her dry hands and cut the yam in two.
“Some of us are like this piece of yam. We don’t know our own itch.”
“Are you blaming her, Ammumma?”
“It isn’t right to blame anyone, neither your father nor your mother. Some people aren’t right for each other. That’s all.”
Anila shook the thick black curls on her head.
“What if Prem isn’t right for me?”
“You will never know if you don’t give him a chance.”
She followed the old woman into the kitchen.
“Do you love Appooppan?”
“Not in the way you think,”said her grandmother.
“How many ways are there to love someone, Ammumma!”
“As many ways as there are flowers on a Malayali bride’s braid.”
Anila put her arms around her grandmother.
“Would you know love if you saw it, Ammumma?”
“Our marriage leaned more on responsibility, child.”
“That sounds boring.”
“The most boring things in life are the most essential — breathing, sleeping, eating, cooking, cleaning…”
“Romance IS essential, Ammumma.”
“It’s also boring, girl…which is why it fades.”
A gecko near the window clicked.
Tick, tick, tick!
“See? The wise gecko knows,”said the old woman.
“As if geckos fall in love.”
Her grandmother fried the yam with shallots and spoke:
“We can’t manipulate an energy as magnificent as love, girl. It reveals itself slowly, like sunshine falling off trees.”
She poured buttermilk into a tumbler and stirred a pot of tamarind soup.
“What love are you talking about? Appooppan just called you mad. He yells at you half the time.“
The old woman’s belly shook as she grinned.
“He is much better now. He tries hard to keep himself together.”
“Have you ever wanted to leave him, Ammumma?”
“I did wonder about the monotony of my life…but I was certain it wasn’t his doing.”
“Do you still wonder about it, Ammumma?”
“I appreciate it now. I think your grandfather is a safe place…and the biggest adventure of my life.”
“That’s a paradox.”
“Aren’t you a paradox too, loving and hurting the same man?”
Anila put the day’s lunch on a tray and walked towards the the table where her grandfather sat.
She noticed a picture of her parents sitting on the wall.
“Why have you kept this picture?”
“Isn’t it beautiful?”asked her grandmother.
“They are no longer together, Ammumma.”
“They once were.”
Her grandfather interrupted.
“Do you know, Anila…your Ammumma is the best cook in the world.”
“You just called her mad, Appooppa.”
He ate a mouthful of rice with the tamarind soup.
“She is the maddest best cook,”he said.
“I think you live with her only because she cooks well.”
“Sometimes, you be with people simply because they happen to be with you, girl. They have been given to you for a reason and they will be taken from you when the time is right.”
“So…”
“So you love them as best as you can, even if they are mad.”
“What if she calls you mad?”
“She has…many times.”
“Did you yell more then?”
“Of course.”
“What sort of life is that?”
“Our sort.”
The old man took another serving of rice and eyed his wife’s plate.
“Have you ever wanted to leave her?”asked Anila.
He poured a ladle full of soup into his wife’s plate. She protested.
“Your grandmother is a person, not a game,”he said.
Anila smiled but her grandfather didn’t. He put a trembling hand on her head.
“Love rises slowly, child…out of all the little things we do for each other. It rests in spontaneity, wisdom and awareness.”
“But you shout at her…”
“I also apologize.”
“But…”
Anila’s phone pinged.
“PREM…I NEED TIME, OKAY?”
Her voice sounded as if it could cut through rocks.
She disconnected the line as the old man patted her on the shoulder.
“Whoever it is…apologize, child.”
Her grandmother raised her forefinger.
“Remember what I told you about the yam?”she asked.
“I am just afraid, Ammumma.”
“Of what?”asked her grandfather.
“What if…if…”
Anila struggled to speak.
“Your mother lost her marriage but she got you. She found a new perspective on life. She was never afraid of loss, which is why she learned to live,”said her grandfather.
Her tears flowed freely as she got up and hugged the old man.
“I will call him, Appooppa.”
The gecko clicked.
“If it clicks for the third time, we may have a wedding in the family,”said her grandmother.
“Please, Ammumma.”
Anila shook her heavy curls again and waited for her grandparents to retire for their siesta.
She then called Prem.
He was quiet for a full minute when he heard Anila’s voice.
“I am sorry, Prem.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“I was rude.”
Anila heard him sigh.
“Nepal sounds good,”she said.
“Why did you change your mind?”
“I don’t know, Prem. Perhaps I understood.”
“What?”
“My own itch.”
He spoke after a long silence.
“Will you marry me, Anila?”
She stared at the picture her grandparents had saved.
How happy her mother looked with her father.
Their marriage couldn’t have been a wrong decision. Their divorce was inevitable too.
Another paradox.
“Yes, Prem.”
Anila could imagine him smiling.
“What if you get bored with me, Anila?“
She closed her eyes and listened to her grandparents bickering for the hundredth time.
“What if YOU get bored with me, Prem?”
“I will take you to Nepal and marry you again.”
“I will do that too.”
His laughter rose from his heart — warm and open.
Anila basked in it for a few seconds and mumbled:
“You sound like sunshine falling off trees.”
“What’s gotten into you, girl? Is it the air there?”
“Perhaps it’s the tea, Prem. Tea in the land of coconut trees.”
Prem laughed again as the wise gecko clicked, for the third time.
Tick, tick, tick!
(ends)