Seetha Kalyanam Vaibohame

Seetha's world

Seethalakshmi was the youngest of three daughters and was also the darling of the family. Seetha lived in a joint family set up, in a small village near Palakkad. Her family consisted of her parents, Ramani and Rajeshwari, her two sisters Shanthi and Meena along with her chithappa Ganeshan, his wife Rama, their little daughter Ranganayaki (Rangu). Of course, her paternal grandparents lived with them as well.

Seetha was always a petite little busy body so in order to keep track of what she was up to, her mom put anklets so that she could hear Seetha wherever she sneaked. Since then Seetha had always worn anklets almost as if it had become a part of her body. As she grew up, she would get a new one. Everyone in the village knew about this and would associate Seetha with the sound of the golusu.

Seetha's little world revolved around her family, her best friend Jayanthi, who lived three houses away from theirs and her pillaiyar kovil. Jayanthi and Seetha were inseparable. They walked to school together, sat in class next to each other, went to the music class together and even visited Pillaiyar together. Jayanthi had lost her father when she was very young so their family struggled a little to make ends meet. They had a cow in their house and sold milk to the people of the village. Jayanthi's  mother also had a tailoring machine and did some stitching work.

This was a time when the internet was unknown. Seetha's village had not even seen a television yet. They heard the news on the radio. Seetha's grandfather, chellam thatha, who had learnt English, to communicate with the British, was very proud of his knowledge and had only wanted to read the English newspaper. A few years earlier he had started to lose his vision and so Seetha was assigned to read the newspaper to him every morning, which she gladly did.

Ruku paati was still quite active and was territorial about the kitchen. Both the daughters-in-law obediently took order from her. Although Ruku paati was authoritative, she was kind and understanding. Both Ramani and Ganeshan held government jobs. Ramani worked at the Municipality office as the chief while Ganeshan at the Electricity board. Rajeswari (Raji) was Ramani's sister's daughter. She had died at childbirth and Raji had grown up with them ultimately marrying her mama.

When Seetha was 10, her 19 year old sister, Shanthi got married. That was the first wedding Seetha had witnessed. She loved the fun, frolics and decorations. Seetha was thrilled to get a brand new pattu pavadai for the occasion. Shanthi Akka's groom Ramanathan, was their Athai's son. So he wasn't a stranger but they had settled in CBE, which meant Shanthi akka had to leave right after marriage. Shanthi akka was more like another mother to Seetha. She was loud and, sometimes, dominating, which annoyed Seetha so she was only happy to know that Shanthi was leaving and she could be free at last.

Shanthi Akka's wedding was also the first time Seetha thought of her own wedding. Although, at the age of 10, she did not understand it completely. Although she was happy about Shanthi akka leaving them, she decided that she would never leave her family. A few years later, when she was 13, Meena akka got married into their mama's family. Raji's older brother lived in the nearby village and as their older son was 4 years older to Meena and the same age as Shanthi, it was long decided that Meena would get married to Chandru.

Seetha was closer to Meena, who was very fond of her. She treated Seetha like her little doll. She loved to dress her up, tie her hair with different ribbons. So when Meena akka got married, Seetha cried. Even though she knew they would see each other almost every day, it still was heart breaking. At 13, Seetha realized that a girl, when married, had to leave her parent's house to go live with her husband's family.

As Seetha and Jayanthi sat on the steps of the temple kolam, they would talk about how scary it would be to go and live with another family, all of a sudden. Jayanthi had decided that she never wanted to get married but Seetha spoke about how she wanted a tall husband as she was too petite. She also wanted a calm and quiet husband who was unlike her but she also never wanted to leave her family. So she always prayed to her dear pillaiyar to get a husband right next door to theirs.

Well, man proposes but God disposes. Pillaiyar had better plans for Seethalakshmi.

Brinda Subramanian

So what do you guys think of the beginning?