Sabari Parinayam

9

"Demta? " Sabari looked at the red coarse paste that was emptied onto a banana leaf "Demta means ants?" she asked, incredously, not believing what she saw.

"No. Silly girl!" Agharna amma, Vrinda's mother, smiled at Sabari "The grounded paste that we make with the red ants is called Demte. You also add garlic and coriander. It is one of my favorite foods, especially after the rainy season. There are just so many ants around!! " the guruni explained with a sparkle in her eye. For a 80 year old woman, the guruni was a tall lady. Even in a full squat position, as she was just sitting in, the guruni, reached up to Sabari'S waist."This was the first thing I made for my husband when we came here, after our marriage." Then remembering something, the old woman started laughing out loud.

"Did he like it?" Sabari asked, surprised at the sudden laughter.

Agharna amma controlled her laughter and wiped her eyes with her sari pallu "My husband is vegetarian!" she said "And I made a ant pachchadi for him!" she laughed again "My first that I ever cooked and I gave my vegetarian husband dead ants!" she laughed again.

Looking at the woman shake so hard with laughter, Sabari became concerned "OK.. Ok.. Calm down amma. I can hear your bones rattle! Calm down" Sabari wisphered loudly.  Vrinda rishi was out doing his meditation and she did not want him to be disturbed. "Was your husband angry?" Sabari asked. She had often heard stories of how the rishis in the mythologies would curse people into damnation just because they got angry at something that offended them. 

"He was very angry!" Agharna amma said , making her eyes big to dramatize the point "But...."

"But?"

Agharna amma smiled in fond memory  "He was not angry for a long time. Not even a day. " Then she blushed a little "You see I was slender and curvaceous like a lotus stem , at that time." Looking at her hands she continued "I look like a dried bark now ..but..back then , my husband could not resist me." Sabari smiled. She did not doubt for a moment that Agharna amma was anything but a beautiful woman in her younger years.  And her children were proof of that .  Apart from Vrinda, whom she considered handsome in a very earthy way, Sabari had the opportunity to meet his two sisters, who were married into two different  forest tribes. There was something about this whole family. All of them were beautiful people with a  certain , almost mysterious sparkle in their eyes. As the ladies smiled at their conversation, a certain bird's tweeting had the guruni reach for her staff and stand "Who could that be?" the old lady said making her way out of the hut. After three months of having lived at Vrinda's camp, Sabari realized and understood that certain sounds and calls preceded specific incidents. The yellow billed babblers, as  she recognized, always informed of an arrival. Sabari followed the guruni out of the hut.

Outside the hut, the bright sun light spilled onto a ground in a web like pattern through the weaved branches above. At a distance from the hut Vrinda, as was usual for this time of the day, was seated under his meditation tree. Behind him tall trees bordered what looked like a dense forest. Sabari had not yet ventured into that part of the forest. And the gloomy grey aura of that part was not very welcoming either. Vrinda and Agharna amma had taken her to parts of the camp  and forest that were of functional and personal use to her but not beyond.

A young boy was standing, with folded hands, in front of Vrinda. A little behind him Partha stood in a wide stance with his arm folded across his chest. As excited as she was at seeing Partha, Sabari knew not to disturb Vrinda's meditation. With a wide smile  across her face she tip toed hurriedly towards Partha and waved shyly when he looked at her. Partha smiled back. Seeing Sabari smile and walk towards him filled his heart with a warmth he did not understand. So much so that he did not mind or feel awkward when she came and looped her hand around his arm. Sabari wisphered in his ear "I missed you so so much!"