Hostel Diaries — Just Thaazhekandam Matters
Lectures that bore to death…
Lunch breaks to take a breath…
Lab hours when you get a wreath!
And finally, a walk into your Beth!
A long tiring day, and all I would want to do is rush to my hostel room. Throwing my bag to somewhere to be found only the next morning, clearing the messy bed (more like pushing the stuff towards my roomie’s bed), I would slump on the most comfy bed in the world.
And then, just when I thought I could have a good sleep, the door would be slammed open. And there comes them…
The Family!
Long long long back, there lived a happy couple. They lived in a…wait that isn’t important because the main characters of this story aren’t this happy couple. So let’s forget about them! Just remember the fact that there WAS a happy couple and they had three daughters!
YES!
3 daughters!
The three (among 5) heroines of this story!
Presenting to you, the eldest of the three!
The charming, the beautiful, the kind, passionate (and all stuff you can think of) and last but not the least, the OLD, the about-to-die Saramma (although she fashionably presents her name as Sarah Josh, the name registered on Aadhar is Saramma Joshua)! The eldest, as she claims, but child at heart! Sarammachi, as everyone lovingly calls her, never accepts the fact that she is an old woman and needs to take rest.
Highly energetic at heart, she is reluctant to admit the truth that she has to, very soon, come down to her zero energy level and finally walk into the coffin!
Well that’s enough about her! Not that I’m out of words. Writing about Sarammachi would require three volumes (may be more).
And next….the second of the three!
Since I’m out of phrases of appreciation (because I had to shower Sarammachi with them) let’s just go straight to the intro of Molykutty Georgekutty, the Kutty family! Moly George, as she introduces herself, had a love marriage with Georgekutty! She says that her husband is a traveler! And then she says that he is driver! The truth is that he was jobless and a pickpocket. After their marriage Molykutty pestered him to get a job and thus he ended up with an auto. God knows where he travels with that auto, and with whom! The fact is that there never came a single penny for the Thaazhekandam house from the so-called husband of Molykutty!
She is that person in the family who has a lot of secrets herself and also of others!
And the third one…the youngest (well not really the youngest! She is 40.) Wait, I didn’t mention ages of the other two did I? Well, Sarammachi is 75, Molykutty is 60 and Stella Sahadevan, the youngest, is 40. Yeah I know, huge age gaps.
Stella Sahadevan, wife of Mr. Sahadevan, often stays with Sarammachi since her husband is away in Dubai. To be honest, she had run away from her husband’s house due to her sister-in-law’s tortures! Sad, I know! But I really doubt whether it was their tortures or her tantrums that made them kick her out!
Leaving no stone unturned in boasting about her Dubai husband, Stella is usually a calm woman until someone brings up her husband’s name. Never ever talk bad about Mr. Dubai or she’ll skin you alive!
Now comes the two not-blood-but-close-by-heart relations of the three sisters.
Let’s start with the beautiful Mrs. Basheer!
Cecily a.k.a Sulu was born as….well I’m not very clear about her relation with Sarammachi and her sisters but she is often seen in the family. No one correctly knows who she is. Let’s just assume that she is daughter of Sarammachi’s distant cousin.
Sulu is that one person in the whole squad who acts as a broadcast for the whole public. No information can be trusted with this 40 year old BBC network.
From creating small fights between the sisters to mastering in the art of gossiping, Sulu is the shadiest member of the family! Networking, she says!
Married to Tony, she was Sarammachi’s pet. But then one day, Sarammachi’s ornaments went missing and that evening everyone came to know that Sulu left Tony and married Basheer. Changing her name and religion, Sulu is today known as Mrs. Sulfiya Basheer.
And now we have….
Last but not the least…
The star of the family!
The most beautiful, kind, loving, caring…
Clara.
No surnames please!
Clara was orphaned as a child when her parents passed away during landslide. She was adopted by Sarammachi. The 20 year old young lady grew up with Sarammachi and thus loves her immensely. Although the family treats her as a servant, Sarammachi loves and cares for her a lot and Clara looks after the old woman. From cooking meals to giving medicines to her, Clara knows it all!
.
What seems to be a very noisy and disrupted family, Sarammachi claims that Thaazhekandam family is the best in the world. Is it her old age making her say emotional dialogues or her experiences confirming it?
Every family has its own ups and downs.
Be it the petty fights that Sulu initiates, Clara’s fight for justice, Molykutty’s arguments regarding property rights, Stella’s shouts when Sulu pokes about Sahadevan or Sarammachi’s cries for hot water….the house has it all!
Friends that turn into family; the above four heroines aren’t the only ones that turns my shitty mood into a smile! From asking permission to your roommate for using the socket to wearing her clothes as if it’s yours, hostel life is just another world!
Every day isn’t great! Petty arguments about the dirty laundry, unwashed teacups, unmade bed, chargers, washing powders, oil; even a safety pin has its own story weaved up!
But by the end of the day, no matter how messy the day was…all of us have just one thing to say.