Short story series:

A tree with two branches

(Originally written in Feb 2015)

It is a foggy early morning. Agila, a brownish 30 something woman is walking from her kitchen with 2 tumblers of boiled milk in hand. She is entering a bed room and starts calling 2 names. Her tone starts off in a caring motherly kind nature and slowly builds up to sound like an angry animal.

“Anand and Ramya” “Anand and Ramya, please wake up.”

“Anand and Ramya please wake up we are getting late for school.”

“Anand and Ramya to the count of 3, GET UP NOW”

The kids suddenly wake up in a fraction of a second, like their ears have been on high alert like that of a dog’s ear all this while waiting to hear that last sentence from their mum. The fight starts immediately after drinking their morning glass of milk, as to who should start getting ready first and who should sleep in. Anand being 1 year older than Ramya always have to give in for his younger sister whether he likes it or not. He knows his mum’s usual dialogue, “Ananda, please get ready, we are getting late to school. Please cooperate; mummy has to go to work”.

Somehow, Agila manages to get her 6 and 7 year old kids ready to school amid shouting and begging. The kids put their packed lunch boxes waiting on the table, in their school bag and wait at the car for their mum. Agila frantically searches for her keychain and there it is at the kitchen next to the sandwich she packed for her lunch. Finally the car starts to the noise of kids arguing for their favourite front passenger seat. And off they go!

After dropping her kids off to school, Agila gets back in the car, takes a deep breath and restarts the car. She is driving to her next stop which is work. She feels relaxed, as if she has just survived a big storm. We could hear the sound of Bombay Jayasree changing to Nithyasree Mahadevan. Then we hear a Vijay song finally settling to ‘Aaluma Doluma’ Ajith song. Of late this is her favourite song. She likes that rough and tough rugged attitude this song portrays. In a way, she feels like her life has made her evolve in to that no-nonsense kind of rude person.

At work, after greeting all the faces around the office, she switches on her PC at her desk. It normally takes a minute for that computer to log on. That 1 minute is more than enough for her to make a quick coffee at the office kitchen. The whole office is talking about only one topic which is School Holidays. Today is the last day of school for the term and the kids have 2 weeks' holidays. Agila then remembers, “Oh no, I promised Anand yesterday that I will take them to The Jungle Book.” It is the new kids movie released just in time for school holiday season. These kids will forget many things, but will never forget the promises their parents make to them.

After a long day at work, she is back in her car driving to pick up the kids. The kids will be at After School Care, which is within the School compound. Ramya reminds Anand about the movie. They both become closest of siblings when they want something from their mother. They unitedly and religiously remind their mum about the movie. Agila seems too tired to take them to movie however. Besides their school holidays have just started. They have 2 long weeks. They can go to the movie even the next day.

But kids are kids. They make all those baby faces and become so well behaved with nice manners when they want something. Agila gives in to pressure and they all decide to hit the movie theatre after having some refreshments at home.

Just when they reach home and open the door, Agila’s phone rings.

Anand asks, “Mummy is that daddy? I want to talk to him” Agila replies in a calm sorry tone, “No Anand. It's your uncle. Here talk to him.” Anand says he doesn’t want to talk to him now.

While her mum is on the phone, Ramya quickly runs to check the mail box and runs back with a letter in hand. Agila signals Ramya to keep it on the table.

Agila quickly mixes some ragi powder with water and salt and boils it for few minutes. At the same time, she is instructing the kids to wash their faces, and change their dress and get ready. Ragi drink is boiled enough. It needs to cool down before kids can drink.

Anand already started playing with his lego instead of getting ready while Ramya is wondering which dress to wear.

“Ramya, go to toilet before changing your dress.

“Anand, stop playing with lego. You are always playing either Lego or Star wars on Ipad. Its not good. Go, get up and change your dress.”

After getting the kids ready and refreshing them with some ragi drink, Agila instructs them to sit quietly and watch cartoon on their iPad. So that she can go get ready as well.

Before you know it, the kids start fighting on crossing which cartoon to watch. Agila is so fed up with them always fighting with each other. She just went to change dress and she could immediately hear shouting and crying and all of a sudden one big bang.

Agila rushes out from the room with a panic uttering “What happened? I just told you both to behave for once in your life. What did you both do now?”

To her dismay Ramya is seen lying down near the table. Looking at it, Agila immediately knows something is seriously wrong. Ramya banged her head against the sharp corner of the table. Somehow the kids' fight ended up in Ramya hurting her head.

Ramya is crying inconsolably and her head is bleeding. Agila doesn’t know what to do for a minute. She wants to cry along with Ramya. She wants to shout for help. But she cant. She needs to act. She quickly carries Ramya to the car and off they rush to the nearest doctor.

Luckily she has saved the contact number of their nearest doctor clinic. She calls them while driving, but soon finds out they are already closed for the day. On the other hand, Ramya is almost fainting. Her head is still bleeding above her right ear. It must have been a sharp hit for it to be bleeding non stop.

Agila don’t know where to go as the nearest clinic is closed. She doesn’t know whom to call. She immediately calls her neighbourhood friend Abinaya. Abinaya also has a 6 year old child and her kid also attends the same school as Anand and Ramya. Abinaya sensing that Agila is not able to think, instructs her to drive straight to the main Government hospital. Abinaya stays on the phone talking to Ramya to keep her awake.

Finally after frantic 1 hour, Ramya is sitting at a nursing bed while a nurse is doing first-aid to her head. The doctor will examine Ramya next. She may need 6-8 stitches. By the time Ramya gets her stiches and they all reach home, 3 hours have passed. After reaching home, Agila makes Ramya’s favourite Top Ramon noodles to feed the kids. After eating some noodles, the kids hit their beds and understandably they are too tired and before you know it, they are fast asleep. Agila wants to open the postal letter Ramya kept on the table, but she is too sleepy to do that. "Will check their out tomorrow" is her mind voice.

The next day morning, she calls in sick at work, as carer for her sick child and opens that letter on the table. She sits in silence after reading the divorce certificate received from her ex-husband. After a minute of silence, she places that letter in a safe place and starts her day as usual: making Milo drinks for her kids and a strong south Indian coffee for her.

Just as she was making coffee, her iPhone beeps with a text message. It reads, " Hi Agila, I read your first-draft, it's very interesting. I like it. I want to direct this script. Call me," a message from a renounced Indian film director, Sudha Kongara.

When one door closes, another opens, as long as you carry on with your work with faith.