Devakiamma knew it all! Her eyes and ears were always open. She is the perfect reporter I had ever seen. And she will make even Mata Hari droop her head in shame with her excellent spy work.
“Your daughter was on the phone for one and a half hours, that too a single call”, she would broadcast the moment my mom opened the gate after her shopping. Oh My!! I would be in my room, upstairs, with doors tightly closed. She’d never come up. I would be speaking in my lowest voice my sound box can produce. And she doesn’t know how to tell the time. But those one and a half hours will be accurate. I would be doing just that.
“Her friend came and they were inside the room for a long time”, she would announce on another occasion. Everyone could feel the suspicion dangling out from her voice, and slowly spreading to my mom’s face. For God’s sake, we are not lesbians!! Even though many had doubted us seeing how thick we were, and the hours we would spend inside closed rooms, and on phone… Some had asked us directly too.
“Your husband came and took a piece of old cloth”, would be her another proclamation, this time to me. He might have taken it to clean something, poor fellow! “He was calling someone and making plans to go out”, she said. Now, that was something I liked. I can still remember vividly the look of disbelief on his face when I countered him with this info.
“Your daughter’s bed looks like an elephant had trampled on it”, I heard her telling my mother one day. (As if she was sleeping with someone was left unsaid). Her eyes were full of suspicion. She could hear nothing, and she didn’t see anyone going up. Then how come the bed sheet crumpled so much was her unasked question. I couldn’t help but give her a mysterious smile, which would have surely left her sleepless for at least two or three nights.
No one knew where Devakiamma would be. No one will see her anywhere near. No one could feel her presence. But she sees the whole lot. She hears everything. Who came and when, with what, and talked what, everything she would know. She would know how many calls you made, to whom, and what you were talking about, even if you would be talking in encrypts. My educated cousins would never be able to make heads and tails out of those conversations. But the uneducated illiterate Devakiamma could unlock all the secret codes. And she would keep my mom updated about everyone and everything. No one could take even a stone from my house. Not even a stray dog could enter without her permission. And she is controlling those who are, though 30 plus, unable to utter a word in front of her…
“Your daughter was on the phone for one and a half hours, that too a single call”, she would broadcast the moment my mom opened the gate after her shopping. Oh My!! I would be in my room, upstairs, with doors tightly closed. She’d never come up. I would be speaking in my lowest voice my sound box can produce. And she doesn’t know how to tell the time. But those one and a half hours will be accurate. I would be doing just that.
“Her friend came and they were inside the room for a long time”, she would announce on another occasion. Everyone could feel the suspicion dangling out from her voice, and slowly spreading to my mom’s face. For God’s sake, we are not lesbians!! Even though many had doubted us seeing how thick we were, and the hours we would spend inside closed rooms, and on phone… Some had asked us directly too.
“Your husband came and took a piece of old cloth”, would be her another proclamation, this time to me. He might have taken it to clean something, poor fellow! “He was calling someone and making plans to go out”, she said. Now, that was something I liked. I can still remember vividly the look of disbelief on his face when I countered him with this info.
“Your daughter’s bed looks like an elephant had trampled on it”, I heard her telling my mother one day. (As if she was sleeping with someone was left unsaid). Her eyes were full of suspicion. She could hear nothing, and she didn’t see anyone going up. Then how come the bed sheet crumpled so much was her unasked question. I couldn’t help but give her a mysterious smile, which would have surely left her sleepless for at least two or three nights.
No one knew where Devakiamma would be. No one will see her anywhere near. No one could feel her presence. But she sees the whole lot. She hears everything. Who came and when, with what, and talked what, everything she would know. She would know how many calls you made, to whom, and what you were talking about, even if you would be talking in encrypts. My educated cousins would never be able to make heads and tails out of those conversations. But the uneducated illiterate Devakiamma could unlock all the secret codes. And she would keep my mom updated about everyone and everything. No one could take even a stone from my house. Not even a stray dog could enter without her permission. And she is controlling those who are, though 30 plus, unable to utter a word in front of her…
