Shakunthala pushed her glasses that were slipping down her nose and looked at the closed room behind which her granddaughter disappeared
What happened ?
The bag thrown on the sofa ,The shoes that were nastily stuffed in the shoe rack and The unwashed lunchboxes left in the basin everything seemed unlikely to her thangapullai's habits
Worried Shakunthala knocked on her door
" Sollunga ammachi"
" Ennachu kannu.. Inaiku Chess class polaya?"
As Shakunthala waited upon an eerie silence
" Illa .. Inaiku tired ah iruku Ammachi naa Monday dha poga poren "
" Seri kannu"
Though it gnawed Shakunthala to know what had happened she very well knew that it was the "teenage highs and lows" her little one was experiencing and she had to give her growing grand daughter enough space to let her know that she has a trustable source to rely upon who wouldn't be judging and poking on her wrongs to make her feel bad
Kannamma , her grand daughter was an obedient and bold kid unlike the other kids of her generation. She had no friends at school and hadn't once been disappointed about it as she feels complete by compensating it through the love she receives from her family
" Amma , Appa , Shalini , Nee , Ungala vitaa Akka thangachi nu konja Naalu cousins vechurken.. Enakidhu podhum ammachi "
Naveen , one among her mentioned four cousins was of same age as her and studied in the same class being her only friend. But she never disturbs him when at school as he had his own set of friends , a space he enjoys with his male peers which obviously she cannot disturb . Her other two cousins Aryan and Harish were two grades younger than her and her elder cousin Nandha had passed out of school . All of her cousins were from her maternal family
And Shakunthala was the only person who had accepted her in her Paternal Family , the closest after her parents and sibling and that is why she calls her Ammaachi instead of Paati or Aachi (as the latter was her Father's mother) and sometimes Amma as she feels ' Home '
Her parents , Ashwin and Sivaangi had been the best role model to their kids from being the parents who had learnt to behave well in front of their kids knowing they are being watched and learnt from to making sure every fight was behind the doors in hushed voices not letting their arguments and diagreements disturb their kids peace
It was an Arranged Marriage wherein her Ammachi, Shakunthala who was having a cool conversation with her Krishna Acha suddenly jumped in with the idea of getting their kids married and happily carried their wishes to their kids . Ashwin and Sivaangi , being the parent pleasing kids who had met a handful of times and known each other quite well agreed, upon a date after sorting out on their future endeavours and now have successfully finished their 17 years of married life
Shakunthala couldn't unsee how her Kannamma had picked up her habit of being an empathiser from her Parents who have a silent understanding of helping each other even when the other never voices out. From being silent and responding softly to their kid's crankiness offlate to embracing her when she feels guilty and low of her mistakes they had been a couple of understanding in terms of parents as well as partners
Offlate with the kind of stories that she was being exposed to she hated the concept of Love and Romace to guts. When trying to figure out how her Parents could be ideal with a 17 year long relationship , No arguments, No cussing or turning down on each other , she felt it was probably their Understanding of each other that helped them smoothen out their relationship.
