TSL's Pandorathon May sixteenth with Santosh Bakaya
The Gossipy Neighbour
She, Rebecca, was alone in a big house, rented. Till her husband retired they lived in rented houses, of various shapes and sizes. This one was big and she felt happy in it initially. But she used to get lonely as in the morning her husband would go off to work to ISRO, then one son to Mar Ivanios, then one son to Art's College, then one daughter to Women's College, and the youngest to St. Joseph's HS. One day, a new neighbour moved into the next house who was from another state. Rebecca could speak the language of that state which was not Malayalam. Thinking that the new lady, Ammu, must be feeling lonely too, in a locality where no one spoke her language, she struck up a conversation with her. Ammu was surprised at how well Rebecca spoke in her mother tongue, though that was alien to her.
Rebecca had a domestic helper and after some time Ammu told her she found it hard working alone with no one to help her so Rebecca arranged for her helper, Panjami, to go to her neighbour's house too.
The neighbour Ammu offered to pay the helper Panjami double the amount Rebecca gave if she would work only for her.
Then the neighbour also told Rebecca that the helper was a big thief. She would, she said, take away rice even under her fingernails.
Rebecca started laughing. She told the gossipy neighbour, "let her take it if she does, after all if Panjami tries to steal rice under her fingernails she can only carry ten grains away at one time each day and it will take her a long time to make it amount to something."
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