Latha

25) Latha: She is tall at 5’6” and unfortunately my sister. She has a decided short nose that mars an otherwise attractive face; a small one to begin with, a fair complexion, and eyes punched close together. She was neither as bright as Viji in academics nor did she have her sunshine personality. All the people in the vicinity gravitated to the eldest one leaving Latha behind. She perceived the slight but kept quiet.

It was at school her inadequacies were cruelly exposed. In her 5th Standard, she ranked 39 out of 40 students with her report card filled with red lines. Since then I used to taunt her with “39” and that ate her soul for the next 10 years or more. I was 4 years younger but much stronger and in a duel would pull her pleat and rattle it to its foundation. She had a lot of gawkiness about her in her growing years; a bush shirt at the top of a pavadai looked incongruous.

Latha was interested in Carnatic music and had tuitions for over a decade. She has a fantastic voice but after marriage she threw it overboard as if a troublesome monkey. There were many factors that shaped her into one of the most diffident characters around: her poor academics and the years in finding a groom. Here too, in contrast Viji got married at 20 and on the first attempt. Her horoscope was matched and groom’s family was more than ready for the marriage. For Latha that was a prolonged agony; she was “moolam” and that entailed seeing grooms whose fathers had expired thus severely limiting the search to a narrow field. It must have burnt her ego as 4 or 5 families saw her in a formal “girl seeing” ritual and turned her down. Nothing hurts a woman more as I witnessed Latha’s frustration and desperation reach neurotic levels after each mortification. Even remianing a spinster is less hurtful on the soul.

Latha turned pious and not a Friday passed before she went to “Jai Santoshi Maa” temple in West Marredpally and fasted without salt or tamarind on Fridays for years on end. I believe that it was these weekly prayers that finally got her a husband. Once married she transformed into someone totally different!

Marriage seemed to wipe away all the bad memories of her “parent’s” home: those “39” slights, years of struggle with books and music classes, and search for a groom. In addition she got a job in “Bharat Petroleum” and her husband an antidote to the diffidence of the past. Then 2 sons were born and the cure was complete so much so she completely turned her back.

I never forgave her for being indifferent to my heart surgery, my depressions, and job losses. Not once has she invited me for any of the festivals despite being in the same city. Latha has no stomach of reason or an ounce of criticism. She is like a planet comfortable in her own orbit and her world does not extend beyond a hardworking and pliant husband and two fast growing sons. Latha idolizes people with wealth or fame and not a penniless brother. You should see her dance to her super-rich industrialist sister-in-law.

With such an attitude and behaviour for 2 decades, I don’t even know where she resides or her telephone number. In a city of over one crore people, she is another and her prosperity or grief are no concern of mine. She even kept her sons away from fear of my blighted influence and thus making the estrangement complete. It has been years since I spoke or saw her and we have reached our dead-end long back.

Verdict: Tamas
Lesson to be learnt: Don’t get hurt over the shoddy treatment. She is not worth the time or energy.