Rama Navami

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It was 2012. I was pregnant with N and housebound for many months on doctor's advice. My bright ray of sunshine was my darling nephew R (then 2.5 yrs old) who stayed over frequently. I entertained him over the months with an animated telling of the Ramayana many times over. (I guess I was making up for the days when his mom was pregnant with him and I was supposed to go tell her the Ramayana so baby could hear and we usually ended up gossiping instead).

Baby R fell in love with the characters, especially Rama and Sita. He loved Sri Rama-Sita so much that Rama became "Sriram anna" to him. He would play-act the forest adventures with bow and arrow. He would listen enraptured at the description of the royal wedding, Sita decked in beautiful silk, with an odyaanam, nethichutti, mukkuti, golusu, valayal, addigai, thodu-jimiki, anki, modiram and so on.

Once when his parents took him to a wedding reception, he got on the stage, looked at the bride in her fine saree and jewels and said "Sita!" He then proceeded to tell the bridegroom in his fine suit, "You are not Sri Rama. Where is Sriram Anna?" The bewildered chappie pleaded that he had gone through enough to stand there, without any more trouble.

So this wise child is also an avid footballer. He would spend hours kicking the ball as high as he could. One day the ball got stuck high up in a tree. It was a frequent enough occurrence that my parents had a long pole on standby but that day, the ball had gone much higher and the pole wouldn't reach. My father went to find something else, R started crying and my mother at her wit's end told the bawling kid, "Acho don't cry kanna. Ask your Sriram Anna, he will help you."

The child prayed to his Sriram anna for help and lo behold, a young delivery boy who was passing by enquired why the child was crying and proceeded to nimbly climb the tree and retrieve the ball much to the delight of young R. He then went on his way into a nearby apartment block to deliver his package.

This happened so fast that my mother couldn't react, except to exclaim that "Ada, your Sriram anna listened and sent someone to help!."

It then occurred to her that it was a steep and dangerous climb, the delivery boy had taken all this trouble and she should somehow reward him. She waited for him to come out, and then thanked him profusely and offered him some money. He refused. She pressed him again and he said, "Amma, I only came for the boy. Avanukkaga vandhen." So in my mom's usual style, she thanked him again, praised his parents for bringing up such a lovely young boy and casually asked him, "What is your name kanna?" And this delivery boy said "Sriram."

I know. A thousand explanations. But every time I think of it, speak of it, it brings tears to my eyes. A little boy called. And he came. Make of it what you will.

#RamaNavami #JaiSriRam #SriramAnna