Eashwaramma and Roopa. With Mukundan at the Sanjeevani clinic. Today.
Eashwaramma telling Mukundan about devudu and Dharman.
About her life. How her mother died when she was young. How life has been hard. Very hard. How after her son died, she has had to work hard, very hard, to sustain her two fatherless grandchildren.
Her only comment, "If I had more, I could have helped people. Now my life has gone in struggling for myself."
Mukundan, quietly, "All that you have done and given is inestimable."
He knows her well. How of her meagre coolie earnings she gives a sack of rice to the temple for annadaanam quietly. How she feeds each person asking at the door with respect and care.
The infinite worth of what one gives, when one has nothing. In the largest scheme of the universe.
Eashwaramma was treated by Dr. Girija, and regained her health from a position of near breakdown. For the past few years, each and every time I speak to her on the phone, she first enquires 'Doctor baagundaa ?'. 'Doctor vaal intainaa baagunaada ?'
That sense of gratitude for a good done, is an indicator of a civilized community.
And she also asks, 'Does the doctor enquire after me ?'. The doctor and she are only apart in economic prosperity ... otherwise it is a relationship based on mutual regard, and respect. When I tell the doctor that E enquired, she hastens to tell me that she enquires after her and urges me to tell her without forgetting.
The doctor is very clear on that none of us, her, me, anyone else can attain Eashwaramma;s greatness. She says that Eashwaramma giving to every mendicant when she herself is running out of rice, is the hallmark of greatness. She says that were she in Eashwaramma's situation with two dependent grandchildren, she would have been driven to stealing rice for them ... The doctor salutes Eashwaramma and the village with with same deep respect that Eashwaramma accords her.
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