Hurricane Maria

I woke up in the morning, desperately hoping that all that happend last night was nothing but a very very bad dream. My family is strong and nothing will happne to us. I was very sure of that. Though I was upbeat with hope, there was a sense of eerie calmth at my house. It felt like someone died, but no one was crying.
I got up from my bed and walked to the kitchen. As I passed the dining room, I looked outside. It was a beautiful day. When I entered the kitchen, a stream of light was coming in through the exhaust vent near the stove. It felt scary and haunted and I quickly opened both kitchen doors and the window near the sink. The sudden brightness in the kitchen was very soothing. I could hear children from our neighbourhood talking and laughing. I heard the milk man ringing the bell and I took the milk pot and walked towards the main door. When I passed the dining table, the plate with dosai that I kept for my mother was still there, as if to remind me that all of what happend last night wasn’t just a dream. I kept the milk pot on the table, took the plate and threw the darned plate with the dosai in to the sink. It made so much sound and I heard Amma yelling from her bed room
“What are you breaking in the kitchen, first thing in the morning Nina? Go and get the milk, Shankaran has been ringing the bell the last 10 minutes. I have 4 daughters and the milk man has to wait hours outside the gate for all the royal princess to wake up”
‘here we go again, complaints and complaints. My mother is full of complaints’ I mumbled and quickly went to collect the milk.
I placed the milk pot on fire to boil. I heard footsteps and looked out to see, Maria sitting at the dining table. She opened a black bag and took out bottles and bottles of medicines and placed them on to the table.
‘Why is my sister taking all these medicines? Is she dying?
I had to stir the milk to make sure, it won’t boil over, at the same time, I wanted to see what Maria was up to. Every few minutes, I stirred the milk and quickly walked to the door to see what Maria was up to. Most of the medicines were in big brown bottles. They must be ayurvedic.
When the milk boiled, I quickly took it off from fire and walked to the dining room
“Why are you taking all these medicines Maria?” Half expecting her to yell at me
“Acha got them for me”
“For what?”
“He says, I am anaemic and I have gastro intestinal bleeding”
“How does he know that?”
“He says that is why I am always tired”
I was about to say, I didn’t realize that civil service officials were also part time doctors.
“Did you know, most of the medications can interact with each other and give you a bad reaction? So I have to make sure, I don’t take the wrong combinations.”
I didn’t bother to ask her, how she knew that, because I knew the answer. ‘Mighty Acha knows everything’
Maria took a big bottle with light blue medicine and took 2 table spoon of that.
“This is Phosformin, it is good for memory. Acha specially brought this for me”
The transformation from a super intelligent IIT graduate to pill popping junkie was quick. I wondered How do I shake my sister and make her see what this man is doing to her?
“Why don’t you start taking Phosformin Nina? It will increase your memory for sure”
Before I could answer, Amma was in the room
“Why are you taking all these medicines Maria?” Amma asked
Maria ignored Amma and started to put all the medicines back in the bag
“I am talking to you Maria” I watched Maria zipping up the bag and Amma snatching the bag from her hand. Both of them were fighting over the bag and Amma pushed Maria away and opened the bag. She took the bottle that was on top.
dashamoola arishtam(ayurvedic medicine)? Why are you taking this medicine Maria? This is for woman who gave birth! Why are you taking it Maria?” Amma was screaming. Maria snatched the bag from Amma’s hands and ran to her room.
I looked at my sister who was running to her room and my mother who was standing next to me. Nothing made sense to me. I couldn’t understand what is going on. Why is chechy taking medicine meant for women who gave birth. She has only been to Bangalore for 3 months. You can’t give birth in three months. My mother must have gone crazy.
I went back to my room. My family needed help and there was no one to help us. I couldn’t talk to Ammachi, I couldn’t talk to Appa. I had no one to lean on. I wish I would atleast have a boyfriend with strong shoulders that I could lean on. I knew I could fight all these battles, but I so very badly wanted somone to stand by me. All I had was me and my shadow
“Nina” I heard a soft whisper that was soaked in fear
“What is it Liza?” I quickly got up from the bed
“Maria is cutting all our photographs”
“What? What photographs?”
“Everything Nina”
I ran to Maria’s room. On the floor was all our albums. She has cut her picture from all the photos. Even the one of my grandfather’s funeral photo. That was my favourite photo. My grandfather died before I was born and that was the only photo we had of him. In the photo, all the grandchildren stood infront of the casket with his body and now there was a gaping hole, instead of Maria’s face.
“Have you gone mad Maria? Why are you damaging all the photos?”
I looked at my mother’s wedding album that was on Maria’s bed.. Amma had kept all of Maria’s pictures in her wedding album. Maria has cut her face from every single photo. Even Maria’s group dance photo was not spared. There was a photo of her with 2 of her friends posing in their dance costume and now the photo had just 2 of the dancers.
I saw Amma coming in to the room and surveying the damage. Amma didn’t say a word. Within minutes I watched Maria taking her bags and leaving. I didn’t really think she was leaving our home. I thought may be she was just taking her bags to the living room. I heard the gate opening and I ran outside. Maria was struggling, carrying her heavy bags up the steep road.
“Maria wait. I will get an auto for you” I spoke
She started to run and only then all I realized, my sister came like a hurricane and in 2 days caused more damage than my father did in the 17 years since I was born.
“Go to hell Maria. Go to Hell Maria, I hope you rot in hell” I cussed
I slammed the gate shut. The gate hit the embankment and swung open. I ran after the gate, held it and slammed it shut again, this time holding it in such a way that, it won’t open. The slamming didn’t provide enough noise and I kicked the gate to make some more noise.
I remembered my mother. I was worried how she is going to take all these and I ran inside. Amma was sitting on Maria’s bed with Liza standing next to her holding a bottle of fevicol. I watched my mother dipping her hand in the fevicol bottle and smearing liberal doses of fevicol at the back of each and every photo and sticking it back on the album. This is the same woman, who meassured a spoonful of fevicol and gave me, when I wanted to make a dancing queen craft work so that I won’t waste any fevicol. I watched blotches of fevicol coming out from the sides of the photos. I knew all the photos are going to stick to each other and make a mess. I will clean it later. Let Amma finish her work. I thought to myself.
“Now no one will take any of these photos. No one will be able to tear these photos anymore. Fevicol is the strongest glue available in India”
I wanted to tell her that it is a waste to keep any of the photos, as there were no photos that escaped Maria’s scissor hands, except Amma’s wedding photos. Maria being the oldest was in all our childhood photos and now all those photos were damaged. Does my sister think that just because she isn’t in any of family photos, she stopped being part of our family? I didn’t understand her logic anymore, but I did develop an aversion to taking and keeping photos that lasts to this day

19 thoughts on “Hurricane Maria

  1. Here are my thoughts:
    I think your uncle abused Maria and she got pregnant in turn and aborted the baby. Is my guess right?

  2. My God. This is so terrible. I think there are no excuses for Maria. She didnt have a good character. Some people(your amma) cant open their eyes.

    Im so attached to photographs. Somehow they are very meaningful to me.
    Please take lots of pics of your kids. It will be a treasure later. 🙂

  3. Maria was mesmerized and my heart goes out to her. She really needed help and she had got it from the wrong person.

    I know you are not going to tell us how Maria is doing now – But I really feel that she is doing fine and realized all her mistakes…

  4. Things really turned surpring and strange!.. but why was she taking medicines.. and answers from any of them..! neither mom nor from maria!.. everything seems to be so blank!..

  5. hm.. last time when i went home i scanned almost all of the old photos so that they are always treasured. cant imagine losing any..

    dont know if maria has gone back to the evil. at such a situation like hers, such frustrations can be expected. i think, like each of your family, she was also alone, whatever her character is.

  6. Never fully trust anyone, even if they are elders and high officials. They tend to beguile us easily. Creating a trap and then leading us to it. People like Him are always there.

    Poor Maria. She never could understand love which she received. Some people realsie such things, some people dont.

    Anger, uncontrolled anger will on lead to disaster.

  7. Hello Sara,

    you write with your soul. That’s quite a tortured life that you and your family went through. Its hard to understand Maria or your mother.

    Hope this hug across the miles cheers up your spirit.

    God Bless.

  8. Sad post, Sarah. Between Amma & Maria, they made a living hell out of your house. Root cause – that terrible Acha guy, I guess. Did your mum check with him why her daughter was behaving in this manner?

  9. for the first time, i feel sorry for maria. why did she come home and create this stir? there should have been a reason.

    -jay

  10. Hi Nina
    I think u got the medicine’s name wrong. `Dasamoolrishtam’ could be prescribed even for stomach problems like GI or indigestion and it could be for everyone (including unmarried girls or boys for that matter). I think that’s just an inadvertent error caused while recollecting an old fact.

  11. cant wait to read the rest of the story
    Dashamoolarishtam is just for general weakness and i use to have it when i was anaemic..
    –Gauri

  12. Shankari: All of had a hand in it.. WE failed Maria

    Anon: I am sorry, this isn’t a guessing game!
    You guessed it wrong. You don’t have to take dashamoola aristam after a D&C.
    It takes an extremely skilled person to make a healthy intelligent woman to make medications for diseases that are non-existent

    Just Me: Maria had her faults, but someone knew how to use that faults to his advantage..

    Madhavankutty: Bond of love was always there.. Maria refused to see that

    Thanu: I know.. but I won;t be able to cope, if one of them come home and tear the photo..

    Annitta: From then on it was a cat and mouse game.. She came when she wanted, left when she wanted, we never knew where she stayed, where she worked..nothing!

    maya: I was too stupid not to have seen it

    Anon: Maria didn’t make any mistakes.. She was made to make them.. She was once a smart beautiful woman, who could have gone a long way…but it was destroyed by one psychopath..

    Sujit: Emotional manipulation.. How else could anyone convince an IIT graduate that, she is anaemic, without a blood test, without a stool examination?

    Visithra: Maria was lost in a world of deciet and manipulation

    Rocksea: I stopped getting attached to photos after she destroyed my grand father’s funeral photos..I do agree Maria was alone and we as a family failed her

    Anon: I was 17 then..

    Alex: I agree..anger destoys everything

    Anon: thank you

    Techno: I agree fully that he was the problem.. do you think my mother would accept that the man he worships can cause any problems?

    Jay: I guess, she came looking for peace and we didn;t offer that..All she had to say was “help”

    Anon: If you have read the blog completely, you would have seen that Maria did mention that the medicines are for Anaemia.. It was my mother, who said otherwise! I didn’t get my facts wrong. They are correct.

    Gauri: Exactly why Maria was having it

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