The Project Grandparents-VMKC-3

Now, Valliammachi, like all granny's of olden days, kept everything under lock and key.In the dining room, there was a mealsafe and as kids ,our eyes were on that always, waiting for an opportunity to pounce on the goodies or the coin change in it to buy 'annagund muttai or kapalandi  muttai ,which was one paise and five paise respectively.She used to lock it and keep the keys under some bowl or plates.

Her afternoon siesta ,was the time for us to explore for the keys ,to open the mealsafe. This used to be mostly Dilip and me.

Now Valliammachi had a shingadi tailing her always.Since she had shaved her head we called her mottachi.I don't get her name.

She was not older than us .Maybe ten years old.In those days, it was considered normal, to shelter a child from hunger and a safe roof above their heads till they come of age.Mottachi's job was to only to tail Valliammachi and run small errands for her like getting her glasses, murukan box etc.

So, we used to butter her up, to get the keys. She knew where the keys were placed .She was 24/7 with Valliammachi as her shadow.Ofcourse ,we shared with her also but when we got caught put the blame on her.This was our regular routine.

With the spoon ,full of horlicks or ovaltine in our mouth, we used to run and hide, to eat in peace.Sometimes,choking on it ,cough and smear it all over.It was fun because we would look like ghosts.

If we managed to get five paise or ten paise ,without any ones knowledge run to lakshmikuttyammas shop and buy sweets and sit on the side mudwall and eat.

We cousins always shared and ate and stood for each other.