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Welcome to PROVIDEO |  |
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(A Television Series based on Sahitya Academy award winning stories, Directed by Shyam Benegal) 1 WHEN THE SARI IS DRY 2 INDEBTED GENERATION 5 TULSI TAMBULAM 6 DON’T TELL ANYONE 7 TIGER ONE DAY IN A YEAR 8 THE LITTLE FISH IN THE COPPER POT 9 GOODS FOR AUCTION 10 NOSE RING IN A WHIRL POOL 11 GROWING UP 12 LAMBS FOR SLAUGHTER
One morning at the dhobieghat, an old couple is discussing their large cauldron, when they are suddenly interrupted by Sambadu and Lachi squabbling, and the older couple rush to separate the quarrelsome pair. Neither Sambadu nor Lachi wanted this marriage.
Sambadu hated Lachi as he considered her extremely unattractive. Lachi too hated
Sambadu. Sambadu admires Sitalu, a pretty young woman whom he
considers as his idol of womanhood. On the other hand, the man of Lachi’s
dreams is a musician, Kotesh. At the end of the day, as they prepared to attend a
wedding ceremony, Lachi drapes herself in Sitalu’s sari. Her husband finds her
attractive for a change and her looks appeal to him. Sambadu himself is dressed
in Kotesh’s dhoti and is looking quite handsome. This time when Sambadu steps forward, Lachi does not
step back. Rangayya is a menial labourer, whose earnings hardly suffice to make both ends meet. Over and above, Rangayya’s family is indebted to a local landlord. Rangayya religiously pays some amount every year towards the loan taken by his forefathers. This is a never ending story. One day, the landlord, out of his greed, asks his servant to bring Rangayya’s oxen as payment towards his loan. The servant obeys his master and brings the livestock in Rangayya’s absence. Rangayya is so infuriated on learning that his oxen, to which he is so attached, has been taken away, that he makes a march to the landlord’s place. The landlord is frightened at the roar of Rangayya, and returns the oxen to Rangayya. At this, Rangayya melts like butter and praises the landlord for his magnanimity. He assures him of the repayment of his debt. This story shows what happens to the oppressors if the oppressed rebel and demand justice. It also shows how small their wants are. The whole village is agog with excitement. For the first time a bus is to come to the village. All the villagers dress up in their best clothes gather in the main street to wait for the bus. The bus finally arrives and everyone is amazed, impressed and awed by this modern wonder. Ramakrishna is the owner of a private bus service between Amaravati and Guntur. The bus first goes to Ramakrishna’s house to pick him up. By the time Ramakrishna finishes his bath and the day’s briefing session with his wife, the sun is quite high up in the sky and the passengers are perspiring. Finally, they are on their way. Sitamma, who is in the last stages of pregnancy, goes
into labour. The bus is stopped and older women gather around to help her. The
men arrange to heat some water. Finally, the cry of a baby is heard. This little boy is born neither in his father’s
home nor in his mother’s home, but he is the adorable nephew of all the men in
Amaravati. Polaiah and Ramaiah hate each other. It all started when the barber told Polaiah that Ramaiah thought that he (Polaiah) had a moustache that looked like a cat’s whiskers, Polaiah of course was not amused. The barber also told Ramaiah that Polaiah thought that Ramaiah’s moustache looked like a prawn’s feelers. This established a deep hatred between the two. Polaiah’s men burnt down the barber’s hut because he dared to use the same razor to shave their master and that upstart Ramaiah. It was Diwali and the entire village is aglow. In the light of a sparkler, Polaiah’s son Sambaiah sees Radha, Ramaiah’s daughter. She too notices him. The battle outside is hotting up. The crackers have all been used up so the men use their lathis to beat each other. Into this gory scene step the women folk. In their midst are Sambaiah and Radha holding hands. Introduction
to Tulsi Tambulam: The “Tulsi” or Basil plant plays an important role in the Indian Hindu households. Every household has one planted in their backyard, and it is worshiped and watered daily. No religious ceremony is complete without Tulsi leaves. “Tambulam” consists of betel leaves with lime, arecanut and many other ingredients and is often chewed after a good meal as digestive and mouth freshener. Tulsi leaves are never used in a Tambulam. The unusual title of the story is explained clearly at the end in a poignant way. Synopsis: Vamanachari is a temple priest in Amaravati. His only source of income is the paltry sum he gets by the way of “dakshina” offered in the temple. It is one of those monsoon days. As Vamanachari returns from his bath in the river Krishna, he feels the pangs of hunger. Vamanachari and his wife had eaten the last of the “poha” (beaten rice) the previous night. Vamanachari hurries to the temple, in the hope that the Lord will send a devotee to alleviate his misery. He remembers is wife’s outburst about her experience at the grocer’s shop. Subbaiah, the grocer has decided to stop giving provisions on credit to Vamanachari. Finally one devotee arrives, and Vamanachari approaches him with great enthusiasm and follows him throughout the temple, literally forcing him to pray at the Venugopalaswamy shrine of which he is in charge. Vamanachari has been expecting atleast two rupees as “dakshina” but to his great disappointment he finds that the devotee offers a mere fifty paise. In the meanwhile, Subbaiah enters the temple. Vamanachari is afraid he might launch into the subject of his dues. As Vamanachari extends the offertory plate towards Subbaiah for his contribution, Subbaiah calmly pays up the fifty paise and tells Vamanachari that he will deduct this from his dues. A stunned Vamanachari slowly walks back home. His wife Tayaramma sees him and understands the situation at once. Vamanachari puts some Tulsi in his mouth and chews it. Tayaramma follows suit. It is a look of understanding between the couple as they murmur the name of Venugopala. Sundaraiah owns a little restaurant in Amaravati, but his wife is the one who really runs the place. Sundaraiah is merely the waiter. One day, a group of youngsters come to the restaurant and get into an argument with him about the quality of the food. One of them even whips out a penknife and threatens Sundaraiah. Panicking, he accepts whatever they pay and gets rid of them. A disgruntled Sundaraiah goes to cool off by the river. There he sees Malli, a young woman. He stops to say hello and invites her to the restaurant. Of course she misunderstands and creates a racket. Sundaraiah is marched down to the police station and is locked up for one night. After promising the policeman free breakfast at the restaurant for a whole week, he is set free. The next day he meets Ramaiah and tells him his sad tale, and also requests him to keep this matter a secret. Similarly, he comes across many other villagers and does the same thing. By the time he reaches home, his wife too, has heard of this. Sundaraiah is demoted to dish washing and sits in his backyard wondering how the news spread so far and so fast. This story reveals the life of Nabi Saheb, who was a tiger dance performer in Amaravati. Nabi, in his cot now, remembers his days of glory when he was young. He was a master dancer. Everyone used to appreciate his dance. He did not know anything other than the tiger dance and so, all that he could earn, he did during “Dussera”. Rest of the year, no one cared for him. Nabi, tiger to the village, was virtually a cat at home. His wife used to taunt him all the while and curse his inability to earn money. This used to pain Nabi a lot. Finally, Dussera arrives again. Poor Nabi wishes to bring back the glory of his past. In the bed, he feebly moves his limbs to the rhythm of the drums. Ameena, his wife, from a distance, sees the plight of her husband. Instantly, she is moved to tears and consoles him with her soothing words. Nabi looks into her eyes and says, “If you were this kind to me before, I would have been a tiger everyday, and not just once in a year.” Thus, the story highlights the delicate and emotional aspect of a poor, talented village performer. THE
LITTLE FISH IN THE COPPER POT Subbamma garu is an orthodox Brahmin lady. Her orthodoxy extends the daily routine considerably, as she has to personally wipe the floor, do the “Rangoli” and set off for her bath in the river Krishna. On the way, she even goes to Ramaiah’s backyard to be blessed by his cow. Her bath in the Krishna is a long drawn ritual complete with prayers to numerous Gods and Goddesses. After this, she brings home some water to proceed with the cooking. It is well afternoon by this time and her poor husband, Satyanarayana garu, is weak with hunger by then. One afternoon, both of them are resting after their lunch. Subbamma garu goes into the kitchen for some water and finds a little fish at the bottom of the pot from which she drank. Pandemonium reigns as she remembers all that she had used the water for. Her husband tells her a few home truths about the impracticality of most of her rituals. “Purity should be within you, silly!” he sermonizes. Chalapati is the clock repairer of Amaravati. He hires out the watches that come to him for repair. Chalapati loves buying things at auctions. He has a pair of khaki shorts, which he purchased at a police auction. He feels completely invincible when he wears his khaki shorts. However, a customer who has been shuttling for his watch for a couple of months arrives and proceeds to thrash him. A disgruntled Chalapati shouts after the retreating customer to try the same stunt when he is wearing his khaki shorts. The next morning, people from the town arrive to auction off Chalapati’s belongings. As his belongings are being auctioned off, a broken Chalapati collapses muttering that this wouldn’t have happened if he had worn his khaki shorts. This story is about how the haves exploit the have-nots. Bachigadu and Singi, a poor couple working hard, filtering the still waters with their sieves and carefully searching the sand and mud for precious stones from early in the morning. Suryakantam is the wife of a local landlord, Bhoomaiah. She sees the couple in the hot sun, deeply engrossed in their work. Suddenly something strikes her mind and she goes to her husband. Something transpires between them and pat goes a call to Bachigadu and Singi. Bhoomaiah accuses the couple of finding his wife’s nose ring, which was lost in the whirlpool when the water was receding. The landlord ruthlessly gives them an ultimatum to fetch the ring by the next morning. The sun sets, but the couple are still hard at work, searching for the nose ring. Singi could no longer resist sleep and goes off into a deep slumber, but early next morning she is awakened by the yelling of her husband. She finds him like the conqueror of the world with the nose ring in his hand. He goes to the landlord to return the nose ring. Singi expects a small reward from the landlord, but to her disappointment, Bachigadu returns empty handed. She innocently asks him if they had given him a reward. To this Bachigadu says, “ My dear! Let me find a good stone. We shall serve rice and dal to everybody.” As he says these words, he looks like an emperor. There is a twinkle in his eyes, which makes even the richest of the rich look poor. Jogarao, the tailor looks out of his shop. Baabigadu, a dark boy is still there leaning against a lamp post, and looks about fifteen and has hunger written all over his face. Jogarao gives him what is left of his lunch. The boy works himself into Jogarao’s confidence, and soon, Baabigadu is Jogarao’s youngest assistant. One day, Baabi meets Poli, a fourteen year old girl, who like him, is an orphan. One day, Baabi asks her to call him “mama”. Shyly Poli does. Baabi takes out his measuring tape and carefully takes her measurement. A bewildered Poli receives no explanation. Baabi plans to make a blouse for her, and begins to work on it, and by the end of 6 months, the blouse is ready. An eager Baabi rushes to Poli with the blouse. In the past six months, Poli had grown, and the buttons do not meet across her chest. Seeing the disappointment in Baabi’s face, she consoles him by saying, “My mistress has asked me to start wearing half saris, then I will wear this underneath and fix it with pins. Don’t worry. Baabi’s eyes light up with hope. It is the annual festival of the Goddess Mutyalamma and the entire village is agog with excitement. Ten years old Polaiah’s father had vowed to sacrifice a lamb to the Goddess for saving his son from a serious illness. The father and son pair goes off to inspect the lambs. Polaiah recognizes one of the lambs as the one he used to play with everyday, and is instantly plunged into deep sorrow. The rituals and fire walking begins. As the mass hysteria reaches the peak, Polaiah slowly slips out and sets the lamb free. It is after mid-night. Janakiramaiah hears a strange scratching noise, he looks up and discovers to his horror that someone is scraping the gold leaf off the “Dwajasthambam” (flag post) of the temple. He gathers a crowd, and the entire temple is surrounded. The villagers search each and every shrine in the temple and finally the thief is found. He is beaten till his dark body is bruised and is tied to a tree. Despite the severe torture, the villagers are unable to find out where the gold leaf has been hidden. The village elders decide that he must remain tied to the tree till the next morning. One of them, Bhushaiah, offers the use of his cowherds to guard him. After the intense crowd had dispersed, Bhushaiah unties the tortured thief. “ You should have been more careful, you fool!” he said angrily, as he pays off the thief and picks up the gold leaf hidden in the Ganesha shrine. |
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