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dozen of bananas. She then put her hand into her blouse to extract a small box. She opened it to reveal gold ear studs. Tunga’s eyes opened wide as Ganga kept the good ear studs in her pallu. “Atte! Look what Akka has got me,” said Tunga. Tunga’s motherin-law’s eyes went wide too. “Bless you Ganga. You are the
only one to care for your sister.” With that she took the box and folded it in the corner of her own pallu and knotted it, making sure that it would not get lost.
Later that night as Ganga’s family was returning home, they saw a crowd in front of the house. “What could have happened at this house?” wondered Ganga’s husband aloud. He had joined them at Tunga’s house. The boys ran ahead to see what the matter was. When Ganga reached the crowd, she made her way through the crowd. A middleaged woman had passed on
and her dead body was laid on the front yard of the house on a mat. The ladies around were crying and sobbing silently while they wiped their eyes with the edge of their saree. Ganga offered a silent prayer. Then she saw something that intrigued her. The dead woman was covered with a silk saree, a purple one with gold jari border. The pallu was very elaborate and grand. Ganga took her sons hands and walked away. “Why have they covered the dead body with a saree?” she asked her husband. “Brahmins do. It must be
their custom and she must be a sumangali,” he replied.
That night as Ganga was lying down on the mat her thoughts went to the dead woman, more to the saree that had covered her. As she turned to her side and closed her eyes, she thought “What a waste!”
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Celebrating the wonderful journey of one year