Let Your Light Shine

It was the hottest day of the year. Vanita carried her water pot to the village center. At least there was a tap with a free flow of water. The home taps were rendered useless due to some road repair.

She didn't think it a humiliation to carry the water pot, perched on her sweaty head, the beautiful village belle that she was.

Contentment, Socrates said, is natural wealth, whereas luxury is artificial poverty. Her ninth grade English teacher had reiterated this maxim till it got into their heads. Besides when you need something you just go get it, putting pride aside, her own dear mother had taught her. For godliness with contentment brings great gain.

The family needed water.

What does pride get you anyway?

Water was the need of the hour on a hot, thirsty day.

Her shadow, falling on the road ahead, looked like a Ravi Varma painting.

There was commotion at the water hole. Women had gathered in their nighties, with morning gruffiness seen in their unkempt hair.

Look! Who's passing by? It was Shoba walking by in high heels. What do you know? Show stoppers are a necessity everywhere, even on a blistering hot day. She had just got a job in the big city and was soon going away.

Higher the heel, greater the acceptance rate in big cities.

The band of sweaty women looked her up and down, whispering stuff, taunting her, as did the woman at the ‘other’ well.

The women at the watering hole, now talked about the lack of good shopping. Stuck in their old-fashioned country attires, they gazed at women on magazine covers from another planet.

When would their village ever have such retail stores?

All they shopped for was basmati rice, lentils, semolina and oil.

Could they ever aspire to think beyond that?

Vanita was a different soul. Her good husband, Yako, employed in the Gulf, with his older brother, was sending home a neat sum every month for the upkeep of his parents and kids.

Just yesterday the brothers had called with news they were launching a new shop selling electrical supplies on 12th Main Street. The place was already hired, and things were moving fast.

Vanita felt happy just thinking about the new business venture.

But an electrical shop? Now who’d want that? Why not a shop with mannequins in gorgeous lingerie? The possibilities were endless.

And what if?

What if Yako made her the shop manager? Her life would change.

She imagined getting dressed and going out to work, sitting at her shop, chatting with the passers by.

How much she yearned for that life, only she knew. Her home science degree, she had put aside to look after the affairs of the home she married into.

Doing the woman’s thing. The daily grind.

November 5th- was the day set for the great inauguration. Everything had been organized from afar.

All Vanita had to do was to spruce up the shop with flowers, bells and a colorful WELCOME doormat at the entrance. The food had been catered for.

She prayed for a good day with maybe some rain, and much less of the torrid sun..

The phone rings. It’s Yako.

“O there’s a problem, Vanni. Our chief speaker says he can’t make it. Anyway I’m glad he ain't. Bit of a bore. Except he wields much power in these areas. Hence I called him. I’m kinda glad he’s refused.” Yako chuckled.

“So who are you inviting now? How will it interest folks if Taroo isn't coming? This shop is the first of its kind in these areas," said Vanita.

The neighborhood waited with bated breath for the grand opening. There were posters on two of the main streets. Quite the revolutionary idea to bring chandeliers and fancy fans to a little unknown town.

“Now all the homes, gardens too, will sparkle with fancy chandeliers and it will all be from our little shoppe! I’m going to pray real hard,” mused Vanita.

“Ooh! Like your prayer will bring the President himself!”

She warned her inner self not to be threatened by his words.

‘Go on! Use your faith.’ Her thoughts were playing havoc in her mind.

‘We will overcome all obstacles,’ she told herself.

“Okay pray as much as you want. The chief guest has to be decided in three days. All yours…pray, don’t bray.”

Yakko enjoyed teasing her. He took prayer lightly. Especially hers.

Next morning Vanita had a hair appointment and was off to the salon. She passed her kids’ school as she always did.

There was ol’ Chandran standing at the gate as usual next to his blue cycle, decorated with the flag colors. He was much older now- gray haired, with a white beard covering half his face.

There was a little basket in front with ginger sweets…the kind one longed for on a hot day, a cold day, a rainy day… whenever.

“Injee mutayee, ginger sweets for you. Come buy some and say goodbye to coughs forever.”

The same basket, the same sweets, from her distant school days, binding memories forever. There he stood, breaking the shackles of time, citizens of different epochs.

That evening, Vanita, bright eyed, rehearsed her talk with Yakko.

‘Hey Yakko, how about inviting Chandran, the ol’ ginger sweet seller to inaugurate our shop?’

She got super excited with her utterly ingenious idea that she couldn't sit still while her long black hair was being washed.

Shampoo got in her eyes, went streaming down her neck.

She justified her thoughts.

‘Yes, that’s it. Reach out to the humble and the lowly. Don't run after the rich and famous. The town needs a dose of revolutionary thinking.’

Vanita was bursting with news for her husband. She waited for his call and blurted out her idea.

“No way, what are you thinking? Yakko yelled. “How can we call any man from the street to inaugurate our brand new showroom? Are you crazy?”

“But this isn't any man. He is part and parcel of the town. Been around since 1970 -he knows everybody in town. He sold his sweets to many of us growing up here. What a thrill for him in his 87th year. Let’s do it, honey.”

“Okay, all yours,” conceded her man from the other end. “But you do it. Go ahead and tell him all about the event, and DON’T mess up.”

Why do men give so many orders? Why?

She never messed up anything as far as she remembered.

The next morning, she met Chandran at the usual spot. He offered the ginger sweets and she took one.

“I have a request, Sir. Can you make yourself free on the 5th of November to attend a small inauguration?”

“ Me, you’re talking to me?” Chandran replied, looking behind him.

“Of course, I will be glad to come. What should I do?”

As Vanita explained his mission to him, his eyes got wider and then he broke into a wide grin.

The morning of the fifth of November dawned, bright and pretty. The brothers had arrived from Dubai.

The skies were the perfect hue, and people thronged on the road, despite the heat. Chandran came in wearing a spotless white jubba and mundu, looking absolutely regal.

They went to greet him with a garland of marigolds and he took the mike in his hand to speak.

“Come everybody, buy my ginger sweets. You will never suffer from indigestion, on a hot day or a cold day. Believe me.”

Yako glared at Vanita. Did he not know why he was here?

The village folk came towards him, stretching out their hands for sweets.

Chandran continued with a smile, “Let the Light shine in your lives as it does in mine. Always follow the True Light of the World. And while on this earth, let the light sparkle in your homes… from your ceilings. Go right in and pick your lights. Here take your ginger sweet while you look.”

The people thronged into the new shop called Shimmer & Shine.

By 8 pm, they had sold around twenty chandeliers. And about forty fans.

This event hit the news headlines and the inaugural video got a million likes.

It went ‘viral’ is what they said.

Ol’ Chandran wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. As far as he knew, only diseases could be viral.

He couldn’t figure out what this new ‘viral’ was all about.