Thashayeni.

 

(By Vadivel Balendran)

The text you are about to read will be interesting, eye-opener and applicable to your life not because of its vocabulary, grammar or structure of sentences, but because the bondage between I and Mother Nature.

My motto being “Believe in Mother Nature she will never let you down”, Mother Nature has never let me down at any instance in my life. I am going to share many stories with you so that you will also understand what belief and believing in Mother Nature really means.

There is a small waterfall somewhere on the slopes of Mount Pithurathalagala (the highest mountain in Sri Lanka towering 8,281 feet) where I pray to my Nature God. My friend Suresh Dharmaratne and I uniquely named it as Divine Falls. (The exact location of the Divine Falls is undisclosed to save it from garbage-dumping weekend picnic freaks). Suresh is my batch mate at the Peradeniya Teachers’ College.  

Divine Falls.

Out of thousands of my stories that wrap around the Divine Falls, I am now sharing the story about my daughter who is a millennium baby born at the Nuwara-Eliya hospital.

I got married Vanitha (Vanithamalar Balendran nee Renganathan) on March 18, 1999 soon after returning from the Teachers’ Training College. As it happens to any woman, my wife also conceived a baby and was paying regular visits to the hospital for checkups. After few weeks of periodical visit to the hospital the doctors were able to predict the date of the new baby's arrival. That was happy news to me and was very proud of becoming a father for the first time in life. The predicted date was January 07, 2000. 
The medical checkups continued and my wife was given all the necessary instructions and medicine to ensure her health and the child's. At every visit to the hospital, my wife was informed about the progress and the good health condition of the child. So she returned home happily with a smiling face.

The days passed, and it was the 31st day of December 1999. As a practice I went to Divine Falls for two reasons: one is to pray for the prosperity of the coming year and the other is to bring a bottle of water (divine water) for the Pooja the next day 1st of January, 2000. I prayed Mother Nature and suggested the following, “Oh! Mother Nature the birth date of my child is predicted to be January 07th , but I would prefer it to be January 05th as it is my birthday as well and I would be the most happiest person if she is born on the 01st of January, because she will be a millennium baby.” Soon after that suggestion I filled the bottle that I took with water and setoff with thousands of dreams for the coming year. 

When I returned home it was about 09.00 a.m., leaving the bottle of water in the Shrine Room a engaged myself in the household chores as my wife was few days ahead for confinement. Around 02.00 p.m. one of her friends brought lunch for her, string hoppers and chicken curry and after their usual chit-chat my wife had the meal and continued with some usual ladies stuff while I was busy with my own work. Her friend left at about 04.00 p.m. and remembering that she has a husband come to me with a smiling face and wanted to know whether she could give me a helping hand. Having completed most of the work I thanked her in return with a sarcastic smile (as men always do) and wanted her to go to the room and rest for a while.

Always a whistle was hanging around my wife’s neck so that she could blow it to call me whenever she couldn’t shout out to call me. I was outside watching the children playing cricket outside my house and heard the blowing of the whistle and rushed to the room.

She told me that she was getting a slight pain and was little puzzled. By that time my mother was also there, as she also knows about this whistle business. As my mother and I were trying to something about the situation one of my friends U.A. Ranjith entered the main door of my house. I was glad to see him there at that time and understanding the situation he wanted to know what could he do to help me. I wanted him to find a vehicle to take my wife to the hospital and wanted my mother to get things ready. 

Since my wife had kept everything ready it was not at all a problem for me to find thing to be taken to the hospital. The vehicle arrived in about half an hour by then my mother had done everything possible to keep my wife calm by giving some indigenous (home made) medicine. 

It was about 6.30 p.m. in the evening when we arrived at the hospital and after going through all the procedures of the hospital my wife was admitted to the maternity ward at about 7.15 p.m. I returned home with my friend Ranjith and had a small ‘shot’ it was a happy and an exiting moment for me. My friend left my place around 10.00 pm. and it was I and my mother at home chatting for hours and hours and went to bed.  Sharp at 12.00 midnight I was awakened by the sound of the crackers although I was not fast asleep, from that moment onwards sleep didn't come to me.

Early next morning, January 01st of year 2000, I was the first visitor in that ward. Guess what? My wife has been taken into the labour room.I left the hospital leaving all the food, tea and other things by the side of her bed. I saw my mother-in-low and other relatives and friends at the hospital and I informed them about the state of affairs.

At last when it was time for the next visit I rushed to the ward. I was surprised! My child had been the seventh to be born on that day and already she had received several presents from the hospital and other organizations.

She is Thashayeni Balendran, a child who brought fame to her father.

Please tell me something so that I could share the other stories as well.