Ameena was busy with making tea while complaining. "Didi, I am told that you met Shaili, the young girl, Shyama's daughter. She came by you at the rocks near the sea at night on her return from selling peanuts at the tourist beach. I heard her talking to her mother at our shop. Her mother looked scared and worried after that."
The old lady nodded but did not reply. Ameena handed over a large cup and poured out the freshly made decoction and added milk to it. Just as they liked to after all these years. She went back to the stove and looked out at the street.
Turning around, her hands on her hips, she asked, "You must have said something harsh or worrisome to the young girl, I think. Do you even remember it now or have you forgotten it completely?"
Saroja looked up from sipping her tea. Better to stay silent, she thought.
"There she comes, Shyama, to this house. She must be wanting to talk to you. I will give her a cup of tea. That may cool her down."
Saroja smiled and nodded. Shyama came in and stood nearer to the dining table, not touching the cup of tea that had been placed for her. Ameena was about to insist that she sit down but thought better of it and stepped back to wait by the refrigerator.
Shyama placed a plastic bag containing peanuts on the dining table near Saroja. "There! Are you satisfied now? My daughter was very upset that she could not sell you any peanuts. Are you happy now? I knew that you will interfere in our lives. I had warned her to stay away from you."
"Do not be harsh on her," Ameena said. "She does not know what she says and she does not remember. She would not even have noticed what she said. My old friend only likes to go and sit on the rocks by the sea and watch the high tide in the late evening. She hardly remembers anything else."
Saroja did not look up at Shyama. She opened the bag and took out some peanuts with her left hand and kept watching them on her open palm. Ameena came nearer and looked at Saroja. She was worried. Had this outburst affected her friend in some way?
Shyama spoke again, "I know you and that you meant well. Your daughter is well studied and married and gone to London and has her own children. But I need my Shaili with me. She has to work My son has to work. My Shaili has to sell these peanuts. I want you to tell her that. Will you?"
Saroja bent down to smell the warm peanuts in the bag. She smiled. "I love these peanuts. Boiled and salted peanuts. Do you remember, Ameena, we used to run to your father's shop and your mother would have them ready for us? You, me and Mildred, the three of us loved them. We would add some salt, some crushed pepper and lemon juice. We did our school homework at the shop and your mother would make those sweetened chapatis for us."
Ameena nodded and laughed. "You remember all that, my wonderful friend? Those are memories from a long long time ago. I had forgotten them. Did you remember that by smelling those peanuts in the bag? That is so amazing and beautiful. You made me remember my mother. After all these many years that have gone past."
Shyama had gotten over her outburst. "What do I do? We need to live together as the small family that we are. I could send her to school, I guess. Why did you have to interfere? Now I have to send her to school. The school and her classes would only be in the morning, so it is ok, I think."
"We will struggle and make do. But the years go by so quickly. Will you let her come to meet you and bring you these boiled and salted peanuts? I want my daughter also to be remembered for her good work and success long into the future like Ameena's mother, illiterate and humble though she was. You remembered her even if you forgot other things. I want my daughter to be remembered for much longer than she would live."
Bharat Bhushan, 20 June 2022
From the series, the very very short stories - the old lady and the sea - a new approach to visit the memories of yesterday
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