{"id":1085,"date":"2009-03-11T09:20:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-11T03:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/archives\/1085"},"modified":"2009-03-11T09:20:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-11T03:50:00","slug":"aandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/aandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Aandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

You knew Aandal was in the vicinity when the atrocious stench of her chewing tobacco (called Panneer Pugailai in Tamil) assaulted your nose. It’d normally be early in the morning, around eight, when she would turn up to perform her duties as our maid. No one really knew how she ended up in the neighbourhood. When we moved to Chennai, mom was on the lookout for a maid and she hired the services of Aandal who was already working in our grand ma’s. When I first saw Aandal I was petrified. She looked like the vampire version of Miss Grundy<\/a>. A million wrinkles creased her face and that nose protruded at a right angle to her face. And, her teeth, whatever little that was left of them I mean, were a deep, dark brown. The most petrifying thing about though was not her looks. She served up whiplashes when she spoke. <\/p>\n

Now, Suren, my younger bro and I had a tacit agreement right from when we were in prep school. It was more of a mission statement than an agreement really: we would bully the shit out of the maid. Any maid. No, no, it was not a result of some traumatic experience or something. We just love bullying people. The maid was the perfect target. They wouldn’t dare retaliate and even if they did, it’d be at best a complaint to mom. <\/p>\n

When Aandal came on the scene, Suren and I were suffering from withdrawal symptoms. There had a been a long hiatus, of almost ten years since we had bullied a maid. We were not kids any longer all right. I had started working as a salesman and Suren had started college at the New College in Chennai. We let Aandal be for a while. I mean she was as old as grand ma and we were not sure if we should really be bullying her. Our apprehensions were blasted to pieces one day. [To be contd…]<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You knew Aandal was in the vicinity when the atrocious stench of her chewing tobacco (called Panneer Pugailai in Tamil) assaulted your nose. It’d normally be early in the morning, around eight, when she would turn up to perform her duties as our maid. No one really knew how she ended up in the neighbourhood. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[114,93,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chennai","category-childhood","category-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"You knew Aandal was in the vicinity when the atrocious stench of her chewing tobacco (called Panneer Pugailai in Tamil) assaulted your nose. It’d normally be early in the morning, around eight, when she would turn up to perform her duties as our maid. No one really knew how she ended up in the neighbourhood.…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2Gbk8-aandal","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1088,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/aandal-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":0},"title":"Aandal Part 2","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"April 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Read the first part It was a Sunday afternoon and Aandal was squatting outside our grand ma's. She was telling my granny about this mentally challenged kid in one of the homes on Alwarpet street. She was talking about how that kid was always screaming for food. \"Maami andha payyan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chennai"","block_context":{"text":"chennai","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/chennai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":499,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/10\/one-road-two-restaurants\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":1},"title":"One Road, Two Restaurants","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"October 7, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"One Road, Two Restaurants 1998. Chennai. TTK Road It was a sultry Chennai evening; Sweat trickling down the back of your neck, your side-locks and adding an incredible amount of irritation to your already tough life. I stopped outside Jolly \u2013our hang out, a teashop, and glanced at the profane\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1468,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/rosy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":2},"title":"Rosy","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"October 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"She waited to die in his lap. She waited for three whole weeks. And when my father returned to find that he didn't get his usual welcome at the door, I saw his eyes well up with tears. I knew something had changed in my home forever. We would never\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chennai"","block_context":{"text":"chennai","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/chennai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/rosy.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1025,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/birds-of-chennai\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":3},"title":"Birds of Chennai","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"March 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"White Throated Munia @ Nanmangalam Reserve ForestGot this elegant bird in Adyar Poonga on Greenways road in Chennai. I was waiting for him to get out of a tree but I gave up. As I stood up to move away, he relented and posed for me by perching on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chennai"","block_context":{"text":"chennai","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/chennai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White Throated Munia","src":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2366\/2330074359_de2c2e1e01.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1093,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/stories-from-chennai\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":4},"title":"Stories from Chennai","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"May 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I always saw Chennai in Yellow. It could be the harsh sun. Or probably the bright colored Sambar with a wild, turmeric fragrance. The Chennai in early 80s was a different world. There were no high-rise apartment complexes. Barring the LIC building on Mount road, which was the tallest in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "stories"","block_context":{"text":"stories","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/stories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":253,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/10\/world-usability-day-in-chennai\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":5},"title":"World Usability Day in Chennai","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"October 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"A great oppportunity for Usability Engineers & UI Designers in Chennai to link up. Rajesh from ( Satyam Computers, Chennai) and me along with volunteers like Ravi are co-ordinating World Usability Day: WUD activities to be held in Chennai on Nov 3rd. 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