The Good Girl Avatar

GAYATHRI VENKATADRI

MAYBE IT WAS the personality that was letting me cook three days in a row. If I was playing ABN (Adarsh Bharatiya Nari), getting breakfast on the table before rushing off to work, I figured I may as well dress the part. So I put on a red bindi along with a demure salwar-kameez. Plenty of double takes from folks at work. One offer of vepalai (neem) so it would complete the “gonna get Amman for Thiruvuzha” look (long open tresses go with the bindi). I thought, what a lark! Spent the day glorying in my new role. Sat demurely, feet together on the floor and back straight, didn’t bite nails and even remembered not to fiddle with the hair.

Evening. I managed to win the 500 meter race across the subway to make it on to the 7:04 Thane fast. I had to sacrifice the Aaraam Vada Pao but this was in tune with my role: ABN’s don’t eat vada pao; they eat home-cooked food. I can’t tell you how beautiful it is to race past all stations (the train has only one stop at Dadar) and get home in 30 minutes. Off the train and still dizzy from the speed of the trip and the happiness of finding a spot near the train door, I ducked under the railway crossing only to be confronted by grinning bearded man and grinninger woman, thrusting a sheet of paper and a ball-point pen at me.

Now, I’m a nice person and most folks don’t start crying when they see me but these two were looking at me like it was Christmas and I was Santa. Their lips were moving in tune to “Nagaada bajaa”. Got the earphones off and heard, “Sign here. Sign here.”

“For what?” I asked.
The lady said, “For Ram Sethu.”

I glanced back and noticed the saffron flags, tilak-sporting lads, a desk and handwritten signs that you could almost read in the dim light if you squinted really hard.

Grinning and Grinninger were still looking approvingly at me. “Don’t worry, we are not for any other marketing. Just signature. For Ram,” Grinning said, in English, after a couple of sentences of Marathi were lost on me. “You know, against the government’s new order,” Grinninger added.

I was shocked: why in heaven’s name are two VHP types looking approvingly at me?

“NO.” I said. “It’s man-made”.

Grinning didn’t get it. He was still looking at the bindi and the good child face. “Don’t you believe Ram is there?” he said (in the present tense).

“NO. I don’t believe that,” I said and watched my shock transfer to his face. Made it totally worth it. Whether there is a God or not, there is justice. I have almost resolved to continue playing the good child avatar.