Charity
Those days, exactly at 10:00 pm, the electricity used to be cut for a minute and at 10:01 it would be back. The elders used to say, “They change the line”. Even today, I don’t understand what it means. I never experienced this phenomenon after I grew up. One of those nights, the elders were playing Thayam , a South Indian board game, in our thinnai , a raised platform in front of the house, which every house used to have those days and I don’t see in the houses being built these days anywhere. Ram uncle, Lakshmi aunty, Abdul uncle and Meeran uncle were the players. There were five other people, three adults and two kids, watching the game. Vadi and I were the kids. It was 10:00 pm. The game was in a critical stage. The power went off as usual. Everyone was so engrossed in the game that no one was prepared for that minute. Within the first few seconds, almost everyone in the group cursed the ‘line man’ who would just be doing his job. I was so well prepared for that minute. While no