Mother-in-law
Finds Out
Gayyalibai had noticed that her daughter - in-law talked to herself at
times. Not bold
enough to talk back to her, she murmurs to herself, thought Sakhu's mother-in-law and
decided to 'teach her a lesson'. She stealthily listened to Sakhu's murmuring but only
heard the chanting of Vittala's name. But she did not see the idol, which was hidden, in
her waist. Another day when Sakhu was talking to herself and narrating her troubles to the
idol the mother-in-law suddenly appeared and seeing the idol seized it and threw it away.
"0, He is my Lord! 0 God! Vittala!" bemoaned Sakhu. Gayyalibai condemned Vittala
with mean words and Sakhu could not tolerate it. She said: "Mother-in-law, condemn
and drub me as you like. But what did that idol do to you? Please don't denounce
God."
Gayyalibai raised' a terrible rumpus saying her daughter-in-law was opposing her and
complained to Krupanaraya. "I seem to be less than a broomstick to her!" she
told her
son and heaped complaints on Sakhu.
Oaduraya did not bother to inquire into what had actually happened. Nor did he bother to
note how extremely patient his wife was and sweating away in household work. He took up a
cane and thrashed his wife as he would some animal. At her father's place, Sakhu could not
even mildly wield a stick against their cattle. Sakhu silently received her
husband's beating. Swelled marks dotted her body and in the night she wept in agony. 'Even
then, she was only chanting "Vittala, Vittala! You are my only savior." |
