Question -
Answer -
One day, while coming from school Bama saw an elder of her street coming from the direction of the bazaar. She wanted to laugh loudly at the sight of such a big man carrying a small packet in a funny way. She guessed that there was something like ‘vadai’ or green banana ‘bhajji’ in the packet because the wrapping paper was stained with oil. That elder man came along, holding out the packet by its string, without touching it.
She thought that if he held the packet like that, won’t the package come undone and the ‘vadais’ fall out. She saw the elderly man went straight up to the landlord, bowed low and extended the packet towards him, cupping the hand that held the string with his other hand. The landlord opened the parcel and began to eat the ‘vadais’.
Bama went home after watching all this. She narrated the whole story in all its “comic details” to her elder brother. But the brother was not amused like her. He told Bama that the man was not being funny when he carried the package like that. He told her that everybody believed that they were upper caste and, therefore, must not touch them. If they touched them, they would be polluted. That is why he had to carry the package by its string. But when Bama heard this, she did not want to laugh any more. Rather she felt terribly sad.