Information about Kamala the widow sister of Gopi
Answers
After five years Gopi comes to Kerala to see his mother. Gopi is a big officer in Delhi living with his wife Vasantha and four children. He has come to Thiruvananthapuram as a part of his official assignment. He ‘Just dropped in his way back’ to meet his mother. His mother is very old. She lives with his eldest sister Kamala who is a widow. When he arrived unexpectedly at his home in the countryside, his mother was lying in an armchair on the veranda. Mother fails to recognise her son Gopi. She believes that Gopi is still a school boy. She doesn’t recognise anybody. Sometimes her memory is quite sharp, sometimes she forgets the present, but remembers the past.
When her memory is very sharp she asks about Gopi’s letters from Delhi. Kamala tells her a lie that everything is fine with Gopi, his wife and kids. But Gopi doesn’t write any letters to his mother. Mother doesn’t recognise her son. She asks her son Gopi ‘Who is your Amma? What is her name? Where does she live? Is it far from here?’ But mother has the picture of her son in her mind. She says, My son ‘is in Delhi. a Government Officer. He has Kesariyogam. He draws a salary of two thousand five hundred rupees’. Mother tells Gopi if he meets her sons ask him to send her a blanket. A red one. She has a blanket, the one Gopi bought for her when he was studying in Madras. It is all tattered now, just a ball of knotted yarn. Gopi has come home to ask his sister to sell his share of land and get some money for him.
Kamala knows that Gopi has come only for money, not to see his mother. It took more than five years for him to find time to come home. Kamala says, ‘Amma is eighty three now. I don’t think she will pull on much longer. It took you so long to visit her after the last time.’ But Gopi has his excuses for not visiting Amma. He says ‘But Amma can’t remember who I am.’ The story ends with Kamala's question to Gopi, ‘But do you remember your Amma?’ Amma doesn’t recognise her son because she has lost her power of memory. In fact forgetfulness is a blessing for her. Her son doesn’t have any love for his mother. This is one of the brilliant short stories penned by Madhavikutty in Malayalam. Her focus has always been on the tormented female self craving for love. She is concerned with the condition of women and the way in which they are betrayed by society. In ‘The Tattered Blanket’ mother craves for her son’s love. Her son is evergreen in her memory.
But she has been overpowered by forgetfulness. She needs a red blanket because the old one is tattered. Here blanket represents the warmth of her son’s love. She actually needs her son’s love.
♦The Tattered Blanket♦