Free Tell A Thousand Lies by Rasana Atreya Page A

the same position had caused my legs to go numb.
    Ammamma rushed forward and grabbed my arm. “Pullamma Devi needs to meditate now,” she announced to my devotees. She started to drag me into the house.
    I tried to pull free. “Ammamma, I need to cure the suffering of these poor people. They need me. I can’t just walk away –”
    Ammamma held my arm so tightly, it hurt. “She will give audience again at seven a.m. tomorrow.”
    Kondal Rao garu’s nostrils flared, but he stepped aside.
    “This way,” Murty garu said, pointing a hand at the gate. Obediently the devotees bowed before me, and began to file out of the courtyard.
    Kondal Rao garu joined the exodus.
    I watched the leaving devotees with a sense of panic. What was my grandmother doing? “Ammamma! Everyone’s leaving.”
    “Not now, Pullamma.”
    Why was Ammamma doing this? What would happen to my devotees? How could I let them down? All of a sudden I felt deflated, unable to move, unable to respond. Thoughts seemed to have been sucked from my head. Ammamma walked me past the huge piles of offerings – sweets, coconuts, money, gold and silver ornaments, hair.
    I could hear soft sounds of weeping. It occurred to me much later that the person weeping was me.
    ><
    Over the next few days, the news of my miracles trickled in. A woman whose jaw I’d touched was cured of cancer. A man, on whose documents I’d hovered a finger, won his case after a twenty year fight in the courts. Four miracles that I knew of. How many others that I knew nothing about?
    Ammamma wasn’t letting me do anymore audiences. She had told the devotees that I was in meditation, and was not to be disturbed. What could I do? My poor devotees were desperate for an audience with me, and here I sat, trapped by an unreasonable grandmother.
    Ammamma had no cancer I could cure, no court cases I could help win. How was I going to convince her that the powers I possessed were very real?

Chapter 12
    Headmaster Steps In
     
    C lang! Clang!
    The wall clock clamoured twelve, shattering the stillness of the night.
    Ammamma sat in one corner of the veranda breathing through her mouth, head thrown back, tracking the motion of the fan with her eyes.
    Lakshmi garu, and her husband, Murty garu , sat next to each other, staring bleary-eyed in different directions.
    I watched Lata’s head bob when sleep got the better of her, followed by jerky wakefulness – till her head fell to a side again. I huddled next to Lata, head on my knees, feverishly trying to come up with ways out of my predicament. The devotees outside were desperate for an audience with me. I had so much wisdom to impart to them, it was only natural they would repay me with gold, jewellery, silk saris, and money – so much money!
    The Vedas, the Upanishads – all the ancient texts that had answers to life’s deeper questions – did they have nothing on dealing with unyielding, unreasonable, stubborn grandmothers? Did Ammamma not realise she was keeping me from the fame and fortune due to me?
    To think I’d have been satisfied with a good husband, and a municipal water connection that supplied water during daylight hours.
    The gate rattled. I looked up, exhaustion mingling with hope.
    “Pullamma, go inside,” Ammamma ordered.
    What, she was going to order me, a Goddess, around? At the look on her face, I scrambled to my feet. Lakshmi garu and Murty garu exchanged a quick glance.
    “Let me see who it is,” Murty garu said in a fake hearty voice. “If it is the devotees, I’ll send them on their way.” Taking a deep breath, he headed to the gate, opening it cautiously.
    It was just Headmaster garu . I sat down, heart settling.
    “You!” Ammamma jumped up, blood rushing to her face, tiredness forgotten for the moment. “Didn’t I tell you not to blacken my doorstep with your face again?”
    Headmaster garu was dishevelled, unusual for a man who took pride in his appearance. He was never seen in anything but a pristine white