TV heads

Mariamma of BC fame ( Breaking Chair fame) is back... Yes she was away for sometime ...My brother and I sold her some of our old furniture and TV(yes an almost brand new .sofa) after which she decided not to show up for a while.We figured with the sofa and TV,installed in her son's place...she decided to live it up ..you see Mariamma was a avid( if not chronic) TV watcher and for that matter she was highly networked in the cinema world.She has seen every Tamil movie in town - can recount every dialogue and every scene with great accuracy. She cooks only for short spells of time and then one can see her watching TV uninterrupted for hours on end...Ask her to list off the stars of yesterday and today and Mariamma is a picture of animation and delight. It is no wonder then, my mother an old (75yrs old ) conservative Christian pounds her periodically with the scriptures (because that has been her upbringing...watching cinema was a sin ,,and so much of it ...God help) Ofcourse she (my mum) overdoes it , robbing herself (I think) of all the good in her ...like..she is a good story teller and teacher ..(my mum) but here in godforsaken Chennai( atleast to me ,on annoying days) all her ancestral goodness is forgotten (ironically) and all her Bible pounding eventually brings out the demon in her and after while in Mariamma too..Soon the two are sitting their ..each on their respective sofas ...one hammering out the word all out of context and the other ( a robust 45yr old) gloating with her wise repartee...it is a scene right out of a Flannery O'Connor novel,I think..I sit there trying to concentrate on my Taftee ..on the book of John ..will the Light come through ..and I can distinctly hear Mariamma screaming --"God appears to me on the TV screen" ..I diplomatically pipe in " In the God Channel ,Mariamma?" "No",she responds...this is no time for diplomacy "no in the regular Vijay Channel " she continues with such fervour noone can doubt her , it seems.I am out of here,I think but then one look at my mum ,her aged faced -once so sweet and agile with the gifts of teaching -now totally in control of the demons ..(of fundamentalism I think mostly)...I feel so frustrated...I scream at Mariamma ...she (my mum) watches TV too but couldn't she(Mariamma) revive the good in her(my mum)..ask her about Bible stories ...bring out the good that was in her ...who knows you might find a Shivaji in the Bible too..but all this is too much for Mariamma ofcourse..I dont know what mariamma will come up with next...that Christ appeared to her in the idol....and what would my mum's reaction be then... I can say "good for you" and run off ...I have made peace with my Creator, now if He chooses to appear in several unwanted places ,that is His choice not necessarily mine.