Arul Das worked a mechanic in Indian Railways and his wife Sagai Mary was a homemaker. The couple had two children a girl of 9 years and a boy of 5. Arul earned a reasonably good salary and they lived in one of the suburbs of Secunderabad City in South India.
Arul Das had friends in his place of work who did not believe in going home straight from work. They loved to enjoy their evenings in one of the local country liquor shops near to their workshop. Arul initially was not influenced by these boozer friends of his and somehow managed to wriggle out of their influence. However, they gradually got the better of him and got him to sit with them for a drink or two.
It was not long before Arul became an addict of this vice. He would reach home every evening after 11 O’ clock, His wife tried her best to make Arul see sense of reason. But Arul was in no mood to listen. The arguments become more and more severe and soon the situation turned ugly and Arul started becoming violent and began to beat his wife to subdue her into silence. The children were petrified at the turn of things. They were confused at their Dad’s behavior since he would be normal and loving in the morning but would turn into an animal at night.
Sagai Mary tried to counsel her husband through the local parish priest of her church, Arul would listen with docility and amend for a few days but would return to his old ways again.
Finally Sagai Mary decided enough was enough. She was no weak woman by any standards. She decided to teach her husband Arul a real hard lesson in good behaviour. One night when Arul came drunk and started to indulge in his usual antics, Sagai Mary took a solid stick which she had saved it for the day, held him by the collar, dragged him onto the street and gave him a solid thrashing. Arul was too stunned to see this side of his wife’s behaviour. His drunken state ensured that he could neither run nor fight. Sagai Mary kept on raining hard blows on his back and legs till Arul begged for mercy and foriveness and pledged never to drink again or raise his hand on her !!!. She finally saw that it was enough for the day, she helped him stand up and took him inside the house.
The neighbors came out of their houses on account of the commotion. But none came in the way of the rain of blows which Sagai Mary poured out on her husband. Instead they watched her in admirable silence.
From the next day, Arul’s behavior took a transformation. He mellowed down like gentle cow. He would come home straight from work and spend his evenings with his family. He kept away from his booze friends. In rare occasions when he just managed a peg or two he would make sure he would come home quietly and go to bed.
When a colleague of mine told me about the real life episode described above I could not stop laughing and felt like finding this woman Sagai Mary and giving her a big hug. She decided enough was enough and had decided to fight her oppressive husband and deal with him in a language which he understood. As is said in Hindi “ Laathon Ke Bhooth Baaton se Nahin Maante” which means people who understand the language of the stick do not listen to the counsel of good words.
Cheers to Sagai Mary !!!
