Veranda Tales-పిసినారి సోమయ్య (Pisinari Somayya)
Storytelling has been an integral part of my life since childhood. I grew up listening to stories during the hot summer evenings and nights with my cousins. Mothers and grandmothers would gather all of us children for story time. It was usually pitch dark except for a very faint light coming from the flickering candle. Power cuts were as frequent as the hot and humid summer days. We all spread out on a cool concrete floor or bamboo mats on the veranda intently listening to fascinating stories about kings, queens, princes, princesses, and peasants alike. Stories about love, life, families, and people entertained and taught us life skills. These stories transported us to distant worlds, strange yet familiar. Often the same story told by two people sounded different as storytellers added new twists and turns adding their personal style and flair to the stories.
Storytelling wasn’t limited to summer evenings and bedtime. I was surrounded by adults who didn’t pass up an opportunity to share their wisdom using the art of storytelling. These rich vibrant oral traditions include songs, poems, stories, and సామెతలు (Sametalu are proverbs in Telugu). Men and women sing songs as they work in the fields, grinding grains and spices and doing other daily chores at their homes. Stories are often used to teach important life lessons, interpersonal skills, and survival skills. These stories and the time spent listening to them made our lives richer leaving an impression on me. This series is all about reliving those memories as I share these stories.
పిసినారి సోమయ్య (Pisinari Somayya and Thief)
Once upon a time, there lived a man, సోమయ్య (Somayya). He made his home in a small village where he tended to his farms. He lived a humble life in his small cottage. He lived alone, saving as much as he possibly could after taking care of his necessities. His pleasure came from watching his pot of money grow year by year. He had a few possessions in this home. He would replace his clothing, sandals, and other household items only when he had to. He would wear a well worn తెల్లపంచ (Tella Pancha is white Dhovathi Telugu), తెల్లలాల్చి (lalchi is a long shirt in Telugu), and కండువా (kanduva is a Scarf in Telugu). He owned two dhovathis, two lalchis. and two kanduvas. If one pair was on him, the other was either drying or clean, put away to be worn the next morning. He had a humble meal of rice and dal, and treated himself to a vegetable once in a while. He would repair his sandals when they were torn and replace them only when they could be repaired no more. He didn’t throw away anything. His discarded clothing was used as cleaning rags. He totally believed in reusing before recycling. We don’t know why he didn’t have a family. We can hazard a guess that maybe he thought it would be expensive to maintain a family. We really don’t know. One thing we know for sure is that he was very sad when he had to spend money and that సోమయ్య (Somayya) loved living alone in his humble abode. People in the village called him పిసినారి సోమయ్య (pisinari Somayya) making fun of his extreme saving habit. Some felt sorry for him that he was living a life of misery to save money. పిసినారి (pisinari) means a very stingy or an extremely frugal person in Telugu.
By the time this story started, సోమయ్య (Somayya) amassed a large bag of gold and silver coins. At the end of every single day, he took the bag out of its safe hiding place to count every single coin. Once he was done counting his coins, his face lit up with contentment. As weeks, months, and years went by, he started to get worried about keeping his money from thieves. He decided to take his bag of coins to a nearby forest to bury it. He went to the nearby forest to scope out a place to bury his treasure. He found a suitable place and went home. He went back to the forest late at night. He dug a deep hole under a large tree in a densely wooded area of the forest. He put his treasure in the hole and covered it back up with the dirt. He came back home happy and content that the money was safely hidden away.
A few days went by and he missed his nightly ritual of counting the gold and silver coins. He was unable to sleep without it. He was also concerned that somebody noticed him burying his treasure and stole it. Later that night, he went back to the forest to check on his treasure. He dug up the coin bag and was happy to find the treasure intact. He then proceeded to count every single coin to his heart's content, He buried the bag back in the ground and went home. He slept very well after a longtime. He continued his routine of digging the treasure and counting the coins for several months. He continued to save and kept adding more and more coins to the bag in the ground. He knew deep down that the treasure would be safer if he could stop himself from constantly checking on it. But he couldn’t help it.
One night, he went to dig up his treasure to count his coins. He couldn’t find his treasure. It turned out, a thief noticed సోమయ్య (Somayya) going to the forest every single day. One night he followed him into the woods to watch him checking on his treasure. The thief dug up the treasure and took it all. సోమయ్య (Somayya) went back the following night to check on his treasure and found it was stolen. He was distraught that he lost his treasure. He was very sad that he couldn’t leave the treasure alone where it was buried to keep it safe. He was very sad indeed that he didn’t enjoy the money he earned. He cried out aloud that he didn’t use it to make his life comfortable.
సోమయ్య (Somayya) went home empty handed. As he thought about his life thus far, it dawned on him that he was wrong about his approach to life. He learned an important lesson that memories and experiences can’t be stolen. They are yours to keep until the end of your time on this earth. He started to focus on living a meaningful life without being constantly consumed by the desire to amass shiny gold and silver coins. He lived a fulfilling life and left the world happy and content.
We all know that we are supposed to save for a rainy day. At the same time, it is good for us to enjoy what we saved. This story has a deeper meaning than the pros and cons of saving and spending. Some people might say సోమయ్య (Somayya) was very stingy and others might say he was a minimalist and we all ought to be like him, except a bit smarter about safeguarding our treasure. When I hear this story, I feel sad for సోమయ్య (Somayya ) for not using his money to enjoy his life. I don't have any quarrels with his minimalist lifestyle. I am all for simplifying life by keeping just two sets of bedsheets and blankets to save space and reduce clutter in the house.
When I think about సోమయ్య (Somayya) digging a hole in the forest to hide his gold and silver coins, I remember the story I heard about అమ్ముమ్మ (Ammumma is maternal grandmother in Telugu). అమ్ముమ్మ (Ammumma) and తాతయ్య (Tatayya is grandfather in Telugu) rented a small portion of a house from a gentleman who was a lord of thieves. He managed a large group of thieves. They would steal valuables from houses and bring them back to him. He would pay them for stealing.
అమ్ముమ్మ (Ammumma) and తాతయ్య (Tatayya) didn’t know the nature of the business their landlord was engaged in when they first started living there. Over time అమ్ముమ్మ (Ammumma) started to notice his employees stopping by all hours of the night bringing stolen items. They were worried for their safety. However, they didn’t have the means to move to another house. She was worried about her jewelry and valuables. She was concerned that one of the thieves might steal it all. She dug a hole in the kitchen under the stove to hide them. She thought the kitchen would be the last place thieves would look for valuables. I wonder how deep a hole she would have had to dig for the jewelry to not melt when the kitchen fire was lit right on top of the jewelry. Before long my grandparents moved into another house with their valuables. They used them to start and build a very successful business.
We can debate the pros and cons of saving and spending and how it is hard for spenders to stop spending and savers to stop saving. However, the main message in this story is that it is better to spend money on experiences to make lasting memories to treasure as opposed to material possessions we can’t take with us. It reminds me of the Telugu folk song and also a sametha, “వచ్చ్చేటప్పుడు తీసుకురారు, పోయేటప్పుడు తీసుకుపోరు (Vachetappudu theesukuraaru, Poyetappudu theesukuporu)”. The meaning of this song and sametah is, “We enter this world with nothing and leave it with nothing”. We go through life acquiring and amassing objects we won’t be able to take with us when we leave this world. It is better for us to enjoy our lives building meaningful relationships and memories that outlast us.