Bheela’s Blog-004
26 December 2020
Episode 3 — Recap
Oshin has not yet revealed the real reason for leaving her home and reached a town in the north of Japan. Kei, her grandson, finds her and decides to take her to the nearby village, across a bridge, which is fully covered in deep snow. They tried to cross the bridge, but the snow is too deep, and they have not dressed adequately in clothing/shoes suitable for the condition. They decide to get equipped and return the next day to find the village Oshin wants to see.
Episode 4 –
It is the next morning; Oshin puts on snow boots and is ready to leave. She thanks the hotel cleaning lady for lending her winter clothing suitable for the snow-clad road trip.
(Oshin’s belief in equality is shown here. Although she has reached a high position in society, she has no hesitation in borrowing clothes from the cleaning lady, who is of much lower income. She is also easily able to connect with working-level people.)
The cleaning lady, in turn, is pleased and takes extra care of Oshin. She puts on another shawl over Oshin’s shoulders. Kei is also ready to leave the hotel and proud to take care of his grandma.
He is carrying OBI (It is a belt worn with Japanese dress, comes in various sizes, especially with martial art uniforms)
He plans to carry Oshin on his back and tie her with the Obi if needed. Oshin, though, is in high spirits, and she thinks that she can manage. According to her, ‘it is just a simple snowy road.’
They start walking on the snow, cross the bridge, and come to the other side. It is getting more difficult to walk as their feet are sinking into the snow. The road is no more visible, as it has merged with the surrounding fields and mountains. It is getting steeper as well. The Guide is walking ahead, and he comments that the road is taking them too long to cross. He mentions that there are few villages in the vicinity, the snow is so deep that driving is impossible.
Oshin is finally tired, and she wants to give up as snow is getting deeper and there is no village in sight. Kei reminds her that she wanted to go at any cost and she should not back out. Oshin suggests that they should come back later after snow melts and the weather is better.
As Kei promised her, he decides to carry Oshin on his back and proceed anyway. He bends and takes the Obi out of the pocket of his trousers. Seeing his enthusiasm, Oshin agrees to let Kei carry her, still unable to believe Kei’s strength. They move forward with Oshin on Kei’s back.
Suddenly, Oshin spots the village huts and shouts, “I can see! I can see it!” They can see a house in neglected conditions. The roof is fully covered with snow, and the outer walls, doors, window frames are partially broken.
Oshin gets off Kei’s back and walks hurriedly towards the house. Kei understands her excitement and asks her if this is her hometown village, where she wanted to come so desperately? Oshin reaches the main door crossing deep snow, and stands still. Kei again asks her if this was her own house?
Kei looks at Oshin and finds an unstoppable stream of tears flowing from her eyes. Oshin cries profusely and is unable to talk, she just nods, and Kei gets his answer.
They return to the hotel room, and Kei strikes a conversation with grandma. He wants to uplift her mood from sadness and asks her if she is satisfied. Oshin apologizes for the trouble she caused Kei. She is grateful to Kei as she would have never made it by herself; she thanks him formally. Kei is a bit embarrassed, but he is happy to see grandma’s birthplace.
Kei is still puzzled why Oshin decided to visit her village in this harsh winter months. He rightly guesses that grandma wanted to see the area covered in snow; Oshin affirms his guess. She tells him that she was raised in this village and once was lost in the snowy mountains. Each of her childhood memory had images of snow. Winters were always long and hard.
Kei once again brings the topic of the reason behind her leaving home. He challenges her that just to see the snow, she need not have run away home on the day the new 17th store was to be opened. Oshin starts confiding in him and reveals that starting the 17th store itself prompted her the idea of going back to her village. She says she thought repeatedly, and she could not sleep the night before the store opening. By morning, she had to leave.
Kei is not convinced; he wants to know why was she against the new store. Oshin tells him that the main reason for her leaving home was not that trivial. Kei does not comprehend and changes the topic. He says, ‘let’s go back home as you have seen your village.’ He also tells her that everyone will understand back home once Kei would explain that Oshin left home to fulfill her wish of seeing her village.
Oshin is not done yet. She has many more places to see, so she asks Kei to go home the next day and let her visit all those places by herself. Kei disagrees and again calls her self-centered. Oshin ignores him and decides to take a bath before going to bed.
Kei insists that he will remain with her and not return alone. Oshin reminds Kei about his university, soon to reopen. Kei tells her that spring vacations are yet to be over. He has made up his mind not to leave grandma alone. Oshin warns him that the trip could be excessively long. Kei does not budge as he is determined to know the real purpose of all these trips that Oshin wants to take. He knows that grandma is not the person who complains, so he insists on knowing the reason. He also offers to Oshin that if she is not comfortable to stay with Hitoshi & Michiko, she can move to his Dad Nozomi’s house.
Oshin seeing the boy’s determination starts to reveal the reason. She believes that over the years, she had probably made a failure of her life. She thinks she failed because she raised Hitoshi, who turned out to be the person he is. She blames herself for doing something very wrong.
Kei is puzzled because his grandma is admired for making the Tanakura company a great success. Also, uncle Hitoshi is quite capable of running the organization and take it to further heights. Oshin further explains that the way Hitoshi is running the company, Tanakura firm is bound to go bankrupt soon. Kei cannot believe it. Oshin says what is done is done; she cannot do anything about it now.
She repeats that it is her own fault that Hitoshi became the person he is today. All her life, she has continuously worked very hard desperately so far, moving forward without looking back. She feels that she must have taken some wrong paths and direction along the way.
Now, she wants to find out where she went wrong, at which point in her life. Usually, she never liked to dwell in the past. In a rush to move forward, she neglected many vital things. When she thinks about these wrong actions, she feels that she and Hitoshi have failed in life. She tells Kei, this is the actual reason for taking this trip to her past, for memories sake.
She feels that Kei is too young to understand, and she doesn’t expect also. She also reasons that old people probably tend to dwell in their past to accept their wrong actions. Contrary to her belief, Kei is more mature for his age, and he fully understood how Oshin is feeling and what she means. He did not know what wrong actions Oshin took or what exactly she neglected, but he knows that Oshin wants to revisit those as she turned 83 now and does not have much time left.
Kei tells her that he never thought her grandma can do any wrong or she could be selfish. All he knows is grandma is always calm and has never shown her emotions. After hearing from Oshin her feelings and seeing her so disturbed after the village visit, he is resolute in his decision to stay back with her. He understood that it is not just some momentary sentiments about the past; it is actually her passion for accepting life’s flaws. He understands the reason fully.
Oshin starts talking about her past and shares with Kei that this home was where she learned to walk. The house they saw today was her own home.
FLASHBACK BEGINS
It was a poor old straw hut (we have plenty of these in Indian villages too). Winter brought drought also. The only source of heat was from a single “Irori.”
(Irori is a fireplace in farmers’ houses in Japan, squarish hearth filled with wood or coal. Also used for boiling water or roasting food)
Still, her home was warm, and it was a happy home in the eyes of little Oshin. It was a large family. They even slept close to one another to keep warm.
Oshin’s father, mother, and grandmother used to live in this house.
Oshin has an older brother (the eldest child of her parents), two older sisters, a younger brother and a younger sister. Six kids and three adults made their family of nine.
The flashback scene shows all are sitting around the Irori for dinner.
Oshin continues…It was 1907, the seventh year of Oshin’s life, she just completed six in that spring, and it was the wintertime. The two elder sisters who were sent out to work as ‘servants’ were home for their winter holidays.
BACK IN THE PRESENT
Kei asks the age of those sisters who worked as servants? “Eldest eleven, and the second one nine,” Oshin replies. Kei is taken aback; he says, “how come such small kids were made to work as servants? This is against the ‘Minor Well Being’ (child welfare) Law these days.”
Oshin explains, “It was the end of Meiji Era in the 1900s, there was no such law. (Read more to know about the Meiji Era of Japan, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_(era) ). Wages were too low. So, it was good that they were sent out and live with the families where they worked as servants. So, fewer mouths to be fed.”
She continues, “Farmers were called ‘Share-farmers.’ They borrowed land from landowners and worked in the fields, cultivating rice. Once harvested, half the rice was given to the landowner. Only half remained for the farmer’s family. If the harvest was bad, still the farmer had to give the agreed amount of rice to the landowner reducing his own share. For large families, like ours, food was never enough. So, if some of the family members left home and lived at their workplaces, it would mean the remaining members would get to eat more.”
Kei sadly remarks, “How cruel is that!!”
Oshin explains further, “Such farmers were called ‘Gotan Farmers’ because they worked on Gotan rice field. In general, the harvest was good. Twenty-five rice bags would be the yield, thirteen will go to the landowner, and the rest will be there for the family. Usually, rice is what you eat daily, so it was hard to make it last for the entire year. The harvest would though be terrible sometimes, continuously for two or three years and the situation would be very difficult.”
(This economy based on land lending for cultivation ensures that the farmers remain poor throughout their lives. They are forced to take a loan to survive and get deep into a vicious circle of poverty, never to be able to come out. For some families, the loans would transfer to the next generation. When I read this, I was surprised to know the similarity of farmers’ condition in Japan in those days with that of Indian farmers)
FLASH BACK ….
Oshin’s mother, Fuji, is apologetic for giving them a simple rice and field mustard meal even when her girls arrived home on holiday. She wanted to make something special, but she cannot afford it.
Little Oshin is very happy; she says that eating together makes her stomach full and content. Fuji asks the elder girls if they get enough meals at their workplace. Both girls laugh it off, saying everywhere the same. But they ensure not to reveal the real workplace situation. Mitsu, the younger one, who is just nine and works, says I am happy to eat together even if the amount of food is insufficient. To this, the elder one scolds her and asks not to complain about the food. Grandma gives her share to Oshin. She murmurs that she should also work to bring some income to the family. The older girl is very considerate and has matured already. She tells grandma no need for her to work since she has rheumatism in her fingers. The older girl is also sympathetic towards grandma. She lovingly tells her to rest now since she worked throughout her life, making her sick. She also tells her father to take rest, who goes to bed. She tells Mom to eat as well, and she takes care of the younger children.
Grandma eats very little and is full of guilt.
Mitsu comments that Oshin is very lucky since she has no clue about the lack of food or poverty. Oshin is actually very innocent; she is dreaming of going to school in April. She has a friend Kiyo from the neighborhood Azumaya family, who will also join the school. Kiyo has a blackboard, and Oshin wants a blackboard for herself.
Elder brother Shouji is cross at this point and tells Oshin not to dream. Oshin pesters her mom for a blackboard, Mom agrees to buy, but Oshin wants her mom’s promise.
BACK IN THE PRESENT
Oshin continues her conversation with Kei about her past. She says that she actually had no idea what poverty was.
At this point, Kei grabs the phone. He plans to tell his Dad that he and grandma will take a very long time to return. He is too engrossed and too keen to know all about Grandma’s life. He asks for Oshin’s consent to this arrangement to stay with her until he knows everything. Oshin agrees silently.
Kei calls home.
Coming soon Episode 5…