Love is bliss …! – Artist Maruthi

Q: Please tell us about some interesting experiences with your children …

A: As my wife continued her job even after marriage, I had to take up the responsibility of looking after my children. I enjoyed and relished those times when I personally experienced the beautiful moments with them. I would like to share with you an interesting thing here … there’s not much difference of age between my two children. They would be playing nearby and I would be doing my painting. On one occasion, Dinamani wanted me to do a painting urgently and I was required to go to that office. As I was hesitant to leave the children to themselves I decided to take them along with me to the newspaper office which was located on the fourth floor. As they had not seen the lift till then, I told them that they could enjoy going by the lift. But, unfortunately, the lift was not working when we reached there. We climbed the steps. The editor was surprised to see the children. The entire editorial staff surrounded the children and started talking to them. The editor seated my younger daughter on the table and asked her whom she liked the most, whether her father or mother. My daughter spontaneously replied that she liked her father the most. Everyone laughed. And, she added that they could verify with their mother and that she would also tell the same. The staff burst into laughter on hearing these words.

I never control my wife. In our community, women used to wear nose rings. But my wife didn’t bore her nose and I didn’t compel her also. My elder daughter Subhashini is married and is settled in Nagpur. Her husband Karthik is employed with a multinational company. He is in a high position. My grand-daughter’s name is Samiksha. She looks exactly as my daughter. If I had avoided marriage, I would have missed all these happiness. Is life any good if you don’t have these pleasures? This is absolute truth.

Vimala Maruthi: : I want to tell you a few great things about my husband. He is a gem of a man. I didn’t want to marry an ordinary person; I wanted to marry a well-known and popular man. I am really very happy that my husband was well-known even at the time of our marriage itself. As I was in government service, he took care of the children. I would get angry and scold the children, but, Maruthi would not even utter a word against them. He enjoyed doing things for our children. He would give them bath, drop them at the school and pick them back. Life would have become cumbersome if he was also regularly employed like me or if he considered ‘looking after the children’ as ‘below his dignity’. He doesn’t have much faith in God but he never ridicules others when they talk about God. He would even participate in pujas respecting the feelings of others. He has got lot of love and affection for his children and me. Lord Rama is my favorite God. I felt very happy when my husband’s name happened to be Maruthi, the name of Rama’s messenger. My mother-in-law gave me the idols of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana during my marriage telling me that Maruthi’s grandmother wanted me to keep them. Maruthi has been doing paintings for the cover for the Tamil magazine ‘Kanmani’ for the past 22 years. The name of the editor who is also the proprietor of the magazine is Ramachandra Adiththan! It is really surprising that the name of most of those who have helped us progress in our life happens to be one of the names of Lord Rama! I want to mention an important fact here. At the time of our marriage, it was said that Maruthi had no horoscope. But, recently, I found his horoscope in a box. When the agreement was checked it was found that the only ‘rasi’ compatible with his ‘kanni rasi’ was ‘mithunam’, which by coincidence, is my ‘rasi’ too! My happiness knew no bounds.