வானொலி நாடகம் - மர்ம மேடை (Vanoli Nadagam - Marma Medai)

வானொலி நாடகம் - மர்ம மேடை 
(Vanoli Nadagam - Marma Medai)

Yesterday, as I returned from the supermarket after getting the weekly grocery, we listened to the Tamil drama on the radio. The children could not understand why I liked listening to these melodramatic dramas. I told how my whole family grew up staying glued and listening to these radio dramas on Sunday evenings on Red Network of RTM at 6.30pm in RRF. Like that, I recalled an episode that I heard decades ago and related it to them. It was a story on the mystery series Marma Medhai (Stage of Suspense). I think it was written by a master radio writer of yesteryears, S. Vairakanoo.

The story starts with an insomniac man who has the habit of fiddling with his short-wave radio in the morning to tap into transmissions from a remote part of the planet. One day he stumbled upon a channel which only came on the air for a few minutes to predict his horoscope for the following day. He became interested as the days went on, as he found them accurate to the dot. It drastically improved his life as he placed bets and things like that based on these forecasts. Life could not have been better until one day, the broadcast announced his impending demise on the following day!

After the initial shock and denial, he accepted the prediction. He called in sick at his workplace and stayed home to avoid unnecessary exposure to freak accidents. He remained indoors and shut all windows and doors. He disconnected all electrical equipment and gas stove and waited in complete darkness (no fire hazard and no short-circuiting). He thought the prophecy would be nullified if he could stay alive till midnight.

Everything was going on fine till just before the stroke of midnight. As fate had it, a police patrol car combed our hero's housing area for an escaped convict. As they spotted the villain, the police discharged a few shots. Unfortunately, a stray bullet hit our hero directly in his heart, and he succumbed to his injuries on the spot just to the stroke of midnight! And the accented fortissimo dynamics of the background score accompanied the closing curtains...

All these stories come with a take-home message. In this particular episode, one must be ready to accept all eventualities of life - good and bad at the same stride. Just like we are glad to squander our parents' hard-earned fortunes, we must take their genetically transmitted illnesses and traits (like short stature and non-appealing facial features, i.e. ugly)!

*I wonder if my sisters remember the old radio we had in BG, depicted above. In RRF, we listened to the transistor, as shown here...