The Aftermath of a Mean Old Woman

It was a good call to stay home when everyone went to Mysore, because we made a couple of good saves. Amma was left in charge of the kids, and with her irrationality, that is just a recipe for disaster. At about 8:30 am while the girls were doing their chores and before we went next door for games, I heard those haunting sounds again. After what we had witnessed between Amma and Nithin just a day or two before (see previous post, Smackdown on a Smackdown) I quickly got Nina and we went next door to see what was going on. We went up to the boys room where Nithin had been staying since we caught her beating him, and there she was, at it again. Nithin sat bellowing on a cot, while she towered over him on some sort of twisted power trip. Nina didn't skip a beat and without saying a word, marched in, grabbed Nithin and took him next door with us. When we got ahold of him we noticed something truly sickening. Around his left eye was a swollen shiner, Amma induced. We felt ill and began to realize the true severity of the situation. I'm sorry, but you have got to have some serious issues to give a helpless toddler a black eye. Though everyone was enjoying their day off, I called George to tell him what had happened, and he told us to keep Nithin with us. Amma gave us death stares and major attitude all day long, but we didn't care, he wasn't leaving our sight.

Nithin and his Amma-induced black eye

Later that night she came into our house with dinner for the girls and proceeded to hoot and holler in Telegu, which Ganga later told us was about us, how she has taken so much care of Nithin and then we come along and he cries when we leave so she beats him, blah blah blah. I'm sorry but I don't give a damn, no one hurts a child like that and gets away with it, I don't care if you're from India or Russia or Timbuktu. She is a mean old woman, crotchety and ill-equipped to work with children. Her behavior is completely and utterly unacceptable. Luckily, these thoughts weren't ours alone. We were worried that the other staff members would think that we were making a big deal out of it because we are Americans, but they whole-heartedly agreed with us and hopefully some strict action will be taken.

But just because he is out of her care, doesn't mean the scars she has left on him have disappeared. Nithin's behavioral progression has regressed, we presume due to his abuse issues from Amma as he cringes when she is near and you can physically see how scared he is of her. He had a bathroom accident yesterday (appropriately we once again had no running water in the house) and had another mishap this morning. He woke up crying several times in the middle of the night, and finally at 4 am, tired of getting in and out of bed, I retrieved him one last time and brought him in our room where he slept soundly beside me for the rest of the night. This morning when he started stirring, I tried to keep sleeping and hoped he'd follow suit. Rather than get up and signal that he had to use the bathroom (waving his pinkie in the air) he proceeded to wet my bed, and me in the process. Of course I flew out of bed in a tizzy, and surely sensing my frustration, Nithin had an 'nam-style Amma flashback and soiled himself. In the middle of all of that and the resulting cleanup, an ant infestation in the rest of the house had to be dealt with using flaming newspaper and craft glue (you really have to be innovative over here.)

It was quite a rude awakening, and in the midst of the whole situation, Nina and I just had to have a good laugh because really, what else can you do?

Smackdown on a Smackdown

As the house grew quiet and Nina and I were getting ready for bed, we noticed a howling in the big house next door. We immediately recognized it as Nithin's cry and at first shrugged it off, assuming he was getting a bath. When it didn't stop, and I thought I heard other suspicious noises along with it, I stepped outside to investigate. Since we moved out, Amma, who had lived downstairs with us and whatever children happened to be living with us, was alone so little Nithin had been brought back downstairs to live with her. It made me nervous knowing that he would be down there alone with her, as I know she can be really rough, especially with him. I have gotten used to her love taps for him, even her more disciplinary swats, but the repetitive sounds I heard from another house and several rooms away made me sick to my stomach. As I stepped outside and peered in through the kitchen window I could see Amma in the living area and could hear her yelling in Telugu, obviously at Nithin. As soon as I saw her raise her hand high and come down with a loud, nauseating smack followed by a piercing scream from Nithin, I knew we had to do something. We immediately went upstairs (even though in our pajamas we were wearing our most inappropriate clothing -- shorts) and reported what we saw to Assin, Bendang's wife. With Amma, one has to be careful. The language barrier is high and her temper can flare. I love her, but she has her own plethora of problems and often takes her anger out on helpless little Nithin. Bendang went in and there were some strong words exchanged (though we couldn't understand them) and soon Nithin was headed up to stay with the boys.

2 year old Nithin

How could anyone in their right mind lay a hand on this innocent little babe?

There is no way we could have slept knowing that he was over there being manhandled by an old and cantankerous woman. Maybe we are just as afraid of Amma as Nithin is, after all we did hide behind the stairs watching to see that he got out rather than face the beast ourselves, but as long as we brought the beating to someone's attention, then we have done our job for today. Whether they think we are softies or not, no matter the cultural differences, it is never okay to treat a child that way. Never.