The Blood Test

No problem with the blood. But it has to be tested.  It is the Doctor's requirement as he has to prescribe medicines to increase human life. The simplest form of test won't allow you to eat for 12 hours, then you have to eat and wait for two hours!

The man who sucks your blood will look into your blood and give a computer write up.  The blood has undergone various changes from childhood till now when one is above sixty. The anxiety ridden times of childhood full of awe and wonders of the world presented around, coupled with the extreme desire for food which was scant to come by.

Then the continuous running to school after school where one's hunger for food and knowledge is quenched in part and left vacant in part. The words learned stood in good stead and the king found the youth fit for daily food!  The packets changed from time to time where he would have eaten whatever he got and lately the doctors started intervening.  "You can't eat all that"  they said!

So eating as he wanted was stopped and started eating as the doctor wanted and now his blood is going for test again as had been done several times earlier.

Testing is alright! It is the fasting and not being allowed to take a cup of tea in the morning or breakfast which is the greatest interference! Then the anxiety of the result, just like the result of any examinations!

Once the billing is over I am asked to sit in a chair to suck blood.  The Lady Technician  pushed the needle and sucked enough blood   to check all variations in the blood and left me to take food and come back after two hours. I ate hungrily and had my tea which I had brought from home which was really a big  solace!  Went along site seeing the hospital which had been recently flooded in the Velachery area of Chennai.  The water had come up two and a half feet, I was told, which has now receded!

After two hours one more suction from the blood vein and I am through.

Where is my pen?

He had given me a pen. My father.  He was a visionary!  He sent me to school.  The school was away from home.  Five miles.  I stayed at the school.  That was the style.  As a child, ten years old I wanted to go home and see my father and mother, brothers and sisters.  But that is not the school style.  As the school was providing all facilities and as I did not have all facilities at home, my want to meet my other family members was not severe.  But the yearning was there and it lingered!

Then one day, father came to see me.  He was happy.  In his white shirt and dhoti with his white muslin 'neriathu' (the whilte shawl type cloth used in olden days by elderly people in Kerala)  around his neck he was elegant. Father and son met!  He was a tall well built guy with a kind look.  He stood close to me and touched my hair and asked are you well.  When I said 'yes' he said "I have brought a present for you!"  My eyes were wide with surprise and happiness. Then he brought it out:  An ink pen in brown colour.  It was a great pen.  The clip on the cap had the inscription "President".  He said "This is your weapon. Use it to make a life!"

Many years later, when things had changed a lot, I wanted to write, when writing is almost vanishing!  Now in a normal day, I only punch the keys or the seeds on my lappie, saying this is easier.  The old time ink pen!  Whenever it is referred I looked at it sadly and said "it is a lot cumbersome!" But that was costly as all other throw aways!  Then came a Tamilian Inventor called GD Naidu who was heard saying "Wonderman, GD Naidu, anything for twenty five paise"  In his wide range of products one was the ball point pen.  People naturally loved it!

Then came the talk of computers, then the computers, then the lap tops and now the net books for the old and the android phones for the youth!  And now I want to write!

My inspirations came from the renowned writers, OV Vijayan and Madhavikutty, both carrying me through phases of life!  Both are no more, but have left their legacies for the posterity to scoop up.  Great visionaries, great scholars and great admirers of life!  They looked at life from beyond life and still enjoyed life on this earth, allowing others to look and introspect themselves and lift them to a higher level of life!

That is when I wanted to pick up my pen once again!  I had lost my Dad given pen long back.  The ink pens normally made of plastic would start leaking at the neck  after a time. Many times we used it with a little application of soap or oil at the neck.  But after a time, it won't stop leaking.  Like human life the ink will start flowing out wetting your fingers in its blue tinge which will taint your dress! That is when they are slowly kept away and forgotten like, sadly, like old people!

(to continue)

Our globe..!

At the edge of destruction we have our globe
Tired and maligned with the dirt produced by all
Never to complain, never to say why!
Always speaking to its children to do the
needful without delay..!

The Steel Food Vessel (The Steel Chottupathram)

The Steel Rice Vessel (The Steel Chottupathram)!

The food vessel I carried to College was a steel vessel with a holding handle fitted on either side of the vessel. In the morning I carried the food only if it was ready by the time the bus was leaving. And that day it was ready. The little steel vessel with an outer lid on the top.  I moved to the bus stop with the vessel.

The Madras Eentha stood at the tripple road joint and people waiting for the line bus assembled in the shadow of that tree .  The tree brought forth sweet long  fruits which fell down from time to time. 

Two buses passed under it.  One is the red 'Sreeramachandra' coming from Thrikkur and the other one is the EBT (Buses in Kerala were named with letters denoting some names or family names and ending with the world T-denoting Transport). Nobodsy knew what EBT stood for but the it was a long bus with a lot of seats.

EBT came from a place called Puthur and the Sreeramachandra came from Thrikkur.  That day, EBT came first and I got in with my books and the chottupathram.  A seat was available as soon as I entered and I sank into it without a second thought.  It is a beautiful journey on a side seat when the people are less in the bus.  Just sit along and watch the houses, shops and temples and churches on the way.  At times the road is wet due to rain, the flowers on the hedges are beautiful and the huge embossing houses or little palaces of the rich are good to see!


The EBT is green in colour compared to the total red of the Sreeramachandra.  But inside colour is always light green with green seats which are very comfortable on a wooden floor.  This day, I got the EBT and that too with an empty seat which really was a great thing to expect on a normal college day.  Once I settled in the seat, I kept the book bundle on my lap and put the chottupathram under the seat so that my hands are free!

Enjoying the sights on the way, saeeing the passing cars, buses and trucks I got down at the Thrissur Municipal Bus Stand near the King's statue.  The Municipal office in those days was a huge building with a tower with a clock and this clock sent out a siren at 8 o' clock, 1 o' clock, 6 o' clock etc.  We did not know why this siren was being sent out !  Once I got down the bus moved off for its next trip.  I walked with my bundle of books to the college towards the East Fort.  In my mind was the periods and the subject which are to be covered in the morning session.  Once in college, time passes quickly and it becomes lunch time.  That is when I had the surprise..!  My lunch vessel (chottupathram) is not to be seen.  I wanted to search the vessel and thought back.  I could reach back to my vessel being put at the bottom of my seat in the bus..! This meant, if my memory is correct I have forgotten to take the chottupathram while getting down from the bus at the city centre municipal bus stand. Oh...that is bad. 

I had two options. To lose the vessel altogether and simply to go and visit the library which used to be my abode during lunch recess when I had not food carried to college.  The old Malayala Manorama Weeklies carefully made into bunches and bound was good to go through for light reading.  The 'Bobanum Moliyum” cartoon was always special and the jokes pages were a treat.  The smell of the old books carried one to many many years in the past all the while improving and increasing once general knowledge about the state and the world!

The second option is to take the chance and revisit the bus when it comes to the municipal stand again.  I took the second chance.  The bus usually took a trip to a place called Thiroor on the north and then reached back and went to Thrikkoor on the south east and repeated the process.  I calculated that after the second trip it should be around time that the bus came back to the municiapal bus stand.  I walked fast crossing the Civil Hospital and the 'Poorapparambu' (The ceremonial pooram festival ground)!  As I was walking into the municipal bus stand I could see the green EBT coming from near the 'Jos Theatre', one of the oldest theatres of the place.  The bus slowly took a left turn to the bus stand and was going to stop near the King's statue.  I walked fast and reached the bus!

I was anxious if I can get the vessel back at all.  I had forgotten the vessel in the running bus and so many people get in and get out.  It is not for the conductor to see all of them but still if no one has touched the vessel from where I have put it, then there is a chance..!   The bus was empty when I reached it and the conductor was looking at me from his seat.  I went in and looked at the place under the seat where I was sitting in the moring and found the place clean.  The lunch vessel was not there.  I turned towards the conductor: “Have you seen a lunch vessel in the moring?”  His smile reassured me that all was not lost.  He pointed to the driver and said “Look under the Driver's seat”.  As I looked on I could find the vessel still standing up straight and shivering under the deep beat of the bus engine! 

I thanked the Conductor and Driver and collected the vessel happily.  The Conducter said: “We found the vessel after you left in our routine check after each trip. But by the time we got it you had left.  Don't worry.  No body loses anything in this bus. Once you come on our bus, you and your properties are always safe..!”  I rturned to college and had a great lunch that day, the home made food with fried fish for side dish.

Those were the times, friends, most of it are gone now.  The nostalgia is still there!

Getting down at New Delhi Station forty years ago!

     It was evening! The train was to reach around 4 pm which was getting late in a February and ultimately it crawled into the station by 7 pm.  It had become dark and cold has set in along with the darkness.  Lights were on and a lot of people coming and going and those helping them were on the platforms. The speciality of any platform is that no body cares any body else other than oneself as all are in a hurry to reach their destinations. 

My co-travellers had been patient till the train reached New Delhi station but once it stoppled all of them quickly vanished into thin air or that fast they were all gone. Some had people waiting for them, some knew the place and others were the train operators.  I did not know the place, did not know any one and was not used to the cold of February evening.  That day it was more.!  I felt like vomiting.  My little thin sweater was no match for the evening as I was coming from a warmer climate in the south!

I waited for a while near a tube light pole to regain my composure and once felt better ..! Then I walked on with my brown leather suit case with the folded umbrella squeezed into the belt of the box which instantly gave me away as an outsider. The autorikshaw fellow spotted me as I came out to the front side of the station and simply came up and took my suitcase and walked up saying "Mere sath aao!" (Come with me).

Once he fixed me in his old and dilapidated autorikshaw he asked: "Kaham jana hai?" (Where do you want to go?).  I replied "Karolbagh".  I had learned that Karol bagh is a place four kilometres away from the station and one could get a day's stay there in any  small guest house! The auto-rikshaw who looked deceptive and in shabby clothes said:  "Oh.....this journey has to be completed in two auto-rikshaws,  I will take you half the way and the rest another auto-rikshaw will take you ..!  I became uneasy at these words  as I was surprised at the words of this sleaky guy and told him: "Can you take me to the "Madras Hotel" across the road?"  He agreed and took to the hotel across the road opposite the Station! As soon as it reached the hotel, I jumped out with me suit case and went in.

I simply settled at a desk and ordered for a cup of warm tea .  They youngster who came to take order seemed to be a guy from the south of India and I enquired of him if he can handle Hindi well.  He said: What do you want in Hindi?"  I told him "Just go to the front side and there is an autorikshaw fellow waiting.  Tell him I do not need his auto! "  He said, that is simple and went out and disposed off the guy in a few seconds!

Once he was gone I took a deep sigh of relief.  I felt better with the warmth insiide the hotel and wiith the help of the youngster took a room on rent just next door where there were plenty of guest houses with rooms at reasonable rates in Pahar ganj as it was called in those days!

The Thrissur Town & Public Library..

The  Thrissur Town:


Starting to the Temple of Learning in Thrissur, the Thrissur Public Library, I took the line bus and got down at the 'Binny' bus stop.  There is no reason why it is called Binny but a shop or so in that name selling clothes.  The bus stop was earlier at the Cinema  called 'Ramavarma' which has later on changed to 'Sapna'.  Walking on towards the next cut road  reached the King's Park where the bronze statue of the King stood!

The king stood facing south. Now there is no doubt about it.  He is declared to be the King of Cochin! An empossing figure in dark bronze!  He stood in a free space on the northern part of the great maidan.  He is still there on the same pedestal, but now he has been squeezed with a few walls behind and a lot of unnecessary constructions which many people thought necessary to beautify the whole place.  One side is a bus stop where many buses stop.  The place always buzzled with people getting down from buses or climbing into buses.  Some people kept waiting for the buses which made the place a busy one.  The increase in the number of automobiles also added to the huzzle and buzzle of the place.  Vewry few people went into the little park surrounding the King's statue.  Or none went in, perhaps.  The place had a lot of muddy water and wet ground due to the intermittant rains.  A man near by guffawed and thoughtlessly spat into the park.  Many of the people around never gave a thought  of the reverence of the place.    Many people in the town generally spat from time to time! The King was calm and serene!

He looked as if he is a live King.  He stood without looking left or to the right.  He continuously looked to the south where Cochin is. And he is the King of Cochin, nay, He was the King of Cochin.  Only those on the west can spit to the park.  I never liked people spitting! It should be lack of awareness all along! For any healthy man or woman there is no need of spitting.  Unless they are eating or chewing paan or the calcium and beatel leaf combination,  which is eaten in may places.

The park has more names now under and about the Kings Statue.  Thwy proclaimed the names of the people representatives and those dignitaries who had been there when the beautification was inaugurated. 

The Library is close by a furlong.  Library is having election!  Library is run by an elected body!   It carries a lot of books all very useful books!  But the day to day running money for the Library from the Government has to be released by another set of people in some apex organization. Which came  out rarely making the readers pay for the services they obtain at the Library.  This is surprising in a State with hundred percent literacy.  But every thing works here! The Staff and officials work in meagre payments but  take a lot of interest in the day to day running of the Library making it feasible with the limited resources ..! 

The multitude of Thrissur never thought of reading, as much of a thing.  Those who visited the town centre  are all busy either getting their thing done, or working for a daily living.  The permanent are mostly traders and shop keepers who have a hundred and one thing up their heads keeping the reigns of their businesses..!
Starting to the Temple of Learning in Thrissur, the Thrissur Public Library, I took the line bus and got down at the 'Binny' bus stop.  There is no reason why it is called Binny but a shop or so in that name selling clothes.  The bus stop was earlier at the Cinema  called 'Ramavarma' which has later on changed to 'Sapna'.  Walking on towards the next cut road  reached the King's Park where the bronze statue of the King stood!

The king stood facing south. Now there is no doubt about it.  He is declared to be the King of Cochin! An embossing figure in dark bronze!  He stood in a free space on the northern part of the great maidan.  He is still there on the same pedestal, but now he has been squeezed with a few walls behind and a lot of unnecessary constructions which many people thought necessary to beautify the whole place.  One side is a bus stop where many buses stop.  The place always buzzled with people getting down from buses or climbing into buses.  Some people kept waiting for the buses which made the place a busy one.  The increase in the number of automobiles also added to the huzzle and buzzle of the place.  Vewry few people went into the little park surrounding the King's statue.  Or none went in, perhaps.  The place had a lot of muddy water and wet ground due to the intermittant rains.  A man near by guffawed and thoughtlessly spat into the park.  Many of the people around never gave a thought  of the reverence of the place.    Many people in the town generally spat from time to time! The King was calm and serene!

He looked as if he is a live King.  He stood without looking left or to the right.  He continuously looked to the south where Cochin is. And he is the King of Cochin, nay, He was the King of Cochin.  Only those on the west can spit to the park.  I never liked people spitting! It should be lack of awareness all along! For any healthy man or woman there is no need of spitting.  Unless they are eating or chewing paan or the calcium and betel leaf combination,  which is eaten in may places.

The park has more names now under and about the Kings Statue.  They proclaimed the names of the people representatives and those dignitaries who had been there when the beautification was inaugurated. 

The Library is close by a furlong.  Library is having election!  Library is run by an elected body!   It carries a lot of books, all very useful ones!  But the day to day running money for the Library from the Government has to be released by another set of people in some apex organization. Which came  out rarely making the readers pay for the services they obtain at the Library.  This is surprising in a State with hundred percent literacy.  But every thing works here! The Staff and officials work in meagre payments but  take a lot of interest in the day to day running of the Library making it feasible with the limited resources ..! 

The multitude of Thrissur rarely thought of reading, as much of a thing.  Most of the people were keen on newspapers only.    Those who visited the town centre  are all busy either getting their thing done, or working for a daily living.  The permanent are mostly traders and shop keepers who have a hundred and one thing up their heads keeping the reigns of their businesses..!

Old Thrissur had more reading public. The new Thrissur has taken on the developments in automobiles and constructions coupled with the media explosions delivering all gadgets including smart phones and HD Televisions making reading time rare.  The great library stood as a mute spectator to the whole drama enacted around it every day.  The King was a companion to the Library...!

A Mother's Hope!

Father was convalescing! He was enterprising! Had gone to the forests to survey and bid for trees and also look for land near there..!  But alas, at the first instance itself he was taken by the allergy caused by a tree called "Cheru".  The allergy of 'cheru' starts with severe attack on the skins and connected fever and body pain etc.  He was down and was getting back after ayurvedic treatment for a month by the family Ayurvedic physician, who brought him back in a month.
The household silver were all out by this time!

We seven children and the convalescing father and the strong mother, like all mothers of old Kerala, got together one evening to see if we can survive.  It was holiday time from school.  The meeting brought up the great idea making use of the 'venneer' (ashes from buring dry leaves) which can be sold for money (very little money, indeed)!

Father was weak, but he won't sit idle.  Straight away he started sweeping under the abundant and thick bamboo clusters with a broom he made himself!  We were over joyed to collect the dry leaves in huge baskets and bring to one spot to make a huge maund! In between there was a huge snake which father said would go away by itself! We believed him.  The cobra looked at all of us for a while, put its head down and slowly went into the bamboo cluster.  Father turned to us all and said:  "You all saw where the large snake has gone to take rest.  So, don't go near there and disturb it!"

By the evening, we all stood around the huge maund of dry bamboo leaves which made a sort of camp fire.  Once the fire was over father disbursed the crack team to rest for the day informing us that the ash can be collected next day morning only, after it cools, for which we have to give the night.

Mother called us in with the command to bring ripe jack-fruit tree leaves, only ripe ones for having our kanji (rice porridge)which was ready by then.  We were told not to pluck green leaves (and make a short cut, instead of collecting the ripe leaves) as this would bring great poverty and we will not get to anything to eat, suggesting famine in the land..!  (Even though this would have been a great "Green Peace" advice of that times sixty years ago, we as children laughed a lot of that suggestion saying "Who can be poorer than us.....?!!")

Once we took it to Mother.  She said, "We are not poor, we lack riches, but we are Rich in our homely love and we stay together! How so ever money you earn, that does not make you rich, unless you stay together in love"!

The next day we took small bagfuls of the ash to a house half kilometre away where a grand old lady supervised the measurement of the same in a tin and counted out the money.  She was a very kind women and very rich owning a lot of cultivable land and paddy fields. We as small children never thought that people can have that much of land and richess. She was always very well dressed and came out at the first door bell.  She had a benign look all the time as if we are doing her a favour.  Every tin was around fifty naya paise or so.  If a tin was slightly incomplete she considered that too a full tin and paid us.  We sometimes mentioned it to her that the last tin was not full.  She dismissed it with a wave of her hand and a smile saying : "That doesn't matter.  It was almost a tin and that is good enough".  I thought she was an angel.

We walked back with whatever little money we got for this trade and it was Little fish and little water animal which we called 'njounikka' was plenty in the water and we caught the njounikkas to be boiled and their flesh taken out when we reach home.  There were plenty of frogs and froglings too which we despised.  Every once in a while there will be a 'neerkoli' a kind of water snake swishing past ..!  Most of them are lost now.  The paddy fields became housing plots!  The water animals and fish lost their lives too, some due to loss of paddy fields and some due to excessive use of detergents and pesticides!

We brought the money home and were given the 'thotti' (kind of wicker basket, made out of bambu lines which were used widely to carry household items from shops) to go and buy the everyday things needed and which would come under the money for the day!  We happily went and got them and if there is any little loose change we purchased sweets (small orange sweets, which we called orange mittaayi).  At home the seven children and the parents sat down for a hearty meal at lunch and dinner as if it was a feast and savored a great meal every time!  We knew the value of money and labour!

Slowly, father regained his health and was becoming the 'he man' that he once was!  One day he told mom: "Get me my dress well ironed, I want to go to the market"  Mom objected: "Not yet, you still have to recover"! Father replied: "I know it is time that I moved! I have to find something for these little birds and make them able to fly.  I really feel better now!"

Next day he went to the market.  He never said he is going to work.  He always said 'going to the market'  In the evening he came back with a bundle made out of his second cloth, which is a kerala towel in which he had rice and groceries and held a beautiful fish in one hand which was pretty large to make the neighbours jealous!

At the night meal he spoke to us and pondered and deliberated about a future course of action!  He said the first easy, but he could make it as he was resolved to find some thing.  He said he had to do odd jobs to earn as much for what ever he brought and said until he found something better, he would have to continue with it and the firm resolve that he will not rest until something better is found and will support us.   His only request was that we concentrate on our studies and not worry of household things which he said he would provide by all means and that he did!

One day father came home early with groceries and rice and declared "Tomorrow onwards I am going to take up a new job!   A friend of mine is brokering the sale of wood and he has offered to help me out to do the same business"!  That was a new beginning for father and a new beginning for all of us too, who started to school in strict earnest! Life was once again back to normal..!

After the great meal of the evening, we all relaxed and mother told stories at bed time. Of course, first thing in the evening is always our prayer, the family prayer which lasted forty five minutes or more which if left to us children, we drove at a hectic speed!  But mother never allowed us to over-speed and made us go at a slow pace!

Then was the great meal which kept us going those days!  Since it was the only meal of the day, it always tasted great and we all thought it to be a feast!  Then we all spoke on different subjects, sometimes read stories from books bought or brought from the nearby libraries etc. Then was bed time, when mother told us stories from her repository!  The story always had the ending that "my son, like the hero of the story, you will bring us the best times when you cross the seven seas and bring riches where after we will have no dearth of anything and there shall no more be any scarcity!

Her great hope and expectation prodded me in my pursuits and ambitions in life! That is a great expectation which prods me on even now..!