The old man and the little baby!

The palm leaf horn was lying on the centre table. There are a few palm leaf fans with their stock in place ready to turn with sight wind lying around. A small baby coconut twister, used by little boys to play was also lying around. They will all dry up in course of time.

They were all made to enthuse the little baby of the old man's son whom he used to play with. The little one definitely understood the old man and he waited to see dawn to play with him. The old man lived in the village and his son and daughter in law had come down from the city a nights travel away, with their baby boy to spend small vacation. Now they have travelled back. The toys and their left overs are lying around to be removed.

In the city, children get Chinese toys and plastic stuff which does not have much of natural things in them. Mostly nylon, plastic, electrical writing, and together combinations of light and sound to keep little ones happy.

The little family of the old man's son left the day before by train which came half an hour late. The old man worried about their position in the train which was next to the entry. Warned his children again and again about looking after the baby and their luggage etc. to the extend of making them mad! The old man was well used to the trains. That is why he wanted to warn the children. But his children were well used to travel themselves but the old man was anxious about the baby whom he considered his friend now! Old people are like that. They slowly move away from the grown ups and moved towards the little ones who interact better with them!

The train moved away slowly leaving a vacuum and a lot of dust in the Station. The old man checked his phone if it was properly 'on' to receive a call from his children to say everything was all right.  Of and on he picked up the phone from his pocket to check if a call has been gone unheard.  'No.' No calls.  He drove his car silently manouvering the on coming traffic with high beams on. Once in heavy traffic he forgot about the phone call.  His mind raced to the times he used to go by train generally been seen of by any of his family members.  There were no phones like mobile phones in those days.  A land line phone was a rarity.  The normal mode of communication was an 'inland letter' which could be purchased from the post office and written and posted with the village home address on it.

After four days or a week, the village post man brought that letter home and mother waited for the elder children to come home to read it.  Father was told that the letter has come and everything is well.  They were people with brave hearts, who have left for their heavenly abodes.  But not this old man.  He has seen a few of the phones and their transition into mobile phones.  Once he thought of the old times he became brave.  No need to worry.  At home he and his wife had a silent meal and prayer before hitting the bed.  Next morning he got the message:  "Well, in car towards home" !  The old man was appeased! He heaved a sigh and murmured:  "The new times"

A Morning in Chennai..!

The morning in Chennai was cold after the rain and thunder of the night! There was no sign of any rain in the evening before, but all on a sudden the whole of it started when it was time to go to bed and it sent me straight into deep sleep. The off and on lightning and thunder only had minimal effect on me as I mistook them for possible late comers driving over lose cement slabs of the condominium and their lights. They came in all hours and at times there is a terrific motorcycle maniac shooting off or shooting in after his day's tiring work.

In the dream I dreamt of the book I was reading, a fun book by one Bryson, a humorist, which my son had brought for me to keep me in good humour! A book of humour is always welcome with me. My gratefulness found no bounds. But when I opened the book, the first humour was that the first thirty pages are gone and I had difficulty completing the immediate morning ablutions, in hand. I took it as part of making humour at the beginning of a book, of course, the Author and Publisher do not know about it as it happened with constant use in the library. The book I had inspected well reading the back cover first as always, watching the front cover and the immediate inner page which said many things including the small letters on piracy policy etc. This made me think of a great feast of reading, when I really set to it. And here I am with the first thirty pages missing. The thirty first page onwards did not dishearten me as the writer also seemed to be having all kinds of difficulties which I too had been facing in life. He lived in London and its suburbs and I lived in my place in Chennai. Occasionally I went to Kerala or Delhi to re-enter Chennai or any of the other two places anew!

This gave me a great feeling even though travel is tedious! The author Bryson spoke about parking difficulties, finding street names, the normal to be expected from cabbies etc. Etc. These things change here according to people and climate. We never could enjoy parking difficulties earlier, but now we are progressing and we get good parking difficulties and loss money on that count in most of the places! Scratches, accidents or cruel looks are bonus in this exercise! Earlier there were times we never could enjoy parking difficulties and any body parked any where as only a few possessed the four wheel running machines. In the villages the running machines were only bullock carts which were only walking machines usually. Once in a while when the driver is a youth or youngster and in his mood, he made the cart to run by beating at the bullocks or showing a show off to the bullocks to terrorize them. Not any more, now the animal protection groups are in place, and no driver or assistant would dare to beat a bullock!

Now every body travels light and in cars, not the bullock carts, the four wheel contraptions with fire in side.!

I have no inclination of describing London or 'the underground' as we have our own city and various kinds of stuff to complicate or simplify morning and evening life.! Everybody faces it every day and some of them write it down in news papers which help us in the morning ablutions. Those who do not understand the news are a happy lot and they live life king size and enjoy. Those who understand are always anxious, if the satellite will reach on time, whether the signals will decrease phone charges, a new system of rule will decrease petrol charges etc. Etc. Some even look for the down trend in the vegetable prices, home prices et al. But the only price coming down is the TV price and with every TV it is a new connection for the cable net work which will be another monthly bill..!

Once we come out and catch the OMR life begins in strict earnest.  We are spaced properly by the various red lights, police posts and the ultimate good will of all the road users who generally cooperate and go well with one another. at the Sholinganellur red light one can catch up with the head lines of the newspaper but not the deep news as one has to keep moving to readjust one's position and be ready to move when the red light changes into green. A couple of toll booths on the way re-arrange your speed and have your road test done as one has to pass through the narrow lanes paying the toll booth dues!

After the driving tests at the toll passes you are ready to take on Chennai proper by taking the Adyar road giving a right turn just before Tidel Park and then making a number of lefts and rights.  If one is patient enough and have enough petrol, it would be wise keeping behind a bus going in the direction one wants.  After a number of turns and narrow but well done roads (one has always be careful of pot holes which may creep up in-spite of the best efforts of the authorities) the Marina Beach will welcome you with its nice breeze and you are near the main city.  There after the drive will be better.  The roads are more straight and one has to take occasional turns as one wants.  But still, it will take some time to get acclimatised with the roads and the place.!

The elusive brake..!

The bicycle was not fast but my friend in class five was coming against me, who was on testing myself and my friend was also doing the same.  Both of us yelled to each other "brake pidikkoo.." (apply the brake..!).  But both of us could not find the brake and my friend fell infront of me and I rode over him to go a little longer and fall down.  That scene ended in both our trainers coming running up and helping us to get up and also setting our little bicycles right.

Next was the second session in which we were having our session on the road. In this we were to ride down the main high way (which was only a simple tarred road then) in which all kinds of vehicles plied.  We had fellow friends to watch over us in that we should not fall on the route.  I was driving on my return trip as I had successfull completed the onward drive.  Half the way was a padam on either side (padam - paddy field) of the road and a huge transport bus was approaching  from behind. There was a cute car coming from the front.  We drive on the left here and as the car was on the extreme right I presumed the bus will come closer to me.  So I have to give side and move more to the left.  A gentleman going in front of me was walking with a packet on his right hand.  In my giving more side to the huge bus and closing in on the gentleman in front, I frantically wanted to brake but it was not to be seen.  And Lo.. I went straight under the hand of the gentleman in front of me to the left and went straight down the side canal of the road which had water in it and was full of water plants.!

The bus and car passed and a hand lifted me from among the water plants.  I was shivering and was also afraid.  I asked the gentleman:  "Are you hurt?"
He replied with the same question: "Are you...hurt..?"  .  I said no.  Then he said: "I have children like you at home.  If they go against some one I don't want them to get hurt" "So you drive safely and reach your place.  But from here, do not bicycle on the main road.  Walk with your bicycle until the bye-lane.  Then you can ride!"  That was a time, fifty years back...making me mesmerized when I think back..! 

But the good thing is I became very keen about the brake thereafter ..! Till date I have kept it up and also advised my near and dear to please hold on to your brake in any eventuality in driving as that is the first and foremost life line in driving.

But when one first rides a bicycle the first thing coming to ones sight is the front tyre moving forward which sends the adrenalin surging even though it is only a bicycle! The trainer always advised not to look on the wheel but far ahead on the road and keep balance and eventually I did!

The Vegetable Market

The vegetable market is a place where the ladies of the house galore and have their time in buying the required vegetables for the house hold and thus keep their hegemony on their homes. The way to the market is well defined and the time is always in the evening. As a matter of course, the women get themselves ready and go for the ritual by themselves if their husbands are at work, or sons are away etc. But those who can get their spouses to accompany them are more happy as they can be used to carry the bought out stuff and also to work as the moving ATM.

The husbands who have not gone for this ritual usually escape the monotony of waiting for their wives at the shop door or move with ther women while the women select the required items. Many shop keepers have sensed this prejudice of women in selecting the best of the vegetables presented and allow them into the shop to do their selection! Those shopkeepers who do not like women come inside the shop and select their vegetables are consiidered rude and women usually despise such shops. Their pretext have been very right in the sense their husbands have later found out to their diismay that the vegetables which were so lovingly and quickly bought turned out to be rotten and only half of the purchased item were usefull.

One of those days, Ramu set out with his wife for the normal custom of getting vegetables. The shop was four kilometres away and a small bus ride took them to the dustry market agog with the hustle and bustle of vegetable sellers, the regular vegetable shops, grocery shops, the fish sellers and all other kinds of every day ware. The time and place is a good time spend for any one having not much other work. But the dust and cheeck by jowl vehicles of all sorts make it very uninteresting these days as Ramu soon found out.

Since the ritual has to be somehow performed he moved with his wife with then obedient stature of a good husband and the lady entered the shop. At the entry, she handed over the bags to Ramu and went in. Ramu simply followed her with the express intention of helping out. The first item to be purchased was the 'french beens' which is an item for the usual 'thoran' or side vegetable dish. She checked each been with the alacrity of an engineer inspecting his plans for a new building. In a matter of fifteen minutes the selection was over and she moved to the next item, the tomatoes. Tomatoes these days can't be simply relied upon. The heap will have both good and rotten, the ripe and over ripe as well as the non performing stiff ones. In another half an hour most of the fruits were inspected and half a kilogram of the stuff was collected. The next items was the underground yam which in any case has to be inspected only by sight as these are huge lumps from which as much is cut out and weighed. If the yam is good the colour will be white and if it is not that good, the colour will be reddish. Here the colour was white which made the selection easier. In an hours's time the selection was over and Ramu was pulling out the cash for the bill, when his wife suddenly found another item for the house hold, namely, the 'bhindies' (the ladies finger).

That was the last item but Ramu was at his wits end. Bhindies are a love with all cautious ladies shopping. The modus operandi is checking most of the bhindies in the lot by pressing each one of them and slighting breaking a little part at the end of the bhindi. The young bhindies will break instantaneously where as the older ones will not break that easily and are naturally discarded. This exercise usually took some time, even though, the shopping ladies usually took it as routine. The shop keepers, meaning, the good shop keepers, never complained as they knew it these women who brought business to them and kept it running in good form. If one looked only for men folk shopping much of his ware won't be sold as men coming to buy vegetables are few and far between in India. But not so with ladies. If there is a house hold there is a lady and if there is a lady, she will shop for vegetables which is her prerogative. With husband or without, they will shop for vegetables. If the husband is available he will come for accompaniment and helping out and will be generally harmless.

Ramu thought of the good old times when he used to go for the market and buy his whole lot of vegetables in half an hours time and ”Where are you lost, don't we have to move for groceries and fish?” He mumbled “oh..oh...” and moved with her to the next shop carrying a bag of vegetables. On the way, there was the knick knack vendor where his wife mumbled in his ear, “just a minute”..and was simply lost in selection of little knick knacks from a hair pin to hair band to so many other little things .... thise is can take quite some time.....Now Ramu has stopped thinking and was at solemn ease.. The has ended for Ramu as it will be still later they completed their whole urchase for the day....and he decided “So be it”

Out on the road in Chennai..!

      Eating the road dust is a big problem in Chennai if one is out on the road walking.  As long as one does not consider it as anything, no problem.  The buses ply regularly and side by side are all kinds of huge vehicles whose power and numbers have increased manifold from the time of R.K. Narayan novels.  Now there is a new found energy and concept among the people who want to get things done fast and quick.

So, there is construction all around, from buildings to bridges, roads to clover leaves and so on. All these throw up dust and we are free to have it. The buses jostle with cars and in between are the bikes, scooters, mopeds, three wheeler scooters, the water carriages, bicycles and et all.  They all go hand in hand.  Mini buses among them are the solace to help people to reach destinations if one is without his or her own vehicle.

The miracle is, with all that the traffic still go smooth.  But the health of those on the road has taken the brunt along with the traffic officers and road side vendors.  Accidents do happen so many number of times in with the two wheeler drivers are hit more often.  Among all that, those who drive on two wheelers and scooters with gay abandon, zigzagging among other vehicles leaves me speechless..!

Nostalgia II

Elsie chechie is no more.  It was she who gave me Two hundred and twenty five rupees to buy my first bicycle.  It was a time Kerala was a beautiful place and families had their own simple love relationships with a lot of children in the family and the parents bringing up the children woth lots of love and less money.

One good thing of the time was the grown up of the families who got into various jobs helped those without it.  That was how I was getting my first bicycle's money from my sister who was employed by that time.  One fine morning she asked me if I would like to own my own bicycle.  Till then, I was getting a bicycle on need based from a local shop on rent.  The rented bicycles were good but to own one and that too a new one at that was a treat by any means in those days.

She brought brand new notes and I smelled it, as it was from her Income Tax Office where she worked.  But all the same, it was Two hundred and twenty five rupees.  I shop off to my eleder brother's house to ask him to accompany me to the Trichur Town City to buy my NEW bicycle. Being a pious guy he got up from the work which he was doing, pulled on a shirt and started walking with me, discussing various shops and bicycles which we will have to check for before getting the one we wanted.

We took the old 'Sreeramachandra' again and got down near the King's statue to cut across the 'Pooraparambu' also called the Thekkinkadu maidan to reach the south of the 'Round' ! People in that place only mentioned it as the 'round' which initially I could not digest.  They will say "I am going to the round"! What round?
You don't say exactly where.? Or is that that he may be wanting to go round and round  like a merry go round?  No..no..! Slowly the clear terms came to the fore.  It is 'Round South', 'Round North' etc. where the shops and businesses are located.

So we came to the Round South and got into the bicycle shop what was like a mini-scooter agency in those days.  We made enquiries and the price suggested took away the pride of having the amount for the first bicycle and all that.  It was Four hundred and sixty nine rupees.  God....! While I was looking at the guy with awe for suggesting such a sky-rocketing sum, he was simply standing there with an anxious look as if we may really buy it.  My brother saved the situation by telling him that we will call on again after making a few more inquiries. We moved to other shops were different other prices were mentioned.

We had started in the morning and now it is almost afternoon when my brother brought out his new idea.  He said he would catch High Road where he knew the shop of CM Joseph and in no time we were there.  The board said 'CM JOSEPH Cycle Store"  The owner guy, a simple person like my brother received us and asked us to be seated which we readily agreed and took our seats.  After our long walk in search of our heartfelt search, we were really wanting to sit somewhere.  The CM Joseph spoke on.  "Don't worry about the amount you have.  Just tell me how much it is, then, I can make a bicycle suiting your purse'"   That was a great suggestion.  We mentioned our amount and he came up with the most positive and colourful idea.  He said "We will have a "Hero" bicycle frame with various other assortment of parts.  The seat will be a large leather seat which will be cheaper than the other seats, he said.  So it was agreed upon and in a matter of two hours he and his assistants made a beautiful bicycle in front of our eyes, from fixing the wheel with spokes onwards to fixing it on the frame, leveling it on their leveler and owards the end fixed the beautiful large seat in green colour.

There were small green covers pulled on the brake handles, again green soft handle covers on the handle grips, two nice colourful coir flowers rounds in the hubs of the wheels, nice mud flaps etc.  We forewent the facility of a dynamo and connected light in front as we decided we will cut down on cost for the time being and will add it as an add on after wards as this will bring the bicycle really in our budget.

At last, the shop keeper handed over the bicycle to my brother (my eldest brother who was acting as my guardian for the time being) and he in turn struck on the seats a couple of times as if he was inaugurating it and said : "Ok...it has come out well.  Have this..!"  and gave it to me.  We started out of the shop and walked out towards the 'Round' again.  We still had some money left.  So he suggested we will have something to eat now.  We have worked hard till now.
We walked to the nearest tea-shop, olden times, hotels were few in Trichur, all were known as 'Tea-shops' . We had a 'masala dosa each and tea' and I could not wait to do the bicycle.  Once outside the shop, my brother said :  "Now you can, 'perhaps, go on your bicycle and I shall catch a bus, if it is ok with you?"

It was very much OK with me and he walked to the Bus stand called the Municipal Bus Stand which also had another King in the centre.  I for one, was on the bicycle, as soon as my brother was out of sight.  I reached home on 'Cloud Nine' that day!  That was the first and last time, me and eldest brother travelled together.  I still keep a bicycle of the same type for memories sake..!


Elsie Chechi saw through my progress on the bicycle and in life.... and was amply happy about it all through till her very end,, which came a few weeks ago.

Enjoyment of the Retirement Loves..!

Enjoyment of the Retirement Loves..!

The morning starts without programs. That is the first joy.  There is no set time to get up or go to sleep.  But one cannot sleep after day break as the birds on the trees around will start chirping so furiously, it would seem, their sole aim is to get me up on my feet.  The endless number of teas will be halted by the thuk of the news paper followed by a soothing ziik of two packets of milk being placed in a paper box kept for it by the morning newspaper youngster who it would seem does not sleep after mid night.  The young people!

Once the paper falls in front of the door, I can't wait, but to grab it and see if any body has slandered or said anything untoward any of the leaders around the world.People around the world do such silly things at times and such silly things are printed.  All the same, I go through it, before my eyes grab the local news of what happened in the neighbourbood and in the country.

"Killed, stolen, accident, prejudiced, abused, bitten, beaten, done for, broken, robbed, dacoited and all sorts of terrible things happened, and the authorities, police and all the other nice people on the other side trying to do everything possible to prevent them"  Spliced in between are the new drumming for all the goodie, goodies in the world from Gold, Jewellery, Cars, boats, buses, children's toys, ladies make up, saries, foods, hotel services, and all other kinds of services to houses, villas, flats, bungalows and farm houses all at low prices, with bank loans which is just for asking, and all other stuff which can be simply imagined most of them with a huge 'FREE' of a small little thing along with it. A small steel pin with a car, a beautiful greatly bewiching sticker 'for children' with all house hold items"

If this does not wake me up fully, I take one more cup of tea and go ouutfor my walk in which I see my son's car which is badly soiled.  Due to the wet roads and the cattle on thee roads, the car has accumulated a lot of diitch which has to be washed...My God.  To drive such a dirty car...Grr.   I am instantly at it, washing it out furiously.

I clean the floor of the car with a little poly broom and sweeping vessel, shower the car, wipe it with wet cloth and smoothen it with chamois and the car smiles when my son comes down to go to office.  "Oh..you have made it new"....his comment, and my day is made.!  My chest expands, my son drives out, and I am back to the house where my grand child is rolling in his bed, being too small to walk he throws his innocent smile at me and makes indecipherable sounds at me all meaning he wants me to be with him....It keeps on turn by turn ...and then we wait for my son to return from work.

Once he return all of us converse all the matters in the world, have prayer, food and more conversation and go to bed....and it repeats...Retirement is over.....
Good...no?
The sleep time is reminded by the umpteen number of frogs and insects around our house which start their choir by ten and continues till morning when daylight break out! It is a photo arrangement with them and nature. They are very regular at it so far. Children take it as a lullaby!











































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