Nostalgia - The power of the little V.I.P.

Nostalgia - The power of the little V.I.P.

When my son was growing up from infancy our main occupation was to play with him and tell him stories and sing lullabies to him whenever he wanted. I could attend to him mostly on the week-ends and evenings. He used to be a great self in asking questions which I could never imagine, from “Why is the moon always up there?, Why can't we go to the moon?, Will it ever come down so that we don't have to go there and so on. When it came to the story of the King and the Lion in which the Lion tries to attack the King and the King suddenly turns and cuts the Lion into two etc. He was curious how did the Lion enter the Palace Garden? Many of my little answers satisfied him and he was appeased. He was only agitated if I went to sleep in between the narration. Then he will sit on my chest and keep asking me “Phir kya hua?” meaning “Then what happened” and will pull my chin. Many a time I got the tether and continued but sometimes when sleep was to heavy, I mixed up and started with “Then the rabbit started running” which at times sent him into laughter and he exclaimed: “There is no rabbit in the Palace Garden, it is the Lion which has to come”. This brought me awake and I repaired the story to the usual King and the Lion. All that has now become old stories and my son has forgotten some of them, like me too! But at times the thoughts recour.

Now my son is grown up and married and he was arriving with his wife and toddler son. The little bundle clung on to me after throwing a beaming smile at me as soon as we met at the Station. He threw the smile with such gusto and intent, for a one year old, I could not resist the feeling of old times and take him in my arms. I thought he was just jumping on to me because I showed my hands, but soon I understood, the real reason. He was set upon taking my spectacles as a little toy and that was the reason for the beautiful enchanting smile. Once on me he straight went to pick up my spectacles and started playing with it, trying different ways of holding it and ultimately holding it on one of its arms and turning it like a fan. I kept of telling him that this was not to be done but he never cared or seemed to understand my point! He kept on turning the spectacles on one of its handles and ultimately my son had to come and pick it up from him which irritated me and the little infant boy alike. I said that he would have been more polite to the little kid and he told me that that way you will normally not get the spectacles back from him in proper form as there is a little engineer in him who will go to work on the spectacles after a while, when the spectacles will be dismantled part by part!

Once the spectacles was rempoved he quickly forgot that part and started enjoying the scenery on the way where the moving vehicles and their horns were a god attraction. In between he lost interest in me and started beaming his little cute smile at my wife and slowly went over to her and started playing with her ear rings and the flowers on her saree. Soon he was to lose interest in all that as the temperature was rising as the day was becoming hot and he once again threw his great smile at his mom who took him in her arms and started giving him milk from his milke bottle. Soon he was asleep on her lap.

Once home and the car stopped he woke up and surveyed the scenario and slowly with sleepy eyes was trying to smile at me and it was time for me to pick him up and thereafter the whole set of cycle repeated it self. Many a time I played with him and at times he came to play with me or make me play. The surprising part was that he got most of his needs by a disarming smile..! He never said anything as he is yet to speak in full syllables, but his smile caught on to every body with whom he came in contact in the near relations and they soon thought out what he may be needing and did it for him. When we think of it, it is marvellous for a little toddler, isn't it?

In between my son came along from his computer works when he wanted a piece of wire or a plug point or some such things he needed in his work and seeing us at play he remarked: “You to make a good company!”

I smiled at him along with the little guy ...! (Thinking...far back he was good company with me..now he has become very serious..!)

Nostalgia - The power of the little V.I.P.

When my son was growing up from infancy our main occupation was to play with him and tell him stories and sing lullabies to him whenever he wanted. I could attend to him mostly on the week-ends and evenings. He used to be a great self in asking questions which I could never imagine, from “Why is the moon always up there?, Why can't we go to the moon?, Will it ever come down so that we don't have to go there and so on. When it came to the story of the King and the Lion in which the Lion tries to attack the King and the King suddenly turns and cuts the Lion into two etc. He was curious how did the Lion enter the Palace Garden? Many of my little answers satisfied him and he was appeased. He was only agitated if I went to sleep in between the narration. Then he will sit on my chest and keep asking me “Phir kya hua?” meaning “Then what happened” and will pull my chin. Many a time I got the tether and continued but sometimes when sleep was to heavy, I mixed up and started with “Then the rabbit started running” which at times sent him into laughter and he exclaimed: “There is no rabbit in the Palace Garden, it is the Lion which has to come”. This brought me awake and I repaired the story to the usual King and the Lion. All that has now become old stories and my son has forgotten some of them, like me too! But at times the thoughts recour.

Now my son is grown up and married and he was arriving with his wife and toddler son. The little bundle clung on to me after throwing a beaming smile at me as soon as we met at the Station. He threw the smile with such gusto and intent, for a one year old, I could not resist the feeling of old times and take him in my arms. I thought he was just jumping on to me because I showed my hands, but soon I understood, the real reason. He was set upon taking my spectacles as a little toy and that was the reason for the beautiful enchanting smile. Once on me he straight went to pick up my spectacles and started playing with it, trying different ways of holding it and ultimately holding it on one of its arms and turning it like a fan. I kept of telling him that this was not to be done but he never cared or seemed to understand my point! He kept on turning the spectacles on one of its handles and ultimately my son had to come and pick it up from him which irritated me and the little infant boy alike. I said that he would have been more polite to the little kid and he told me that that way you will normally not get the spectacles back from him in proper form as there is a little engineer in him who will go to work on the spectacles after a while, when the spectacles will be dismantled part by part!

Once the spectacles was rempoved he quickly forgot that part and started enjoying the scenery on the way where the moving vehicles and their horns were a god attraction. In between he lost interest in me and started beaming his little cute smile at my wife and slowly went over to her and started playing with her ear rings and the flowers on her saree. Soon he was to lose interest in all that as the temperature was rising as the day was becoming hot and he once again threw his great smile at his mom who took him in her arms and started giving him milk from his milke bottle. Soon he was asleep on her lap.

Once home and the car stopped he woke up and surveyed the scenario and slowly with sleepy eyes was trying to smile at me and it was time for me to pick him up and thereafter the whole set of cycle repeated it self. Many a time I played with him and at times he came to play with me or make me play. The surprising part was that he got most of his needs by a disarming smile..! He never said anything as he is yet to speak in full syllables, but his smile caught on to every body with whom he came in contact in the near relations and they soon thought out what he may be needing and did it for him. When we think of it, it is marvellous for a little toddler, isn't it?

In between my son came along from his computer works when he wanted a piece of wire or a plug point or some such things he needed in his work and seeing us at play he remarked: “You to make a good company!”

I smiled at him along with the little guy ...! (Thinking...far back he was good company....now he has become very serious..!)

The Chembarathis and the golden sunset of Thrissur! The sun sets the beach waters into molten gold...!

The neighbourhood tom cat

The neighbourhood tom cat!

The neighbourhood tom cat is a permanent visitor at our Enamavu house. We do not own him and all. He just passes by. He will throw a benign look at me and walk past. Once or twice he came close to me keeping his tail up and meavoing. He was about to rub on my legs he spotted my wife coming from the kitchen and took to his heels. As they both do not go together, he always glanced at me with surprise as to how I am continuing here!

That meeting made a beginning to our relationship. He will be found invariably around whenever we cleaned fish. The local market has a fish seller who brings fish in the evening. That is when we buy our daily needed fish as is usual in Kerala, the southern part of India. Cleaning small fish is easy. Once it is cleaned the left overs will be a delicacy for the tom cat and he patiently waited until I got up to put a few pieces near the coconut palm tree. Once I moved away, it is his time to have his delicacy. It is not that the cat is fully dependent on me. He gets his daily bread by the perspiration of his forehead. For that he moves around when we people are asleep. That is their time where they get their prey.They spend the whole night with wide open eyes to keep watch on the things moving at night and catches hold of whatever is his required prey from among the moving little animals or birds.

On full moon days he will be busy courting the female cats if they are around. We do not know from where they come. They all are there just like the stars in the day sky. We can't see them. They just appear at night and disappear during the day. The full moon days are very bright and the tom cat usually comes to full form on those days. On other days he moves around catching an occasional rat or any such animal for his food. Another of the delicacies were the green frogs which are now very rare.

During the days he retreats to the compound wall top, or to the wfirewood shed where dry palm leaves etc. are stored. Since this is a place which do not get wet even in rainy season he selected it as a safe haven for his day sleep and rest. I discovered him once aftger my trip to a distant place. Once back I was opening the shed to see my old bicycle when all on a sudden there was a commotion from the stored dry palm leaves which startled me. I froze to see if there was any longh snake in the palm leaves. But was soon very relieved to see the tom cat coolly and slowly getting up from among the leaves, climb up to a side stand, turn his head and look at me with glowing eyes with two thin lines at the apple of his eye, yawn ..opening all his mouth and protruding his tounge, almost saying that it was I who startled him from his siesta and looking at me with sleepy eyes. Once the yawn was over he walked or jumped out of the window which did not have a shutter almost saying: “Why don't you coming knocking or come when I am not there? You hum ans make it a habit to disturb others!” I just smiled. I knew him and he knew me. And firewood shed is a perfect place for him where no body disturbs him.

As time went on he picked up weight and was moving slowly. He had lost his earlier agility a bit. I was sad for him. He was aging. In the mean time, a new white she cat appeared with a little one on her side. The little cat started gorwing fast. Once it was almost becoming a youth, the she cat disappeared. Now it was the youth cat and the big tom cat moving around in the compound, at times under the coconut tree or in the near by compound or at the water channel. Once the youth cat was eating a huge rat when the big tom cat came around. The Youth cat reverently moved away leaving the food aside. Initially, the tom cat did not touch it. He just went and lied down near the food and started looking at the youth cat which had settled down a distance away. After a while, the old tom cat started eating slowly. The youth cat moved away.

There was something to the old tom. He was not his old exhuberent self fully. But how much time we can give to an old tom cat. I had to travel and hence to leave the place. After a month or so we returned and found there was a stench coming from somewhere. We went around and could not find anything for a while. Then we found the dead carcass of the old tom near the side of a motor house in the neightbouring compound where no body lives. The old tom cat had kept his regards for us even in old age death. He moved away from our house so as not to bother us with his body in old age. His half decayed body was disintegrating slowly becoming food for the trees and plants around leaving whatever came from the soil back to the soil and enriching it even in his death.

Now only the youth cat is left in the vicinity and he keeps on coming whenever I take fish for cleaning exactly as the old tom cat. Once he had his food he climbs up the compund wall during the day and does his half sleep with a very keen eye to who ever is moving around. From rats to little birds and frogs all he surveys in that sitting and whenever something worthwhile comes to sight then he is all action for a few minutes which is a marvel to see. Once his prey in his mouth he retreats to back of the firewood shed and returns after a while to his earlier position on the wall to lick and clean his hands and paws. By the evening he is more active and gets down to go to other compounds especially on days when the moon is bright!

Reading The Roots - 'Verukal'

The book called 'Verukal'...The roots.

The old novel by Malayatoor Ramakrishnan. Malayatoor as he is popularly known, had written this novel towards the end of his literary career. As is well known in Kerala, he was a member of the IAS and a very senior beaurecrat. From among many of his books, this book seems to be the reflection of his life..!

The angst of a middle aged man when he looks back to his life of youth and childhood, any of us would go through such experiences, which are silently recorded in our minds to be buried wiith us in our graves, when our departed near and dear would rejoice with us on it! Such a situation makes it an unusual story of ayone in any circumstance. Here the author belongs to a Brahmin family, but with relatives of all sorts, rich, poor educated and some in very precarious circumstances.

He paints his Paatavu, Paattti (Grand father and Grand mother) and his own Dad in so colourful paint that they starts living in our hearts and we also feel the pain and love they impart. Through them, we also start seeing in our minds our own Grand mothers and Grand fathers who gave us too much love in their own way and our dads and moms who did everything for us sacrificing themselves!

Nine in Hundredand Fifteen

Nine is Chapter 9, Hundred and Fifteen is Page number 115. Just reached Chapter 9. Only reached, not read as yet. As it takes time to read in this busy world of too many other urgencies like TV, mobile, inter net and all. But the reading shall continue, nonetheless! By the time I reached one hundred and fifteen, the main character of the novel had been through college almost. But not fully. With the candidness of an open youth, he relates his escapades while away to town and college of smoking and slowly trying to quench his curiosity of drinking, first with the local desi 'arrack' and then with the other English liaquor forms like Gin and Whisky. He gets a friend in college called Rajappan who decides run away from the college uninformed and he joins with him in his running away without much thought as all youths do to face the reality later the hard way. As there was no chance of his having heard the story of the 'prodigal son' he slowly sees the reality in the far off city of Madurai (It was a far off city in those days when travel facilities were not this far as we have now) where his friend gets selected to the Army and he is left high and dry as he himself could not get selected. The hardships clears his head and he comes to reality and wise as he is, he takes the decision taken by the prodigal son by returning to his father and home where every body was living only half way due to his unannounced absence from college. That was a time when phone and other facilities were not as prevalent andhis return fills them with new hope.

As we read, if we are in the elderly group, we will be filled with emotions of our youth times and later lifes and we can see our parents whom we may also have pained in some way or the other and the great silent way in which they would have suffered it and still smiled at us and would have discussed among themselves as to what would have happened to us and if we have to be treated for the mild little derangement of youthhood as some one jelous may have tried to poison their loved son through some desi foods etc. In the further treatment in which everyone in the family and near relatives take part it is definitely established (?) that 'yes, it is certainly some body poisoning their loved one which was reason for his loss mind and consequent running away. The boy is treated with ayurvedic medicines and treatment methods in which it is shown that some spirit is in possession of the boy and that spirit is sent away by a priest (temple pujari) which appeases all in the family especially the parents.

The School Photograph..!

The School photo graph

The photographer came at five o' clock. He was slated to come from the city town. We were small children studying in class six in those days. We were told that he would come in the late afternoon and we should be ready for photo-graph after the school.

So all of us waited with baited breath to hear the final bell. Once it sounded all went out running to take their baths and get ready for the photograph. This was the first time a photograph was being taken. There was no taking of photographs in those days. Children were seen directly only. Now the photographer is coming. !

All of us and the two elderly brothers all came ready after their baths and getting dressed in our best clothes. The bath was quickly accomplished at the well side. We were trained for that. One of us will draw the water from the deep well and pour on another one who will be standing in a small Kerala bath towel at the waist. One or two more little buckets of water will finish the bath of one. The the one bathed will repeat the process for the other. All went for their dressing which included a small shorts and a slack shirt and bit of the Cuticura  carefully preserved in our little boxes. Once ready all assembled in front of the residential school and arranged a cou;le of benches. That was the seating arrangement.

The Master ji gave orders for the fine tuned arrangements. Small children sat in front row, the teachers and medium boys on the benches and the tall students stood behind. The three rows made it it all. A football which we used to play was filled up and brought. The year '1964' was chalked on it and it was kept in front with a small trophy cup which the school had won in a local boys match on top of it.

In between the photographer came. A white shirted middle aged man was the photographer. He came in a rikshaw being pulled by another man who respectfully put down his side of the rikshaw on the ground and helped the traveller in his rikshaw to get down. Once he came down, the rikshaw puller took out a huge box and gave it to him. This was the photography camera. He brought it in front of us children who were arranging ourselves. He surveyed us and moved to a distance and opened the box to pull out a black box and a wooden contraption. He manouvered the wooden stuff and made it into a huge tripod and settled it in front of us children. He came close to Master ji and murmered to him to get us seated according to height and moved back to his box and stand.

Once at the stand he picked up the black box and settled it on top of the tripod and covered it with a black cloth, similar to a blanket. The camera box had a glass eye facing us. Once the blanket was in position he went under it from behind the tripod stand and started to moved the stand back and forth and settled in a place in a wy he thought was best for the capture of a picture. Then he started to do something with the box. Master ji told us that he is adjusting the length of the box. Once that was over he came in front and looked at all of us who were sitting like statues with eyes bulging out to see what he will do next! He told us to sit in relaxed positions and went near the camera cloth and removed the cloth from the front and removed a cap from the aperture eye. Now we could see the glass eye of the camera. The photographer went behind the camera once again under the blanket and started adjusting the box a little more. Then he settled that and once again covered the camera glass with a black cap.

The he went down to his box again and brought out a slate sort of frame and took it inside the blanket. Once inside, the Master ji explained to us that he was fixing the film. The man came out with the frame in his hand which he kept back into his box. Now he became very serious! He came near us looking at each one of us.

He pulled down some ones face a little, pushed up some others faces, told some of us to be more relaxed. He even went to the Master ji and physically turned his face a little. To some he told to turn their faces a little to the left or right etc. Then at a point he said ready and moved back to his camera. Once near the camera he surveyed all of us from left to right and said: “Now I will say 'Smile Please' – and then all of you should smile, ok?”

This was going to be the moment. All of us kept ready to do our Smiles and he slowly, ever so slowly, facing us put his hand on the eye cap of the camera eye and looking at us said 'Smile Please' and we all smiled. This was the first time somebody was telling us to smile and all of us pulled our lips to both sides and stood with the blandest of smiles and kept on standing like that. In the mean time the photographer removed the camera eye cap in a jiffy and covered it again. Then he turned to us in a relaxed form and told us “Sabaash” ! The Master ji got up and told us that the photograph is over. That was the first photograph which was ever taken in our life.

We were told that a proof will be available after a week and then the real photo will be available in a month when each one will get our copy on payment of its value of one Rupee each.

When it came it was a great photograph with the Master ji sitting in great style in the middle sitting row and all others in their respective place. I was in the front sitting with my lips pulled maximum to both sides presenting a large smile as much large as I could! It hang on our little house wall for many years with the football in front with '1964' written in chalk on it until we lost it to the photo-framer who had been entrusted with it for a new frame.

Sri Sriiganesha Mahima, a book by Maha Sweta Devi - a great read..!

Maha Sweta Devi, the great Novelist Philanthrophist... Sri Sriganesha Mahima.. A great read. ..!

Small book of about one hundred and ninety pages with the yesteryear Bihar and its villages drawn up in simple words.

The little girl 'Lechima' touches our hearts as of all other could have been souls in that stature in that part of the world. The old 'zemindaari' is drawn up in such clarity that the effects will make an imprint on all readers who goes through their pangs in simple detail. In between is slight traces of Government and authority as it was seen and felt by the author on her several interactions and visits to the various villages.

Lechima is engaged by a village elder to look after her house hold. The girl is got from her guardian on payment of little money and some articles and the girl starts working in the house of 'Medini Singh'. As his two wives could not give him a boy child the house lord Medini Singh marries for a third time and this poor girl gives birth to a child with a tooth in the mouth at birth itself, which is taken as a prominence of 'devamsh' a belief in that part of the country, in that people believed the child is partly divine. Meaning that the child has a part of Lord Ganesha in him.

The mother of the child dies of shock after seeing the child, immediately after the child birth.

Lechima who was the house keeper, who also had to give in to the wishes of the house lord, Medini Singh, has now got to bring up the child till his marriageable age of ten years, a custom in olden times. She does it with great love and care and hopes to get released from the bondage of the house after the boy child gets married. 

Her hopes are belied when the house lord tells her that even after the child gets married she just can't leave as she has to look after the household until the newly married girl comes home after his son Sri Sri Ganesha reaches the age of eighteen., which is the custom. Lechima is crestfallen as her plan to set up home after getting married to the village barber youth will have to be thrown away now. She slowly reconciles to her fate and once again looks after the household during which time the house lord Medini Singh slowly fades away due to paralysis, exhaustion and old age sickness and the new house lord, 'Sri Sri Ganesha' takes his place with new vigour and makes a name for himself in 'Zemindari' and leadership, which his father had earlier, in which the poor people around the place are much more harshly affected.

One has to go through the book to get a real feel of the story as the whole story can be understood and only through a cover to cover to read.

The Morning Newspaper....!

The morning newspaper comes early in the morning if it is on times. At times it may not arrive on time with the vendor-distributor and then it may get late affecting all of us readers badly. But mostly, by and large, by all means it falls at our door at five thirty in the morning, by the grace of the enterprising youngster who finishes distribution by six thirty in the morning to start his regular work of running his shop till noon to go to college in the afternoon ..! That is some enterprise. But he does it.

Once he distributes he may have more people who waits for him, especially those in retirement and old age, wanting eagerly to know what has happened to the world the day before, and also to know what will happen to the world tomorrow as visualised by the newspaper houses. A fair paper we read is one with a large circulation and once in hand we are appeased. The front page shows us the two faces of the Galaxy (of course not the real Galaxy but the mobile phone called Galaxy) and we are enthralled and we are told we can get it on flipcart. I will not write the price, mentioned, here..! Many consider it a great price if not a big price.

Times have changed these days. These are new times. Oldies will never understand. We used to stand in line to pay the telephone bills which cost us two hundred Rupees or more and started a conversation with the next man or woman in line about the exhorbitent charges ..! Now no body talks about the exhorbitent charges or the price of the phone. A telephone had to be booked in advance remitting one thousand Rupees and had to wait for installation. The line men came and fixed the cable line for the phone and fixed it at a place we mentioned and also gave us a directory which contained almost all the names and numbers of the users in the city. That is unheard of now. We could find out a long lost friend or acquaintance from the telephone directory, if he or she had started living in that city by merely chasing their name in the directory which had all the names arranged in the alphebetical order.

Those cute huge directories found their way to the 'accri' shop (The shops which buy residue materials and used items including old newspaper etc.) owner and since trees are not to be cut any more, no more directories are coming out.

After the whole page of 'Galaxy' next turn over is to show us the availability of parathas, ready to eat available in the local super market. The convenience quoted is that you don't have to make it but can have it and just warm it to eat! Great items. Then starts the news I was waiting for avidly.After the name and date of the paper and iits emblem I have the four urgent needs little bits just below them mentioning about the next would be American President and something about the top cricketers' achievement which is equal to another top cricketer. Then the flip flaps in various parties in the nation and other troubles elsewhere. Below before I t a turn over I have hope for home loan by a major bank and a top ditergent liquid.!

Browsing on I find beautiful poetical advertisements with interspersed news on flight tickets, eye testing, health improvement and fertility enhancement. They are followed by cars and computers with new additions here and there with matching poetry with prices which or ok for the advertisement and for well erning youngsters but not to the interest of old people with old mind sets who saw them as simply an object for simple movement to be sparingly used. In between there are troubling news, happy news, do goodders' news and philanthropical news!

An area of one of the pages show a lot of obituary photographs which throw us into down memory lane to think what all those in the photographs would have studied and worked at, whom all they would have helped etc. Etc. These are followed by matters of taxes and savings, a bit of climate which of course interest us to see, if we have to keep an umbrella while going out! The views and cartoons really help us to find a balance in the whole reading directing us at the proper directions we have to take. The cartoonist does it in the most simple way by telling it all in a small area which covers the entire happening of the day..! Kudos to them, the cartoonists who tell so much through so little and enthuse any one with amind to enjoy them. They are followed by more news of the day before and interspersing pointers are about investments invitations to various states. The paper comes to the conclusion of its first section now with the ubiquitous advertisement in colour and poetry for scooters and motor cycles which we are told is a great presentationwith economy, mileage and celebration, you know it all..! Wow. The paper of the morning is a great enjoyment satisfying our hunger for news and views these days. So I pack of my paper to read later at ease, starting from page one again, this time I shall have to ready a few additional pages called metro plus (this is additional to the main paper) and some other small trivia sectiion along with a city section.

Let me stop writing now, and proceed to read it early complete it as I wish every day, as I have to read tomorrow's paper tomorrow..!