Chappa was getting married. I was to have my new Chithi. (Chithi = aunt, here - paternal aunt) Thatha played with me asking to call Chithi as Chaappi since that would be the correct feminine gender, he said, for Chappa. As usual, the trip was damned, and I was really sick, vomiting the whole way. The only merry scene of myself I remember from the wedding is that for the swing ceremony (where bride and groom sit in a swing together), I sat with Chappa and Chithi. I also met many random relatives who were asking me to remember them from my infant days "Don't you remember me .. two years before we had met" (Seriously? I had not even developed memory in that age!). I didn't eat properly in the wedding. The return was also terrible.
Chithi had a particular slang and vocabulary which was new. She would, for instance, say "pathukke" instead of "molle" to mean "slowly" or "softly" (as in speak softly). Or occha vekkaathe instead of cattham podathe. (Don't make sound) I segregated a certain amount of words that was unique to her and used to find it curiously funny.
The Uday classroom was in the main room, in which we enter the school first. It was better lit. The right side of the classroom had charts hanging describing numbers upto 100, Malayalam numbers, English-Malayalam alphabets, and other interesting things. My routine didn't change much. Thatha or amma used to drop me in school and pick me back home. Life was peaceful. But still, the thought of going to Sri Sankara early in the morning was a bit troublesome. One day, I found that due to some reason, the school was closed. After I woke up, dressed up, ate breakfast and walked all the way to reach there. How bad would I have felt that day!
I was so thin at that time. Much like how I am now. But then, family members started trying different stuff on me. Nothing worked. I also used to face constipation and problems with digestion. Primarily because I never drank so much water. To aid my digestion, Chappa would give me ashtachoornam powder mixed in buttermilk at night in the store room. To their surprise, I actually found it tasty. Though this was the scenario, I never used to eat curd or buttermilk those days. I used to be averse to them. Pepsi had an ad those days, saying "ye dil maange more". Now "more" sounds like "mor" in Tamil which means buttermilk. Whenever the ad plays, he would say to me, "See Pepsi ad says - my heart wants buttermilk". Ok, I was almost getting tamed to buttermilk. Chappa used to tell another story to poke me. An elephant woke up early in the morning. It wanted to bathe, but it found the pond so cold. It drank a glass of really sour buttermilk and then its coldness would disappear. When he says it would drink a glass of buttermilk, my face would be like "Oh please don't start with buttermilk again". He would love that.
But gradually, I started liking buttermilk once I tasted it really with my heart. In fact, I became crazy for it in my later years. Still, curd and curd-rice esp. were untouchable for me. Thathi said that the curd-rice dish tastes heavenly and that she will make it for me once and I needed to try. I was reluctant, but agreed to her finally for her sake. She did make the tastiest curd-rice and gave me. I really loved it as I tasted it. It was indeed heavenly. I never thought curd would taste so better. I had never known how it would taste. I also wanted to taste the combination of butter and rice as Krishna used to eat from Yashoda in Thathi's stories. She gave me that too, though I didn't fall for it as much as I fell for curd-rice. Since then, curd-rice has been one of my favourites - provided you make it the right way, saute it and garnish it.
Reman was called "Akroora" by Thathi first, but soon it became "Akru" and later became "Akku". Since then, he has been called Akku. So, Akku's first birthday was nearing. Maternal relatives came from Trivandrum to attend it. Chakku thatha and Ammammai, all were in the upper floor. It was fun. The first birthday ceremony was grand. But one issue was there. I am not sure if it was on the same day or next day. When Appa was keeping open the wardrobe door, Akku was standing beside and he put his finger through the door hinge. Unknowingly, Appa tried closing the door and gosh, he screamed out of pain and started crying. Amma and appa consoled Akku.
Now, Chithi was pregnant. Thathi used to tell me, "I wanted two children from my two kids - one Kiran and one Ganesh. I got you as Kiran, so let us hope Ganesh is born". Yes, she had decided my name long before she would even think of marriage of her son. She also decided the name Ganesh for child of Chappa. But we were not sure if it would be a girl or a boy. Thathi and I would talk that perhaps Ganesh would be born. Those days, I used to run to Thathi humming a background music "Thathi thathi".
Abhijith, the master bully in the class, hadn't apparently been domesticated over time. One day noon, during lunch break, all children were forming the queue to wash their hands. Chechis went in front and we kids were just forming lines in the classroom. I had my pencil in my hand, and it was just me, Abhijith and one or two more children in the class to evacuate. All others had walked out of the room. I was also peacefully walking out, but then Abhijith asked me to give him my pencil. As I stood staring at him whether to oblige his request or not, he snatched the pencil from my hand and threw it out of the window to some unseen world in the back of the building (which is full of shrubs and tall grasses). He was laughing at me hysterically and coolly went out of the room. I was so upset that I almost started to cry. I was also frightened - how would I tell in my home that the pencil is lost? This never happened to me.
That day as I reached home, I burst into tears telling how that wicked Abhijith threw my pencil off the window. Amazingly, family members didn't scold me. Already I had told them valorous stories of his bullying, so they didn't think that I was cooking up any story to cover up the fact that I lost a new pencil. Moreover, I was always honest and true. That pencil was new. I never lost something from my hands till then - this was so saddening.
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
The Greener Pasture
कथेतर साहित्यAutobiographical rants. A look into the valley of past. Just to save at some place so that I can myself read them later in life.
