Nostalgia Evergreen…!

The school opening days in Kerala were quite eventful during my childhood. The Aided Lower Primary School (ALPS) was about 2 Kms far from my house and I used to walk through the lush green paddy fields to reach school along with an executive assistant who carries my school box (Those days we had shining aluminium boxes to carry books instead of these modern day school bags) and an umbrella. The rain Gods were always happy to pour well with precision timing during mornings and evenings in perfect tune with the school bells! Whenever there were heavy showers, we took the longer metal road. But then it was always muddy and both the sides of the road were flooded with small muddy rivers with an oozing sound. Our major entertainment was to float paper boats on these temporary rivers and walk along! These boats used to transport small pieces of slate pencils and other accessories for us!

However, I enjoyed taking the paddy fields route for two reasons…

The first and foremost reason was the slippery nature of this route as I could bunk off if I happened to fall down anywhere on the way! It is quite interesting now, to look back at a time when you really liked to fall down?! After a few successful falls and returns, Mom Supreme found out a way out to restrict this; pack up an extra pair of dress and give it to the person who accompanies me! As a matter of fact, the very first day of my school life, when I went to 1^st Standard, I and my dad fell down while negotiating a small canal in the ‘Mari Paadam’ paddy field bund. Then after leaving me at the school, dad went back and sent a new pair of dress to the school. My beloved ‘Varky Mash’ (Teacher) kept a newspaper spread as screen for me to change. I am not sure whether such connect with the teachers still remain intact anywhere now.

Coming back to the subject, the second reason was the prime objective of writing this note and it was evergreen ‘Doctor Muthassan’ (Grandfather) who used to sit on the ‘Padippura Kettu’ of ‘Pachuveedu’ (the resting balcony near the entrance gate of traditional Kerala houses) waiting for children like me to chat and offer some sweets like ‘Rava Ladoo’, ‘Poruvalan Kayu’ (a sweet made of rice and other grain powders mixed with ghee rolled into small balls), etc. In the evenings, it used to be oven fresh hot ‘Ila Ada’ (a sweet made of rice paste applied in fresh banana leaves and boiled along with coconut scrape and jaggery fillings). ‘Ammoomma’ (The Grandmother) used to religiously prepare sweets for us on time. This childless couple liked children a lot. However, very few children were there who go to school through that route. Me and my friend ‘Natarajan’ enjoyed this exclusivity and our lovely old couple were happy to have us there in the morning and evening. I loved Doctor Grandpa’s pure white hair, which often looked like a wig. The next day after I realized that there’s a thing called wig (my Dad told me about it), I ran straight to the Grandpa and pulled his hair to check. Though it was painful, the ‘Doctor Grandpa’ fell into a long laughter and ‘Ammoomma’  joined him. However, I used to pull his hair every other day to clear my doubt!! ‘Doctor Muthassan’ was 6 ft. tall and fragile built. He used to wear shirts with creases intact and lovely stiff ironed ‘Double Dhotis’ (Two layered white dhoti with nice border lines). He used to apply a very authentic and soothing perfume and talcum powder, which attracted my tender mind a lot. The wonderful odour is still there on my nose. His personal hygiene with his fair complexion was quite impressive and looked elegant even at his 70’s….!

Whenever I reached there in the evening, he took personal interest to make me wash my hands with ‘Jay’ Soap before I ate something! However, I had never seen him insisting my friend Natarajan to use the soap!! ‘Ammoomma’ (Grand Mother) was a heavily built lady who always wore traditional Kerala dress ‘Mundum Veshtiyum’ (Two piece traditional Dhotis). Contrary to ‘Muthassan’ she had dark complexion and stout personality. Her hair was a mixture of majority white with intermittent black flowing till just beyond shoulder levels. She used to apply an authentic ayurvedic oil in the hair, which spread a soothing incense when she comes near you.

Floral Arrangement with Country Flowers

The happy days of feasts were over when I got promoted to 5^th Std. to the school (Upper Primary) near my house. However, I used to go there whenever I got a chance to walk up to ‘Chirakode’, the main town of our small village. Later when I was in college for my Pre-Degree Course (Equivalent to HSC), I came to know that this ‘Ammoomma’ was detected with malignancy in her breasts and despite the completion of surgery, she succumbed to the disease in a year or two. Those days, India was in the primitive stage of fighting cancer.

When I was doing my professional course, I came to know that ‘Muthassan’ had donated their massive house and the surrounding plot to ‘Chinmaya Mission’ and left our village. I never heard about him after that. However, those nostalgic moments I had spent with them are the treasures in my memory etched forever!

The Busy Bee With A Pot Belly

It was a usual business day at Regional Cancer Center, Thiruvananthapuram. Around 2000 patients and 4000 bystanders are spread over in eight floors and even if we take an equal spread, it will be more than 750 people per floor! In this crowd, just like in a festival ground, people keep moving up and down swiftly as if they are in search of some lost article! If you detach yourself and look at this crowd as a third person, it will be an amazing experience.

In the meanwhile, I happened to notice a man who was always busy shuttling up and down in the aisle of the OP wards in consistent intervals. Every time he passes, there would be at least 3-4 people along with him discussing their issues and the man keeps giving directions and guidance, of course without stopping  or reducing the speed of his walk. He was in a khaki uniform and had a carelessly worn ID card. Not matching to his short framework, he had a bulging pot belly to show off. However, his dedication to explain details to many hapless people who approached him for help touched you, each time he passed by. Once, for a change, he was alone and I was looking at him from one of the OP entrances. He suddenly noticed me and came near and asked in his typical Trivandrum slang, ‘Do you require some help’? I nodded ‘No’ though failed to cover up my surprise! He passed me without slowing down or wasting his time on me.

My enquiries about him revealed that he hails from the border region and has joined there since long. His positive attitude, simplicity and neighbourhood looks made him accessible to most of the ordinary people even from the lowest strata of the society. Though he looked serious and busy always, he had a sincere ear to listen to the requests and pleads of the people around, who approached him. Common people would not have any inhibitions to reach him to clear their doubts as they always felt that they were interacting with a neighbor. I don’t think the same people would be able to communicate or discuss anything with doctors or other officials as they are afraid of them, thanks to the costume and the aura they all carried with themselves!

He kept himself busy by taking up extra loads of work other than his routine jobs and kept moving up & down in the aisle without any fuss or frustration! To my astonishment, despite his help to all those came near him, he never laughed, smiled at anyone as he was always on the move. He spoke to people looking at either side with his mouth open always while carefully listening and analyzing the issues told to him!

I would never forget this man in my whole of life, who works like a busy bee with a pot belly by keeping on pouring solutions to the perplexed minds!

The Unhappy Landlord

It was just six in the evening and already dark. He sat in an easy chair in front of his plush farm house, where he has been living for last 40 years, with high spirits in his veins. He was in his late eighties and has been always proud of his carefully done up hair and mustache for its glazing jet black finish! His family barber visits him weekly to dress him up on a routine.

Once he held the largest land bank in the region and the revolutionary land reforms act has forfeited major portions of his land despite his desperate efforts of saving it by some benamic transfers. However, he still owned a lot of property and he continues to be the feudal land lord of the village.

The systemic change brought in apparent difference in the society and the old feudal system gave in for a radical reformist system with a blend of capitalist glimpses and he was quite clever enough to absorb the change and act accordingly. However, he remained a core feudal lord inside and his thoughts were always conservative. The untouchability has become a fading memory of the ancient past and the society no longer discriminated anyone on the basis of caste or religion. Come what may, our hero neither changed his conservative mindset and nor allowed such people in the vicinity in private life. However, he cleverly disguised it during his very limited public appearances! His public life was limited to the visits to those very few stores predominantly run by his old time mates and dependents.

I had seen him transforming a lot through years. In his peak days, his superiority complex made him mock at everyone he met, at the back of them! I had always wondered why a man thinks so negatively about people of various walks of life, who really lead good lives?! He was always surrounded by a cautery of people who kept nodding at every nonsense statements he uttered! He enjoyed this company and bought a drink or two to keep them always by his side! But then, he transformed a lot over years and became much sober and calm, of course without changing the basic characteristics. He had his own company of individuals who shared traits of inherent superiority (or rather inferiority). Of late, I had seen him becoming depressed about his life and keeping himself always in high ‘spirits’! Despite all such negative characteristics, he has been healthy till last few years. Even now, he’s not that bad in health except for his knees. But, one noticeable change I had witnessed in him is his frustration about life. I had always wondered about such characters who come across in life quite often, who are left Scot free and lives with every possible pleasures in life! But, now I realize that anybody who talks ill about everybody else and run after money will never get the satisfaction and happiness. Hence, the long they live, the more they live unhappy! I think that’s the pain they’re awarded to go through in their prolonged life! So let’s praise the Lord for everything he does quite logically with unparalleled foresightedness.

The Guard

It was a cold December night! All the cylinders of the 1590 CC Suzuki Engine was on fire, thanks to the desire of the man behind the wheel to get home as fast as possible to just hit the bed. His eyes were drooping and it seemed like he may fall asleep any moment. It was quarter to twelve and the road was like a formula one track (Budh International?) tempting anyone on it to race…! However, as he saw an ATM, he stopped the vehicle and hastily walked towards it.

A man with dark complexion and an unshaven face with wrinkles all over his forehead was sitting in a plastic moulded chair in front of the ATM. The dye applied on his hair was withering out leaving portions of his hair brown and white. His skeleton structure left a pathetic impression and the uniform he wore was a reminiscence of his past glory as it was shabby then, and the brass emblem of the company he represented called for an immediate make over to regain its lost sheen. As the glass door of the ATM flexed its muscle and opened with a creaking sound, the guard woke up from his nap with a shock. Seeing a client inside, he lit a beedi. The fire he set to fight the cold was almost nonexistent and he started to stir the half burnt broken leg of furniture to kindle the fire again, but in vain! The old and fragile framework of his body was in no mood to surrender as he sat down and started to blow air with all the attained energy and as a token gesture towards his focused effort, the fire hesitantly came back…. so much to his satisfaction!! However, the old man went into a long bout of coughing. The moment he stopped coughing, he looked at his beedi which was already off. Cursing it with despair, he threw it into the fire. After some skepticism  with some blinks, the fire decided to stay put with its full vigor. The Guard admired the quality of the wood.

After the quick session inside the ATM, he stood there near the fire and looked at the Guard and wondered about the criminal negligence of the bank for engaging guards of his age and health. In a moment he also realized that how important the job might be for this man to survive.

However, the haunting figure of the guard remained in his mind while driving back again. The thought streams had considerably slowed down his driving. Suddenly it stuck to him that such unsung heroes are many in our nation and they have this knack of rising up to the occasions, when challenged with unsolicited situations. He remembered about the ordinary policeman who caught hold of the terrorist despite taking in all those bullets fired from a powerful machine gun, during the Mumbai attack. In the end of two day war, the only proof for India to show the world was this lone ‘live capture’ achieved by this most ordinary martyr! There was neither any hype nor that there was any state of the art training provisions, nor any high end weaponry!!

He nodded his head and bowed once again inside his mind at the memories of those pictures of the martyrs of that tragedy and sped off!

The Plumpy Plum

I was leaning back on the super soft sofa of a huge reception of a software conglomerate. I came here for an interview. The ambience was great with a huge monogram of the logo of this company was gleaming at the top of the wall when you enter inside.  There’s a reception desk towards the extreme left wall and a table at a height which may be like a small hillock for a kid, behind which sat a bob haired girl (or lady?) with a designer set of lips bearing overtly applied lipsticks and a visibly artificial English accent. When I went to her and announced the purpose of my arrival, she politely, but with a poker face, pointed at the sofa and asked me to rest my back there. She seemed to be very busy and the silence was broken whenever the EPABX console rang and she whispered into the ears of the callers, as if she was spying for one of those James Bonds! Rest of the time, the snarling sound of the powerful air conditioner prevailed there, like a dog aiming at its prey. I, for some unknown reason suddenly thought about the high decibels of sound which was used to control pest! I felt that the noise levels at public places and this snarl at such a relatively silent place were at par in terms of pollution per se!

I got up and picked up a publication from a neatly organized stand and went back to my little abode (sofa) in that huge jungle of silence, whispers and the snarls. After the completion of the cover story on the telecom boom in India, the magazine appeared so boring to me and I was feeling dozy.

By then, I was there for more than an hour and felt terribly sleepy as I had nothing much to do. I slowly got up and walked into the wash room behind the reception. There was a house keeper at work and I felt as if I entered in to an exhibition stall of a ‘Save Water’ campaign!

I went to the reception desk on the way back from wash room and now, she had a stupid expression on her face with some tint of guilt. I was literally annoyed at the delay of action and asked her whether the meeting was scheduled or not. She, with an artificial expression of apology said me that it was scheduled and assured me to call back and remind the concerned person, who was supposed to meet me. For the first time after I entered the room, our eyes exchanged straight looks and I personally enjoyed this game of looking into the eyes and I could see her mask breaking apart and before she could take her eyes away I conveyed that I mean what I talk…! The effect was tremendous and the entire mannerisms and body language changed at once. While walking towards the sofa again, I could hear her whispers over my shoulders. In another 5 minutes, I was asked to go in and an admin staff guided me through a congested aisle towards a conference room.

Plumpy Plum!

By the time I sat on one of those chairs, a man of huge size with a small head directly plugged into the shoulders came in. He had a very cute face with a soft, gentle voice. He wished me and excused himself for the delay. He tried to fit himself to one of the chairs and in his third attempt, he could manage to sit and his flesh under his coat oozed out through all the sides of the chair. Though gentle, his dialogue delivery was little tricky as if he had a thick tongue which blocked the words with some unnecessary air blown along with each word. His face was of a 20 year old and the rest of the body was of a 50 year one. His extreme lower levels of melanin on his skin was evident on every exposed part of his body, and a thorough observation proved that he also had a fat neck which just seemed to be thick enough, in line with the shoulder muscles to hide it from a first look.

Later, during my days of work in this company, the woman in the reception and this obese baby faced man were my best friends.