Monthly Archives: December 2017

This is about my second uncle. I assume I have previously conveyed to you about my initial veteran who studied in England. This is my second elder from the mother’s side and a most adventurous character in his youth, a nation wrestler and a lifelong bachelor. He never espoused till he faded in his eighties. The workouts he did in his youth could be inferred from his body even towards the tip of his life, though his last days were spent as a paralytic patient. The physician who is my old confrere too mentioned about his blood samples that they are the most perfect. Generally, he was a very humble person wishing all and sundry in his everyday strides to the township. He sojourned in our dwelling for fourteen years after his retirement since he had no immediate family as he was not married. He used to take Ayurvedic tonics which he received free from the government ayurvedic dispensary in the municipality. The lady doc was well identified to him as he was a regular. Whenever he told her, he addressed as’ amma’, which means mother in our language. My uncle’s family had coconut kernel business and they will take loads of kernels, dried in the hot sun in carts and deliver it to middlemen in Alleppey who would later transfer the goods to the big exporters. This was big business and the house was justly rich because of it. Coconut oil is extracted in the oil mills from these dried kernels by crushing them. The scrap portion will go to one side which the is feed for cattle and the pure coconut oil will go to the other side of the machine. From one side the pure coconut oil is collected and later bottled. My uncle’s trade was only up to the point of handing over the dried kernels to the middlemen in the Alleppey port, which was a big trade center in that era…. In his youth, he was an adventurer and had to live in exile for two years because of his association with a lady who probably had many lovers and he was one of them. The woman had a mate and he was killed by a personage and my second elder happened to be one of the principal suspects. After the said incident he was chased by law and he went exile.It is said that he would appear somedays at the crown of night from nowhere to see his father to whom he was greatly attached. The dad and the squandering son occupied adjacent seats in a shady niche of the house and, there were many sentiments- freighted moments, and the father asked the son to tell the truth- If he had perpetrated that heinous offense, confess it holding the canonical manual which the family estimated. The son keeping the scripture in hand told his father with tears in the eyes that, though he had had intimate relations with the aforesaid lady .had not committed it and some other man is the offender. My mother, a petite girl was a spectator to this emotion-packed scene.And the father trusted him and they prayed together and had their meal and the uncle departed. Sometimes he would live with little food, as he was living in forests and desolate stations getting food from nature, mostly as. Then after the food, they departed. This uncle later stayed in various hidden spots of the South, sometimes in forests and uplands and had consequently diverse assignments and had many anecdotes to narrate to kids. In the cycles to come, he was an impressive companion to others and having had intimate fellowships with various kinds of people, he comprehended people’s moods. After the said case, when he was in exile, he went to the leading advocate in the realm who consented to take his case and the family supported him to meet the charges of the solicitor who was not only a lawyer but a great social figure of the pre-independent eras, and he won the case. And my uncle came out free from concern. From there, he worked as a boat master and a newspaper agent and also did various sundry jobs and had many adventuresome tales to recount to everybody he met. He was a great friend. And how he met a man-eater over a bonfire at night in a forest and mistook it for a lady is the most compelling account I ever heard in my lifetime, straight from a human being and I will speak about it on a different instant.
–[Taken from a work of fiction, which is in process].

The boulevards progressed to a sterile territory of weeds and it mutated into a long extension of the moist land renowned for marshmallows.They are stems from the mallow plant that is a genus of a herb indigenous to Europe, North Africa, and Asia. The plant grows in marshes and other damp areas. The plant itself is deemed a privileged thing to be able to partake in its consumption. It was stringently kept for royalty earlier who took the root of the plant and used it as a medicine to alleviate coughs and heal injuries. The first marshmallows were prepared by boiling pieces of root pulp with sugar until it thickened. Once thickened, the mixture was strained, cooled, and then used as intended.Pappachan thought that many are the hardships of voyaging alone in the event that it isn’t your exclusive vocation beneficial to do. ….Solid aromas exuded and the air was curiously amazing and once in a while, a conveyor advanced and enhanced the cadence of the design. Boisterous riffraff raced into the scene and in a matter of seconds, the whole display altered. An upbeat stretch in the springtime morning with its offer of dewdrops on scales and hedges with cattails, coniferous and the layer of azure water that seemed otherworldly splashing over mud trails.The season was wantonly changing and with it the spirits of the people. People use diverse words in various seasons.But in extreme situations of suffering and dispositions of love, words are not relevant. They are created. There is freshness in the blazing sun. Two or three dairy cattle meandered about gazing upward now and then as though to check the outsiders who might come to exasperate, look back. Not exactly in anger.There were many big ports visible, like projected dreams and some came in slow walking and some others soared into these places as if from nowhere and in every occasion, the gatekeeper asked for a ticket and as for an additional recreation, chatted to some of the guests…. Pappachan was getting from the Nikkei store with seafood and he was inadvertently looking into the activities of the road, and a moderately aged lady was chided by a couple of folks in the club area. A few personalities were inquisitive about the commotion and were peering into what was transpiring, however not mediating straight into the situation for fear it would spoil their clean clothes. Pappachan thought of his daddy who might obviously intrude in such conditions. His father wouldn’t disregard the woman fastened in an unfortunate spot and suffer her to be mistreated by guys and will meddle and determine fairness to the extent a rational civilian could arrange……There were two associates of his father who used to come for hunting, though his dad did not kill beasts. These two companions, M.and K.would go to the neighboring woodlands for hunting, though it was against the mandate to act so. They hunted not big ones, but waterfowls or some wild rabbits and if they got a deer, it was a gala. But hooking deer is dangerous and if you are exposed you will be penalized harshly by law. This M. was a heavy drinker and he was good at talk and there was another man in the group who will use all wrong words, Malapropism in the drinking sessions. His spirit was good, though the language he used was not appropriate and created much embarrassment amongst colleagues. There was a club in the township and the membership in it was assumed to be a status logo, and some folks just to earn rank without industry joined these clubs and it was a pitiable sight to view these affected couples at parties. And they seldom talked, for fear their ignorance would be revealed by too many words. There is a proverb in the local tongue- silence is the adornment of the learned. Yes, our story in the meantime- this M., in his prime of youth used to visit a country pool. The pool water was fine and the spot was like a paradise. At daybreak, women and working lot will come and take the dip. This made M., dive as usual into the pond and sadly, the back of his head hit the stone that was lurking in the deepest part. He dived and hit a hard stone and immediately became paralyzed and could not stand and other bathers drove him to the hospital.Pappachan’s father was to deal with the bills connecting the operation through the cash was M.’s. Because he trusted his father more than anybody in money matters, and M.’s children were very young and the lady of the house was not educated and could not deal with the officials of the hospital. And he had an injury on the highest tip of the spinal chord, and his condition was grave because of the importance of that region, and the cord was in a precarious shape and the doctors could not save him. He lay in the hospital for three days and met with his passing. What an unhappy state for a young man, from the level of the energetic hunter, fearless and bright and suddenly the next day, stupefied in the hospital couch without the strength to rise up and then go to the other end. This was one of the pathetic images that Pappachan kept of his adolescence eras.

–[From a Work of fiction that is in progress].