Chevittithara house, Thaikkattukara P.O, Aluva-683106

readers who missed the prologue please click
here.

This post is dedicated to uppappa, the author’s grandfather, who with very few words and more of his life taught the adipoli kids many a lesson.

Chapter 2: how the adipoli kids when to madrasa, fought and got coconut buns

Every summer began with the adipoli kids coming down to the chevittithara house, their wonderful uppappa getting them a new slate and three new pencils each and velyuma getting them a new hijab [head scarf]. This year was special for the hijabs were blue with yellow printed flowers. The adipoli kids were more than happy with every other girl wearing black or white hijabs. With promises to learn well, be good kids, and do velyuma proud the adipoli kids ran off to the madrasa. They looked around. Couple of new faces. They couldn’t spot any osama-bin-laden-in-the-making though. Nazreen the pavam’s eyes instantly fell on the guy next to the door. One look and she loved him. Nooruddin mullah walked in. the kids scurried around for their places. The adipoli kids had not forgotten their promises yet. They sat on the fast bench. Nazreen was elated to find her guy-next-to-the-door sitting beside her. “assalamu allaikkum mullah”, the kids stood up to greet their teacher. The mullah responded, “wa allaikkum assalam kids. Sit down. Today is the first day of your vacation religious cum value education classes.” The mullah looked at the adipoli kids, “I hope all of you will be good kids. Have you brought your Quran? Today we will learn chapter one Surat Al Fatiha. You may write down on your slates what you feel is important………” five minutes of lecture was done and the adipoli kids had already forgotten their promises. Azeera had started to catch a few ‘z’s. Achu was giggling at the mullah’s calicut accent while nazreen was trying hard to strike a conversation with her guy-next-to-the-door. One hour later the mullah hit the gong and announced, “ you will have a ten minute recess break now. After 3 days, depending on your performance, I will appoint a class leader. It’s his duty to ring the bell, and open the madrasa” .this sent the class into higher levels of excitement. Hitting the gong was indeed the most prestigious task though it meant coming to the madrasa early and leaving it late. Mullah looked at the adipoli kids and continued, “silence!! I will be asking you questions after the break”. Azeera looked at achu and nazreen “I am done. I haven’t heard a word”. Nazreen’s guy-next-to-the-door patted her and showed her his slate. “I will help you girls” was written across it. “Thank u. but how will you do it? And btw what is your name.” he wrote, “Noufal. And I will write down the Surat. You can learn it soon. Its easy.” Achu assured him, “its ok to talk during recess time.” Noufal wrote, “I am dumb”. That left the adipoli kids dumbstruck staying silent was next to impossible. Noufal wrote the surat. The kids mugged it up. They survived the volley of questions.

Days went by. The adipoli kids never forgot the good deed. Hamid, azeera’s worst enemy, was made the class leader. While everybody else played leaving noufal out, the adipoli kids- who otherwise believed in the ‘waste no moment play every second’ dictum -sat with noufal. Nazreen even picked up some sign language. As noufal lived near the thaikkattukura co-operative milk dairy, a territory unknown to the adipoli kids, their brief meetings with him got over at 11 when the mullah let the kids free.

Noufal had not been coming to the madrasa for the past four days. They were already missing him. So one fine day the kids after madrasa, hungry stomachs and all , went around looking for noufal’s house. an hour and more of efforts and the search party succeeded. The adipoli kids questioned noufal, “why aren’t you coming”. Noufal ran in leaving the kids bewildered at the door. He brought his slate and wrote, “my amma said don’t go. Hamid and firoze, on my way back from the madrasa, punches me when I don’t reply.
The adipoli kids felt bad. Next day the kids led by achu the rebel questioned hamid. He replied, “nee podi!!” [ author’s tip to the non malli: the above line translates to “you go”. ‘Podi’ is the feminine term while ‘poda’ is the masculine one. ‘Podo’ however can be used for both guys and girls. Though ‘podi is largely accepted, it is treated as a disrespectful term in some homes, the chevittithara house being one of them.] Azeera’s blood boiled. What followed next was some pushing, pummeling and some blood. The mullah had to separate the warring factions. Both sides were sent home.

Uppappa was called for and reprimanded for “bring up girls badly”. That night uppappa called for the adipoli kids. The entire family was all ready to pounce on the innocent brats. Reclining on his easy chair with the 75 cm long cane in his hands uppappa asked azeera, the eldest of the three, “why did you fight?”. Pat came the reply, “they bully noufal chumma because he can’t talk”. Uppappa got up. Patted azeera’s back and asked them to follow him. With cries of “aren’t you punishing the kids” following them they walked into Mohammed haji’s son’s shop. They were given three coconut buns.

The kids went to madrasa next day apologized to mullah not because they were wrong but because uppappa meant the world to them. After some talking to noufal’s amma by the mullah noufal joined classes again. He was still teased for moving around with three girls but all the same he was happy. Hamid was stripped of his leader ka post. The kids learned well, topped the class and did velyuma proud. Promises kept.

insane again

A leading retail business company with the largest number of outlets in south India sells vegetables at a cheaper rate offering the customer never-seen-before-in-aluva shopping experience by
1. letting the customer pick up as little as 51.5grams of any vegetable. Their high funda calculations and weighing balances ensure that u pay precisely only for the 51.5 grams. Not a paisa extra.
2. each vegetable no matter how small the quantity is packed in separate plastic covers. Mom says that makes them stay fresh for a longer time
One moment please. Thought1: more plastic in my colony
Thought2: joseph appappan, the octogenarian vegetable vendor next door-who still gifts me a parle mango bite everytime I buy something- is suddenly out of business.


The recent bachchan controversy brought to my knowledge a rather interesting fact. In maharashtra only farmers can buy farmland. With the real estate business thriving and concrete structures fast replacing paddy fields, kerala would do better with such aruling.
One more moment. Thought3: my aluva stays perpetually green.
Thought4: the highly qualified yet unemployed malli who often finds it below his dignity is forced to go back to farming. He would do well with the rains we get.


For the records I am neither a green peace activist nor medha patkar’s daughter

Chevittithara house, Thaikkattukara P.O, Aluva-683106

Starting today a whole new series on Summer.True stories garnished with some salt and pepper.


PROLOGUE
Summers in kerala [ until the protagonists grew old enough to go to professional colleges] meant heat, hols, paddy fields, Moosakutty’s mango tree, Tijo chetan’s football and my “adipoli” cousins.[ readers please do not rack your brains as to why our football donor was named thus.Kindly refer the meanderthal man’s blog.]Summers in thaikkattukara meant heat, hols, paddy fields and the “thalipoli” kids of Chevittithara house. Summers in chevittithara house meant heat, hols, paddy fields and the 75 cm long cane bought from aluva by their grandfather aka uppappa to tame the “thalipoli” kids.
Azeera, Nazreen, and Achu. Three wonderfully boisterous cousins christened “thalipoli” girls by the peace loving homo sapiens of the locality. Pretty funny huh!!! Considering the fact that they called themselves the “adipoli” kids. [wait!!! The author requests the non malli reader to kindly take that perplexed look off the face. Adipoli kids= cool kids. Thalipoli girls= brats]

Chapter 1: How Azeera Azeez saw a snake, shrieked and got fever.
Moosa kutty’s mango tree renders its invaluable services by overlooking the fields, by having a physique strong enough to carry the weight of the adipoli kids, by giving kannan the guy-goat enough leaves and by satisfying the palate of the adipoli kids with juice-trickling-down-mangoes. The nice adipoli kids never forgot to thank heavens for Moosakutty. He was indeed a great guy. For only great guys own orchards where the adpoli kids can run around. Only great guys plant, water and pamper mango trees for the adipoli kids.

after a hard day’s work, as usual, the adipoli kids settled down on Moosakutty’s mango tree to grin, giggle, gossip and to chart out the next day’s tasks.[ the author agrees to the fact that playing football and ‘sat’, pulling ammu the cow’s tail, hogging rice with ‘chaala’ curry, mimicking Nooruddin mullah’s calicut accent, behind his back,at the madrasa , fighting for weaver bird’s nests, catching fish in the nearby stream and running around in the paddy fields can all be beyond doubt classified as hard work.]. pelting kutti little stones into the adjacent paddy field, nazreen complained, “ i hate going to madrasa or school, why cant we chumma sit like this forever on Moosakutty’s tree. The more cleverer achu replied, “we would get wet when it rains and what do we do when the mango seasons ends”. nazreen replied, “yeah you right”. Far away from all this conversation, in her own candy world, on the highest branch sat the lovely azeera staring at the paddy fields. The sun going down like Tijo chetan’s basketball thrown down by the 6 foot long ‘totti’. [The author wishes to clarify at this point that totti means long stick used to pluck mangoes. Any resemblance to the italian football player is purely coincidental. The adipoli kids cannot be held responsible for consequences of any kind. legal proceedings what so ever can be settled only within the jurisdiction of chevittithara house courts.]. Something glistening caught the eye of the lovely kid. She stared through her thick ‘soda’ glasses. Yup that was a snake. An anaconda if the lovely kid was not mistaken. SSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIKKKKKKKK!!!
SSSSSSSSSSSCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAMMMMMM!!!
As the other two adipoli kids stared azeera scampered down the tree, ran and hid behind velyuma’s [grandmom’s] saree. All in a fraction of second. All that remained was screeeeaaaaammmm!!!!! Bawl!!!ngheee!!!!. a worried velyuma held her in bear hug as the lovely kid cried, “velyuma don’t go to fields there is an anaconda out there”. Velyuma explained, “ its just a ‘neerkoli’, a harmless water snake, don’t worry da”. Azeera sobbed, “ no am sure it’s an anaconda”.[ how velyuma managed to comfort azeera is beyond the knowledge of the author]
Azeera was taken to Dr Naser and treated for fever the next day.