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.