Killings

These days there are plenty of killings, political killings in Kerala, honor killings in Haryana and religious killings in Gujarat to name a few. But in those days 'killing' was a rarity. People rarely practiced it and leaders never preached it.Now, imagine the shock of a father, from those times, getting a letter from his son saying " I will kill you " ..

Naturally he could not trust his eyes. He scrutinized the post card carefully. There was no mistake. The address was perfect even the comas and full stops. The way of addressing 'my dear appa and amma', the concluding line 'your loving son', all as usual. He was very sure about the hand writing. it was his son. Bad hand writing was a prominent trait running down the family. only his younger son had one worse than that.

my first pair

Canvas shoes

I cannot say for certain whether I had worn any sort of foot wear before that. Had I, surely, I would have remembered how inconvenient it was. The first one I remember did hurt me but there was compensation in the form pleasure of getting a pair before my brother did.
They were a pair of canvas shoes, blue with  white soles and the round patchwork emblems of a hockey player at the ankles. they were called hockey shoes, I used to wonder how they got the name, was it because they used it in the game or because of the emblem. Any way my eldest brother who brought it from Pune, might have bought it only because it was cheap. The pair was tried first on my brother who being 18 months elder to me, naturally had the first right. 

wangitharen

There are many who eke out a living from others, in the name of god, people in difficulties....There are genuine cases of course. But I do think people were more creative and less cunning in old days.  

 
As a young boy, I lived in Munnar. Then 'Munnuaar' (three rivers), a village (the term hill station had not had not been coined then) in Kerala near its border with Tamil Nadu, was a far cry from the today's bustling tourist destination. Population consisted of employees of  large tea estates, mostly from Kerala & the immigrant labor from Tamil Nadu. Money from the Middle east had not flooded Kerala and Tamil Nadu was not as industrialized as today. Money was scarce. There were scroungers of all sorts. 

James & HH Jamelius

You wont believe there are two souls living in the cupola  (Kurishumthotty) at Kanjikuzhi Junction. I would not have believed either, had I not heard them talking last Saturday. It was the second bandh day we observed in protest of petrol price rise. The shopkeepers were glad that two bandh days and a Sunday gave them an extended week end, They closed their shops and went on pilgrimage or sight-seeing to Tamil Nadu on Friday itself. The roads were deserted, not even pedestrians at the junction. I had gone out to see whether any bread is available. It was cloudy, but I did not expect rain at noon. On my way back, it started raining. I was very near the cupola. I found shelter at the nearest shop veranda. It was then that I heard them.