Childhood is the golden period in everybody's life.It is the most decisive period also as far as the personality and future of a person is concerned.There may be rare but unique exceptional circumstances and experiences.There were many historic personalities whose childhood were lonely, neglected,boring and gloomy.I leave it to my readers to judge on my childhood after going through this chapter.
I remember that my childhood was not so free and happy.It was a solitary pursuit of something high and distant which went on moving from me whenever I proceed to get hold of it.I was a dreamer if not a silent thinker hardly influenced by others even during my childhood.In physical apperance,I was somewhat ugly and bony.I was one of the sickmen wherever I happened to be,in the family,school,playground,assembly hall,holiday places,etc.But I would never lay down on bed(for me it was mat)unless I am extremely weak and unfit to stand up on my feet
One of the earliest events in my memory as a child is related to the harvesting season.There were two harvesting seasons : one during August - September and the other in January - February,During these seasons ,paddy-corns would be collected from the fields by the workmen and brought to our house.The frontyard of the house would be daubed with cow-dung and loose mud brought from the nearby river.The bundles of paddy-corns(called 'katta' in our vernacular Malayalam)would be stored until they are thrashed by some professional women who were skilled in that work.They would be thrashed,winnowed, cleaned and placed in one of the rooms after measurement was takenThe women were paid in paddy only,not in cash proportionate to the measurement of the paddy.Mother would take some paddy and make beaten rice called 'avil' in our Malayalam We would eat it with coconut pieces and jaggery.It was one of the tastiest things we children got those days.During the harvesting season the whole paddy-field would have a festive look.Everyone would be happy also.We had two acres of paddy cultivation.There would be the natural smell of new paddy-corns in our house.
Mother would make beaten rice and give the children with coconut scrapes and jaggery.We would eat it after keeping in safe custody whenever we felt hungry.She would make tea and flat bread to give father and others in the morning.After taking it we would go to school and come back in the evening.Then she would have prepared and kept the rice with fish curry or vegetable curry.After taking it we would go outsideb for play.As far as I am concerned I would not join such plays due to some adverse factors ,mainly health and the fear of father.
In summer and rainy seasons we had separate arrangements for placing the paddy corns at our house before thrashing.In summer season,the frontyard of the house would be daubed with cow-dung and mud making into a mixture in water.During the rainy season,the paddy-corn bundles would be placed in the veranda and the courtyard of the house.Thrashing would take place on a cnvenient to the women engaged in such works.They would be paid not in cash,but in paddy itself proportionate to the measurement of the paddy got after all works like thrashing,cleaning.winnowing,collecting ,etc.Mother would measure the paddy with the 'idangazhi' as there was no 'para' available at our home.
There was a cow and a calf at our house for some time during my childhood.It was a delightful experience to look after them.I liked to be with them.I still cherish the sweet memory of cows and calfs grazing in the paddy fields after the harvesting.In the summer afternoons,we,the children along some elders would play some plays like football there.We would go and sit under a mango tree and engage in some plays like 'kottenkallu'(a play with small stones).It was a blissful experience to go running and take mango truits fallen nearby our heads.We would make small playhouses with palmreeds and the palms of 'eenth'trees.
Our house was constructed with bricks,wood,and thatched with the leaves of the coconut tree and the palm tree.So the roof had to be rethatched every year,preferably in the month of February.It was a day of activity,dislocation and festivity for us .All the normal activities and functions of the house would be temporarally suspendes for the day.All cloths would be taken out and put on a rope-hanger outside the house.Cooking would be done in the kitchen itself as quick as possible in the forenoon so that the thaching works of the kitchen could be done.First of all the thatching works of the upstairs would be done.The upstairs of our house was simply left without dividing into rooms or plastering the walls and the floor.It was due to the financial constraints and not having any need to use it.The upstairs was used to store things like the midrobes of the coconut trees which we used as fire-wood,dried kernels of the coconut and some 'unwanted things' like bottles,pots,baskets,etc.There was a 'randal' (a lamp with some artistic features)at the upstairs which lay there dust-ridden there for many years .Finally it was disposed off when the upstairs was repaired.
There are two wells in front of our house.One is in the frontyard of the house itself and the other in the garden down some steps.There would not be any water in the frontyard well for nearly two months in the summer,when we would bring water from the other. One year,we experienced acute water scarcity so that we had to bring water from half-a-kilometre distance.Then a new well was dug,but without any result.
One of my childhood attractons were the flora and fauna of our region.Besides coconut trees,there were mango trees,jackfruit trees,cashewnut trees,papaya and plantain plants,drumstick trees,and some fruitless(useless in some sense) trees like 'ippoothi'.There were one or two small teak trees also there in our plot.In the plot belonging to the mosque there sandalwood trees which would be cut down by some persons even though there were some regulations in cutting them,A big jackfruit tree was cut down for getting wood templates for the construction of our house.The animals I could frequently see and familiarise with are cows,bullocks,goats and cats.Elephants were very rarely brought to our village to carry woods.I once went to the neearby village despite heavy rain to see an elephant.Dogs were there,but I never liked them and avoided them.I could like to familiarise with squirrel,rabbit and tortoise ;but never with ant-eater,monkey,rat,crocodile,mongoose and pig.Among the reptiles,I was familiar with house-lizard,garden-lizard,green-lizard water-snake and rat-snake;but afraid of cobra,viper,krait and monitor-lizard.Among the insects my constant friends and companions included ants,butterflies,dragon-flies,fre-flies spiders and houseflies.My enemies among the insects included mosqitoes,termites and cckroaches, Among the worms,I hated bed-bugs,crab,scorpion and centiped ;but liked the company of cricket,grasshopper and millepede.
I was a keen observer and lover of birds.Not only the familiar crows parrots and cranes almost all birds caught my attention.They included cuckoo,peacock,pigeon,nightingale,kite,eagle,albatross,snake-bird,quail, swan,woodpecker and the white-headed babbler,to mention the names of a few most commonly seen ones.in our village during my childhood.
The village was flowerful and fruitful.Hibiscus was one of the common flower seen everywhere in the village.Magnolia,night-jasmine,jasmine,basil,marigold,touch-me-not,chembaka,water-lily,rose were also there.We had a small flower garden in front of our house.The fruits available were natural and free from all kinds of chemical contamination as we sometimes get them today.The fruits we got from the village included papaya,banana,guava,gooseberry,pinapple,plantain and plum.Fruits we got from the market included lemon dates,grapes,orange,mosambi,sapodilla,pomegranate and watermelon.
During childhood I was not a pure vegetarian,I took meat and fish occasionally.Mackerel,,sardine,pomfret were some of my favourite items.There was meat- food on special occasions like marriage or such family or social functions,I drank milked tea twice or three times daily.Sometimes I got boiled egg,7hus during childhood I was a non-vegetarian,though vegetable curries were taken sparingly.Jaggery tea and country cake made of tapioca were my favourite food during m childhood.Tapioca boiled in water taken with sardine curry was also was another familiar item among the poor villagers like us.There were sweet-rice on special occasions which the children liked very much.
There were very few friends to me during childhood.I was not such a type who could mix and mingle easily with others.I am being a little reserved,many others preferred to keep a dstance from me.Another peculiar aspect of my childhood was never to ask or insist upon anything.I spent my time rolling empty tins and cylinderical comtainers as vehicles.Some other plays in which I was interested in were making cows and bullocks with the midrobes of coconut trees,making wheels with the leaves of coconut trees,making pots with coconut shells,spoons with jackfruit leaves,pillars with banana piths,tubes and pypes with the leaf-stems of papaya,mats with dried palm leaves,etc.On rainless days I would draw pictures with a stick in sand or soil.After learning letters,I wrote something in sand.Another type of play in which I was engaged as a small boy was with the flat part of areccanut leaves.I would sit on it and my elder brother woud draw forward holding the tail-part of it.But it was somewhat risky since there are chances of falling down.I myself has fallen down several tmes.Mother would not allow us (father also,nut we never do it in the presence of father)to play this.Besides this I would spend my time playing 'hide-and-seek'with others.Someone would hide somewhere and the others would search to find out him.Mother encouraged me practising swimming.According to her my eldest brother had a providential escape from death while swimming at a pond near the house. Mother did not allow me to learn how to use a bicycle.I liked to spend my time looking at and observing natural phenomena like the sunrise,sunset,the rainbow,the moon,the stars and planets,the horizons,etc.I wondered how these things happen and how they are maintaained and controlled,I became curious to know the mysteries behind this great universe.At the same time I had thoght of a creatur behind everything.I would observe with great interest how the spiders make their mighty webs,the mass suicide of the fireflies,the bees manufacture the sweet and valuable honey.The glittering glow -worms,the matured and patient snails and the sleeping ant-lions.(not knowing it was one of the stages of a flying insect.I also observed the united, devoted and disciplined white-ants broght up fine earth to the ceilings and roofs to make their wonderful covering shells.I would run after the red-tailed dragon flies and if I catch hold of one by chance,I would let it free at once not even bringing to the notice of my fellow-players.If the others get it in their hands,they would tie a string or twine on their tails or harass it in other ways without thinking for a moment the sad plight of the poor innocent creature moving its weak,thin and transparent wings with pain.They would tear off the wings and laugh while it makes a last attempt to be free with life.But unfortunately it mets with one of saddest tragedies if such an experience was to the man who handles with a silly cosideration for a helpless living object.I had felt extremely sorry and would quarrel with my friends on this matter.
During my childhood,many kinds of people come to our house for various purposes.Some of them may be family members and relatives; familiar neighbours and helpers mainly associated with mother;friends and co-workers of father and brothers;strangers and persons coming for getting guidance or writing petitions or filling up different forms,etc.I am afraid of some,I hated some,and I liked the company of some.People demonstrating donkeys wandering from villages to villages come to our house also.It is a delightful experience to watch them.Palmists,sorcerers,folk singers,persons weilding ornamented arches,and accepting offerings to religious places,Khalifs attached to Durgas of Nagoor and other such places,devotees,beggars,potters,book- salesmen,the mentally disturbed persons,hawkers,bed-makers,etc
There were persons who claim they can compensate for the evil effects of the body and mind of the people ,Some government officials come for periodic surveys,enumerations,census,healthcare field work,related to malaria eradication,election candidates ,etc also visit our houses from time to time.
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