Amazon Best Selling Novel “Malabar A Flame” in Lima World Library
12. Grapevines
1952. Winter bids adieu.
Mary woke up on hearing the radio that Elizabeth-II
was crowned Queen of Britain. Mary has started to smatter
English. The street beside the home has not become busy.
In front of the old house, the streets were busy from early
morning.
She was sad to leave Aiysha and the old neighborhood.
After buying new the house at Eastham she had not seen
Aiysha and Ali for long. The new house cost £17,000 but
paid only £15,000 after agreeing to pay the balance in 5 years.
The real cost of the house is £15,000. The rest £2000 is
interest for 5 years. The four rooms of the house are big.
Everybody loved it because after all it was their own. May be a
century old, buit was built on very strong foundation. Bricks
stronger than rocks. The only problem was that the children
had to travel longer to their school. The bus is available in
the morning only. In the evening the wards had to return by
return by horse cart. The only relief was the Punjabi-Gujarati
house nearby. Their children also studied in the same school.
On one Saturday Danny went with the friends to see the
underground tunnel. Many of his classmates had gone to see
the train running through the tunnel. They reached a place
where the road divides into two. For the bridge work a lot of sand and iron wires had been piled. They withdrew from
the bid to climb down to the tunnel. It is darkness inside the
tunnel. There was a sign board warning of accidents.
Didn’t the passengers fear to travel through the
underground tunnel? They walked forward. Danny felt giddy.
He stopped at seeing his father among the tunnel workers. It
is difficult to believe. Does his appa work here? Didn’t he
say that he was working as store supervisor in muthalali’s
establishment?
A white worker was collecting the soil in a rubber basket
and putting it on appan’s head. On a high spot appan shifts it
to another man’s head. There was a Punjabi Sardar working
with appan. He is cutting the root of a tree with an axe.
Nearly 10 men work there. All toil in the soil. Appan now
tosses the soil with a shovel to the basket and places it on the
head of a White. While he returns the next basket of soil is
full. He wipes the sweat on his brow. Danny did not deem to
stand there for long.
Danny was in shocks when a vehicle blaring a police
siren came rushing in. They ran away from the spot to a
place where they found kids playing ball. Danny wanted to
cry. Appan is said to be a man who has passed a top exam in
Kerala! Why does he do such menial work? Wasn’t a job in a
Cochin far better than this one? Did amma know this? Must
not tell amma. She will be sad. When can appan dump this
weight from his head?
In the extreme heat and cold appan toils. Only I can
save appan. All this hardships are because he came from a
poverty-stricken family. Danny mustered confidence. Hedetermined to study well and be clever to protect appan and
amma. He said goodbye to the friends and reached home.
The next morning. The roses at the yard blossomes into
fresh fragrance.. Danny and Sara started to the school. The
tender leaves or green leaves on the trees in the park are
not visible as they were covered by flowers. White and red
flowers. Sara was growing into a robust flower. Her tall and
obstinate class mate Michael Post covets to court her. He is
as tall as a giraffe. He once troed to grab her for a kiss. But
she jumped at him as a puma and thrashed him with her shoe.
Bruised and a bloody lips he escaped.
Michael did not come back to the class that day. He felt
guilty. He did not anticipate such a beating from an Indian
lass. Are the girls in India like this? When he saw her shoe
in her hand he was not only stunned but scared. There is no
way to bring everything normal except to apologise her. No.
While she walked with Danny with a heavy heart she did not
say anything to Danny who would be so angry and wound
pounce on the English boy.
Amma was waiting for them as usual. After eating they
were to take abath in the traditional way. During unction
with olive oil amma will say “In our land we apply coconut
oil on the head. Do you know that it is the boiled coconut
oil that enhances the beauty and hair of the Malayali girls?”
Sara will not agree. “Oh, is it the coconut oil that `cultivates’
beauty?”she will ask mockingly. Lice grow on coconut oil. If
they use that oil, her hair will be a haven for lice!
The wind blew hard on the yard. Clouds loitered on the
sky. After applying oil on the head and searching for lice Saranarrated the incident in the class. While Amma was malishing
her head with oil, Sara told her what happened in the school.
Mary could not believe it. For a while she sat is stunned
silence. Then she slowly recovered at the thought of Sara
becoming a beauty to attract the white kids too. She kissed
Sara on her forehead and said, “Mole, you have to be extra
careful form now onwards to protect your virginity.
On hearing the taps of horse hoofs they got up and
looked through the window. On her neighbor’s yard and on
the road leading to it, there were a number of horse carts
parked. There was a coffin, a soldier’s coffin disembarked
from one of the carts. A youngster from their neighborhood
had died in a battle somewhere in Africa. They looked at
the coffin and read his name `Eattle Marshall”. He had only
been gone three years. The wail of his mother Turnel Trang
reverberated in the neighborhood. Mary hurried to the
neighbor’s to express her sympathy and condolence.
Turnel’s ancestors were all soldiers of the British empire.
But the woman could not bear that her younger one also had
been sacrificed for some unknown cause in a distant land.
After all, theui lose is hers and for the British Empire, it was
a morsel of a lose. Mary was tense. She did fully sympathize
with the mother of the youngster.
Returning home, Mary was about to open the door and
enter. But suddenly she lifted her face and exclaimed “Look,
who is coming, it is Aiysha!”
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