Gulmen
Gulmen visited the little village three or four times every year and during each visit he stayed around nearly a week and sometimes a little more. Weather Gulmen was his real name or not, nobody was sure. But it seldom mattered as he was identified, called or addressed by that name only. He must have been going or visiting several villages in the taluka [ tehsil] or even crossed over to other placed in this manner, perhaps covering full days or a part of the day in the year. The whereabouts of his place, origin, family and things like that were unknown and unsolicited. He looked like a fugitive or raised in nomadic family. He could speak the local malayalam but was a bit crude and invariably got mixed up with a few other south Indian languages – Tamil, Kannada, Telegu andTulu; but that never posed any problem for him or the villagers and to the work and services that he rendered.
His physical features looked a bit akin to ‘gypsy’, had very long uncut brown hair rolled up at the centre of the head, big ear lops with several multi-coloured ear rings, had rings on nose too made out of various metals or combination – copper, lead, and other alloys which spoke his profession – he was a brass, bronze, copper utensils cum lamp repairer and refurbished those articles.
This village probably had ten – twelve rich, traditional well to do houses who held such items in plenty; they used many kinds of glasses such as lotta, well round shaped coffee mug, long copper glasses, tops, utensils, antique large kettles, kindi, kolambi, pots and several such items which needed frequent or occasional polishing, and some repair work. Usually it took nearly half a day and sometimes both morning and afternoon; in such cases the house concerned offered lunch or something to eat in between.
He was very short height wise – may by four feet and some two – three inches maximum, with good hefty body. His skin tone was mix of red and brown that perfectly matched the work he did, ate a lots of ‘paan’ and his mouth and lips were fully dark red. His eyes were red and wide, hands and legs were well rounded also very strong. His dress mostly was long, loose, wide shorts and on top of it he put a pink colour thick dhoti and a thick sleeveless baniyaan which had two pockets on both side stuffed with too many things like papers, brushes, small tools and maybe some money as well. The trouser pockets were too full and bulged always.
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He carried a long well shaped metal rod in his hand perhaps to scare the stray dogs, sack full of tools, various broken alloy pieces and other necessary items kept on his head, hanged a large hand blower on the shoulder to wind the fire which was made by using coconut shells. Indeed he looked fabulous, strange, unusual maybe a bit like Red Indian or pigmy or gypsy. He sung old folk songs while walking or a bit away from house yard as he had to make a pit on the mud, lit fire and then did his work; it made fire sparks, big musical sound while hitting or hammering vessels and generally he chose a shady place under a mango or jack fruit tree to partially save the hot sun as the work took long hours and he had to sit and do the work all the while. The children were generally scared of him but they all watched his work, blowing the work with his typical old fashioned hand blower and the thick fire sparks – standing a little away. Gulmen had a small chillam in which he stuffed ganja and occasionally smoked, which whoever enquired, he said ‘ that helped him for concentrating in work as the job he did was very specialised’. None ever raised any issue on that score because there wasn’t anybody else who did this work and people cherished his visits – there was no substitute for him.
During visits he had fixed living arrangements with a farm worker family and that was quite beneficial mutually. He paid good amount of money for the provision, buying fish to the family and also brought along with him some toys for their two children – girl was fifteen and the boy eight years. The house lady was healthy and quite pretty as well as energetic, named Karthu and her husband was Kuttappu. The girl and boy were respectively named Banu and Vasu. They all enjoyed Gulmen’ s visit and stay which invariably occurred three or four times a year and there were good things to look forward for all.
Nice food was prepared as Gulmen supported well, children received some toys and large balloons, cracked stories, jokes that everyone enjoyed, laughed at and slept late than usual; he sung folk songs, the lady had special interest in such songs and she too sung a little along with him. Gulmen smoked ganja, offered it to Kuttappu and then Karthu also smoked towards the end. After dinner children slept, the aged Kuttappu followed. Karthu was his second wife as his first barren wife died years ago. Slowly Karthu and Gulmen smoked, sung and danced in the house compound for some time under the beautiful moon light and at times amidst rain. When
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the night became too late, pitch dark and silent, when all other slept they too lied down and slept – perhaps they slept not until dawn. Then she compensated for the lost sleep in the following afternoon; she did so during Gulmen’ s stay always.
People around Karthu’s house as well as some in village said that Gulmen got along well with this kind of arrangements wherever he stayed and he possessed exemplary skills in selecting his host families and if not Karthu, it was somebody else and all these lasted for a long period – He spread happiness wherever he lived. There were rumours and gossips that the boy Vasu had a little of gypsy or nomad look with his short stature, brownish hair, a little pink skin tone and the way he spoke. Some of the villagers who travelled for some work to other villages sold the news that they had sighted a few such kids there too and all of them had ample semblance to Vasu.
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