Neighbours & surroundings

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       It was the mid - summer vacation.  "Annamma, Annamma", where are you"?,aunt Gouri was calling out from outside.  Hearing the sound, I came out of the house.  My mother was pulling out water from the well which was very deep, situated in the eastern side of our house.  Aunt Gouri said that her youngest son, Mohan was going to join the 1st Std, that year.  But she had no money to buy the textbook for him.  She requested my mother to give my textbook to him because I had passed into the IInd Std, by that time.

     I got alarmed to hear the news.  My mother said loudly, "Diya, give your textbook to aunt Gouri, she has no money to buy it for her son".  Aunt Gouri had three sons, she worked as a housemaid in the rich families and sometimes in the paddyfields.  It was very difficult for her to meet the two ends of her life.  Though I felt sympathy towards her, I could never part with the textbook.  I knew each and every part of that book, as a result it had become almost a companion to me.  All the pictures and words in it attracted me in some way or another.  I knew the fact that all my classmates would have given their textbooks to somebody else by that time.  But I....I wouldn't do that.  My mother explained to aunt Gouri, "See, this one is a particular type of girl,she is almost like her father - obstinate and always disgusted.  I don't know what will happen to her in future".  At last, when aunt Gouri returned, I opened the text and turned up the sheets of paper.  It was designed so that it should attract the tender minds instantly.  Even the grass in those pictures appeared heavenly to me.  Eventhough I always notice the beauty of the nature around me, this is another thing.  This is art - something that elevates us from the lower level to the higher.  In the artistic form, everything appears in its fullness -  its beauty, structure or anything.  Only the persons who know the Child Psychology could develop a textbook like that.  I looked into the pictures for a long time so that I would experience joyfulness in its full spirit.  I wonder whether the textbooks of today are like this or not.  I was fully contented about my textbook and even  today I desire to see that again!

     My house situated in the middle of about 25 cents of land.  Standing on the courtyard of my house, I could see five houses ie, my neighbour's.  The first one belonged to Puthiyaveettil Mr Johny & Ms Kunjamma.  They had a little child, Basil who was one year younger to me.  He had already joined in the St. Peter's English Medium School in the LKG and next year he would be in the 1st Std.  Besides them, there was the father of Mr Johny, Mr Thommachan and his mother Ms Mariamma.  They owned about 12 acres of land ( excluding the paddyfields).  The second house was  that of Mr Johnson's & Ms Achamma's, which was also named as Puthiyaveettil because Mr Johnson  was the elder brother of Mr Johny.  They had four children - Elias, Liji, Aby & Peter.  Besides them, there was another person - Ms Saramma, the sister of Mr Thommachan.  Everyone in the village called her 'The Great Aunt'.   She was married and somehow or other her marriage was a failure and she returned to her father's house.They also owned 12 or 13 acres of land.   The third neighbourhood was Kalluvilakathu House, where lived Mr George, his wife Ms Sarakutty and Mr George's sister, Ms  Susamma.  All of them were old people.  There was a servant girl & a driver.  There was an outhouse built for the car driver to stay.  All their sons had migrated to the United States of America.  The daughters were married and lived a little far away from the house.  This family owned about 16 acres of land, I think.  I had seen the members of that family very rarely because there was no particular reason to go to that house and also they always travelled in car.  The fourth and fifth neighbours were Ithipuzha House & Karingattil House.  In the Ithipuzha House, there lived a priest in the St. Peter's Church, Kolenchery, Fr. Jacob Ithippuzha,  his wife, Ms Eliamma & four daughters, viz. Bincy, Jincy,Lincy & Rincy.  Opposite to their house, there was the Karingattil House, where lived Mr Cherian, his wife Ms Sosamma & their only son, Mr Saju.  In these houses, Puthiyaveettil Houses and Kalluvilakathu House were the branches of the richest family in that village, called  Chittuparambil House.  

     My house was set as boundary to three family's lands.  There was Mr Johnson's one acre land on the left side of our land.  It was left uncultivated for a long time.  The reason was that 'they were the poorest in that richest family', and as a result they didn't have enough money to cultivate anything in that land.  There were three Cashew trees, different kinds of small trees, shrubs & bushes in that land.  It was an ideal place for rabbits, mongoose & snakes.  The second was the land of Mr Johny, which was about two acres of which only a little portion set boundary with us.  The third one was with Mr George's land, full of mango trees, jackfruit trees and coconut trees.

     In my house, there were three mango trees, three jackfruit trees,

Jackfruit tree

one cashew tree, six coconut trees, one teak tree & one cotton plant.  There were two guava trees and one mulberry.   In front of the house, on the two sides of the steps, there were jasmine flowers swung on long stalks to the road.  On the left side of our house, near the jackfruit tree, there were numerous jasmine flowers which produced a pleasant smell all over there.  There was a Hibiscus plant in that place, from its leaves we used to make shampoo, to cleanse our hair.  I remember teenagers from the different families of the Chittuparambil House coming to our house, to collect jasmine flowers. On the right side, near the kitchen, there was a curry leaf tree,which was grown  so high that we couldn't take curry leaves from it.  In that compound, here and there, small curry leaf plants and chillies were present.   In front of our house, there was a small garden in which different kinds of flowers bloomed.   The flowers and butterflies made my childhood a colourful one.

     I am very sad to say that my house is not there today.  The land is owned by somebody else.  Whatever it be, the house and its surroundings are still alive in my mind.