page 2
( 12 )
The annual examinations in Std IV was over and I bade farewell to the Government Lower Primary School and entered into the mid summer vacation. The first day was a day of rest - I did whatever I liked. I made a playfield in my courtyard with my legs after removing my sandals, secretly enjoying the feel of the soil. There were two columns and five rows, I think. I would jump into each row and add points. This game was intended for a group - not for a single player. Then I would go to Puthiyaveettil Mr. Johny's land, where the rubber plants reaching their maturity. Then I would go to Puthiyaveettil Mr. Johnson's uncultivated land, where the cashew trees were full of cashewnuts.
( 12 )
The annual examinations in Std IV was over and I bade farewell to the Government Lower Primary School and entered into the mid summer vacation. The first day was a day of rest - I did whatever I liked. I made a playfield in my courtyard with my legs after removing my sandals, secretly enjoying the feel of the soil. There were two columns and five rows, I think. I would jump into each row and add points. This game was intended for a group - not for a single player. Then I would go to Puthiyaveettil Mr. Johny's land, where the rubber plants reaching their maturity. Then I would go to Puthiyaveettil Mr. Johnson's uncultivated land, where the cashew trees were full of cashewnuts.
On the second day, my mother would shout at me,"girl,what are you doing there ? The school has closed several days ago. Why don't you clean up your table ?" Hearing this, I would take my texts & notes and arrange them in an order. We had no almirahs in our house. Therefore, everything was arranged on the table. The pencil, pen and eraser were kept safely. From every notebook, the spare pages were taken and a new one was created, which would be the roughbook for the Vth Std. I knew that the next duty would be to pluck the grass from the courtyard, from the two sides of the steps leading to the road and on the walls that which separated the back courtyard and the cutivated land. I would take two or three days to complete the task.
Then - I forgot to tell you one thing - my father was a subscriber of a children's magazine, viz., Balarama, from my 5th age itself. He might have thought that it would help me in my studies. Surely it has helped me very much in improving the study of Malayalam language and also general knowledge. Everyday the newspaper boy would come in a bicycle, making the sound of the bell and go to the neighbouring houses, distributing the Malayala Manorama newspaper. I would watch him by standing in my courtyard and think, "when will I get a newspaper ?" But on a special day, he would stop near our steps, make the sound of the bell and I would run climbing down the steps and catch the Balarama from him. As soon as I get it, I would start reading it by standing in the opposite side of the kitchen so that my mother wouldnot see me. Otherwise she would scold me for not preparing the jackfruit seeds for the curry. I had become an expert in preparing the jackfruit seeds by the time when I reached the IVth Std. First remove the white outer skin, then scratch the brown coloured inner skin,cut it into two, then each two parts is cut into three or four pieces. Then these pieces are washed thoroughly in water and put in an earthen pot for cooking. There ended my duty.
After the breakfast,I would take a thotti (hook for plucking fruits ) and go to pluck cashews from our cashew tree. The cashew tree was on the border of our land and Mr. George's land. The tree was inclined to their land. So, the place under the cashew tree was left uncultivated, there were full of shrubs. I would enter their land with the thotti and pluck the ripened cashews (by searching the cashew apples ). The sight of the cashews in the tree is a beautiful one. There were ripened ones and unripe also in the same bunch. My hobby was to pluck the ripened one correctly from among them. Sometimes I would make mistakes. Rarely there would fall an unripe one on the ground. I would become sad and hide it at once, otherwise I would be punished. Then, the next destination was the cashew trees of the uncultivated area of Mr. Johnson. On the left side of our house, near to the boundary, there stood the old cashew tree with full of cashews. On the left side of it, there stood a small cashew tree also. The third one was at the end of that land. Under the cashew tree, there were different types of bushes and grasses. The ripened cashews with cashew apples would be there fallen down on the soil. I would stretch my hand through the thorny bushes to take the decayed apples along with the cashewnut. Sometimes I would hear a hissing sound and realise that a snake must be there, nearby. Knowing my presence, it might disappear, I think. Everyone knew that the area was full of snakes. Sometimes I would be afraid when I stretch my hands to take the cashewnut. But my mind would whisper, "don't be afraid, be bold always".
