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In one of those days, when I was returning from school with two other girls, one of the women labourers of the Kalapparambil House asked me, "did your mother deliver ?" At first, I was confused and then answered, 'no'. As the question was in the typical colloquial Malayalam slang that we felt ashamed and couldn't look at each other for sometime. The next Sunday, I and my brother returned from Sunday School at noontime and reached uncle Yacob's house. There, we were given meals and a talk about my mother's condition also took place. He asked me whether there was anyone in our house from my mother's house or not. I replied that aunt Laly was with us. Then he told Majichechi ( actually I called her chechi , which means elder sister ) to accompany us as a companion during the night. Aunt Laly ( 20 years ), Cousin Maji ( 14 years ) & my brother ( 5 years ) were with me in that night. Aunt Laly and Maji knew how to cook almost all the items used in our homes. But due to the deficiency of raw materials for cooking, they didn't dare to make much food items. That night, we had our dinner, a little earlier than before, we closed the doors and went to sleep earlier.
It was on 13th March, 1984 that she was born. I, my brother, Maji & aunt Laly went to the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical Mission Hospital ( now, MOSC Medical College Hospital ) Kolenchery, to see the newborn baby. My brother was also born in that hospital. When I saw the little child, I wondered - "when will she grow up like me ?" I had a perception that I had grown up too much. Eventhough I had completed only 10 years, everyone would say that I had grown up. As I was the eldest child, my thoughts and activities were like that of a grown up woman. What would I do in such a situation ? I placed my hands over her hands and feet and felt the softness of a child. I remembered the lullabies and the poems about children by certain poets.
A taxi arrived beneath the steps of our courtyard and my father, mother and maternal grandmother with the newborn baby came out of it. Aunt Laly returned to her house within a few days. But I became happy when I heard that grandmother would stay in our house for three months. Grandmother was a strict woman but she was very sensible and intelligent eventhough she had attended school only upto 2nd Std. It was the time when the Annual examinations in Std V were taking place. The news about the birth of a little sister was spread in my class. One day, after the examinations, my classmates going enroute Kolenchery, came to my house to see my newborn sister. They were a few in number. Jeena and even Manjusha, who came from Kolenchery everyday by bus, were there among them. Everyone entered the house but I didn't know how to introduce them. I think my mother with her talk and laugh might have been got acquainted with them.
All the neighbours and relatives came to see the newborn baby. But I don't remember any of them. They brought baby powder, baby soap, small frocks etc. Till then, I slept with my father in a cot and my mother in another cot with my brother. My father had bought a new bed this time. There was another cot in that room and my mother and newborn sister slept in that cot in the newly bought bed. My brother changed to father's cot, on a mat. Then, I was transferred to another cot in which I and grandmother slept on a mat. This change irritated me a little because I knew that after three months, grandmother would return to her house.
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