Flood

FLOOD
The rain finally stopped. But the sky remained cloudy. Sun was not yet visible .Chettan jumped onto the yard.
“Amme , chettan is going out to play.”
“Bhas , food is ready; eat and go”. Amma came with two plates of rice. Chechi carried two small plates of curry. Mathy chechi is two years older than Bhaskaran.
“Koche, if you don’t go out I will take u with us to the river. All my friends and Meena Amma have agreed to come with us”. Everybody called me’Kochu’ because I was the youngest of the five children. I was very small too.
“I am going to see how the flood is. The river must be overflowing”, Bhas ran out.
“Come here and eat this or else I will tell your father. I don’t know how long the rice will last. For the last four days it has been raining continuously. There is no firewood left either,” Amma murmured. “The little ‘pothumbu’( part of coconut tree used for fire)that is left is also wet”.
Chettan ate quickly. The curry was dry prawns mixed with jackfruit seed in chilly gravy. It was hot. In most of the houses in Enathy the lunch was kanji (rice mixed in water), but in my house my eldest brother was very particular that we should have good rice and curry. He worked very hard. He was a very responsible youth unlike his friends of the same age. He saved money needed for our education. For us he even stopped his studies and started working.
“Wash your mouth and go”. Bhas had already disappeared jumping the kadamba. Kadamba is a type of barrier instead of gate. It consists of two to three posts placed horizontally on two vertical posts. This is in the end of the yard and also the end of each house plot. It prevented the cattle from moving across as well as stopped very small kids. Jumping over the kadamba of different houses is one of our favourite games.
I stayed backed. I liked to go with chechi. I always liked their talking. Meena amma is a very good story teller.
Chechi held my hand as we walked. “Dont step into water unless I say,you agree?”
“Are we not going to river?”
“No, river is overflowing .The paddy fields in the back is flooded.The canals are full. We are bathing in canal.”
I was thrilled. The sky was still cloudy. Any time it can rain. Here and there muddy water collected in the narrow path.Chechi avoided them. But I put my feet into it and splashed the water. To the right of the path is Ram’s house He is the seconed son of Meena amma. He was my friend. ”Ram” I called out . There was no response. They must have left. We could hear the sounds of children from the direction of canal.
As we reached the canal Sarada chichi and Meena amma were washing cloths. There was a boat(vallam) tied near by. Ram, Sas and Das were in the boat. Indira was sitting on the bank as the water was cold. Indira was a cute little girl and younger than all of us. She had long black hairs.
The vast paddy fields were not visible. Brick-red coloured water spread every where. In certain parts the thick and high boundaries of individual paddy field were standing out showing tips of paddy and long grass. Water was flowing with small currents. With in few days if rain continued all will be immersed in water. Water will get into higher land also.
We kids jumped into the water. It was cold. Muddy water got into our nose and eyes. I closed my eyes when dip my head under water. We hung on the sided of the boat. The current in the canal was strong for we children. So Sarada chichi did not allow us to go to the middle of canal. We all knew to swim. But Chechi said it is flood .it was the responsibility of elders to take care of the children of the village whether related or not. Usually under the surface water used to be warm. Today it was cold.we all got tired of playing very quickly, as there was current. So we started another game. In turn one person will go under water and stay longest time possible and come up. It was a play testing our breath holding capacity. Due to the strong current we decided to hang from the boat and dip our head fully under water. In my turn as I did, my hand got off the boat. I went deep in to the water. Suddenly i got afraid. I tried to surface. But my head struck under the under surface of boat. I could not. The the bottom of the boat was broad. I cannot hold the breath any more. There was ringing in my ear.Chest was tight and started exploding. I lost my consciousness.
Light blurred around me,I could not see anything. I am hearing sounds. Somebody is pressing my abdomen and chest.I could not stop it. I was vomiting. “Koche, Koche.” That was my chechi calling.I slowly opend my eyes. I was lying on the bank. My chichi was sitting beside me. I again vomited.
“Let him vomit. Let the water go out he must have drank a lot of water. Lucky I saw him drowning. I saw him comeing to surface. I felt he was in trouble” Sarda chechi got me out of drowning.”. “God ,Sarada if you hadn’t seen it ?”S,My chichi started crying. I was well after few minutes. Suddely fear got me, if my father came to know about this?.

Nira kali

NIRA a play
The entire morning we sat in our own home. The heavy rain from last night continued. It was boring . How long can I play with my brother alone. Moreover, he being older I was supposed to obey him and I never liked that idea. I was five years old. But then he was only seven.
We sat in the veranda. Chettan looked at the sky and said, “We should play once again”. Actually I call my brother by his name -Bhas and not Chettan. My eldest brother Ittattan (Karun) tried a lot to make me call him Bhaskaran chettan. Because in my place the custom is we should call our elder brother chettan and elder sister chechi. But it never happened and even now I call him by his name.
Chettan took his slate-board and placed it between us . He drew a rectangle with two diagonals using a chalk.
“May I draw?”.He did not reply. I knew he will not allow me to touch that chalk. He got it from one of his friends. He was so popular among the village children that everybody walked behind him like they were his tail. That made me jealous sometimes.
I shifted my posture. There were few ants on the floor. I blew them off. This time I did not kill them. I was afraid I may fail in the play. Our floor was polished with cow dung. My mother Paru( people called her Ashatty since they called my father Naran Ashan) used to polish the floor once in a month. Since we did not own a cow she collected the cowdung from our neighbour’s house.
Our house was a small one. It was thatched ,with coconut palm leaves. There was a large room in the middle and two small slanting rooms on either side. The one on the right side was the kitchen. The one in the left was our study room. In our study room there was a wooden desk and bench . The house stood on four posts .The four sides and the rooms in between were mad e with ‘panambu ‘ made from bamboo. In my village most of the houses were like ours. Only a very few were made of red stones .
“I am hungry”, I complained. The steamed tapioca that I had eaten for breakfast had already digested.. “okay, only one more game” .
I placed my three small stones in my side front line. He placed three pieces of eerkili( sticks from palm leaves) in his front line.
“I will make the first move. Last play u made the first move,” and he moved his pawn.
“But you won the last game”, I grumbled and made my move. With just seven movements he placed all his three pieces in a nira in the diagonal. That was the end of the game. H e won the game..again.