Kuttikkaalam With Kannan

Our beautiful home in Layam Road once used to have a hallway in front covered by huge glass doors on either end. Every morning, once Amma was free of her morning chores, she would walk through this hallway watering the plants that were housed here and quietly examine both the glass doors. If a tiny speck had somehow found its way there, Amma would immediately have the entire glass washed and wiped clean. This used to be a problem at times as people who used to visit us could barely see the glass and would walk in banging their heads on to them. This would startle Amma who would have just started talking to some of her plants, and push us into a spiral of laughter! Kannan and I decided to enact people who would accidentally smash at the glass thinking there was no door. Kannan would take a few steps back and charge at the door and "Bamm"! Amma would rush out to see what made that sound and then we would laugh at our own comedy while Amma opens the glass door from the insi...

It was a lovely Friday evening when our mom told us that we had our Club Meeting at 6. Kannan and I made faces at each other as we were being made party-ready to attend that month's Club meeting. Amma was adorned in a beautiful maroon Sari which she had washed, ironed, and tried-in-front-of-the-Mirror a million times. Achan took out the topmost shirt from his drawer to wear for the meeting. We walked into the Hotel Ballroom which was booked for the evening. Amma walked over to where the other Aunties stood, all dressed in beautiful Sarees, while Kannan and I made our way to the Food counters as was our usual task at the start of every Club Meeting. We would take in the smell of the food, look at the time required to wait to grab it, and vanish from there when Amma gave us the "stare". On that particular evening, the meeting president walked over to Achan who seemed to be having a swell time with his friends and spoke something to him. Achan's expression changed. ...

It was 6:30 pm on a Saturday evening when the calling bell rang. While Kannan and I glanced furtively at the door, in came Achan holding a big flat square box. Amma was helping him carry it over to the free space in front of the TV. The toys in our hands seemed meaningless and we ran towards Amma to not miss the action. Achan and Amma slowly uncovered the box. To our utter amazement, we saw a board with lines and circles and Achan took it out proudly and placed it for all of us to see. We took in the smell of the new board, got engrossed in its design and colors when Achan dropped small flat round disks - black and white - onto the board. That was the first time we were introduced to Carrom! Achan taught us the game, he pointed at the four holes at each corner of the box and said that we would need to push in coins to win a point. He said there would be a disk - much larger than the rest of the coins which we would use to strike other coins on the board. He taught us how to ke...

The Chooral was a huge part of our childhood. At the time of its introduction to our family, the Chooral was to be used in case we do mischief. Achan liked the kind of control it had on us and he used to wave it through the air and our eyes followed suit. The Chooral adi grew from a 'once in a month' punishment to a 'twice in a day' affair. Amma and Achan were seriously enjoying the way we would obediently sit down, stand up, go from one room to the other and study silently just by taking the Chooral at hand. Sometimes, they would simply hold the Chooral to admire its marvel while we stood frozen wondering if a beating was to follow! We had had enough! We wanted the Chooral to disappear, and once again, Kannan and Vava came up with a plan! We knew that Achan would go to the office in the morning and be back only at noon for lunch, while Amma will be busy in the Kitchen with Kumari Chechi (our home maid). So we had just enough time. The Chooral was ...

Children fighting and driving their parents crazy were very common back in our school days. It is common even today. This story is about the time when mom decided to teach us a lesson so that we quit fighting forever. That Saturday afternoon, Achan was out for work and Amma had the tedious task of cooking and looking after us. We, as usual, fought our wars, played our games and made a lot of noise. Amma tried her best to keep us silent, but all in vain. Finally, she got a brilliant idea and she called out: "Kanna, Vavee, help me" and fell down. We stopped our games and rushed towards the kitchen to see our mom lying on the floor eyes closed. Amma was happy that her plan was working. She waited for her us to call her and try to wake her up. Kannan and I stood still trying to get hold of the situation. After a brief observation of the environment, Kannan spoke up. "Chechi, I think Amma is gone" I swear I saw Amma shiver when she heard that. I was shocked....

Aah! It was that time of our childhood when we understood that certain words were deemed to never be spoken in public; or some, which were not be to called against our worst enemies. It was also the time when Suresh Gopi's Commissioner movie was played in every Malayali's home. Some of the famous dialogs that were born as part of the same included: "Just remember that!" "Pha Patty" and so on. Of the many kids who watched these in television, Kannan and Vava watched in awe, the intensity that defined the anger portrayed when these words were called. 'Poda Patty' became a common use bad word for me and my brother Kannan. This name calling continued for a few months until Amma had had enough of the humiliations it caused her. One fine day, Amma called the both of us and made this golden rule which we remember to this day. "Never will one of you call the other 'patty' again. The one who breaks the rule will have to go through th...