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 the severest of the severe punishments."
Saying so, mom looked at the chooral stick that lay on top of our tall Cupboard. A chill went through our spines as we retraced our mom's eyes to the chooral. We could hear the sound it produced "whoosh" right before the pain induced by the blow on our legs. We swore not to speak the word again!
The following days in our home mostly seemed peaceful while we struggled to keep our fits of anger and our words within the defined limits. One day, unable to control our anger, we devised a plan. I took an old newspaper and wrote down whatever we wanted to call the other person on that. It was on that day we understood how powerful words can be. How they can give peace by letting us communicate our minds.
Once that was done, we hid the newspaper carefully on top of the fridge in the kitchen and went about on our games.
A few days later, while I and Kannan went to school, our neighbor visited mom and was having chai in the Kitchen. She told about an interesting recipe that she read in the newspaper a few days back and the topic stuck. Both the ladies could not rest until they found that paper. And so the search went on, when our neighbor's hand caught hold of the paper on top of the fridge.
"Poda Patty"
read the huge words and our neighbor was perplexed. Mom had the same look on her face as she tried to explain. Our neighbor consoled mom and herself stating that it might be the kids. Mom shyly agreed.
Evening came and mom looked more serious than our Principal when we came home. The environment was such that, we were ready to accept any criteria put forth without reason as to why we should follow. We kept thinking hard what would have happened and hopefully it would not be something that would earn us a beating with the chooral.
Finally, mom took that newspaper and showed it to our dad when he came.
Dad read the contents, looked at us who were ready with the best smile we had ever given anybody on our lives. He gave out a wide laughter!
The end!
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 the severest of the severe punishments."
Saying so, mom looked at the chooral stick that lay on top of our tall Cupboard. A chill went through our spines as we retraced our mom's eyes to the chooral. We could hear the sound it produced "whoosh" right before the pain induced by the blow on our legs. We swore not to speak the word again!
The following days in our home mostly seemed peaceful while we struggled to keep our fits of anger and our words within the defined limits. One day, unable to control our anger, we devised a plan. I took an old newspaper and wrote down whatever we wanted to call the other person on that. It was on that day we understood how powerful words can be. How they can give peace by letting us communicate our minds.
Once that was done, we hid the newspaper carefully on top of the fridge in the kitchen and went about on our games.
A few days later, while I and Kannan went to school, our neighbor visited mom and was having chai in the Kitchen. She told about an interesting recipe that she read in the newspaper a few days back and the topic stuck. Both the ladies could not rest until they found that paper. And so the search went on, when our neighbor's hand caught hold of the paper on top of the fridge.
"Poda Patty"
read the huge words and our neighbor was perplexed. Mom had the same look on her face as she tried to explain. Our neighbor consoled mom and herself stating that it might be the kids. Mom shyly agreed.
Evening came and mom looked more serious than our Principal when we came home. The environment was such that, we were ready to accept any criteria put forth without reason as to why we should follow. We kept thinking hard what would have happened and hopefully it would not be something that would earn us a beating with the chooral.
Finally, mom took that newspaper and showed it to our dad when he came.
Dad read the contents, looked at us who were ready with the best smile we had ever given anybody on our lives. He gave out a wide laughter!
The end!
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