The first 'Encounter'

The 'Loose' was our lookout as long as i can remember.He has been officially appointed by the gang on a hot afternoon during a simple swearing in ceremony,during which,as the gang's leader ,i had hanged a garland of tapioca leaves around his neck,bestowing my blessings on his ability to stay glued to any spot without blinking an eye as long as necessary.

The unsuspecting elders had never bothered to throw a second glance at him ,the reason being he was known to be a 'Loose', just like his mother,and he too suffered from bouts of maniacal mood swings,most of which found him wandering in the rubber plantation,at the banks of a river deep in the forest or even sometimes,behind the estate temple,his eyes gazing unseeingly into nowhere!

'its all bcoz of the moon...' so many said.I had always wondered how can the moon in the sky have anything to do with the 'Loose's moods! But after sometime,i too convinced my gang members that the 'Loose's moods were purely at the mercy of the full moon and no one can do anything about it.

So,the 'Loose' became our source of the estate gossip as well. the elders didn't bother to lower their tones when he was around,or didn't whisper into ears when he was around,so whatever gossip that was being blown up,never missed his ears. And he stayed faithful and promptly reported whatever he heard when we met,and this always earned him a sour plum sweet or an 'asam koh' or even a coin or two depending on the availability.

So,one hot Sunday afternoon,the 'Loose' was on the lookout at the entrance gate to the estate,awaiting the presence of the new Mam ,who had been reported to be on her jogging routine,which also included a visit to the estate tuck shop along the route that evening. He came crashing down the slop of grass where we were reclining peacefully,and blurted out that the Mam was here! We scrambled up clumsily and ran at top speed towards the shop.
And as we reached the shop,i got the first face to face encounter of the white female who was the Mam,and stood gawking at her whiteness! The first thing that affected me about her being was her whiteness!She was as white as snow and though not as beautiful,her disarming smile when she saw us, made me like her instantly.

She said something in a foreign language to the shopkeeper,(later i learned that was English)and he was all 'teeth and tongue' as he nodded his head in agreement.
He quickly called us in and told us to pick whatever sweet we wanted,and he was smiling funnily at the Mam from time to time. We didnt want to miss this golden opportunity so we pointed quickly at all our favourite picks as the Mam looked on indulgently.I kept staring at her so intently that she nodded her head at me.At that instant,the whole world disappeared from under my feet as i shyly smiled back at her,and i was in a state of ephorical bliss that the white Mam has indeed shared those few golden moments with me.(I still remember her face to this date).

I also realized that no matter what ones skin colour was,all it takes is a heart full of love to colour ones life!So,on that day,as we stood in line and blurted out a' dhank u' to her,we knew that she was indeed an angel who lived in that bunglow and she had a golden heart...

The shopkeeper called us 'beggars' and roared with unkind laughter the next day when i went to buy my sweets but we all knew he was simply jealous and his unkind remark didnt bother us at all bcoz we had always thrown much more insulting slurs at him and this was him getting a chance to insult us back,so whats great about it,uh? The most important thing was,we tagged along behind our Mam till the bunglow gates that evening and felt so blissful and happy about it.And no money could have bought us this joy,rite?

The 'Mam'

One fine afternoon,as i was residing majestically on top of a branch of my guava tree,i saw the nerd running towards my home in the distance and i informed the others sitting around the tree and sharing our favourite 'asam kohs'.As i sucked on the sour asam koh,i couldnt help wondering what could have caused the nerd to rush on this mission. Because i saw him trip and fall on the 'old granny' of the clan,grinning apologotically at her curses and yet continued running towards us.
He appeared ,panting for breath,as i was about to start on my last piece of the asam koh.He eyed me and the last piece so eagerly and i could tell he was confident of getting part of it into his mouth as i had a way of knowing such fantasies.Since everyone was deeply engrossed in the sucking process of the asam koh,everyone,including the nerd , understood the heavenly bliss of its sour taste and tons and tons of saliva ,oozing inwards,making one feel so gifted and priviliged to have had this opportunity of savouring its priceless taste!(the othe day,i walked into a shop selling these asam kohs,and almost was delusioned at their present look and texture..so it would be understandable,if someone asks,whats so great about these dried,salty pieces?But the ones in those days tasted so succulent and almost juicy and fresh...even i dont like to eat any of these asam kohs now..)

The day's treat was mine so,the nerd knew i had the last piece and he was at my mercy.No one seemed to be bothered about his presence and he was getting restless.Before biting into the asam koh,i asked him what brought him to my abode that afternoon.As i sunk my teeth into the asam koh,the nerd threw a 'bombshell' which upset me from the comfortable position on the guava branch. My other friends were equally as shocked and surprised as i was and the nerd got very comfortable,now that he was at the centre of attraction and even shagged against the guava tree and scratched his ears and started to dig his wobbly nose.

As he began his tale about the 'dorei's new 'maam',he never kept his eyes away from my asam koh,so i was equally careful not to finish eating it.He told us about this "maam' at the bunglow who was so nice and kind , liked children, and was prepared to buy them sweets at the esate tuckshop.We were truely surprised such a maam exsisted,since the ones we had the chance to take a peek, either had some vision problems for they never looked down their nose tips,always had their heads high, and ,as we understood,hated children!

But,this maam sounded totally different and the one fact,which,even before we met her,had us all drawn to her was,that she loved children,and it made me happy,and as i looked at my gang of friends,i was sure,they too were excited about that fact.It gave us all a kind of joy to know that a'white skin' can have loving feelings towards 'dark skins'..it made us all feel so proud to be loved by this maam..

'we can see her when she comes to the shop today!' the nerd shouted aloud,not with excitement but with scare bcoz i almost had the last portion of the asam koh almost in my mouth,and he wasnt about to go without his share.I remember this childhood episode so well bcoz it really made an impact in my memory bcoz what transpired after this,shed a new light on my perception of the European bosses in my estate.

The Temple

The temple has been a most integral part of my childhood. The temple is till to date,the first thing i remember about my beautiful estate. It stood majestically at the entrance gate to the workers dwellings,commanding an invisible fear and faith,both in the old and the young.

My mom's first warning to me of the Goddess Mariamman,the presiding deity in that temple, was, 'never tell a lie,lest your eyes will be poked by the Goddess'....this much too often uttered warning ,first created enormous fear in me,as it did among my friends ,but i always had this guilty feeling whenever i was about to tell a lie,the lie which at times almost was hanging at my tongue's tip, but never been told for this fear of having my eyes being 'poked' by the Goddess!

Sometimes ,i used to stand at the temple's gated entrance and tried to figure out how the Goddess would 'poke' the eyes of liars since she had been herself 'imprisoned' within those concrete walls. but my mom insisted that 'she had her own way of doing it,so don't u ever dare tell a lie' . It took me some some years to realize how the elders had tried to discipline their offsprings by instilling such fears.I doubt the same tactic could work for the present day kids !

my friends

I just had to tell about my childhood friends who helped me to enjoy the growing up process a memorable one.
Vanaja,the poor one,Panja,the poorest one,Normah,the beautiful one,Salmah,the fatty one,Raju,the coward,Poobalan,the cry face,Krishna,the tailess monkey,and Moorthy,the nerd or 'tiga suku'(he had a history of mental illness even from day one at school). These were my classmates whom i grew up with in that estate school.

And i was 'the Boss' who led this group on the road of a colourful childhood!

We had our own 'friends gang' as did the others. One can join any 'friends gang' just by crossing one's forefinger,a process signifying ripe fruit,to join a group , and if one wanted to leave a gang,one has to cross the little finger with the leader,signifying unripe fruit,and one was free to join whichever desired rival group!

No words were needed,nor explanations sought,but this simple process of crossing selected fingers made or broke a 'friends gang'!

Once one joins a group,he or she was supposed to remain loyal by guarding group secrets,game plans,'war plans' against 'enemy' groups etc..etc...

To become an enemy of these 'friends gangs' one just had to stick out his or her tongue at the rival gang,shout expletives such as,fat pig,orphan dog,cunning cat,coward chicken, and spitting on the ground when one comes in eye contact with the 'enemies'!

We made sure to look out for the the 'enemy's weakness at all times and used it to instill fear in them lest their weakness be revealed publickly!Likewise,we made sure none of our weakness got to them for fear of being ridiculed publicised!

The weaknesses we had to look for were,namely,one's thieving habits,like snatching sweets from the young ones,stealing vegetables from the sundry shop,copying homework from friends,being belt lashed by parents,getting a knock on the head by teachers,getting a taste of the HM's cane,bathing naked in the river, winking at senior girls,writing love notes with spelling mistakes to juniors , acting out scenes from MGR and Shivaji movies ,having a secret girlfriend or boyfriend,and wearing clothes with unnoticed tears and holes at 'prominant' places!etc..etc.. What a wonderful childhood that was! To all my childhood friends,i thank u from the bottom of my heart for making it a memorable one.Wherever u r today,i hope u r as happy as i am today,god bless u all!