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?