The Mad Mollakka ..
My dad’s childhood had always been an inspiring one for me. He would spent hours together telling them and even though several years had gone, I could still listen to it, with wide open eyes filled with excitement. One afternoon, he started to tell about the Mad Mollakka
My dad belonged to a family of 7 children. He started going to madarassa with his sisters by the age of 5. Mollakka ( The madarassa teacher) is a special person in dad’s memory. Dad would describe Mollakka as “ A terrible man..with large blood red eyes, with hare lips and teeth coated with red sticky Betel leaf marks..He would beat us up until we learned and would give punishments until we behaved”
Mollaka was mentally unsound. His madness would reach its peak during summer. He would wander through the streets swearing people . “So when summer comes madarassa closes!” ,says dad with a naughty smile.
Every kid feared Mollakka and he became the horror character used by mothers to make their children eat. “Vegam kazhicho ilenkil Mollakka varum..chooral kondu kittum”.
As days passed Mollakka’s madness began to get worse. It started to show up even when it wasn't summer and one sunny morning, he was arrested by Police for causing public nuisance. He was taken to Kuthiravattam Mental Hospital and remained there till the end of his life.
Years passed by, dad joined Calicut medical college for MBBS. The old mollakka and his madness remained a story in the village.
Dad would tell how he faced his first anatomy class in 2nd year. “Dead people laid out on tables..You know how they smell ! ” He would start terrifying me. But still its a thrill hearing from him. Once when we had gone to his college for their batch reunion, he showed us the popular spooky places like mortuary, anatomy dissection hall and several so called “haunted “ areas which filled his stories.
Well back to story.. Dad’s 2nd year results came and he got to be a rank holder in anatomy dissection. After a few days he got an unexpected vistor, it was the old Mollakka’s brother. He had a letter in hand. It was an official letter issued from the Kuthiravattam mental hospital dated several days back. Mollaka died few months back and was taken to the Medical college hospital mortuary. The letter was sent to the relatives to receive the body from there. But because of governmental delays, the letter reached Mollakka’s brother several months after his death. And he came to dad to enquire how to receive the body .
Dad enquired at the mortuary about receiving an unidentified body few months back. He described the personal traits of Mollakka to the watchman.. But found no luck..An unidentified body , that too brought many months back was impossible to find unless you have correct records..They left the mortuary..
Suddenly a thought hit him like lightning bolt. During his anatomy exam, he obtained a body to be dissected which had a hare lip defect, blood red eyes and wrinkled face..
……..a face that haunted his thoughts over a week after the exam..How could he forget it?
He ran back to the anatomy hall against the hoarding crowd and went to table no.26..
A chill passed through his spine..
The body he had dissected was the one who taught him to recite “Aliph Ba Tha” the Arabic letters for the first time in his life..The face that haunted him for over a week was that of Mollakka..dead and frozen somewhere amongst several unidentified bodies of the medical college mortuary waiting to be dissected.
I could see a tingle of despair somewhere in his eyes when dad narrated his experience. We passed through Mundan kaadu once more, I thought I heard an echo..the echo of a mad man …
