#othupalli

After a long time I'm back again. Study leave started for the final semester and the summer is taking its toll on me. One dreary afternoon, took a break from studies and looked through the pages of an old album. Childhood memories preserved ..frozen.

One particular photo attracted my attention, My dad carrying a girl in his arms. The girl was 4 to 5 years old..she was happy, really happy to be in her only best friend’s arm..She was waving at the camera....a long forgotten image of myself .

My dad and I used to go down the fields of “Kannanchira” , the paddy field at the back of our house when I was a kid. He used to take me everywhere he used to go when he was a kid. Every visit had a story attached to it. In his story, a tree might suddenly turn into an “Odiyan” the ghost or the namboodiri walking back to his house at night might see a fire ball passing through the field or stories of “illow - the super hero” !

One day, we were walking through the small pathway behind “vangini kkara kayattam”, the path was really muddy, after a heavy down pour, so he carried me all along. He told that the place was called “mundane kaadu”  pointing to a plot filled with dense trees and shrubs, there was a pond near by, filled with lotus and lilies. Near by was a small house which he told was his madrassa long back and told  about the mad “Mollakka” the madrassa teacher. Suddenly it started raining and we ran home.

Years passed by, places no longer remained the same. People changed, lives changed.

We got settled in India. And I was trapped in my own world, busy with studies and  friends. One day we passed by “Mundan kaadu” again. Suddenly I asked dad what he told long back..the story about “Mollakka”..