Eyes that haunts.
Eyes? Haunts?
Has this female gone crazy? You might wonder.
Hmm, that is best left to ones imagination!

I was reading Maddy’s article about Amok and I remembered something.
I must have been about 4 years old as I hadn’t started to go to school yet.
My father came home in the evening and was talking to my mother about the daughter of his colleague who has been admitted in the hospital.
No one knew why.
My parents were busy analyzing the possible reasons for a teenager to be admitted in the hospital.
Amma was convinced she was pregnant.
She asked Chechy if the girl has any boyfriends?
Chechy didn’t know and didn’t think the girl was a BAD girl. So amma shooed chechy off to her room
Then she called our Amah and asked her if she heard any hot news from the Amah gossip network.
Amah promised to find more information the next morning.
My mother sighed saying ennalum…njan vicharichalla.. ( I didn’t expect her to… coming from such a God fearing family)

The next few days were full of excitement, mostly because the girl was admitted in a hospital that was almost 2 hours journey from our home. Surely they went that far, so they can hide the Pregnancy from the prying eyes. Amma was sure.
But it also made it very difficult to learn exactly what was going on. Is she having an abortion? Did she give birth already? What happened to the baby. Oh the nuns must have taken it and by now sold it to some Matsalleh ( White) family!

Finally the girl came home and none in her family spoke anything about her hospitalization., further fuelling the Pregnancy rumors.
The girl stopped going to the high school.
Everyone was happy, because the girl somehow deserved not going to school and learning. Besides no one wanted her to friend their innocent children and corrupt their mind. ( She went to the same school Chechy went and Amma warned Chechy not to ever talk to her.)

Then came the hot news from the Amah network.
The girl wasn’t pregnant. She was MAD!
Her parents have chained her to the bed post because she was MAD.

Oh. we must go and see them. My mother insisted.
Not because she felt sorry for the family. But because she wanted to verify if she really was pregnant and the family was sending out false news hoping to divert the attention.
I remember holding Appa’s hands and walking to their house.
It must have been about 7.30 pm.
There was one single light outside the veranda and my dad called out his colleague’s name.
His wife opened the door, she invited us in. But my parents declined. My parents had already discussed about not going inside because nobody knew if MADNESS is contagious, besides my parents wanted to protect us, should the girl suddenly ran amok and hurt us. We were safe standing outside.
Hearing his wife talking my dad’s colleague too came out, soon followed by the girl. I looked for the chains on her legs. Couldn’t find any.
My mother was soon the nicest person on earth.
How are you? She crooned and asked the girl.
She didn’t say anything.
She just stared and stared stared and I thought she was mad! Little did I know she was sanest of us all!