recollections!

It all started with my niece ( step) posting a vidoe clip of John Gaisah on my Fb wall and telling me that she wished she could hear me sing!

The truth is, I can’t sing to save my life. However not being able to sing doesn’t stop me from singing.
A bottle of Tapai ( rice wine) and I can practically ‘ outsing’ any Kadazan singers, or so I believe.
So at every (family) gathering, I volunteer to sing and even though I am not home any more, apparently everyone remembers my performances..even after 2 decades.. and the legend of my beautiful singing is now passed on to the next generation and they are dying to hear me sing!!

And that brought me back to my youth, (and No, the previous statement didn’t mean that I am old now)

We were staying in my mother’s ancestral home in Kottayam. The house was very unusual. It had the usual pathayam ( granary) and thattumpuram ( Attic) etc that you would see in old Malayalee homes, but in this particular house the kitchen was the most unusual.
It had three doors. One door lets you enter the kitchen from the dining room, then there are two doors that allows you to leave the kitchen to either side of the house. It was the only house I have seen other than chengannur house that had saksha on the doors. A wooden device that is intricately carved at the ends and functioned as a latch. The kitchen had one small counter and on top of that was the wood stove. We stored  firewood underneath the counter. We didn’t really need to use the wood stove, but my mother was on a mission to save money for our dowry! So it was my duty to guard the fire.
When I said guard the fire, it meant that, I now held the wand ( ie a long metal pipe) and must constantly blow in to the fire, so the fire won’t die out and the food won’t taste of smoke. ( My mother was a lousy cook and you really didn’t want to make it any worse)

I was 11 years old.
Nazia Hassan’s Disco Dewanee had just been released and Appa had already bought me a copy and on Sunday morning while my mother cooked meen curry (fish curry) I played the song and sang along at the top of my voice …
Disco dewanee.. aha aha then poof poof  I use the metal pipe and blow in to the fire, breathing in the smoke and desperately hoping that Amma won’t notice that I killed the fire. Once in a while I get carried away and use the pipe as a mike and pretend that I am the most famous singer and my hallucinations end rather quickly when my mother uses the mike or in this case the metal pipe and hit me while muttering avaldey oru disco dewanee.. and I talk back something very nasty to her and make a quick run outside taking the door closest to the stove and forgetting that Amma can and will go out from  the other door and we met each other somewhere in the other end of the house! Often, Amma just waited for me to run in to her!
And then the beatings begin..she hits me in tune to Disco Dewanee..

Those were the days.

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