Ammalu

After lunch, I went to the paddy fields again. Workers were sitting around the jackfruit tree, talking and chewing pan. It was too hot and I looked for a shady spot to sit.
I decided to sit under the mango tree. I picked 5 round stones and started to play jumping jacks with the stone.

“Can I play with you? “
I looked up and saw the same girl I saw working in the fields in the morning. She wore a green long skirt and green colour blouse. The skirt was supposed to be long and reach up to her ankle. The skirt she wore was neither long nor short. It readched 4 inches above her ankle. In my school, if anyone wore a long skirt above the ankles, the gilrs would ask
“Oh is there a flood?, is that why you wearing your skirt high?”
I looked at the girl again, she had a happy face and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
“What is your name?”I asked her
“Ammalu”.
“Where do you stay?” I asked her
“In the cheri (slum)” she replied.
She sat down across me on the floor. She didn’t bother to clean the floor.
“What is your name?” She asked me
“Nina, I am Ammachi’s grand daughter”. I replied
“Are you the one who came from Malaya”.
“Yes”, I nodded my head.
“You are so lucky”
“Why so?” I asked her
“You live in a big house, you don’t have to work in the fields, your hands are always clean, see my hands, she opened her hands and showed me.
I looked at her hand. her plams and arms were full of cuts.
“How did you get all these cuts?”
“The paddy leaves are very sharp and cuts your hand, when you cut the hay”.
“Does it hurt?”
“nah”..she shook her head.
We both started to play the jumping jacks. It was my turn and I could only catch 3 stones. Ammalu was very good. She could catch all five stones on the back of her hand. She then threw the stones up and managed to catch all the stones again.
“Will you teach me how to play that?” I asked her
“It is easy, you do like this” and she demonstrated.
“Why are you working in the fields?”. I asked her
“Because I need the money”.
“Why do you need the money?”
“to buy food for my family”
“Where are your parents?”
“My mother has asthma and lays in the bed all day and my father is an alcoholic, he comes home each evening to collect money for his drink. I have 7 siblings and I am the oldest. I have to work, so they can eat”
“You are not going to school?”
“I do, every wednesday, that is when they serve free lunch at our school for poor children”.
“Really, you get free lunch in school”
“Yes”, she nodded her head again.”We get uppuma”
“somedays if I am lucky, I can even hide some food for my siblings in my dubba”
“You know what happend last time?” She asked me
“no, tell me”
Unnimash who used to cook the food is retired and the new one is Chacko. I don’t like him.He has big bushy mustache and he twists the end and makes it look even more scary. Last time he caught me when I took food for my siblings from my leaf and kept it in the dubba, he took the dubba from my hand and opened it and threw all the food out. He scolded me and called me a thief.”
He told me ‘government is paying money for feeding you, not your family”
“I didn’t steal the food from anyone, I only took a bit from my share from my leaf and he still called me a thief.”
“you know something?” She asked again
“What?”
“Your Ammachi always gives me extra food to take home. I like working for your Ammachi”.
“Can I tell you a secret?”. She asked
“ofcourse”
“Promise me you won’t tell anyone”
“I promise” I made a sign of promise by hooking my index finger to her index finger.
She put her hand inside her skirt pocket and took out a small clothes bag. She opened it carefully and inside there was a single 1RS note.
“This is my saving, I am saving money to buy bangles, chanthupottu(liquid bindi) and kajal.”
“Where are you going to buy all that from?” I asked her
“From the nadodi”. She comes to our cheri(slum) once in a month. She has so many different colours of bangles, and she even has a chanthu pottu(liquid bindi) bottle that has all the clours in the world in it”
“Really?”
She nodded her head and said “really. it has so many bottles in a circle. all the bottles have different colour and the center one is white. It also has a cover with gold letters on it. Real gold, you know”.
“Ammalukttiye, don’t you want to work today?”. One of the women shouted from the fields.
“Bye,I will see you tomorrow,”She quickly got up, used her hand and wiped her bottom and ran off.
I thought about the Chanthupottu bottle with all the colours in the world. Akkachi only uses brown colour Sringar chanthu(liquid bindi) for her bindi. Before I go to school, she will draw a bindi on my forehead with Sringar chanthupottu.If the bindi is little big, the girls at my school would ask me”why did an elephant step on your forehead this morning?”. Then they all will laugh and I wait for the interval break, so I can go to the washroom and wash the bindi off from my forehead.
I thought about the free uppuma that Ammalu gets. I got up and ran to the kitchen.
“Chakki, will you make uppuma for me?”
“uppuma?” Chakki looked at me as though I asked for manna from heaven.
“Where did you get that idea for uppuma?”
“Will you make for me or not?” I asked her again
“Nina, Not now, we don’t buy sooji in our house and you can’t make uppuma without sooji.”
I sat on the kitchen bench and thought how lucky Ammalu is.

16 thoughts on “Ammalu

  1. You still get the chanthu pottu bottles with the different colors! It reminds me of Sundays, when it would be removed and we would put a pottu according to the color of our clothes before going for Mass.

    And girls like Ammalu still work in Kerala in menial jobs as there are no mallus left to do these jobs.

    Lovley post.

  2. I only know that uppma is nice.. and like it.. provided its prepared well!.. otherwise its just american food.. without nay taste.. !! But.. when she was telling abt all the stuf.f.. were you planning to buy similar stuff or planning to buy stuff for her??

  3. I still cherish the ‘unakkameen chathachathu’ from Pathrose moopen’s dwindled and small but tidy hut, en-route the river (as we called as ours) for my daily ‘mungikuli’.
    While coming out after a quick gulp, I always expect my Roychayan, to chase me with a ‘chooral’ for going and shamelessly eating from there.

    As a child, I thought that river Periyar was ours, as we owned the property on both sides.

    Sarah:This is lovely, and you have talent.
    A great post and I would add that you have that ‘this’, to go for it.

  4. the innocence of children comes out so vivid in your post.
    i dont know, i have no words/too many words to say really…cud leave a long comment on ur ammalu.
    am reminded of the jumping jacks game after a long time…wonder if kids play that any longer!!!

  5. Silverine:Really? I thought those reached the end with the advent of sticker Bindi..
    Ajay:yes the grass really looked green on the other side
    Thanu:true true true
    Sujit:I really wanted to eat the uppuma, I never hd it till then..I also wanted the bangles, chanthu pottu and kajal.. i was so upset tht the nadodi never came to our house.
    Jac:Thank you..My fav haunt was karimpum kala madurakallu and meen porichathu
    Jiby:What is jumping jacks in Malayalam? I tried to teach my kids…”Mama, the stones hurt my hand..wht silly games did you play when you were young!!!!!” was the comment i received…

  6. Its all a part of this life or world. Ammalu need money for her family to survive and Nina needs Upma, Chanthupottu and Bangles. A kind of “Ikkare Ninnal Akkara Pacha” situation. And it prevails today also.

    Jumping Jacks – “Konthann Kallu” kalikku anganeyum oru perundo ?

    Another Well Written Post

  7. sweet post. I hope all Ammalus today are playing jumping jack and going to schools instead of working on the paddy fields.

    it’s been so many days since i’ve had uppuma. can’t wait to get home now…

  8. Jithu:it is sad that there are kids working in the fields even now..to make money for parents..Every child should be in school, not in the fields
    Starrynights:I grew up without a TV and computer and toys. But I was NEVER bored.
    Dhanush:I can’t remember wht we called jumping jacks..hop scotch was ‘nera’..alle? and I really really wanted to eat the free uppuma.
    Hope and Love: glad to hear you played it too..
    Arjun: I too want to eat Uppuma.. I make the worst one on planet earth.. Solid rock style..

  9. hahah the kids at your school were real funny esp.when you wear a big elephant stamp bindi….rofl hahah
    ok

    hey I had also discovered those multi coloured chantu pottu bottles in college…i loved playing with them.
    and for one of my friends weddings in the delhi,I applied it on her forehead like I saw in the movies..it was so pretty on her

    ps – i like the smell of the contents in the bindi bottle;)

  10. I am sure that girls like Ammalu are still around. Although it may seem unlikely, it still prevails. Luck, Fate or whatever. When He shuffles and throw you, you may fall in dirt or lawn.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *