After washing my body umpteen times I finally gave up trying to remove the muck smell from my body. There was nothing much I could do and I wrapped the towel around my body and walked to Ammachi’s room to change.
I opened Ammachi’s cupboard to take my clothes and that is when I saw it. On top right corner of the shelf, ‘Ammachi’s snow’!,
Small white glossy bottle with a blue lid. “Ponds cold Cream”, Ammachi calls it ‘snow’. My dad’s cousin Joymon brought it for her all the way from Persia and Ammachi won’t let any of us, her grandchildren touch it.
I peered through the window and looked for Ammachi. She was no where near the house and I knew she is busy with the workers in the paddy field. I quietly tiptoed to the bedroom door. I peeped quietly and saw chakki busy cooking. I tried to close the door and it was making too much noise.
I tiptoed back to the cupboard. The only way I could reach the top shelf was either bring a chair from the dining room and stand on it, or climb on the first shelf inside the cupboard and balance and get the bottle. Bringing a chair from the dining room warrants unnecessary attention and I decided to climb. I removed the clothes from the middle shelf and holding the shelf above I managed to climb up and using my free hand I grabbed the ‘snow’.
I have never seen snow before. My father once told me, on a very cold day, the top of Mount Kinabalu would be covered in ice. My father is lucky, he gets to travel everywhere and see all the beautiful places. I never even saw Mount kinabalu once.
This was my opportunity to see snow for the first time. I sat down on Ammachi’s bed and slowly opened the bottle. It smelled heavenly. Like the white lillies my mother has in her garden. I took a small amount of cream in my hand and my hand smelled heavenly. I looked at my mucky feet.
I applied a liberal dose of ‘snow’ on my legs. My legs now smelled like the white lillies and I decided to apply some on my arms. Then on my face.
I heard Ammachi walking in to the kitchen annd asking Chakki
“What is that smell? Did you spill something?
I quickly closed the lid and hid the ‘snow’ inside among Ammachi’s clothes and, put all the clothes I removed earlier back in the cupboard.
That is when I saw my feet and arm. They were glossy and shiny. I looked around and found ammachi’s chatta on the bed and quickly tried to wipe the snow off my body.
“Nina Thomas, what did you do?”
“Nothing”
“Why are you holding my chatta?
“Oh Ammachi, I was just helping you to fold your clothes”. I tried to give her a nice caring loving smile
By now Ammachi saw my glossy limbs. I must also have been reeking of Ponds snow fragrance.
Did you touch the snow bottle?
I shook my head.
Ammachi opened the cupboard and all her neatly folded clothes now resembled a battle field. Snow bottle was missing in action as well.
“Where is the ‘snow’ bottle?”
” I don’t know”. I replied
Ammachi started to rummage inside the messy cupboard and soon found the ‘snow’ bottle.
She opened the bottle and I could hear her gasping. ‘my god, it is empty’
“Chakki, bring me a stick” Ammachi roared.
“Ammachi please don’t hit me”
“I won’t do it again, God promise”. I pleaded.
“Nina, didn’t I tell you not to touch it?, Do you know how expensive it is?, Who will buy me a ‘snow’ bottle now?”
I could see Chakki walking in to the bedroom with a stick. She probably would have taken it from the broom stick. It is a thin stick and that means more pain.
“Ammachi don’t hit me, please don’t hit me. I am sorry I took your ‘snow'”
By the time Ammachi finished hitting me, there were plenty of welt marks on my snow adorned glossy skin.
“I am not going to talk to you and I am not going to love you”. I walked away and went to the kitchen. I knew Chakki loves me. I knew she would hug me like the last time, when Amma hit me for playing with the water.
Chakki was busy making lunch for the workers. She ignored me.
“Chakki, Ammachi hit me”. I cried and showed her the welt marks on my hands.”See the marks”
“Serves you right Nina. You asked for it. Why did you take Ammachi’s ‘snow’?”
“Why are you crying like a baby after you did something naughty?”
I thought Chakki would console me, instead she was adding more salt to my already bruised heart.
I knew nobody loves me and I walked to the paddy field. I sat on the bund with a bleeding heavy heart and watched the workers harvesting the paddy.
Daughters of Tomorrow
olden days, servants were very loving and caring….at times, they were pests also I agree….but much better and loyal than todays servants
My ammachi also had a shelf that was locked and we kids were not allowed to open it or touch it.
I guess some things are really precious for our ammachimar. 🙂
I have a similar incident to narrate, altho’ my cousin and I escaped without any beating. But we got a nice dose from ammachi. 🙂
When my cousin sis and I were in third grade, we were very curious to find what kept Ammachi’s clothes and her personal belongings smelling so lovely always. We discovered it was Yardley’s Lavender powder and a bottle of Jasmine fragrance. We tested it out, anointing ourselves with it a a bit too liberally, and got caught as soon as we stepped out of the room. Since then our ammachi kept her godrej almirah firmly locked. 🙂
Q8techdrive: Pavam njan symapthy chodichappam Chakki kooduthal gama kanichu..
Thanu:She promised me her alamari will be part of my dowry, because i was always checking and seeing wht is inside
Quills:perfum and poweder..persiail ninnum konduvannathayirikkanam..all the ammachi’s were crazy for ‘forigin’ stuff… Wht ever we got from Malaysia was worthless compared to Persian stuff..
Aa adidie choodu ippozhum thonnum..oru adi abishekam thanne ayirunnu
yeah persia yil ninnu thanne. 🙂 You are so right! :))
even I rem my grandma used to have a very old box , the keys of which she used to tie to the end of her sari.
I guess the older generations loved to keep secrets in the boxes, just like the stories we used to read in our childhood.
But Gosh, beatings for using the cream, I dunno, it sound very harsh.
I am sure, you have seen the ads of Axe Deospray and the likes 🙂
-ATG
Anil:Thank you for visiting my blog.. 25 years ago..anything foreign was a treassure. Ammachi would have never used the cream for sure..But it was a treassure for her and I finished it in one go..She felt I wasted it….
No, I hvn’t seen the ads..
Enjoyed reading your post. I remember doing a few naughty things and getting a few welts from my mom.
i must say i identified with certain details. nice work there.
cheers.
oh no.. my child got beaten up huh? dont worry okay.. ennokke parayum ennayirikkum vicharichathu alle. fr the kind of crime u’ve done, ithra onnum kittiya pora.. :p btw even we called it snow in our childhood.. btw ws jst curious 2 knw hw old were in when this happened.
children’s curiosity often lands them in trouble with elders! How much Ammachi would have priced that Persian Snow to have beaten up Nina so badly? Some likes are so irrational….
Starrynights:I had/have a knack in getting in to trouble!
Balls:thank you for visiting my blog..you too had similar childhood?
Jithu:pinnallathe…Do you know how good the pond snow smelled and how would I know it was a treassure?..Must hv been abt 10..vissi kooshmanadam thanne alle?
Arjun:I think I broke Ammachis’ heart..somethings were really precious to them eh?
U have been tagged
I remember seeing an old bottle of Himalayam Snow in my Ammachi’s wooden trunk. Apparently it was the only cream available in India in the 60’s and 70’s till Ponds came into India. Perhaps that is why people called cream as snow. Ammachi’s wooden truck ws a treasure chest.
Silverine:now I know why it was called snow…and yes she really treassured her petti..
Poor nina girl.I know what it feels like to do something naughty and then get hit,n then not get any loving for that.totally understand
I love the term ‘ammachi’s snow’
each post of yours keeps me wide-eyed with love.
I am leaving with a smiling face, Sarah!
Maya:you understood how broken hearted I was!!!!
jac:enne kaliyakki chirichal othiri krumi rathriyil kadikkum…
Charming story, Sarah. Was hoping for a nice ending with Ammachi making things alright but this rings more true. By the way, found your blog entry when googling ” snow” because that’s how I remember the face creams used to be called.
I remember that my maternal Ammachi had a cupboard that had all kinds of things locked away. One of these items was “arishtam,” code for brandy that my Dad (and I guess others) used to present her. She used to take a shot of arishtam every night before bed. Aah…. Ammachis bring back such great memories. Thanks for rekindling these feelings with your post. It’s a gem.
shibu: My paternal grandmother would have had a fit if she knew I drink. My maternal grandmother on the other hand loved sitting with us and drinking.
Good narration, We can feel the love of Ammachi & smell of kitchen. GOOD!!
This appears to be an old post but the content does ring a bell. Just like your my Ammuma used to keep out of reach – Ponds snow, Yardley lavender powder, almond oil and medicinal brandy :). I still remember fondly the tricks I pulled to get my hands on those. I did manage to get to the Ponds snow, Yardley powder but unfortunately was caught before I reached the almond oil and brandy. With hindsight, I should have started with the brandy! ::)) Thanks for sharing.
India Daram: : 🙂