I ran all the way home on the small bund that connects our house to the main bund road. The creek infront of our house was overflowing with water. I could see thousands of tiny fish in the water. Sometimes they all swim in one direction, then they take an about turn and swim in the other direction, almost knocking on to the unsuspecting ones in the end. I would have stood there and watched the fish,if it wasn’t for my grandmother who shouted again
“Chakki, Kochumaharani is here”
I looked up to see her grinning and knew that instant she was waiting for me all these days. I ran to her and hugged her. The familiar sight of her white chatta and mundu and the smell of the coconut oil on her hair was very comforting.
“Why didn’t you come all these days?” She asked me
“Why don’t you ask your wonderful son that question?, He never brings me here.” I spoke
“You know something Ammachi, I can’t wait to grow up, then I will take the bus come here myself, I don’t need Appa to bring me here.”
Appa has reached home by now and he saw us talking
“What is Thangamma and Kochumaharani talking about? ” He asked her
“Eda thonnyavasi, How dare you call me Thangamma?” Ammachi asked Appa.
“Aha, my 10 year old daughter can call you by your name and I, your one and only son cannot do that?” Appa asked Ammachi
Ammachi was laughing and I was happy to be home.
I could see Chakki waiting for me in the kitchen and I walked towards her.
“Come here Nina” Ammachi yelled.
I was taken aback by the tone of her voice. She was mad at me and I was wondering why?
“How many times do I have to tell you to wash your legs before you enter the house?”
“Sorry Ammachi, I forgot”
I quickly took the brass pot and washed my legs. In the summer the cold water from the pot was soothing and right now, it was too cold and I quickly washed my legs.
My father was looking at me and I could see in his eyes he was happy that I got scolded. Just as I was about to hand the brass pot to Appa so he could wash his legs, I poured the rest of the cold water on his unsuspecting legs and ran. I could see my father jumping in shock and screaming
“Come here you little imp”.
By now I reached the safety of the kitchen and I stuck my tongue at him. I knew Appa won’t dare to hit me infront of Chakki and Ammachi.
“I feel sorry for the guy who is going to marry this child”. He muttered
Chakki was laughing seeing all the fun and she hugged me and told
“We missed you Kochumaharani.”
“Me too, Chakki. I like staying here with Ammachi and you”.
Chakki made coffee for Appa and Ammachi and she gave some for me as well.
“It is too hot Chakki”
“Give it to me, I will cool it for you” Chakki spoke
She took the glass from my hand using another glass, she proceeded to cool my hot coffee, by pouring the coffee from one glass to the other.
I sat on the kitchen bench and watched her.
After I finished drinking my coffee, I went back to the veranda. Appa and Ammachi were discussing something.
“Ammachi I want to catch the fish”
“Go and catch”
“I want you to come with me” I told her
“Nina, Ask Chakki to come with you”
“No, I want you to come with me”
“Oh Nina.”
“I don’t want you to ‘oh Nina’ me, I want you to come with me and catch the fish” I told her
“Ammachi, please please please”.I begged
Ammachi finally relented and asked me to get the towel. I went to her room and took the towel that was hanging on the clothesline.
Ammachi saw the towel and asked me
“Where did you take the towel from?”
“Clothesline in your room” I told her
“aiyyedi, you want to catch the fish with the towel that I use to dry my hair?”
“You are the one who told me to bring the towel”I told her
“Yeah, but I didn’t tell you to bring the new one. Go and look for the old one inside the cupboard”
I went back and searched for the old towel and finally found one.
Appa was sitting on the easy chair
“Are you coming to catch the fish?” I asked him
“Oh no, I am going to enjoy a few moments of solitude, Ammachi and Kochumaharani can enjoy spending time together”
I wanted to tell him ‘loser’. But didn’t want to push my luck that far.
Ammachi and I walked to the creek to catch the fish with a towel
Daughters of Tomorrow
captivating ! You should write a book. Did you catch any fish and who is chakki?
Starrynights: Chakki came to our house when she was a young girl, stayed on, married the rubber tapper Kutten and though she was supposed to be a maid, she was also my surrogate mother and malayalam teacher. she taught me to say”parali urutti uruliyil ittal uruli urlumo,parali urulumo” and being a malaysian the letter ra is la for my tongue and you should try substituting la for all the ra in the above sentence!!! It took her years to get me to say tht right.
we used to catch small scvanger fish near the paddy feilds.. initiall it used to be like catch many fish and put them in a vessle and make a quarium. but they used to die very soon.. never could understand why.. and some other time we had ducks at home. so used to get these fish and them them in big vessel and allow ducks.. not think i should have caught..:)
i have never fished in my life and wish I could enjoy all the pleasures you did.
Must have been great to see Ammachi again.She has figured alot in your childhood.
And you were quite a naughty young girl haha
loved this one
I just showed how to fish that way to a small kid who came paddling in the river.
He said he reside in the States and came on a holiday.
He delighted when I told him how to.
Fishing with thorthu… we also tried but never got any fish
Sujit:I agree with you abt the fish dying the very next day..I still don’t know why
Maya:those were the best part of the childhood. One towel( thorthu) and a horlicks bottle..plenty of fish
Jac:I told my kids abt my fishing expedition.. and they still don’t get it
Thanu: I was very very succesful..got plenty!!! each time
Makes me nostalgic. Me and bro catch fish (atleast try to) with a towel every time we go to Kerala. We tried it even last year, and everybody around was laughing at us. I think the fish die cos they can live only in flowing water, not in still water.
wish i cud enjoy that pleasure….
excellent narration. Did u try ur hand in writing stories???
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You *must* be my cousin!!! She usually does all these things with my uncle while we were in my Mom’s home. And it is a great pastime to catch fish (we call it as choondani meen) with thorthu from thodu or from padam.
eagerly waiting to read your next entry.
we used to fish in the small lake in the paddy field. there were also some kinda mussels that all of us kids used to collect in buckets. Amma used to fry it with hot masala 😉
I am a champion thorthu fisher 🙂 Caught many and filled them up in Horlicks bottles. Then pestered my ammachi to fry them. She would buy Nethili if available and cook it for us. We used to be so proud to eat our ‘catch’. This year the streams are overflowing and like last year, I am going to catch some fish :))
Never stop writing.
hmmmm.. me too loved fishing.. loved the post.. as usual..
:))
Lovely one this..reminds me of the time I went fishing with my cousins as a little girl. Gosh was it fun! * sigh
Suji:thank you for visiting my blog. And i think you are right, the fish probably die, because the water is still
Southpaw:thank you for visiting my blog
Revathy:the only thing i wrote before this is my dissertaion for my master’s degree and that took a looooong time!!
Yetanother: May be!!! I think the fish we caught was netholi or karuva( it had red colour tail and fins)
Dewdrops:Kallummekaya..fried with masala.hhmmmmm yummy
Silverine:the neighbourhood boys( including the nikkerwala bf) would go to the river and catch the small fish and ammachi would buy it from them and make meen peera.. She used to bragain the price by saying that, she will adjust the money when I get married to him, by paying more dowry and that viddikooshmandam believed ammachi!!!
Hope and love: Hope you are doing well and enjoyed a beautiful birthday.
Cynthia:if i could give my kids 1/100 of my childhood, I would have been happy
There is karma in suffocating
innocent creatures, in depriving
them of breath. Often it registers
as breath problems.
Sai Baba has said that Japan,
China and other countries
are dumping nuclear waste into
the ocean which is poisoning fish.
He has for many reasons told
His devotees not to eat fishes.
fishinghurts.com