I woke up hearing strange noises from the kitchen. I could hear foot steps that were coming closer and closer. I quickly searched under my pillow for the bibile and I couldn’t find it.
My heart was beating like the drum rolls at the Thrissur pooram. The footsteps now reached near our bedroom door and I quickly tried to say the Lord’s prayer. I started to say swargastanaya njangalude pithave and then I forgot the rest and I quickly continued the rest of the prayer in English. Then it occured to me, the yakshi at Chengannur house wouldn’t understand my english lord’s prayer. She is a Malayalee yakshi.
In the darkness of the night I saw something white moving towards Ammachi’s bed and I wanted to scream. I tried and I tried. My voice got stuck in my throat. I thought about my poor Ammachi, who is going to be eaten by the yakshi. I wanted to save my Ammachi, but I couldn’t find my bible. Suddenly the Yakshi lit the hurricane lamp.
“Ammachi, what in the world are you doing in the middle of the night?”
I screamed at her.
” Did I wake you up?. I didn’t want to scare you, that is why I quietly went to the kitchen to get the match box”.
I saw Ammachi taking the hurricane lamp and walking out.
“What are you doing? Where are you going?”
“I am going to the paddy field, I need to repair the bund wall”
“In the middle of the night? and how do you know the bund wall is damaged “. I asked her.
“Nina, Chackochan has broken our bund wall about 10 minutes ago, he is trying to steal the top soil from our paddy field.”
“Why does Chackochan wants to steal our top soil?”
“because he has krumikadi (pin worm infestation!!) in the night”
“Ammachi, how do you know that the wall is broken?”
“The sound of the water, Nina, I know when the flow is more, there is something wrong.”
I was too scared to sleep alone and I asked her.”Can I come with you?”
“Ok, but don’t make any sound”.
She kept the hurricane lamp on the parapet wall and started to walk towards the paddy field in the darkness.
“Are you not taking the lamp?”
“And let Chackochan know we are coming there?” She asked me in turn.
I couldn’t see a thing. It was that dark. I thought about all the snakes on the ground and the Yakshi’s on the tree. I didn’t want to follow Ammachi at the same time I didn’t want to stay alone inside the house. Ammachi walked as though it is something she does every time.
We hid near the jackfruit tree to see if Chackochan is waiting for us. He was not to be seen and slowly both of us walked on the bund wall that separates our paddy field from Chackochan’s. True enough the wall is broken in the middle and all the water from our field is draining in to Chackochan’s field, taking the top soil along.
Ammachi hitched up her mundu and proceeded to repair the bund wall. She used the rocks and filled the gap and then like a professional builder used the mud from the field to seal the rocks.
When it was finished Ammachi stood up and straightened her back and inspected her handy work. I was glad the ordeal is over and was waiting to go back and sleep, before the yakshi’s find us.
When we reached the corner where the fields meet the creek, Ammachi got down. I thought she was going to wash her hands and legs.
She started to remove the rocks from the bund wall that separates Chackochan’s field and the creek
“What are you doing?” I asked my grandmother?
“I am returning the favour, Nina”
“You are going to flood Chackochan’s field?”
“Ofcourse”.
I watched the sudden gush of water from the creek to Chackochan’s field and knew by morning his field would be flooded.
Daughters of Tomorrow
oh..hahahaha!!! your ammachi is the ammachi! da woman! returning the favor! I cant blv she did this in the middle of the night! Didnt she have any fear at all? Oh, please post a pic of your grandmom.
Sarah, thanks a lot for the mazha! It was like seeing pictures of your loved one! Thanks a lot!
This ammachi is da real Ammachi
I love ur ammachi. The amount of wisdom and courage… hats off to her..
Can’t wait till tomorrow to read abt Chackochan when he found out.
cool ammachi!!.. you must had great time learning stuff from her.. a treasure of knowledge!! 🙂
Lg: when I stood on the bund watching her destroying chakckochan’s bund wall I was only concerned about one thing, how fast I would be able to run to the junction, incase he saw us and wanted to finish us off!!!
Q8techdrive: yep..she was the one and only Thangamma, who was never afraid of anything
Thanu: tomorrow is the first part of chavittu nadakom
sujit: the lessons about sweet revenge!! hmmm that too was part of the training
You had areally cool Ammachi. I would have loved to see your face when you thought there was a ghost walking and also when you were hiding behind the jackfruit tree.
Hilarious !!. Ammachi is a very brave and smart worman.
Rita
heee heee heee I didn’t have to wait too long to find out hahahhaa
this was soooo funny!
Ammachi is da lady,man!
didn’t chackochan come and retaliate the next day..but his point would have been baseless as he started the war in the first place.And he should have known better than to piss off our AMMachi
Starrynights: I am sure i looked extremely funny, and you will know another reason why i looked funny tomorrow
Rita: thanks
Maya: that was the beginning of many years of fights..they were like keeri and pampu.. together they provided me with many minidramas and excitements
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😀
cool and raw. you have more than for a book sarah! we should print out volumes.
Nice post.
OMG !!
That was a typical ammachy !!!!
It was a tit for tat…sort of favours returned 🙂
Avide yethra yakhi undu ?
Oru kunju yakshiyullathu marannu poyo ?
Onnum onnum randu !!
great ! reminds one of the small village life back in kerala,its small quarrels,great fun and daily rendezvous with nature.Keep writing.
nicely done.
especially “Methran thambi’s grand daughter!” – beautiful!!
Great story. Your ammachi is a great lady. The bund breaking and stealing of water, diverting excess water to somebody else’s field all happens in every village. I had gone with my dad during the night to patrol the paddy fields to keep such miscreants at bay. But we used to have our XXL German Shepard—Kaiser—with us. It was fun…
in our village people used to quareel abou where there fence sud start n end.
funny were those days 😉
here after a long time. ammachi kidilam okke thanne, bt i dont think what she did in the end is worth appreciating for. 🙂 btw there are a lot of pending posts to read 🙂
ha, so much for chackcochan! got what he deserved! he should no better than to play with our Ammachi….
I too have posts to catch up with…
Beautiful story!! Your ammachi is fantastic – I can’t believe she walked during the night not caring at all about snakes ect crawling around … it would give me the creeps! A REALLY couraged woman … the last part I liked most … she returned the favour! RIGHT SHE WAS!!
Rocksea: Those days were certainly fun..
Jac:evide kurey undu, oru kuttichathan is missing… he went to work in Africa.. did you see him? Few days ago he cleaned the prawns and got a small puvavu on his hand and cried like a baby!!!
bvn:thank you for visiting my blog and I am glad you can relate to it
Alexis: This border dispute has been there in every malayalee family eh?
Dew drops: tha was one reason Ammachi haad pineapple plant lined fence, so the boundary wall won’t move in the middle of the night..
Jithu: Chakcochan and ammachi were like playing chess.. who outwit the other..
Arjun: Back in Kerala? You must be enjoying all the yummy food..I am jealous
I love Munich: She was never afraid of anything. That scared me.. I was afraid of even the slight movement of shadows!!!
Hmmm, brave n smart grandma! 🙂
Cheers to Ammachi!! Awesome work!
Hi canada , i have read your ” Yakshi in the bedroom ” it was very nice , and i would like to ask you why dont you write a novel like this ? like arundadhi roy .
by
davies jose
rome
has to be me: Thanks
Popphabi: Thankss
Davies: “Simbly because I am not Arundathi Roy”.. Thank you for visitn my blog!