Dabbatis

The morning sky was clear. I was helping Akkachi to make fish pickle for Maria.
“It is a sunny day,I think I will wash Maria’s clothes today.”
I saw Akkachi taking Maria’s clothes from the cupboard. Although the clothes aren’t dirty, the moist monsoon air gives a funny smell to clothes in the cupboard. Akkachi is giving all the clothes one final wash before Maria leaves.
Maria being the oldest got the best part of the Godrej cupboard. Her section of the cupboard is big, she can even hang her clothes inside. I got the smaller side of the cupboard and My clothes have to be folded and kept.
Akkachi slowly removed the clothes off the hangers and placed the empty hangers back in the cupboard.
“Now yo can use all the hangers Nina”.
I looked at the empty space in the cupboard. I felt scared.
“Later Akkachi”

Amma was sitting at the table with our jewellery box.
“Can I see my bangles, Amma?” Liza was shouting
“Shh, don’t scream, the neighbours will know we keep gold in the house and then it get stolen.”
“I want to see my bangles” liza spoke in a soft voice.
Amma opened the jewellery box. Inside of the jewellery box is lined with red velvet and the gold ornaments looked beautiful.
There weren’t much inside. Few of our bangles, Amma’s long chain and our arinjanam.
Amma took Liza’s bangle and gave it to her. She wore it right away and did couple of dance moves with her hands.
“My bangle is beautiful, isn’t Amma?” Liza spoke
“It is, but I think I will sell your bangle.”Amma spoke
“No way, nobody is selling my bangle.” She hid her behind her back
“Liza, your bangle is small, that means less weight, I don’t want to sell the big ones yet.”
“It is Maria who needs the money, so you should sell her bangles.”
“Give me the bangles” Amma was getting angry, she tried to snatch the bangles from Liza’s hand.
“No” and she ran out of the room.
“Are you going to sell my bangles Amma?” now it is Sally’s turn to cry.
“No, she isn’t.”I didn’t want her to cry
“Amma sell my bangles, and if there is extra money, keep that in the bank.
“Then I might as well sell Maria’s bangles”
“No Amma, let her wear hers, she is going to the university, everyone will be looking at her hands.”

I saw Akkachi rinsing the clothes.
“Give me the ones you have finished washing, I will help you to hang it”. I took the clothes and placed them on to my shoulder. It was heavy and my blouse was getting wet.
I tried to hang the clothes on the line fast, because my shoulder was hurting.
“Nina, I am scared”
I turned around and saw Maria leaning on the coconut tree.
“Scared of what?”
“The college is too far from home, what will I do if anything happens to any of you?”
“Nothing is going to happen to any of us, You don’t worry about such things, you just worry about your studies and become an engineer fast.”
“How will we pay my hostel rent?”
“Well, we won’t pay the rent here and Amma will send the money to you every month.”
“How will we pay back Chacha Appachan all the money?”
“in 4 years you will be an engineer, you will get a good job and you can pay back. Who knows, you might even get married to a rich guy!”
Then I saw her.
“Hold this” I gave all the clothes that were on my shoulder to Maria and ran inside
“Amma Akashavani datang“( Akashavani is coming).
Amma quickly hid the jewellery box inside the cupboard. I ran to get my youngest sisters and warned them not to open their mouth.
Akashavani is our neightbour. Her full time job is gossipping. Whenever she buys a new saree, she visits all the neighbours. She is dark in complexion, but under the thick layer of cuticura powder shine, you don’t really notice the darkness, unless you see the rest of the body from the neck down.
“You are all alive ah?, I haven’t seen anyone outside for few days now!”
“We were busy” Amma spoke
“Why, is Maria getting married”
“Oh, no! She is too young to get married, She is going to the university”
“Oh, I See, which University?”
“IIT, Kharagpur, She got admission to do Electrical engineering.”
“Kharagpur, isn’t that in the North? Why didn’t she get admission in Trivandrum engineering college? It is the best engineering college in the world.! may be her entrance exam result was not good, that is why they gave her admission in the far off place”
I could see Amma getting angry.
Tak payah ma, ini perempuan bodoh”(Never mind amma, this woman is stupid)
“What language was that?”
“Malay”
“You all speak Malay to each other? See, this is Kerala, we are malayalees, we speak malayalam, not khingho khingo language. Do you understand?”
” By the way, where is the children’s father? I haven’t seen him for a few days”
Before Amma could respond, I told Akashavani
“He went back to Malaysia”
“Why?”
“to work”
“How could he leave just like that?Why didn’t he wait till his daughter went to the university?”
“Because he had to join immediately”
“Oh! How much money does he make?”
“I don’t know aunty”
“More than he makes it here.right?
“Right”
“He was making about 2500Rs here right?”
“Right aunty”
Amma tried to change the topic. “What would you like to drink, coffee or tea?”
“Oh nothing. I just had my breakfast”
“Come on, You can still have some coffee. Nina, go and tell Akkachi to make some coffee.”
“Oh ok, if you really want me to drink some coffee, I might as well drink, I don’t want to disappoint you, but tell the servant not to put any sugar in my coffee, I have dabbatis”
“You mean Diabetes? I asked her
“Ah, that one, dabbatis”

those precious moments

The early morning time in Kerala, during the monsoon period is special. the air is damp and soothing and the cool morning breeze begs you to sleep some more.My alarm was ringing mercilesly. All I wanted was to sleep. It was a saturday and there is no reason why I should get up at 6.30AM. I tried to switch off my Made in Taiwan alram clock, bought with all my angpao(money collected during chinese new year) from the night market in Penang. I couldn’t find the knob. It was still ringing and I tried to smother the clock with my pillow, so it would just shut up.
“Nina OFF your alarm” yelled Maria. Her bed is on the other side of my room.
I tried to find my clock from under my pillow, I couldn’t find and I let it ring.
“I am waiting for the day I can leave this mad house” Maria yelled and came towards my bed. She pulled my pillow from under my head and in the ensuing chaos, my made in Taiwan alarm clock fell down to the hard cemented Kottayam ground.
“Amma, Maria broke my clock”
“I didn’t, I was trying to shut it off”
“I will get you for this Maria”
I got up from my bed, picked the pieces of my alarm clock from the floor and marched to the living room.
Amma was sitting at the dining table. She had a page from one of my work books infront of her and she was doing some calculations.
“Amma see what Maria did?” I showed her the evidence of Maria’s atrocity.
“Nina, not now, not in the morning. I am busy”
Then on closer inspection I saw Amma was crying.
“Why are you crying Amma?”
“I can’t afford all these Nina!”
“All what?”
Amma showed me the list, Rent, Maria’s fees, our school fees, utility bills and salary for Akkachi. Amma’s salary was 1248 RS/month and after deducting everything we are in the negative.
“we need money for the train ticket, new clothes for Maria and for her hostel deposit. Where am I going to get all that money now?”
“We will have to find a way Amma”
“Don’t speak if you have nothing valuable to say” She yelled
Aiyyo.. Amma don’t get angry, We will manage somehow”
The house rent was 600 RS and that is almost half of Amma’s salray . Then inspiration struck me and I wanted to yell Eureka.
“Amma, you will have enough money, if you don’t pay rent. Anyway Chacha Appachan is in US and he won’t die, if he doesn’t get rent every month”
“If we don’t pay the rent, he will throw us out”.
“Ofcourse he will, but he needs to take a plane and come all the way here, by then in all likely Appa would come back and we will make him pay.”
“If your father comes back I will chop him in to pieces”
oh pinne Appa will stand leaning on the main gate and sing
kananacholayil adine meyikkan
njanum varatteyo ninte koode
and you will sing
vannolu, vannolu
vegham vannolu
adukalellam
kshinichupoyi
I leave the translation to more learned fellow bloggers

My mother was laughing and it was a joy to see that.
“If your father come here and sing that song I will take the parang (sickle) and then I will show you what I am going to cut.
“yeah yeah, say all the dialogues.. I know deep in your heart you still love him, even if he is a devil, he is still your darling”
podi..Go and ask Akkachi to make some coffee.”
“Amma what about new clothes for Maria?”
“What kind of clothes do they wear in North India?”
“I don’t know Amma”
“Amma, how will Chechy manage all on her own?”
“I don’t know Nina, I am worried”
“May be you should go to her University and see what clothes they wear and then buy new ones for Chechy”
“But I have no money Nina”
“You have Amma, We will sell our bangles”
My maternal grandmother gave each of us a gold bangle before we left Malaysia.
“No Nina, we can’t sell the bangles, your grandmother gave that to all of you. May be we should pawn it”
“No Amma, we will sell it. we have no money to get it back from the pawn shop” “I don’t know what will I do without you Nina”
“I don’t know what will I do without you Amma” and I hugged her
Angpao: during Chinese New year, elders give children money in small red packets and although I was no way Chinese, Malaysia, being a multiracial country, people share the festivals and I always got plenty of Angpao http://www.expat.or.id/images/angpao.jpg