When I was little, we owned a bound copy of Bobanum Mollyum. It was older than me and I think Amma used to collect the cartoon strip from the manorama magazine and once she got a sizable chunk, she made them in to a book. I remember reading them before my sister younger to me was born. I must have been 4 then.( I knew to read before I went to school, it is one of life’s mystery!) I read the cartoons over and over and read them even when I came home for holidays while doing medicine. This particular strip was about Kannada ( sun glasses). Boban and Molly was raising funds for something by selling raffle tickets and the first price was a Kannada. Motta won the first prize and when he asked for his price, Boban and Molly closed their eyes and blinked..kannada.. ( sorry you ought to be a mallu to get the punch line) and I laughed and laughed. ( Still do)
As I grew up, there were many things one learned to do as part of the initiation in to a teenager. if a boy liked you, he would rub his finger across his upper lips. I was not supposed to look at boys, amma would have killed me, but still I managed to steal a few glances every now and then and I felt so funny, when a stranger rubbed his upper lips to let me know that he likes me!
Then there was tan tadang..I think it was actress Lizzie who initiated the tantadang craze. Boys used to say tantadang, as we walked to school everyday.. But eventually, it all progressed to pure Winking. You liked someone, you winked. Plain and simple. I was in 10th std then and all my classmates ever talked about was boys. One particular day, a classmate who lived very far away from school, came to the class with one eye partially closed. “What happened to your eyes?” Everyone asked. She replied very casually ” This boy got in to the bus near my home and you know it takes an hour to reach the school. This, she points to her partially closed eye, is what happens if you wink for an hour”
I have never winked at anyone until then. Everyone else talked about their winking episodes. I really really wanted to know how it feels to wink at someone. I didn’t have the guts to wink at my neighbours..( mostly because if Amma came to know, I would have been history and apart from kappalanga, there weren’t any good looking ones worth the effort)
Saturday morning I had maths tuition. The way to the teacher’s home is through innumerable by-lanes and as I was walking, I found this dude walking in front of his house holding his book and reciting something like “rama killed the snake, the snake was killed by rama” In other words, he was studying. But I did notice weeks ago that he has been studying every time I walked by. ( kala valu pokkumbazhe ariyamallo!). Just as I reached the gate to his house, he stopped studying, and we looked at each other. It was the perfect moment and my upper right eye lid did a quick trip to meet the lower eye lid that was on its way up to form a perfect wink.
I was expecting thunder and lightning..at least that was what my friends made me think would happen to me when I winked at a boy..But I felt nothing. I was disappointed. Winking isn’t for me, I thought.The episode was forgotten before I reached the math’s teacher’s house.
The very next week, as I walked to the math’s teacher’s house, I noticed that there were way too many people in front of our Hero’s house and then I heard him say ” Ammey, eval aa enne kannadachu kaniche” (She is the one who winked at me). Our hero had roped in his whole family to mock and humiliate me. Being Methran Thambi’s grand daughter, I did walk holding my head high. But I felt so betrayed. It was just a wink. ( Amma did find out about it and gave me a lot of grief as well)
When Yaya returned from Spain, she told me “mom guess what happened?”
“What ?” I asked
“We were visiting a museum and I found this hot security guard. He was really hot and I winked at him and told him “marry me” thinking that he won’t know English”
“And?”
“Turns out that he is an Exchange student from US and he asked me if I am an American after hearing my accent”
“And?”
“And what? It was so humiliating mom, I really didn’t think he would know English,and I spend the rest of the tour hiding from his sight”
I know I am supposed to say ” how could you do that? How can you wink at someone?” Perhaps, I should have slapped her couple of times like my mother did?
Instead, I closed my eyes like Boban and Molly and remembered, I too was once a teenager..this is another part of growing up.
oh my god, a great post!
My biggest dream in life was to wink at someone. And I picked the perfect victim – On the way to my grandparents’ house, we had a railway cross. Being a busy line, we almost always got stuck. One day, on the way back, I winked at a youngish shop assistant in a grocery shop. The timing was perfect – the train had gone already, the gate would open any moment. Even if he got excited, I had a perfect exit. And, guess what? There was a second train that had to go. And the gate remained closed. This fellow was super excited, kept winking and waving, and my mother and my aunt noticed. Luckily for me, a lady who got on the bus started asking me to get up and give her space since she was elder to me and I started arguing with her. My mother looked at me, found that I was too busy to notice the fellow, and never realized that I instigated the whole thing.
I didn’t know about “rubbing the upper lip’, and “tan tadang” was the sound made before revealing something – like a magic act. May be those were regional?
URT: I think tantadang eventually morphed to something you say to a girl, if you like her. Boys would say tantadang, when they saw you..It was a huge craze for a long time. Rubing/running the finger across the upper lip was started by Rahman in some movie..Bus stops were full of guys who were doing that every time a girl walked by !
Haha Sarah…this was hilarious…!!!and “Boban and Molly” is nostalgia now..
Sop: A while back, Yaya was counting how many more months before she gets her “L” license and can place an L sticker on my car. I remembered an L incident in Bobanum Mollyum and told her about Panchayathu president buying a scooter and the cop caught him for no license. President said he is learning to ride the scooter and the cop asked enkil ellenthiye? The next day, cop found the president riding the bike with strings of bones haging all over his scooter..and Yaya asked ” really mom, you found such lame thing funny?” I can still laugh thinking about it..
In one BM comic, the President of India is supposed to visit Bobanum Molly’s town, and the local policemen are beside themselves with worry preparing for his arrival. Chettan visits the police station for something. As he is waiting outside someone asks him, “aaranenna parayende?”, and he says, “presidentaanennu paranjal mathi”. When the message is delivered everyone jumps and there is pandemonium. They shuffle out with folded hands only to realize it is chettan, who of course gets beaten up!
Sarah , Its gets lost in translation and you have to know the characters well to enjoy it..So yes ,I laughed while reading the “L” comment .Even the classic malayalam movie jokes cannot be translated in its complete essence..a non mallu can never laugh at boban and molly or ” kilometers and kilometers from american junction”
Sophia: I know translation will never bring the same result.. but I still try..knowing very well that my attempts are futile..The Malayalee in me is desperate to show my children the thinga I hold dearly..
Anitha: do you remember all the things hippy used to do and How he used to get beaten up? Apart from Boban and Molly, my favourite character was hippy..
Hippy, the incorrigible thallukolli! It’s hilarious how he is always sniffing after women despite impending doom. I like all of them because they are all so authentic!