An awkward story Behind

                         Reminding myself about a famous saying on bravery of the Sikhs "A sword of a Sikh Soldier never returns back into his Sheath, without tasting blood" . I pulled my camera out of its sheath unprepared for tonight's up-comings.

                         Stood there at the end of my street waiting for somebody's arrival, I was eying at whatever caught my sight . That is when this piece of art popped onto my face. Usually they were the dogs who accompanied any trespasser at that time of the night and today it was for me. Least bothered i knelt down starting to click . The shoot lasted for a couple of minutes and suddenly i noticed something was very wrong.
                         I heard someone slowly walking behind me. I raised my head in astonishment to notice a neighbour from that house had been alerted and had come out to stop me from doing this non-sense. I also noticed his wife coming out of the balcony above, to have a look at the scene. The man was in his late fifties, he walked quietly and stood by my side watching what i had been doing and finally asked  . .

" What are you doing ?. . . Whom are you taking pictures standing here ? "
     "No sir, I was shooting the scooter ! ", i responded

"What ? . . . .why. . . Why are you shooting this scooter ?"  he demanded looking confused.
    " It looked Interesting sir!" . . i Justified.

"Interesting ?!? ". .annoyed and confused, this time his voice came a bit sarcastic. . . .
     "yes sir, The Scooter is half buried and it looked interesting !".. i tried to sound casual.

with my mind voice 'Am not a fool to shoot some neighbour at this night and this is indeed an interesting click'  Trying to self-approve and convince myself that i hadn't done anything insane !

"Oh !...hmmm " . . .He thought for a while . .

 and spoke " This is my scooter here,.  . that you had been shooting. . .. Look at it young man !. . . i had parked it here and the builders of the adjustant house had piled the stones over my scooter and when i asked them to remove the pile of stones, they don't even bother to respond " he suddenly sounded very hurt . . before even i spoke..He questioned again. .

"Are you from the Press ? " with a slightest amusement.
          I could sense a sudden change of his emotion from a annoyed irritability to a dependent friendliness. Perhaps he wondered if only someone would help him fight his daily enemies . .

  "No sir ! i live there in that house " pointed 4-5 houses past down the street.

and i added,  " Now that i have got an evidence, you can fight them for having done this to you and i can get you the pictures anytime you wanted " i confessed. Trying to soothe his anxiety sounding like a true neighbour sort of a way. And i apologized to him for having exclaimed that his agony looked interesting to me. . Ashamed i turned to walk towards my home with an awkward story written on the back of this Picture. . .

Descendants of Arabs - called Nallaam pillai

    Have you ever wondered who your ancestors were?  What were your origins? Or have you at-least thought if you had an interesting history to be talked about?  . . . No. . . Just like all of you I too never had it, till that day .Here is a Real story of my clan. The Nallaam pillai clan.

     When I was 12 years old, it was time for me to return back to my hostel, after a week of quarterly holidays. I was a little apprehensive. When, we were all set for a journey to a relative’s wedding in Dindigul. (A district of Tamil Nadu/India). After which I was supposed to be dropped in my hostel in Madurai. (Another district of Tamil Nadu/India) adjacent to dindigul. Usually it was exciting to travel with my family for the fact my dad always guaranteed for some stories on the drive. This time it wasn’t as exciting as it used to be, rather it was an adventurous horrifying story. The engines came to life when my dad started speaking. This is how it began;

      long back about a century ago the Indian villages were ruled by ZAMINDARS. The zamindars worked for the Empire. They possessed enormous tracts of land and held control over the peasants, for which the zamindars reserved the rights to collect tax (often for military purposes)they usually owned huge land masses and where the landlords. In TamilNadu they were also called Jameens .  My ancestors lived in a small unknown hamlet under the rule of kannivadi jameen. At that period of time, Religion and Casts took a toll. The Pandyan Empire of the south India used to have its cavalry (horsemen) stalled in the places like the villages where our ancestors lived. They were probably preparing them for the next battle between the kingdoms. The cavalrymen were  the Arabs, who took their journey on a ship through the seas to the port of Tuticorin and, further traveled to places like ours to stay back and train the horses for a shorter period of time. The training camps at least lasted from 3 to 6 months. Since, the foreign guests were brought down to india by the Empire itself, the jameens maintained a friendly relationship with the Arabs. The Arabian invaders were the Village's first MUSLIMS.

  The people back in the villages were majorly Chettiars (A name of a caste in south India ). Money-lending in the early days was primarily run by the Chettiars. Along with them also lived an another minor clan of people called Pillaimars (Another caste in south India) ,whose primary profession was accounting and most of them were accountants.The other major occupation of the village was Oil Merchandise and Rope weaving .There were also Peasants and Fishermen. Most of the villagers were HINDUS.

  The new Arabian Invaders earned their wages as gold coins from the empire for their training sessions and were wealthier equally to the chettiars (The money-lenders). The Arabians were also Good-looking and physically Well-built horsemen,who used to camp besides the water-body/Pond called kulam. It belonged to the kannivadi jameen. The females of the locality had to carry their pots to the border of the village to fetch water from that pond every day for their household necessities. The Arabs too trained and bathe their horses in the pond. It’s presumed that they were allowed to do so, only because they had higher recommendations from the empire. You can imagine the ponds back then like today’s urbanized western beaches, where the husky men displayed their athletic physiques. They turned the pond hot and cold. They were inevitably attractive for the younger females of the locality. The women couldn’t resist their impelling intruders. They fell for them. They called the men “NALLA AMBALAE” (Good looking Men) easily they were in love with the Arabian Muslims and started coupling up. This later lead to a considerable number of inter communal marriages, which in turn lead to a lot of Arabian settlements in the locality. The name of the village NALLAAM PILLAI which still persists near dindigul is derived from the fanatic sayings of the women.
 

"Ha ha ha it’s funny dad! A village called Nallaam pillai.  .  . "   I laughed at his joke.

It’s okay dad! But, if you say they were our ancestors, Why aren’t we living in that village and where have all the horses gone?!?

Being a kid i questioned inquisitively.

He gave a silly smile at my question and continued.

  The newly settled muslims were becoming very popular in the hamlet. They were Kind and also rich enough to lend money for any needy civilians . They would lent money and also never charged interests for the returns. And sometimes they seldom demanded their returns.  This act was very disturbing to the Chettiars, who were mostly moneylenders by profession. Their business was going down. This act of the Arabs triggered them for a cold war which later got warmer and warmer in time. There had been few other various beliefs that could have heated them up like as follows,

     # They had  some clash in an auction that occurred in a regular basis where they competed for the heaps of fishes the fishermen brought after every catching. Probably the muslims always won the auction, which was so obvious for the money they had.

     # It is also believed at a particular period ,The local jameen was involved in an affair with a lower cast female or may be he partnered a Arab in a forbidden act of crime or maybe he dint appreciate a faulty act of an Arab or a peasant when it came to his notice. And that could have angered the other community when it came to their notice. None of the above said reasons are accurately precise. All of these beliefs have been heard either from a elderly person who had actually occurred to know it from our ancestors itself or through gossips.

   Ultimately the Arabian MUSLIMS and HINDUS(villagers) ended up as rivals. The arabs were accused for having come all the way down to ruin the peace in the village and spoil their businesses and so on. It turned out that at a point of time they finally decided to get rid of all the Muslim intruders, no matter whatever reasons they had been tolerating on them so far. They planned to burn them down with all the Arabs in their settlements. Fortunately along with the merciless Chettiars(villagers) there were a minor clan of the noble Pillaimars. Who were famously called kanakku pillai's (Accountants) .They were also aware of the plan of the hindus and passed it on to their friendly foreigners with the mere intentions of saving their lives. But, before they even did explain the brutal plans of the Hindus to eradicate the entire persistence of the Muslims from the village before sunrise, this news went on to the villagers(Hindus) knowledge. They accused that the pillaimars even after being Hindus had betrayed them by helping the Muslims by revealing the mass murder plans. For which the villagers had to act fast and rush in before even they come up with an escape plan. But , This time they decided to burn them all down along with the Pillaimars just then.
                                                         The Hindus in groups took their fire torches and started marching towards the Arabian settlements. There were women and Young innocent children with the Muslim invaders. There were also young men who still had their un-proposed love for their ladyloves who feared that they might fail if, they ought to flee their camps which had been their homes for a long time now. The Arabian Muslims along with the minor group of the Pillaimars had very less time to escape and so they collected the very minimum of the most valuable assets and possessions they could gather and started to flee from the settlements. But, it was too late for their escape, as the brutal mob had closed in rapidly. All the women and the children panicked. That adrenaline moment threatened the brave men too.

and that night. IT HAPPENED!
             
  The mob torched all the houses,and burnt down everything and anyone on their way.  The nights which were dark and calm till then , was now burning loud with the cries of the babies and elderly citizens. They didn’t even spare the horses and their stables. They all had no choice but to excavate their houses. They ran out in the streets towards the border of the village, not knowing where to go in this alienated country. Who would they know? And, Where could they go? The Arabian horsemen stayed behind to slow down the mob to their strengths But, the villagers were too strong for the unprepared defenseless horsemen. At-last the Arabians threw all the gold coins they had so far earned from the empire on the grounds to slow them down. It did work. And when they did so, there was even more chaos and a human stampede as the crowd got greedy and stopped to gather the gold from the ground. That gave some breathing space for the once invaders and the pillaimars to escape from the nightmare. They all ran out of the village.  Even after they were out and had long gone from the village most of them refused to stop running as they feared they might be again caught by the Villagers. But, the groups which had more weaker ones and older members had to stop running and settled in the near by villages.

                                                          "That’s how we got our ancestors scattered from that village. Some stayed in the nearest village called Sithayankottai they could possibly reach in the short time, and some fled a little further and some ran all night and day to reach any settlements that was a far away land from the worst people they had left behind." He said if, "you had wondered how we had our relatives in the next state Kerala and the northern most of Tamil Nadu ! that was how it occurred " That's how Along with the most of the Muslim settlements that flee from the Nallam pillai clan had a fewer settlements of Pillaimars as well along with them.

   After this long story he paused as his throat went dry.  He reached for the bottle of water near his driving seat. For a couple of minutes a dead calmness prevailed except for the constant roar of the car engines. It took us a while to return back from the time travel. I wondered even if my mom had known about this story of our ancestors, as she was from a different origin. The most horrifying part of the journey was yet to come.

    After telling this entire story he finally added, and do any of you know where are we all heading?

as i was confronting loudly with my thoughts "we were supposed to be going to the wedding in dindigul and you said this village NALLAAM PILLAI was somewhere in-between " . . .

he replied . .

YES, WE ARE VISITING THE SAME VILLAGE BEFORE THE WEDDING !
    
   For a moment I thought he was joking and soon realized he did not. OH god! I cried from within. I was still not out from the stampede. And i literally cried "Please, Dad. .Don’t take us there. What if they come to know we are Muslims and, what if they burned us in the car." Now the fear of going there was more disturbing than that of going back to my hostel. I was too young to realize it had been a century now and not even the longest lived peasant there would remember it. But, no one seemed to listen to my voice, rather they were excited about it,as they were about to be a part of the adventure.

         In about a couple of minutes he alarmed us." we are about to be reaching the village anytime now." We were now driving through a long narrow road that deviated to the left from the highway. Both the sides of the road were full of greens and the way to the village indeed looked like a very fertile land just like how i heard it from my dad. The road was so alienated with no vehicles, not even a single soul passing by the road for about 10 minutes since we took the road. It was like in the horror movies when you take “THE WRONG TURN “. I was very nervous. Oh god!, I need to pee! Why should this happen to me, I thought. i refused to admit it to my parents that, i had to pee urgently. Because, i was scared they might burn me when I got down from the car to pee on the sides of the road. I slid low down the seat and rolled the glasses up. I was suffocating inside. I imagined as if i was being dragged into the same massacre where the villagers stood with the fired torches to burn us down. I was expecting the mob to be standing in the middle of the road to stop us. I pleaded my dad again. "Please dad remove your cap at least, as they can easily make out, we were Muslims! " And I cursed my dad for convincing me by saying “it was all right son ! Nothing is going to happen and perhaps, they themselves don’t know this story”.

   I was surprised to see that nothing really happened as how i imagined when we reached the village. The village was as calm as the road. But, it seemed like they were still 10 years behind the outside world. All the men were in their traditional dhotis and their intense faces covered with the mustache that depicts the Indian bravery and the women peeping out through the windows of their small at least a century old houses. We drove slowly down the streets as we dint know where we were heading to. The road came to a dead-end to hit the Center of the village where, there was a huge banyan tree with a circular cement stage built around it. Even, i could understand that was where all the village panchayats (local self-governments) would occur and the punishments where given. From noticing the astonished looks of the villagers and the children who came running behind our car, I could realize that, there was not even a single vehicle in the village except for their bicycles and the bullock-carts. The village had remained undeveloped since then. When the car came to a stop I noticed all the people starring at us. We stood there for about 5 minutes and i couldn’t take the tension any more. When they all were looking at our strange vehicle and started muttering in their low voices. I started sweating and pleaded again “Dad lets go.  Let’s leave this place... Please.  Please. Please!”

           Soon After for the first time that day, my dad listened to me. And just when he started the car it wouldn’t move. "Oh my god! Not now" i thought…when he tried again and again to start the engine a few men started walking towards us and that was the most terrified moment of them all.  For a minute I thought," my dad was a brave man not to be afraid, even at such situations " and soon i thought " Or, maybe he is just showing off! " that, he is well aware of the situation which, is under control. One of the men asked who we were and what we were looking for? my dad lied that “we were lost and we were looking for the way out of the village”. It was so damn easy! And right at the moment, the engines came back to life. The men showed us there was no way through the village and we had to actually reverse the car and leave back to get out of the village. . .

That night after the wedding. For the first time in my life, I felt safe when i reached my hostel!
 

                                      

The Grape Tree

Just that morning “Young ‘T’ ” had committed a mistake.
He had eaten the Grape Fruit after breakfast.

During the science class at school that same day, He Remembered his mom’s words:
 
“Son !, Don’t ever swallow a fruit with the seed, you might end up with a tree growing from within your stomach “

he remembered that when the teacher was writing; Water + Seed = Tree

 How stupid can he be, to forget not to swallow a fruit with a seed.
 That too was not just one. He had been crazily impatient to gulp a hand full of them.

 As usual his imaginations went wild.
  
What if the worse thing happened?
          It has been 3 hours now and what if it’s already happening!!   By now the seed would have touched the surface of the stomach. Even the idea of not drinking water for a whole day and trying to expel the seeds out with a Loo job wouldn’t work because, he had been such a fool to drink a full glass of water before he even touched the fruit.

                         Water   +    Seed    =    Tree

   whenever he saw those equation on the blackboard he became restless.
But, how fast can a tree grow! What if it is instantaneous?

 Can he tell this to his Teacher/Friends?
  Are you joking? No, he definitely can’t.

His teacher would really be mad at him. And, that was the worst thing to confess his friends, who would bully him on this for the rest of the year.

His stomach was already growling. His throat seemed sore,
 He was thirsty !
  
   He imagined the branches of the trees growing through his nose, mouth and ears. He also almost laughed once when he thought of growing grape fruits from his mouth and start selling the fruits. He was going to become rich!  But, how can he chop it off without his friends noticing him? Will the small fold-able knife that came with his geometry box will be sharp enough to cut the branches from his mouth?Where will he drop the chopped leaves,he can carry the fruits in his lunch bag and may be he will stuff the leaves in Kumar's Bag!

  Young T was now sitting in the last bench so that no one notices him chop it. He was prepared for the moment. Yes it was happening! He shut his mouth tight with his hands, Closed his eyes tight and he almost stopped breathing. He was suffocating! Everything was blurred. He was sinking!
The noise of his class was fading. That’s when he barely heard his friend in the front row say :

“I don’t believe it! Our Teacher is wrong. Whatever, she has written on the board was also wrong. The actual equation was [Water + Seed + Mud = Tree] “

voila!  Yes that’s it!

   Those words were literally his EYE-OPENER and MOUTH-OPENER as well!  Young T started panting.

Thank - - god - !   -  -  -  -  my  -  -  friend  -  - is  - right  -   -   -  you -  saved - - my -  - Life !

Masterpiece :: Excuse Me

Masterpiece :

      This morning after a birthday celebration in a nearly place i preferred walking home,this time with the cake box in a hand and a bag of grocessries in the other.As always people watching had kept me busy down the road.That is when i noticed this beautiful piece of organic structure being constructed by these two Archetects with their bare hands.

      I went back to my childhood when,i always was the lead architect of the scrap houses we build at my cousin's backyard.Travelling decades my attention was suddenly pulled back just,to realize i've stopped walking and had my eyes on them . The two masters were annoyed now.

      "Hey,can i take a snap of you guys and the structure ?" I requested the two young men. Pulling out the camera i had slipped in my pocket after the birthday ceremony.




   
      Before even they replied,their four-legged companions started barking at me.Since,Noone dared to stop in their terittory except their masters who actually lived among them,in their own shelters(huts) nearby. When the dogs got louder one of the architect chased them because he knew i could'nt do anything with all my hands full.

      I gave him a thankful smile and advanced to my position,Admiring the master piece once again this time with the camera. The braver one of them had actually walked out of the frame. He shy ed to face the camera, (i learn t , he thought i was a silly pedestrian). I requested him to be in the frame, he obliged to sit near his fellomate after a bit of a hesitation. Yeah! thats when i clicked their masterpiece.

EXCUSE ME :
      Proud to have had such a click, i got on to my feet that's when, i suddenly heard someone call me from behind.
    
      " EXCUSE ME !..... EXCUSE ME ! "

      I wondered who it was !.When i turned,I was surprised to see 3 girls walking towards me.

      Immediately i noticed one of them wore a hijab and the rest in salwars .One among the two sighed excuse me and pointed at the girl with the hijab stating she intended to stop me . And immediately the girl in black denied it wasn't her and shook her head

      " NO ,NO ....Nothing " she shook her head again.

then muttering with a grin to the other two,why would u do this ? she snapped. I knew what was happening.

        That was a kind of a prank mostly teens play on their weakest buddy. I remember my friends who scream unexpectedly in the class and immediately direct the audience(class) towards the next one near him. so, that the teacher goes mad at him. I've also had some notorious friends who would call some biker who is overtaking the school bus we went and, immediately when he turned to see get hit by Jack-fruit seeds and they would tuck under the seat (Pretty dangerous tricks). But, these girls seemed not worthy for such
bigger tricks either harmless .

       Not wanting to put her in a awkward scene i just ignored the two and turned back and started walking. After, I walked for about 200 mts listening them whisper, gossip and bully each-other behind me , i had to deviate to gully toward our home . I smiled at myself for being an victim and wondering how consecutive events occur.

      Yet another ordinary day .. . .
     

When the Dumb talked

It was 12 at the Noon.A well dressed man, probably a marketing executive with a tie and suite with a briefcase in one hand and a big stone in his other hand stood in the middle of a busy road . Angered, he might kill anybody with it. He shouted at everyone in the watching crowd in a unknown language for doing this to him. The Whole crowd watched him,including the traffic police scared of getting hurt. None was ready to get near him.

Who was he? What happened ? With whom was he fighting ? ...and How would this end ?

With all these questions,just like everyone Mr.S stopped to witness the lion roar in the middle of the arena. He wasn't sure of what was going on. But,he felt sad for what had happened to the man and for the fact that none could stop it. As Mr.S was from a town where the real PEOPLE lived.

The people who would stop by to stop him from doing this. The people who would analyze the situation and act for it.The people who would convince him for what had happened.The people who would slap him on the face for creating a panic and the People Who would rip the person who caused him do this if,he wasn't wrong. But,this place was strange for him. Here all the living machines kept themselves always busy with no time to spare for the world. They had no time to react for the guy who fell from his bike next to them,They had no time either to help the bleeding rich man whose car hit a cow or, the cow that sat with oozing wounds on the road. Because, they had to answer their time keepers.Because,they had to dirty their shirt.Because,they dint know who the rich man or the cow was.Because,they dint know the language to ask him for his need.

S amidst of the living machines watched this,sitting on his bike.And,to his surprise, a filthy dressed female of around 28 passing by stopped. She walked straight to the executive without any fear and spoke the language. She was DUMB. She sighed him to drop down the stone, she asked him to calm down. She waved her hand conveying he was so decent to do this. And,she comforted him telling everything was alright and he will be okay. The executive understood her language.so did S and so did everyone. . . .

The executive dropped the stone with a drop of tear. He gave a thankful look at the women as his eyes would flood at any moment thinking, this was all that he had been longing for. A support,from a soul to end this,whoever or whatever started it. He dint' expect a Dumb women would do this to him. Yeah,she was the one who did it for a craving soul,when nobody could lend a word for him it was the Dumb who spoke.

S felt ashamed of it. He realized it was not the language he needed to end this.
And, everyone departed. . . for the show had been a flop.

Yet another ordinary day!

Singing with a Steam Inhalator

I hate you Flu . . I hate you .
and Yes i definitely do . .

Even-though you aren't a ghost you caused me some water.Under the bed-sheet i go,
Cursing you. Since,you make me cry more than my loved ones do!

Oh ! little flu You've got me my dear.
and Yes u definitely do . .

Your cupboard is so Claustrophobic as you soak me in your love Sweat,
You love me so much...u love me for sure . .

Sweetheart but, its time for u to leave because, i hate u so much,
and,Yeah i definitely do . .!

The Pocket

The pocket !
Its An asset of a pant. A Money bag for a daily man. An nu-sense for a tailor and what·so·ever.

In our Story lets see what was it for Mr.T !

Mr.T was a costume freak, At-least amongst his friends. Some loved him and some hated him for the same. He kind of enjoyed their comments and the faces they made. He also had a Pant which his MOM liked so much. It had 2 huge POCKETS for which kangaroos would go on a auction to own them. It was the POCKETS that turned on Mr.T to own it.

Fun he had from their Comments on his pants and the Answers he gave:

# Are u working for the Packers and movers ?

# (On a Picnic) Lets all leave our belongings here. .

# Hey where's your Apron ? Don't you know we had to Centrifuge the DNA samples
>Mr.T : Here it is..(Pulling it out of his pocket)
and your notes ?
>Mr.T : Dats' y i hav two pockets !!

# I knw y ur mom likes your pants...she loves taking you to the Grocery Store !

# Hey buddy can you pick me a bottle of kingfisher n drop it in ?
>Mr.T : @#$%! ..

This is how that particular day Mr.T had worn his pants to his college.That day since his faculty wasn't present he had to kill time with his friends.He had gone to the ground floor to meet some friends and from the open windows of that classroom(i meant open windows without even the bars) he jumped out to the backyard with a bunch of his mates for a unknown reason.

That backyard was rustling with a lot of dry trees and weathered leaves on the ground.Mr.T had a super eye for the creatures.He spotted a Green tree snake crawling on one of the branches of a tree.Mr.T had a record in tampering snakes and boasted as he kept his log of stamping approx 24 snakes to death in that particular months. As his house was constructed near a river bank, he encountered a lot of water snakes in and around his house especially on the seasons,Which were all Non-Venomous.He proudly called himself as T.Irwin after the famous crocodile hunter who got killed by a sting ray. And, every-time he laughed at this joke.

Just like every other geek would want to act brave in-front of his mates,he had to take upon a challenge of catching one alive which was his second attempt after a water snake he managed to pull out of a well with his bare hands.But,this time he had to catch it. Being a Science graduate he knew green snakes are not venomous as compared to the other ones,he kept his cool. But, he also knew the Green snakes hanging in trees target your eyes,on a attack as they are attracted to the shiny eyes. That was sure of an Adrenaline moment for Mr.T. He somehow gathered courage to pull it down from the tree but his mission was to grab its head. Just because that's how the Professionals do.

Though he was brave he had to cheat a Little. He pulled a grassy herb and used it as a glove thinking it would prevent him. And,also he believed anything artificial like a polythene bag or a paper would be silly for his reputation among snakes. He had also mastered the technique of grabbing its tail first pulling it with the other hand and then manage to catch its head. HE CAUGHT IT. Hurray !..... He laughed for having proved he was T.Irwin. Now that he had caught a snake,he cant just leave it back. Come on folks he is a now a hero.

He has to take it to the class and fortunately his POCKETS came handy. He held the head of the trawling snake tight with a great fear camouflaged behind his proud smile. He rolled the green pathetic serpent around his fist and put his iron hands into the POCKET and started walking to the class. That small walk till his class kept his pulse for a week. It was a cruel harassment inside the POCKET. He was sweating as he entered the class.

At-last after celebrating his accomplishment after all the pranks in the class he threw it off the window.

Mr.T has now realized it was a pitiful thing he did, to prove his bravery. Later , after all his self realization he became a member of Greenpeace. That was the last snake he caught and every-time when he recollected that incident, the Serpent lived ...................'Happily Ever After' !!