School Memory - Short notes

Everything was usual on that day at St. Mary’s lower primary school Puttekkara, third grade ‘B’ batch. Everything included rhymes of poet Cherusseri and Kunchan Nambiar behind the cardboard partition walls of the classrooms,routine commotion of students and teacher’s habitual order “Keep silence”. A silent boy Jo in the middle of a wrong group; or may be the right group; that he does not know. He found another boy drenched in the coconut oil as his daily bench companion. That was his usual appearance in the class. White skin over his skull was clear with Coconut oil dripping from his combed head,  spreading over the desk and bench of the class. Desks were slippery on certain days. But he was a good boy; Jo remembered. Most of the good boys of those days appeared oily on the head and face. Jo captured that boy’s attention by showing first magic of his life. He cut rough paper into small thin pieces and rubbed a plastic scale on the boy’s oily head.

After a suspense, Jo told him “Now you see the magic.” He placed the plastic scale one centimetre above the pieces of paper. Oil boy and others were surprised; the way paper pieces jumped up and stick on to the scale like a magnet. The whole batch surrounded the magic activity; uproar doubled. One of the teachers excited by the magnetic power of plastic scale reported the incident at headmistress office. The teacher was in a different state of mind. She did not want to miss any opportunity that may hit the new young scientist. Headmistress Edith summoned Jo at office room to discuss on his invention. Many students followed him to office room to hear about the result of Jo’s invention. Headmistress observed the plastic scale and asked Jo to repeat his experiment. After watching the action of paper pieces flying,

Sister Edith nodded head in acceptance, addressed the teacher and Jo, “There may be a science behind this. There may not be anything new to be reported to Rome. All of you, go to your classes. Please Disperse…”

The curious lot from the class were not happy with headmistress verdict. Boys wanted to hear something extra ordinary. Being a scientist for a day till Annie teacher’s arrival was not a bad deal for Jo. Senior teacher Annie heard about the incident from headmistress and immediately walked into the 3B Batch with authority. Annie teacher gave a final verdict convincing all students.

“It is static electricity. There is nothing new. No need to create any noise about it. keep silence.” She audaciously completed her statements. Annie teacher called Jo and took him to the school office room for his second trial in front of headmistress Sister Edith. Annie teacher affectionately talked to him.

“You know… once you reach bigger classes you will learn about it…”  

Nevertheless, headmistress Edith wanted to take a decision based on his finding. Sister Edith frowned at Annie teacher looking through her black rectangular glass frame in dilemma. “What should I do now?” Annie teacher recommended headmistress to move Jo into third grade batch C headed by Sister Celia, Jo’s first promotion. Maybe it was a trick of the teachers to avoid the noisy confusion created by his new discovery.

 

A short trip to Malayatoor - Son's Point Of View

It was not a worn irregular edge of silk saree, but a sleeping horizontal hill, stitching the embroidery to the clear sky as I watched it daily from my apartment balcony. After three months of heavy rain, the hill was visible from apartment. The hill with historical significance for Roman Catholic church, a sacred place associated with St. Thomas, the pilgrim centre, known as Malayatoor hill. The moment I thought about travelling there, I felt the astonishment too. It took three long years after living in the same apartment to take a decision to visit a place that was at a stone’s throw away from us. Finally, it happened on that Sunday afternoon at 3:30 PM. I felt my parents were looking for excuses for not visiting a place which they have seen umpteen times during their childhood. Nevertheless, I cannot forget the lush green forest area covered on both sides of the road. Living long time in the city, my tendency to call any green area with occasional monkeys and elephants, as forest, not to be underestimated. I must say, two sides of the road appeared to be a forest area for a city boy like me. After all, there were government forest guard check posts on the way with red barricades. No need to toss a coin to decide, it is forest area.

Like most foothills in our country, a lake, a boating facility and fishing nets corner was our first stop on the way. We stopped near a monastery, another usual suspect around such hilly areas. Parents enquired about the fish price with a roadside merchant. I knew, they were not going to buy it. They were always curious about fish prices, travel any part of the world. I could also see an old man alone; using fishing hooks. From the clear water, I could see fishes were cleverer to avoid old man’s hooks. We did not wait till his successful fishing attempt. We spent thirty minutes in the church and surrounding areas. The locals call the church as ‘Thaazhathe Palli’. The old architectural style thrilled us. The olden style frills of the church buildings, reminiscence of Greek-Roman architecture was a different experience. It was a refreshing trip after a long time, though a short one. Looking back, I don’t recall anything about the return journey from the hill. It was a different night with short collection of pictures for my memory to ponder after many years.