Monsoon And Mermaid:School time stories2

The ice breaking period was over with in a month after joining that school. I acquired adequate mastery in the nuances of their language . I was no more tormented, heartsick and never a loner in the crowd. Life became blissful there.

In those days, during lunch break ,we used to visit a house near by,to clean our tiffin boxes and to drink water. We drew water from an open draw well. Instead of a pulley and rope, it had a primitive arrangement using bamboo and rope. We drunk the raw well water, which had a natural taste that still linger in my tongue. We were never worried about the millions of germs and multitudes of bacteria, the water purifier companies are greatly concerned with. The ads of these corporates proclaim that they are more conscious about the health of our family and children than we are. But that open well water which quenched our thirst for years, had done no harm to our health.



The house was a two storey building with genuine architectural beauty and identity. It looked dingy, but grand. The Surroundings were placid, serene and green. We roamed in and around the house prmises tasting wild bush fruits, chasing butterflies or dragonflies for time pass, and One day I happened to see a girl, lean and fair like milk,who resembled a cherub, with plaintive eyes, reddy lips, and tender cheeks. She was laying in her mother's arms, and her mother was bathing her carefully.


She was a paralysed girl by birth itself. Her legs appeared to be pasted together, making it a tail like structure of fishes and this carved an image of a mermaid perpetually in the walls of my mind. Until I reached teenage, she was an enticing mermaid for me, and remained a fantasy image who splashed in the sea water whenever I read mermaid stories.

All the time we visited that home , we used to peep through the window, to see her.. Laying naked always, she stared into our eyes. It was and is beyond my imagination, what feelings might have ruled her on that occasions, laying helplessly..

I don't know whether she is alive or not right now, and still wish to see her with all the innocence of those lost childhood days, and to wish her all goodness.

We turned ourselves to peacocks, at the sight of crowded clouds in the sky. We awaited monsoon, the season with great impact on us. Monsoon in all the incarnations like squall, gust, drizzle, or whatever it can be called, became the all time favourite season of festivity.

Rain brought evident changes in the nature turning the surroundings greener. Creeping insects of various hues and shapes, croaking frogs, swimming toad poles, fishing herons, and innumerable other creatures appeared into our our lives all on a sudden, to boost our already playful mind with the season activities.The road to our school crossed vast paddy fields embedded between two hills. The paddy field had already been water locked with the torrential rain.

Throwing stones into the water, fishing using cotton towels and bags,pissing into the water, mocking frogs and single legged herons, tasting dew drops, separating copulating insects.... the list was endless.We took our own time on way back to home from school, to watch and do all these naughty things, very carefully. The funny thing was, when we boys standing in straight lines pissed into the water, girls were a bit disappointed, obviously due to the fact that they were helpless to do so.The metalled road to our school had potholes, where stagnated water giggled at us.

After each rain, our school ground-too pity to call it so- filled with mud water, became red like a strong cup of tea. I had a friend named Shamspere with whom the entire lunch break time had been used to walk to and fro in the muddy water, singing film songs of the time, holding each other tightly...

We never missed a single pool of water... Splashing, jumping, and walking through it we enjoyed each and every moment of rainy season over zealously. In the monsoon season most of the students came with a running nose. Hardly you can see now a child with running nose. Most of the students marched to school with violet feet, the backlash of playing in puddle water. So children had to apply 'junction Violet' a medication against the itching due to roundworms. Even after playing in puddle water, I never had any trouble. My mother was a nurse, and she had given us tablets for worms.

One day Jaseena showed me her feet, Violet in colour. I could see small dot like holes.
"In the night , a Small serpent like creature will peep through these holes, and the itching will be terrible then"
she explained with convulsions on her face.

Nowadays, no children ever walk in puddle water, get wet in rain, even though they love to. I doubt whether they have seen a toadpole, a fish or a snake in their natural habitat other than in Discovery or Nat Geo channels. Their mothers chide and restrict those childhood pleasures., and suppress their natural born instincts.

Behind our school it was hilly area, where huge laterite and granite rocks were propped up firmly, looked as if, they would fall at any moment. The surroundings were equivalent to a forest. This was the home town for snakes. So many times we had encounters with snakes there. They never liked their peace of mind and territory encroached because of our presence. During Arabic periods, we roamed around the rocks and bushes, tasting and eating wild fruits. We never ate fruits half eaten, or wet, saying they might have been licked by snakes. We loved to believe if ever eat them, we would die instantly.

Silly and baseless rumours like these were more than enough there. No one dared to question the logic or scientific facts behind them.We children loved that world of "lies", and they brought wild imaginations into our small minds. A big world of our own....

(I will be coming with more stories later... Keep checking blog...)