Episode-II

Somehow the days dont seem to go ahead.
when i was in 5th class Daddy went to Coimbatore[ on unpaid leave,i think to try his hand at some Pvt practice] so we were in RS puram . we had a Ford v8 car. & the gate from the house was rather small . The only person who could take out the Car safely & quickly out was kochechi. she was very good in driving. I used to sit w/ daddy & do the steering.
Those days were also very happy ones, w/ o a care in the world.The only problem i felt was the private tution master who used to come to teach me Tamil & sleep while fanning himself w the palm leaf fan! i used to run away from there & go & play when he will suddenly wake up& look for me. despite all that for the half yearly exams i became first even in Tamil & was at the end of other children's jealous attacks...

That was in 1950 & the first timei saw an english Film. "Samson & Delilah". i was so impressed by the elaborate settings of the empire & the Big greek columns which Samson had to destroy.. somehow i really got hooked on to Hollywood movies after that & at every opportunity used to see othr English movies.
The most remembered event of those days was the one& only time when my daddy beat me. my first molar was loose & had to be taken out . so i went w/ daddy to his clinic. [ those days normal doctors used to do the dentist's work also.. so according to daddy's instructions i made the KMnO4 soln for gargles after & before the tooth extraction & after everything ws ready, the forceps were sterilised & ready for use & whendaddy came to pull outmy tooth , i started to run around the clinic & not allowing him to extract the tooth..Finally after almost 20 min to half a hour daddy lost his patience & when he caught hold of me finally gave me a nice slap on my cheek. that was areal real shock to me bcos daddy never ever had done such athing before. I almost became hystreical crying & w/ o the tooth being removed wet back home. By then Daddy himself was feeling so bad that he dint want to do anything else.
that day happened to be Kochechy's Birthday & when she saw me crying w/ the red slap mark on my cheek, she consoled me by saying that she will there to fore extract my loose tooth herself& i would never need to go to daddy for it[ & she was true to her word& did extract all the rest of my teeth!!

After 1 year in CBE, we came back to Kuthuparambu& i joined the high school there in the 1st form [ 6th class]. tharachechi was in the highest clss in the same school[ 11th class] The school was situated on top of ahill & it was such a picture\isque place. there used to lots of mango trees as well as Cashew trees there . & all the children used to pick the fruits & eat them.