STORY - THALORE

My  wife was too shy in our first night.. She will nor undress , when I was looking on. My great wish was to see her breasts at close quarters, eve if she does not allow me to touch them.

Ultimately I gave in, She put off the dim oil lamp and I could fondle her and kiss those soft balls of butter. There was no resistance when I went ahead and did the thing, which all men want to do, even in early manhood. Slowly she was tamed.She is a good faithful wife. I fulfilled all her expectations, except to have children, even after ten years. I was working in a project from which we would come home every summer to escape from the Northern heat. At home I have a car and we would drive it aimlessly, to see the villages and mountains and the sea coast.

One day we passed Thalore, near Ollur in Trichur district. when I saw the arch, withe the inscription MAHADEVA  KSHETHRAM, MY MIND WENT FLASH BACK, TO MY EARLIEST DAYS SPENT THERE.

I would accompany our maid servant, bare foot and with a strip of cloth to cover nakedness. She went to the grocery shop run by a Tamil Brahmin(pattarude peedilka}, who will call me and give a large piece of jaggery, which I will put in my mouth and enjoy the sweet taste, till it slowly dissolved in my mouth. In those days, biscuits and chocolets were not available.

Another scene was the Shiva temple, dilapidated and with a pond in front. Father will hold his hand in such a way, so as to touch the horns of the bull Nandi with the the fingers of the right hand and see the idol of God through the arch of fingers! I have not sen this being done by any one else. Another memory is the Church with a modern, imposing  building and a man wearing a white, loose shirt, reaching up to his ankles.. My father talked to him. He gave me small pieces of something sweet.

I parked my car in the area near the place where the  grocery shop would have stood, had it not been shifted to another spot in Thalore itself. I found it and asked the man about the old Brahmin. “It is my father; He handed over the business to me and is now settled at Urakam, near Ammathiruvadi Temple.. I was near Thalore, the distance being about six miles only; So we went there and after some enquiries, found him and approached him.

“I am the Namboodiri boy, who used to come to your shop bare footed; You used to give me a piece of jaggery”

“Oh! You are Anujan of –Mana. Come inside; There is enough room, stay here today.”

His wife came and we talked about old times. “Your father left for Malabar area. He is no more, I heard”

“Yes. There also he did not stick. As you were tired of business, I, too, am  bored with my work. If I can get a house here, I shall apply for long leave, followed by VRS.”

“I have four bed rooms here; for the time being, stay here. Go to the temple and pray every day. Ammathiruvadi will grant all your wishes. Have you no issues?”

For some six months, months, we regularly did bhajan in the temple. My wife could not believe it, when Doctor confirmed her pregnancy at the ripe age of thirty nine!

We put the small board on our wall,in the veranda of our own home “AMMATHIRUVADI EE VEEDINTE AISHWARYAM”