Uskoolu bittu.

[sajith]

What were Raja Ram Mohan Roy's contributions to society?

Why did Aryans come to India?

What is the area of a circle? What is the value of PI? What is the spelling of "queue"?

Why did Amma shed a tear when she saw the first fruit falling from her young mango tree?

This primary school in Thirunelli, Wayanad, stood all lonely on a rainy Saturday morning in September. She clearly missed her children. Come Monday, and what a celebration it would be! A hundred little ones under little umbrellas crossing that green green field. Noise. Clamour. Mud. Slush. Laughters, cries, whispers, fights, fear of the cane, prayers, anthems. Life.

Now that summer holiday months are here again, her wait is going to be longer. Perhaps. Unless the academic excellence manufacturing machine is at work.

Do you remember the smell of rainy day lunch packs? Pacha manga chamanthi, vazha chundu thoran and rice, and perhaps a piece of fried fish, wrapped in a layer of banana leave, and another layer of news paper? Have you insisted that you want your lunch packed that way, and nonononono not in that stainless steel lunch box? Do you have memories of sharing lunch between a whole bunch of you? Memories of waiting for rain to recede after lunch, to run to the water taps? Of a wind that brings down a shover of mangoes, raw and ripe, in the schoolyard?

***

My poet was the recipient of first Kuttettan Kavyapuraskaram last Wednesday. This is a literary prize for young poets, awarded in memory of Kunjunni Mash. (Kuttettan is, of course, Kunjunni Mash. Yes yes yes Kunnjunni Mash!)

While looking for the news article, mathrubhumi.com threw this on me:

Error:Access denied for user 'mathrorg_user'@'75.125.120.230' to database 'mathrorg_1969newsdb'

Conway's Law... is perhaps coming in my direction as well. Real Soon Now. :-)