Once upon a summer
When chalk-white glossy ambassador cars
Reigned under the sore scorching sun,
Where colossal coconut palms fragmented the skies above
Remember the impatient annual rides you took from the airport
To the paradisiacal pastel-walled, putty patched tharavad for your two month’s bliss.
Once upon a summer
Adorned in misty white adipavadas and coconut drippin’ pigtails
Remember when climbing trees, sipping colas, roasting earthworms,
Gaping in awe at Yashoda Chechis’s betel-stained, blood red, pouting lips
That hummed to the screechy radio while grating chammanthipodi, for the afternoon Sadhya,
Was how you spent your idyllic days, despite being frazzled by the blistering sun.
Once upon a summer
While the elders slumbered and slogged through the sickly tropical afternoon heat
Remember you slipping out to the evening call bells,
In hopes of scoring smoked peanuts or sticky floss (or chilled mango bars on luckier days).
Building huts of palm leaves, then haggling with neighbourhood kids
Bartering your imported goodies for their delusive exotic relics,
Was when you felt at jovial ease, despite being scammed silly.
Once upon a summer
Under the lazy swirling ceiling fan,
Remember when you scribbled on letters and scratched on postcards
To have them sent to your Uppa,
Who was still stuck, sizzling in the scruffy desert for the summer.
Waiting for your letters, waiting to make ends meet
Was how he made peace, despite his aching hiraeth.
Once upon a summer
Kicking heels till the fickle-minded flickering electricity returned,
While fluorescent-flashing fireflies danced
Through erratic power-cuts & inevitable rainstorms
Remember when you battled ruthless, relentless mosquitoes
Who feasted on your pale foreign blood, yet it
Was when you felt victorious, despite your prickly pink puffed-up skin.
Once upon a summer
Sweltering in the hot humid air
Remember when you revelled
In the gaiety of no worries,
The art of doing nothing.
Was it not wonderful, despite everything?
Glossary of words used:
Tharavad – Ancestral home
adipavadas – Petticoat frock worn by young girls.
Chechi – a term to address an older woman
chammanthipodi – coconut chutney dish
Sadhya – Kerala feast
Uppa – a Malayalam term for father, used by Mappila muslims
Hiraeth – a deep longing or nostalgia, an earnest desire for a home that no longer exists or never was.
Haifa Maryam is an undergraduate student of English Literature student at Stella Maris College, Chennai.
Featured image credit: Sai Kiran Anagani/Unsplash