Early this month, a writer-friend
of mine, the Librarian of my college, Mr. Sudheendran dragged me to the
Bulletin Board he had set up in the College Library. On it was
displayed the Weekend Magazine section of the Malayalam Daily, Kerala
Kaumudi dated 03 February 2013.
He insisted that I read the
Featured article printed in very small letters. But had I
commenced, it would take at least half an hour and I did not
have my spectacles with me then. On finding me hesitating, Mr. Sudhi, as he is
amiably called, read aloud to me the entire
Feature in one go, occasionally glancing to check whether I
was listening. But the content was so touching and often I
had to turn away my face to hide the tears welling up…
Sudhi had injected into my heart
a melancholic spell which was to last the whole day… until I
realized that I ought to make my trainees read it
too. But, with a busy schedule I doubted whether
they will ever find the time. So, the following day, as I left for work,
I grabbed a copy of the Weekend from my
house. In fact, the previous Sunday, while reading the newspaper, I had
completely ignored the Feature!
My trainees had just returned
from Practice Teaching and for almost two hours were reflecting on the
experience they had of having to control “restless and disobedient”
children whom they were assigned to teach. Just before
Lunch Break, I made a trainee read aloud to the other
trainees select paragraphs of the Feature written by
B.R.Sumesh entitled ‘Murai Mahsu Varunnu, Kaadu Kilugunnu’. As it
was being read, there was complete silence and as I gazed around I
could see tears swelling up in the eyes of every trainee
present.
I rounded off with the words… Well
there are learners like these too in God’s Own Country and teachers willing to
save them too. Then I suggested that it would be nice if someone could
translate it for publication in the Department Blog. The whole
class volunteered. The following is the translated version of select
paragraphs which I have slightly edited:
Murali Mash comes…the jungle chimes…
People whom nobody wants…their
children…Mothers who know only to deliver babies…Their children…Who remembers
them…Who cares how they grow up?..Ill-nourished children…mothers who
don’t know how to take care of their babies…Yes…such images never
enter the Malayalee heart… It is at such a time that Murali Mash entered
the dark jungle. Later he became a caretaker, an affectionate
mother, a brother and a lot more to the children of 28 dwellings in the
Idamalakkudi Panchayat of Idukki district.
Mash had uprooted his own life
from his village and replanted it in the midst of children of
Nature… for their sake. When people like us strive to better our own lives, he
left his family in the village and stepped into the boorish jungle. In
every step he took, he grasped their pain and became one of them
realizing their hunger in the rhythm of Nature. After having lived with
the tribes for nearly 15 years, his life and soul
appears to have merged with theirs.
…
Murali Mash tried to dispel the swelling
wrath of failing to find sufficient funds for setting up a school. He
managed to find a hovel in Nenmanal where five pupils could
hardly sit comfortably. Yet when the school opened, pupils
from the thick jungle, traversing dangerous routes and
circuitous paths in the bamboo forest, reached the destination. 28 pupils
had come. As he entered the class, a squeamish stench arose. He
thought his own liver was gushing out something from his belly. Murali
Mash rushed out clutching his nose and inhaled some fresh air…
He re-entered the ‘class’ once again and
looked around. Many children had eyelids and eyebrows
ridden with lice. A brownish yellow liquid had dried up in their
noses, cheeks and upper lips. Their hair was matted with dust and soil.
The dress which they wore was colourless. The trousers some wore was
turning to powder and had not touched water for months. As
Murali Mash looked around, the case was more or less the same with all
pupils. He did not engage class that day and asked them to go home
but directed them to come early the following day. When the
children left, he lost all appetite… he couldn’t sleep…and he began to
mentally prepare the syllabus for a session on
physical hygiene and cleanliness.
The following morning, when
the children arrived, he asked them to sit in rows and taught
them a song:
Thanna thaana
thinthana thinthara
Nammukkoru yathira ponne
chemparunthe…
Namukinnu thenginte iekoode
yathira pone chemparunthe…
[Come let us go on a journey, red
eagle...let’s glide through the coconut glade...]
Singing the song, the children
accompanied Mash to the nearby river. There, he removed his
clothes and placed them on the rock. He asked them to take off their clothes
too… Some did, but others watched him curiously. Mash started
to bathe and asked the pupils to do the same. With some
teasing and coaxing soon all the children had a good
bath. With the bath over while dressing, he noticed that some
clothes which the children were wearing was a nest of worms! Even today,
Mash vividly remembers the incidents as if they have been
permanently engraved in the leaves of his memory…
The following day too, he took
the children to the river but on that day he
laid down a large pot and boiled water in it. He then
dipped his clothes in the hot water and asked the children to do
the same. As they did it he narrated a story about worms and
how they survive…
Once when he returned from his home in
the village, he brought a pair of scissors. He cut the matted
hair of the children and cropped their hair.
As Mash recalls the initial days,
he gleams with joy… He had made children who never step into
rivers, bathe and wash after excreting… helped them learn the
basics of hygiene. Before learning the alphabet, learning about
hygiene, he felt, was even more important. In the following days he
taught them to read and write in the lap of Nature…
…
Today if you see clean tribal folk in
their dwellings… its only because of Murali Mash… He treats
all the tribal kids as his own…
[This extract from the Kerala
Kaumudi was translated by Ms. Aneesha Livingston together
with her classmates – the English Optional students (2012-13)
of Government College of Teacher Education, Thiruvananthapuram,
Kerala State]
Posted by Dr. C. Praveen
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