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Brief the summary of A childhood in malabar : A memoir

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This story, written by Kamala Das recounts the incident of a stormy day at her grand parents’ house in the village of Kerala. Kamala Das and her elder brother were invited to the feast of someone’s birthday at Ambazhathel. They were taken to the serpent shrine by Malathi Kutty. There, they saw Meenakshi Edathi. She was a distant relative of the Ambazhathel family. She was setting out turmeric, milk and bananas for the snakes.

Being poor, she was dependent on their generosity. A middle aged person, Meenakshi spent her time rushing around the house and compound, doing certain trivial duties. But the family of Ambazhathel could not have existed happily for a single day without Meenakshi, as she was the only one, who knew about the needs of the inmates of the family.

After lunch, they returned home to Nalapat along with Malathi Kutty. Within an hour, they heard the sound of a gale. The wind tore through the cocount palms, dry leaves swirled upwards, branches shook ahd the seat of the swing fell down, due to this gale. Kamala Das’ grandmother, (Ammamma) asked all of them to sit down in the upstairs middle room and gave them a metal dice to play with.

Her father’s mother (Muthassi) ordered to close all the small windows. The sound of the rain was like the roar of a vast crowd of people. Malathi Kutty insisted that she wanted to go to Ambazhathel and see Kutti Oppu. Ammamma tried to comfort her that she will send her as soon as the storm stopped. The backyard was flooded and the water had also collected in the Central Hall. They all sat on their beds and mattresses. Just then, Ammayi arrived, drenched to the skin. Cheriamma suggested that they can chant akshara slokans to forget their fear.

As soon as Ammaman and Ammayi went upstairs, the servant woman started wailing and hitting her head with her hands. She was worried about her family members. Muthassi and Ammamma comforted her and said that she could go home the next day, as soon as the rain stopped. All of them, heard the trees crashing to the ground and a dog whining in the western yard. Sankaran Nair told them that there was knee-deep water in the courtyard.

Thumbi, their pet dog was also drenched and was shivering in the cold. Sankaran spread a gunny bag for Thumbi to lie down. All of them spent the whole night in the southern room. When they woke up, the rain had stopped. A young man from Vadekkara came to check whether all are safe. He told them that he started out at day break and waded through the water. On his way, he saw the collapsed huts and trees, dead fowls and dead goats floating in the water. When Kamala Das enquired the young man whether anyone had sent them Murukkus or dates, her grandmother corrected her saying that was not the time to ask for all those things. Kamala hung her head ashamed.

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