Looking far at the wilds, Jack turned to askBala, “Are leeches found here during these months?” when the latter was about to dash up the stairs to go to his house tochange.
Tall and slender built Bala halted for a moment, turned around with a broad white smile and said, “No, Sir. Even during the monsoons, we barely get two of them. Leeches are not found within the town,” and went in expeditiously.
Standing outside the house near the taxi, Jack looked involuntarily at the nearby bushes. The moist smell of the vegetation around was overpowering. How do leeches in this part of the wilds look and behave, he wondered.
His face had turned a well-ripened tomato red as he enjoyed the warmth of the forenoon. A small patch of loose grey cloud sprinkled a shower – quick and feather-light that stopped even before he could realize it. A couple of friends with their folded up dhoti, deep in discussion, probably berating someone, casually passed by. Their blank straight glances at him didn’t last beyond a few seconds.
The room, adjacent to Bala’s small humble house, exposing the red-brown bricks, serving more like a kitchen stood without any proper concrete plastering. Behind their home were a few lush banana trees and a large one that looked like a jackfruit tree.
Bala’s wife looked out of the window and asked, “Chaiyaedukkatte,[1]muthasha[2]?” The old man, his ebony skin over the stubborn,protruding, old bones, mildly waved his hand and shook his head sideways to say no. She put down his glass and poured tea only into her cup. A thin towel over her tight green blouse, with an ingenuous smile she bent forward to look out of the window.
Bala came hopping back when Jack asked all of a sudden, “I wanted to ask you if you had by any chance come across a group of young Canuck tourists last year? My Annie was with them. I was supposed to join them but couldn’t make it because of my mom’s surgery.”
“Many tourists come every day. So, it’s near impossible to remember faces, let alone names,” Bala said as he waved to his wife.
“About my age, there were two guys and three girls.”
Blinking his eyelids swiftly, with a slight frown, pouting his lips, Bala tried to recollect. “During July, it’s normally pouring heavy. Were they into mountaineering by any chance, Sir?”
“They were indeed mountain lovers. Is it true that when leeches bite through our flesh, we don’t feel the pain at all?”
“That’s precisely why they are all the more dangerous, Sir.”
“Yeah! And where are we going this afternoon, Bala? Sorry I digressed abruptly.”
“You could go speed boating. Three days back, you’d said you wanted to experience that landscape once again.”
“Okay, I’ll think about that. Does your old man always sit in front of the house on the chair like this?” Jack pointed to Bala’s grand uncle.
“He waits for any passing jeep to take him to the regional office of Kannan Devan Tea. I am not sure if you know, Tata previously owned it. Jeep owners know him well. If there is a vacant seat, they pick him. I do drop him if I happen to go that way. He goes there everyday, spends the day there and manages to get a ride back as well.”
“Does he have friends there?”
“No, he goes only to reminisce. The first monorail system of India that had served about twenty-two years collapsed inthe treacherous floods. The present road just in front of that office is built on the old railway track.”
The old man, after a fleeting glance at Jack slowly walked towards the taxi.
Looking into his eyes, Jack greeted him, “Uh what?” in his subtle way.
“Pathukke[3],” Bala opened the front door and helped him in.
Hearing his hoarse, phlegmy cough, Jack wondered, “Poor codger must be looking for some residues of his childhood, eh?”
“Something like that, Sir. His father, who worked as a labourer in the tea plantation was washed away in the floods when the rail tracks were completely destroyed. As a four-year-old, he used to wait for his dad daily at the station those days.”
“Oh yes! Before I forget, Bala, it’s my twenty-fifth birthday on Sunday. We are having a simple party, just the Regency staff and I. Not in such a mood, I tried hard to dissuade them but in the end, agreed. Please do join us,” Jack said as he occupied the rear seat. His knees spanned the space between the two front seats.
“Thonnuththonbathu.”
“I don’t know if I can come, Sir. I need to drive a family from Adimally to the surrounding places,” Bala said a little diffidently.
“Come on, just drop by for a while between your busy rides.”
“Thonnuththonbathu.”
“What’s he saying, Bala?”
“Ninety-nine.”
“Oh, he understands English! Is he ninety-nine years old?”
“He might look like anirritable boor as he hardly talks to anyone. But having worked under a British tea planter during his younger times, he understands English very well. In another five or six years, he should be turning hundred.”
“Then, why does he mutter ninety-nine?”
“1099 as per our Malayalam calendar was the year of the big bad floods. Almost always, he lives in those times.”
“An alternatecalendar?” Jack asked open-mouthed.
“Yeah, 1099 should be… I think, let me calculate.”
“irubaththulanaalu.”
“Now it is 1190; then it must be,..”
“English Kollam irubaththulanaalaanu.”
“He remembers. The floods were in 1924.”
Unbelievingly, Jack looked wide-eyed at the frail old man’s back. The dark grey coat that he wore had many patched up holes that looked as if he was born with it.
“Because of the catastrophic landslide at Karinthiri, all the roads were pathetically damaged. About seven years later the present road was built. Worst of all, the church records weredamaged beyond recognition. All the present records start only after that. Our ancestors’ details are not known. That was onelasting damage caused by the floods.”
“So, technically your family tree sprouts from him?” he pointed at the old guy.
“And it ends with him if I can say so because he never got married. He remained a bachelor. His elder sister was my grandma. Both my mother and grandmother were tea plantation workers in those times, and both died of uterus-related issues, common occupational hazard among the women pickers.”
Nodding in agreement, Jack looked through the window at the steep valleys and tea estates. The mountains of various sizes touching the horizon intrigued him. The breathtaking views of the wilds and the large, green patches of tea plantations have been haunting him for the past few days even when he slept.
“Grand Uncle is normally very calm. But just a strong passing drizzle could make him coil back into his bed. Once the rains get heavier no one canrestrain him. He getsvery restless.And like a crazy guy he would start walking in the rain towards the regional office.”
“Perhaps, his body has lived and aged over the decades, but his heart perhaps froze in that period, eh?”
How these drivers are impressive in controlling their vehicles on the narrow and steep roads, Jack wondered for the umpteenth time.
“A sure natural skill acquired with long lasting experience, this can be!” he muttered. Bala looked at him in the rear mirror and gave a hesitant, confused smile.
As Bala slid into the town through Munnar-Udumalpet Road, Jack felt yet again the striking contrast between the town and its hilly suburbs. Thanks to tourism, it looked much more contaminated for its size.
When they went past the taxi stand to go beyond, the Catholic Church up the hill with the sculpture of Pope Benedict XVI peered over all the activities of the town, as though monitoring.
The aroma of heated coconut oil crisping raw plantain pervaded the senses. With the roadside hawkers away until evening, the roads suddenly appeared a little broader, he thought.
The loud horns of the autos, buses, and taxis posed a threat to the ears as reckless drivers used the roads both dangerously and chaotically. They seemed to have some method even in the madness. Watching people board government buses to all the four directions Jack was yet again amused to see the locals wearing wooly hats, balaclavas and ear muffs.
Turning to the left, Bala pointed to his right at the cast-iron bridge that extended over the river.He said the old parallel pedestrian Churchill Bridge that stretched parallel to itwas built in 1944.
“Did he know?”
“Who?”
“Churchill? That a small bridge here was named after him?”
“I don’t know that, Sir. But that’s an important historical landmark here in Munnar.”
“Okay.”
“Churchill was the Premier of the British Empire back then.”
“If I may ask, how much have you studied, Bala?
“I passed my BA in history, Sir. But only after three consecutive attempts,” he suppressed his laughter.
Looking through the rear view mirror at Jack nodding with an amused broad smile, Bala continued, “That was the most used bridge until a few years ago when people had to wait on both sides to cross as it was too narrow. So, that adjacent metal bridge was installed to ease the human traffic.”
“Do you know he hated India and Indians very much?”
“Who?”
“Oh, never mind.”
“Aruljyothi bridge across the same river, a little further away, was demolished a few years ago to make way for the upcoming National Highway. Sir, Munnar means three rivers. The town is right at the spot of confluence.”
“Bala, are you free tomorrow?”
“I have a ride, but only in the afternoon. Luckily you have come after the rains, Sir. Some mountaineers don’t plan properly and choose the rainy seasons. When our folks accompany them as guides, they aren’t able to help them much except with the routes and the Mountaineers wouldn’t enjoy much as well.”
“Climbing in the slippery, rugged terrains could pose a challenge that many love, like my dear Annie used to. She was dauntless.”
“It’s not just the slippery hills but the leeches that are the worst challenge, Sir.”
“I have leech socks with me even if I consider going up the hills. By any chance, did you know the two local guys who went with the group as guides?”
“We can ask around, Sir. It should not be impossible to find out.”
“I wanted to walk the roads and paths she had trodden in her last few days. My friends could not help with the names of the guides. Of course, they did give me a group photo with the guides in them. I hope that can help. Is it possible to get any details in the General hospital? I wish to know how painful or peaceful the last hours were for my dear Annie…”
Balatook a look at his face through the mirror.
“Oh, how I miss her!” he muttered to himself.
“I will take you there, Sir.”
“After she died, my friends came back, devastated.”
“I am sorry to hear that, Sir. Did they take back her body?”
“No, being budget travelers they didn’t have the money or the means. They contacted the embassy but for various reasons, though valid ones, even before I could think of flying over to India, the cremation was arranged to take place right here. Having grown up in an orphanage in Toronto, except for me, Annie had no one. I knew her since my high school days and was her steady since then. Even after a year has passed, I am not convinced of this truth, maybe because I didn’t get to see her body.”
“Sorry, sir….”
“Let’s not talk any more of that. It surprises me how even in such mountain ranges devastating floods could have occurred.”
“Three weeks of nonstop rains, about 485cm, they say.”
“Jesus!”
“Although the accurate guesstimates are unknown, thousands of animals and birds were killed and washed away. Acres of crops and properties were completely destroyed.”
“That must have been an unimaginable disaster.”
“What does he do there? I mean at the old station?” Jack pointed to the front left seat.
“Oh, he sits around for some time. Everyone knows him.”
“Poor old fellow!”
“I will drop him there after I drop you at your hotel. He never got to see his father’s body, and he carries the age-old depression and memories. He has never gone beyond these hills, and even today he doesn’t know that open lands exist.”
“How was tea transported during the floods?”
“Not many details are available on the consequences of the halting of tea transport. But those days, tea chests used to be transported through aerial ropeway of about five kilometers from the Top station in Kunadala valley down to Kottagudi.”
“Bottom station.”
“What’s he saying?”
“Kottagudi was called the Bottom station during those times. From there they were transported by carts to Bodinayakkanur, then by trains to various ports to be shipped to England.”
“Bodacious memory he’s got!” Jack muttered before slipping into a silent delving in this own thoughts while looking out at the mystic valleys.
“Sir, excuse me if I sound inquisitive, but, what did she exactly die of, Sir?” Bala asked falteringly.
Jack turned in to look blankly at him for a second. “Oh, Annie died of excessive bleeding caused by a leech bite. One leech had entered her vagina and wriggled right in to rupture the walls of her womb followed by a few internal vital organs before coming out of her abdomen.”
“Oh my God! Do you want to go to the Top station?”
“Maybe tomorrow morning, that is if I manage to get up early,” laughed Jack as he alighted. The oldster seemed to be staring straight ahead in space, nothing in particular.
Jack bent down to put his hand through the window to touch him and stood agape the moment he saw his shoulders slightly trembling. His cheeks had streaks of freshly glistening wet tracks.
[1]Chaiya edukkatte– Shall I serve you tea? – In Malayalam
[2]muthasha – Grandfather / senior man – In Malayalam
[3]Pathukke – Slowly/carefully- In Malayalam
