'' Fond memories of my childhood '' [ 17 ]

‘’ Fond memories of my child hood ‘’ [ 17 ]

‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’

One day Sreedharan told us  that the prices of rice,Dal,and all essentials                                                                    

were  going very high because of the scarcity of these things.War created it So the rationing system came.According to the number of the members of the family certain

amount of  food grains like rice ,Dal,wheat,Bajra,corn,etc  were permitted through ration shops. The rest we had to buy  from black market  for a higher  price, three times or four times higher

than that we got from the ration shop.Tapioca came into existence

as supplementary for rice.Flour mills came up at every nook and corner.Dad was diabetic and ate wheat in the form of dosa,porridge, and all.Beforehand Sreedharan used to grind a special type long wheat in the grinding

stone and made the dough for dosa.So also the wheat grains were ground in a

peculiar grinding stone and made small,big,and bigger broken grains.When Sreedharan

made wheat dosa for dad before ;my brother and myself used to quarrel for the remaining one or two.At the  time of the war rice and dal dosa became

rare and wheat dosa became common and then we started quarrelling for rice dosa.

Every day there would a horror news  about the war ,in the news paper .A lot of

youngsters joined military service ;at least a young man from each house.

The name of the place where we lived was ‘Aranmula’ .From  there dad got a transfer to Perumbavoor. While we were in Perumbavoor one day we  went to Vaikkom temple.We stayed there at the T.B.very near  to the temple.At noon when mum and dad were in a cat nap we children got out of the building and started  roaming around the compound.I tried to pluck a flower from

a plant;then two three ants fell on me.Some how I shook them off it down and

stamped to kill them.Then my sister told me ‘’ don’t do  that ,we have no right to kill them.Theyare also  God's creatures, that is what Mahathmaji advises us.’’

Then I asked her ‘’ who is this mahathmaji ?’’ Then she said ‘’ Mahathma Gandhi is is our Mahathma, great man,equal to god ,his message to the whole world is to

Practise non violence’’.I was hearing the name Mahathma Gandhi for the first time.Then I remembered my grandma’s words;’’ don’t kill or hurt other creatures’’.

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