As a kid I loved to write stories about everything around me, while William Blake was impressed with the beauty of the tiger, I was impressed with the beauty of the rooster. The only acknowledgement that I received during my school days was the first price for story writing and poem writing. I studied at St Mary’s residential school in Pathanapuram affiliated to ICSE syllabus. To promote English speaking, the school imposed a 50 paise fine for speaking Malayalam. This system made me a silent guy in the school even though I got prizes for writing English poems. Like every one, for me writing English is easier than speaking English. The words like “is” “was” “ have” and “ had” all confused me while many school mates spoke English like Niagara Falls. Ironically they all had connection with gulf countries which indeed helped them to speak good English.
Studies were not on my agenda despite the fact that I was a voracious reader from my child hood onwards . I loved cricket more than anything else in my life. I don’t feel any regret if I didn’t study but if I couldn’t play even one day because of bad weather,I was deeply disappointed. As a family, we had very cordial relation with our neighbours. Their house really impressed me in my childhood. They had very good collection of Malayalam story books like Balarama, Poopatta, Boban and Molly, Bala Mangalam, as well as Amar Chitra katha even though I personally had good collection of Balarama and Amar Chitra katha myself. My collection felt like a Begger’s booty until the panoramic view of their story books treasure house captivated me. The most surprising fact was that , they had a collection of fairy tales and Russian fables in Malayalam with oil-painted pictures. I don’t know , from where they got that collection , because no shops had such collection of books during that time, I suspect that, it might have been the contribution of a failed mallu entrepreneur who loved fairy tales and Russian fables.
Another treasure house for books was my veliyapappa’s (my mother’s elders sister’s husband) House. He was a Malayalam professor at University college in Trivandrum. All the famous Malayalam novels were available there and I become a fan of Vaikkam Muhammed Basheer novels because of this collection. When everybody left for urban areas for settle, termites had destroyed this home library. This home library introduced me to all famous philosophers and the collection of Vishwa Vigjana Kosham avialble there was a rare gem. Reminding me that I was the most fortunate kid to use these resources. Looking back , I realize that something was shaping me and influencing my thoughts, as such resources would usually be a a sweet forbidden fruit for a village boy.