When the Bamboos Bloomed, and Community Reservation for Higher Education inflated to 27%

" Thats the bad omen, those are not beautiful
things, these bloomed bamboo woods,
those fortell the fall of our community "

"lakka illi pookumbam nadu kaani thambraa,
namma kulam kaani,
thambrantee aripettiyum, ponnum pattum kaani "

Pankhgy, an old mamma among the tribes repeated this when I told her how beautiful the forest looked thus with the bamboos all golden from its flowers. I was watching her collect the husk from the fallen bamboo flowers. The cool forest wind dropped more for her.

I ignored her talk.

I was confused at her talk, for it was this husk collected and sold at the village market that brought her a living at this old age, when her body is damn drooped; And still she calls those bamboo woods a bad omen; a symbol of fall for a community.

My biology teacher, I remember having taught me about the flowers, how nutritious its husk were, and how rodents thrived and how they drilled the barns in the hillcountry then. It seemed to be a phenomenon occurring once in forty years or so. It marked the death of the bamboo bush of course, but she did not mark it as an omen, neither did my biology textbook. I felt it should mean nothing to these tribes as they had no barns, no stores and often begged or stole the food for the day;

"Aatte pangkhy, ninte pullede paditham enthai?"

"So pangkhy, what about your son's studies? Whats he gonna study?" I continued.


"thambra unni padathu kalikkan poye, oonu kooppill illipoo thookkan varillaye"
" Oonu townilu appanthampran jooli koduthu, athinte hungha, eenkudeyavan varillayee"
" Akka kavil polum varillayee"

" He is playing cricket over your fields. He does not come with me to collect the husk of these bamboos. Your father has got him a job in town of which he has grown arrogant."
" He even does not attend the ritual for the tree gods at the sacred grooves"
She replied.

Right;

I thought, we forget those routines when we feel like having gained a little more; when it turns to be nothing really at all. But for him it was no matter. He can earn a living. He needn't beg or pinch the days food.

..........Creaaaak.......Beeeeee. EEEMail.......

My Blackberry beeped in the Jacket's pocket.

Google news feed.

Pangkhy looked up at me; these sounds are those different from the creaks the bamboo bushes make, and she is naturally not familiar of creaks from phones.

Why, even I was surprised of the improvement: decent gprs cover even in the bamboo woods.

Who knows that someone would not come a day, clear all the woods, build an airport and a self sufficient township here some ten years from now?

My eyes swept the screen of the PDA.
".................. Court approves Community reservation bill.
Reservation up by 27% for higher education including institutions like IITs and IIMs......... ........Protests set in front of the IITs.........
blahblablah...
BJP sets up news letter quoting Nehru.
...............Read more:.........
Link:..................."

Nonsense? Or did it make more sense?


I didn't want to continue the talk.

" Cochinte pirannalla, vaikittu vannal payasam tharam."

" Today is my siblings birthday, come home evening and I ll give you a desert."
I walked forward avoiding her look.

She kept dumb and it meant approval.

But the Town became quite talkative over the Community Reservation Bill passed.
Twenty Seven percent. I wondered if Pangkhy would ever hear of it or her son would ever apply for it? Who knows?

Leaving these golden bamboo woods behind, I tried to sum up my thoughts: The omen of the Golden bamboos, the poverty in the village, the sufferings they faced, the beauty I enjoyed in the village on such occasional stays offtown, the changing faces, the vanishing faiths, the hardheaded local politicians, the local strikes at the village office.......they were messed in my mind unlike the usual sense.

Pa and Ma, how the difference it made between my portraited perspective of these events and the landscaped views of the village folk and the tribe; The village to me is a source of serenity;happiness. To them-the village folk it is fodder; food.

Interesting....