The beggar with the drum
Hello readers. I am going to give an account of a wacky happening which in my reckoning is one of the most bizarre incidents that I have ever witnessed with my own dear eyes. A passing thought about it ,still brings a smile to my face and even to this day if it is shared with some of my family members ,who were co-witnesses , it is usually followed by shrieks of laughter .
It was a languid afternoon in may 1998, in Kerala, and I along with my mother, granny,aunt Bhadra ,my sister and three little cousins Vaishak, Vishnu and Jishnu were watching a humdrum mallu movie in the living room of our abode ,Bhadralayam. I and my cousins were biding our time, waiting for it to be evening so that the elders would let us venture out ,to play cricket. Suddenly the spell of indolence was broken by loud sounds of chenda ( a cylindrical wooden drum like instrument played in southern India) emanating from the front lawn of our habitation. As the sound reverberated through Bhadralayam, its inmates were drawn outside to the source of the unpleasant banging.
What we saw was quite a queer sight. A dark-skinned ,beanpolish,eccentric -looking and bearded beggar who was dressed in black from head to toe was beating away on a chenda and creating quite a racket . His rather tall frame and the fact that his countenance was uniformly dark made him look frightening. Such was his appearance, that in my opinion he could have made a lucrative career with the Ramsays as a permanent bhoot in their horror shows. There he was , drumming away with raw energy on a day which was so hot that it kept an outdoor crazy, thirteen year old (your's truly) and his three insolent little cousins- indoors watching a forgettable movie.
Little Vishnu ,however felt the drum-beats to his liking. What was loud and incoherent banging to the rest of us , was soulful and rhythmic music to the little lad. He didn't waste much time before beginning an insane version of pandi dance(it 's a weird dance form seen in south Indian movies , if you have not seen it yet then switch to sun-tv sometime to have a good laugh;nobody does it better than Chiranjeevi ) . This paved the way for Vaishakh and Jishnu to drop their inhibitions and join the little fellow . The troika even started humming a tune , which gelled quite well with the drum beating.
As the mendicant ,who was quite immersed in beating his percussion instrument , recollected his wits , I could guarantee that he was shell shocked to see the three kids dancing away to glory.In other houses he would have intimidated the younger ones, sending shivers down their spines and making them hide under the farthest tables and closets out of sheer trepidation. Here, these juveniles were requesting a once more. He collected the 50 paisa coin , his bounty offered by an elder so that he could go away and the kids would stop embarrassing the household .
After this freak incident ,I don't know if the beggar was traumatized because his main weapon- exuding fear didn't work at all here or super-happy because of the appreciation received for his music. But he was never seen again in the neighborhood.
It was a languid afternoon in may 1998, in Kerala, and I along with my mother, granny,aunt Bhadra ,my sister and three little cousins Vaishak, Vishnu and Jishnu were watching a humdrum mallu movie in the living room of our abode ,Bhadralayam. I and my cousins were biding our time, waiting for it to be evening so that the elders would let us venture out ,to play cricket. Suddenly the spell of indolence was broken by loud sounds of chenda ( a cylindrical wooden drum like instrument played in southern India) emanating from the front lawn of our habitation. As the sound reverberated through Bhadralayam, its inmates were drawn outside to the source of the unpleasant banging.
What we saw was quite a queer sight. A dark-skinned ,beanpolish,eccentric -looking and bearded beggar who was dressed in black from head to toe was beating away on a chenda and creating quite a racket . His rather tall frame and the fact that his countenance was uniformly dark made him look frightening. Such was his appearance, that in my opinion he could have made a lucrative career with the Ramsays as a permanent bhoot in their horror shows. There he was , drumming away with raw energy on a day which was so hot that it kept an outdoor crazy, thirteen year old (your's truly) and his three insolent little cousins- indoors watching a forgettable movie.
Little Vishnu ,however felt the drum-beats to his liking. What was loud and incoherent banging to the rest of us , was soulful and rhythmic music to the little lad. He didn't waste much time before beginning an insane version of pandi dance(it 's a weird dance form seen in south Indian movies , if you have not seen it yet then switch to sun-tv sometime to have a good laugh;nobody does it better than Chiranjeevi ) . This paved the way for Vaishakh and Jishnu to drop their inhibitions and join the little fellow . The troika even started humming a tune , which gelled quite well with the drum beating.
As the mendicant ,who was quite immersed in beating his percussion instrument , recollected his wits , I could guarantee that he was shell shocked to see the three kids dancing away to glory.In other houses he would have intimidated the younger ones, sending shivers down their spines and making them hide under the farthest tables and closets out of sheer trepidation. Here, these juveniles were requesting a once more. He collected the 50 paisa coin , his bounty offered by an elder so that he could go away and the kids would stop embarrassing the household .
After this freak incident ,I don't know if the beggar was traumatized because his main weapon- exuding fear didn't work at all here or super-happy because of the appreciation received for his music. But he was never seen again in the neighborhood.
posted by aj at
9:25 AM
2 Comments:
dude watch out for the chiranjeevi fans... they might skip dinner for this... nice language dude..keep it going..
Chirnajeevi is gone man!! the kings of PANDI are now Dhanush and Chimbu!! Colossal waste of human lives and futhermore their voracious bowel movements and linguistic jargons are killing the very ethics of sanity!!!
When u compare ur cousins's show in front of the chenda guy to that of the PAndi kings....i presume there is nothing much rong in it!!
[PS: Hey AJ, if u dont know who Dhanush and Chimbu, i will try downloading some song videos and sent you. Please do share this agonising trauma of this fellow south indian!!]
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