The Reincarnation

(Note: In day-today life we often encounter such situations as Mr. Abel Correa experienced on his first visit to Cannanore. May be unscientific, my explanation to this phenomenon is that along with other traits, shocking memories also move across generations through genes. This is an English translation of my Malayalam short story published in Sameeksha - 2006 April). 


Albeit he wore a pair of high-heeled shoes an eerie sensation rapt his body through his feet with the first step on the terra firma of Cannanore. He was stepping down from the bus. However a weird sensation.

He recalled, ''Cannanore was an important port on the Arabian Sea which carried out trade with Persia and Arabia in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and it was the British military headquarters on India's west coast up to 1887. In conjunction with her elder sister Tellicherry it was the third biggest city in the western coast of British India in the eighteenth century, next only to Bombay and Karachi. Mahe River, which divided the British Tellicherry and French Mahe was then famed as the English Channel of Asia''.

Abel Correa was reaching Cannanore for the first time and for him it was the fulfilment of a long cherished dream. Even though he had visited almost all places of Kerala as a medical representative, it was his maiden trip to his ancestral town, which was spiritually connected to him through his father’s reminiscences.

His father Hudson Correa and his grandpa Wilson Correa were born and brought up at this, once most famous, old town of Malabar. After graduation from the near by Brennan College, Hudson joined as a Tea-Maker in a Tea estate in Talapoya which is a hamlet near Manantoddy in Wynad. The English & Scottish Joint Stock Company owned the estate. Almost at that time Abel’s grandpa had disposed off his assets in Cannanore and migrated to Cochin, another famous town in Malabar Coast. Hudson was married to Abel’s mummy, Maria, from Cochin and Abel was born in Wynad.

After coming out from the bus stand Abel passed through the rail under bridge and walked towards the west. But for his surprise, when he reached near the old military ground whatever he saw seemed to be very familiar to him. The Saint Angelo fort, the Saint Michael’s school and every thing seemed to be very familiar, even the culverts and footpaths were by heart.

“I am coming here for the first time, then why these delusions”, Abel wondered, “Some miracle has happened”.

Each nook and corner of this never seen city was seemed to be very familiar to Abel. Abel advanced through the familiar but unknown path. Pretty odd. He walked on some unknown intuition, on his premonition. At last he reached near a tile thatched old house. An ancient stone stairs exceeds into the widened path. It seemed to be very familiar to Abel.

“This may be my ancestral house”, he thought, “Where my Papa and Grandpa were born and brought up”.

Abel spent some moments before the stairs, remembering his ancestors.

Then he started to climb up the stairs, which was beyond his control. His feet carried him to the courtyard. Without any hesitation his feet moved further on and he climbed to the lobby. Nobody was there. He entered into the room. In the kitchen doorstep, he saw a girl in skirt and chemise sitting opposite to the door and oiling her legs, may be for bathing. Abel went near to her. Her face was very acquainted.

'Yes, it is sure, she is Madhavi, no doubt.’ Inadvertently he called her “Madhavee”.

In surprise she turned and found him, a stranger inside the house, she frightened and screamed, “ Uncle, a thief here, hurry”.

Abel lost his self for a moment; somehow he managed to regain his consciousness and understood the gravity of the situation. He ran back, but before the first turn he got a fast blow. He fell down on the floor. Abel saw a middle-aged man wearing a folded dhoti - Rairu Nambiar. He couldn’t say why, anyhow that name came to the tip of his tongue.

Crying out loudly Rairu Nambiar ran to him with his raised leg to trample Abel. Abel got a hard blow on his abdomen. He wriggled out with pain. Abel called the girl, “Madhavee, tell Rairu not to trample me anymore”.

That middle aged man hanged him on his shirt-collar and asked, “Why, you pig, crying out calling my mother and uncle who were died far back?” He pushed him out.

Abel fell down on his back in the courtyard. Madhavi, who was not Madhavi, withhold her uncle. Rairu Nambiar, who was not Rairu Nambiar, was screaming towards him for another attack.

Collecting all the remaining energy Abel rolled over and got up from the courtyard and leaped to the earthen path within a fraction of a second.

Even though his body was sweating and crumbling with pain, his mind was very calm and there were no incomprehensible thoughts inside him at that piece of time.

The Metamorphosis

(Turtle and tortoise are the common names for the reptiles living with a shell in the group Chelonia. However usually, the term ‘turtle’ has been applied to the marine species and the term ‘tortoise’ is employed for the slow moving terrestrial species. In this story, the term ‘Land turtle’ has been used purposefully.)

Turtles are biological beings having some exciting strange behaviors - amphibians; they live in sea but lay eggs in seashore. They will come to the uninhabited shores, dig in the sand, and lay the eggs and will return to the sea. Like iron granules attracted to the magnet, the hatched out babe turtles will swim through the sands to the sea; even if we forcibly misdirected. Certainly a strange phenomenon.

Like these turtles, our Buji – the turtle keeper of Kolavi beach – another biological being, also has some typical strange behaviors. He will catch the smell of local brew from any distance and will reach there in no time. He got his name Buji as the acronym of bhudhi jeevi means intellectual, by walking along with some of his friends who were pretending themselves as intellectuals. Contrary to the spirit of his nickname, Buji will behave like a drunken monkey if he got intoxicated. He may bite, or scuff his fellow table partners.

At dawn, today, that Buji alias Land Turtle dived into the sea.

This turtle embodiment was to the earth in the late 1950s in a no man’s land. Like him, his land also has some peculiarities. At times this land will be in Kadathanad and it will be in Kurumbranad at other times. Moorad River is the natural boundary of these two counties. In each sixty years or so, the river will change its course and open to the sea in different locations about three kilometers apart. If it opens in the South, the land will be with Kadathanad, if it opens in the North, the same land will be in Kurumbranad. Of course, a strange situation and no title deed for the land.The latest development in the ultimate metamorphosis of this special breed Land Turtle to Turtle is as follows.

Buji, who was an ex-vocal revolutionary, got a job in a Public Enterprise seven years ago. From then on he was living an almost sound life in a nuclear family – with his wife Vanaja and a five-year-old son, Vasu.Six months back it started – a pain from the lower abdomen. Not on all days. Some times the pain will be severe. He thought the uneasiness may be due to gas trouble and took some local medicines. Not relieved. An English Apothecary at Tellicherry branded it as hernia and adjudicated that it could be cured only through a surgery and advised him to see a surgeon.Even if Buji alias Land turtle had once believed in bloodshed revolution, he felt fear even to hear the words like surgery and operation.

Around that spell, a yoga healer came to settle near his den – Rajan Vaidyar. Buji’s wife Vanaja had heard about the healer from some of her friends. As per her advice, Buji went to see the healer, and she accompanied him.

Rajan Vaidyar is a bearded man; some white hairs are forming a lining for his beard. He wore a saffron dhoti and covered by a saffron upper cloth. Something incredible in his eyes, which we could not decode easily. Buji liked him; so also might be his wife.

Healer examined him by gently pressing his abdomen.“Nothing to worry about”, he told to Vanaja, “it can be cured easily. Operation is not required. He has to do some special types of yoga each day and has to walk for two hours between four and six in the morning, everyday. Special care should be taken not to exert any pressure on the lower abdomen.”

Vanaja was very anxious about her husband’s health status like any other wife. Daily, before the arrival of Buji from his office, she used to collect the details from the healer about the exercises that should be done by him that day. She used to start the treatment protocol from the moment he just entering the house.

That chaste woman bought an alarm timepiece and set the alarm at 4 am and daily it was put on.Everyday he will start his toddle from the Kolavi beach and touch the National Highway and return – six kilometers in two hours. For first one or two weeks, it was very tiresome. Thereafter he actually enjoyed it. He met with anglers, newspaper boys, milk vendors etc. He was acquainted with some of them. He used to take torch, on days when there was no moonlight.

Nevertheless, today that happened. As usual, he woke up at 4’o clock, took a coffee from the flask, locked the door from outside without annoying the sleeping wife and child and started the walk.After walking about thirty minutes, on an unknown perception, he felt that the door was not locked properly. He stopped for a while in uncertainty, thinking whether to walk forward or return and confirm.Buji decided to return.Entering the courtyard, he went to the backdoor and checked the lock. Nothing to worry about, it was locked properly.

“An unnecessary exercise”, he thought and turned for the next lap of foot.

Just then, he noticed a light from one of their bedrooms that they are not using regularly.

“I have not entered that room; then why Vanaja switched on the light in that room in this odd time”, he wondered.

Buji stretched out to get hold of the window and peeped into the room. Stunning darkness flared his eyes.Vanaja might be doing yoga. She was on the cot. Above the cot and above Vanaja, there was Rajan Vaidyar not on saffron but on body colour.

Buji’s hands slackened off and he sank to the earth. First, he put one hand on his abdomen then the other and slowly arched down.

His hands converted as front leg supports for swim and by stressing the back legs in the sand, he, the turtle, progressed towards the sea, like any other turtle.

The first stroke with the sea made Buji’s sensations ascended to a new altitude; the metamorphosis was completed and it dived to the depth of the sea....