A sombre note

The days when the kids slapped the punishment Appacha ninno (Go stay with granpa) on each other and anyone who irritated them are over. The Siberia that was Kerala is no longer the concentration camp they feared, instead they like to speak to the so-called camp authorities every day and volunteer information on whatever taboo food Amma and nanny are giving Ash. Ash even tells them that he will come down for the next vacation and requests them to book his ticket in advance.
The new form of punishment is applying induppu, a variety of salt that was applied on Ash along with ghee during the two-month ayurveda treatment in Kerala. Ash calls it induppan (as if it were a guy) and suggests that I apply it on Mira whenever he has a grudge against her. The salt treatment had been his most nightmarish experience until the physician and the line of treatment changed.
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The topic of death seem to be interesting the kids these days. And the demise of ace Malayalam film director Lohitadas yesterday drew repeated sighs from Mira: 'Oh, uncle has passed away', she kept saying each time a channel showed his body encased in a glass coffin.
And today, when Mira hurled a wooden spoon at Ash, he said: "Dont do that. I will die, and Appa, Amma and Ammama (nanny) will cry. I will be buried and I will go to Yesu appacha (Jesus) in heaven and you wont be able to see me." I think he attended a funeral last June in Kerala.
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Ash seems to have had his first dream day before yesterday. And the protagonist of his first reported dream is Ambedkar, the Father of the Indian Constitution, whose statue at the corner of our street interests Ash a lot. He often asks me why the statue is there, who erected it there, what it is made of, and where Ambedkar is now. And after the dream, he likes to know why Ambedkar had to come and see him first thing in the morning.