"Kariacha Maarikko"

“I will be late today, will not be back definitely before 11, you can have dinner and go to sleep, and do remember to secure the back door well”, I was amused overhearing a man telling this to his wife loudly while getting on to his bike. He went like a flash. It looked like he was in a hurry, highly excited about something, while starting off to office. The road was empty and luckily for him I was the only person who overheard it and I was not in a mood to break in and rob on that day!

We used to play basket ball during PT hour in the early morning, during our institute days. Let me stand corrected. My friends used to play and I used watch the fun. There was one guy who used to play really well but he had a “deficiency” also. He had one, only one, shorts that he would wear every day, that too a deep red one. We nick named him “Lal Chaddi” ( Red shorts in Hindi ) for our  internal consumption which some how he came to know. He didn’t like it. So we stopped calling him Lal Chaddi (LC). In one important match, my friend Hari, who also used to play really well (by the way Hari had many shorts unlike LC), was near the basket, unguarded. He found the ball with our friend LC. In that anxiety, he didn’t get LC’s real name quickly and he had to shout loudly “ Pass the ball to me Lal Chaddi, pass”. LC was furious, he just through the ball randomly. Losing opportunity of getting 2 points at a crucial juncture of the match was bad, but worse was everybody calling LC by nickname then on, which he hated the most.

The other day somebody informed me about the theft at my aunt’s place. Cops were able to catch the thief and recover part of the stolen jewelry. This is what I think would have happened  based on what I heard and what I know about this aunt. Aunt would have been out on that day to buy jewelry for her daughter’s wedding. On the way to the bus stop she met her neighbor. Knowing well that her neighbor’s daughter’s marriage was over just a month back, also knowing well that lots of jewelry was used to cover the bride’s body that day, my aunt also did not want to be any less. To stress the point, she was a bit louder in telling her neighbor the amount of gold she was planning to buy ( of course with a min exaggeration of 20%). She did not realize that the thief was overhearing this and following her throughout then after. He broke into her house that night and took away all the gold without giving her an opportunity to deposit it in the bank lockers next day!

It was during one of those summer holidays. I with my family was in Ooty for a couple of days to have some fun.  We were at the Doddabetta telescopic observatory. Wife & kids went on top to watch the mountains and clouds close by through telescope.  I just sat in one place as I preferred to watch nature with naked eyes rather than struggling to see it through a telescope, many a times with only one eye. Closed my eyes to give some rest, but kept the ears open hopping to hear something unusual. (I always wonder why my ears never get tired so much like my eyes!). I was not disappointed. “Kariacha, see that hill. Kariacha see this butterfly. Kariacha let’s go for a horse ride”. I opened my eyes, had a glimpse of Kariachan & his wife, a young couple. In every remark, she had to call her husband by name, loudly. I could understand her excitement, may be her first trip to Ooty, may be her first experience of such cold weather which is unheard of in almost all part of Kerala, may be they just got married and she was not yet bored of calling his name !

My folks were back after watching every cloud and every peak. I started driving back to hotel. As I just got into the road from parking lot I saw the same Kariachan walking in the middle of the road holding hands tightly with his wife. I just rolled the window down and shouted in Malayalam “Kariacha Maarikko” (move off Kariacha ). I could see the astonishment in my wife's eyes ! Kariachan did move and I just sped away. Even today Kariachan must be trying hard to place this person (me). He thinks this person knew him, but did not stop even to say a “hi”. Kariachan was lucky, as I was not a cone man. (For a small time cone man, this much private information is good enough to dupe somebody and make a quick buck in a tourist spot like Ooty, he does not need complex biometrics data from Aadhar database for that!)

When you are highly excited try applying all relaxation techniques that you know, I’m sure you do that anyway ! Still if you don’t succeed and if you reach a state of talking loud with no control – just utter these 2 words “Kariacha Maarikko” exactly 5 times. That might reduce your voice by a few decibels. Moreover it will not mean anything to anybody, will do no harm, no need to control at all!!!

“Kariacha Maarikko”
“Kariacha Maarikko”
“Kariacha Maarikko”
“Kariacha Maarikko”
“Kariacha Maarikko”