The Journey

By John Elamatha

The places to where Malayalees have migrated are different. And so are the problems in each place. But the aims of all those people are the sameto become rich so as to lead a luxurious life and to give the most excellent education to their children.

According to the places where they settle down either permanently or temporarily, they are called nonresidents (going for employment purposes only) or immigrants. But who are the real nonresidents? And who are the real immigrants?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524522896

John Elamatha

John Elamatha is an Indo-Canadian author/novelist, who writes in the southern Indian language of Malayalam. John was born in 1944 in the village of Kadapra Mannar, which is located in Pathanamthitta District in the state of Kerala, India. John immigrated to then West Germany in 1972; he and his family immigrated to Canada in 1987 and presently reside in the Toronto area. Until retiring, John worked in the health-care industry. John’s published works include the following novels: Tholikatty, Anyway Your Wife Is Nice, Achayan Amerikayil, Manna Pozhiyunna Mannil, Nen Manikyam, Mosha, Budhan, Maranamillathavarude Thazhvara, and Socretes Oru Novel. John has written a collection of short stories entitled Swayam Varam; he has also written the following theatrical pieces/dramas: Ashtta Panjami Yogam and Bhandanamgal. John’s literary awards include Indo-German Pravsi Award, Fokana Sanjayan Award, Canadian Counsel of South Asian Purskaram, and the Texas as Malayala Vedi Award. When not involved in researching or writing his next project, John enjoys gardening and spending time with his granddaughter.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

I sat looking at the tiny ice particles tumbling down around. The winter is always punctual. Pure white ice pieces shine around. Yet the drops are deep green upon the leaves. The plants with thorny leaves and the trees still having leaves and the cluster of trees stripped of leaves seem to have covered themselves under milky white blankets.

The leafless trees are in a deep slumber as if waiting patiently for another favorite climate. But the trees and the plants with thorny leaves are still healthy. Always, even during hottest summer and other seasons, they live with a strong heart and powerful body. Isn’t the human lives in this country, Canada, too is like that?

Mind flies like a bird of passage. In accordance with time and existence. It is always better to be in terms with situations, wherever it is. But where did the mistake occur? Where am I? No. There is no reason to be uncertain as to where I am. I am very much here. Here itself. In this heaven. In an old folks’ home. Or in a nursing home. It is a place for aged people. A retirement home. A luxurious condominium indeed. None of the inmates are seriously sick. They are of poor health of course, but it is only due to their age, which is above seventy. But do not think that anyone and everyone can come and stay here. No. Only those old people who are very rich or having very large income as pension after retirement from great jobs can afford to be an inmate of this establishment, who collect excessive amounts from the people who stay here. And if the inmate is a pensioner, he has to give invariably a written undertaking so that his pension will be paid directly to the owners of this institution. I am staying here alone, although it is permitted to stay here with family. But it is due to my fault that I am staying here alone. Not due to the fault of Rose, who is my wife. And my children!!! Their case too is not different. They too blame me. Yet they all come and visit me occasionally. As if to fulfill an obligation!!! Bringing sweet fruits and flowers as their gifts!!! Like the last and final scene in a mechanical drama of a life.

But for the special dishes of Kerala, I am having everything here. If I want, I can even enjoy smoking. But I have stopped it owing to continuous coughing. I, a doctor, thus treated myself!!! Then liquor. Just two glasses of red wine along with supper. It gives deep sleep. To give a soft, feathery touch to thoughts before falling into sleep.

Darkness comes very early during summer. During dusk itself. Nights are lengthy while days are short. And the supper will be served before darkness descends. Before supper, wine or liquor will be served. Medications too to those who need it. The inmates will assemble in the beautifully decorated dining room. Different types of aged people. Erstwhile Lions and Lionesses, having lost their manes of energy and pride.

Canada is almost like America. Even with small differences in certain issues, both are capitalistic countries in both letter and spirit. Isn’t it that the communist/socialist countries are collapsing one by one? Therefore, I feel that the capitalist nations are better. Especially while asking myself as to whether there is any other country having enough to eat and drink and to enjoy and to have a set-up of equality in terms with position and status.

Now it is time for the maid servant, or rather the nurse to come to serve liquor as an appetizer before serving meals.

A noble malayali woman, aged almost above seventy years, came and asked me, standing in front of the small round table behind which I was sitting:

Are you a malayali?

Yes. I welcomed her smiling.

Then I think I can sit facing you.

Certainly. I said.

She was extremely black in color, and yet I guessed that she was fair once upon a time. And its pleasantness was still visible. It also occurred to me that her face was familiar to me once, although now forgotten.

She went on looking at me for a long time and then, like a thunderclap, came her question:

Aren’t you doctor Roy?

Yes. I looked at her in wonderment. But how did….

I know you. I am doctor Mercy. Remember? Years before, yes, about thirty-thirty five years before, we have worked together, worked during the same period, in Toronto General Hospital. I was in Emerge and you were in Cardiology.

It is the nature of females!!! They will remember everything. Especially males. Even their names!!!

I began searching in the cobweb of memory. Yes. Now I remember it all. There was reason too to remember. A heartrending story it was. And I remember it as if it happened only on yesterday.

The black, yet beautiful Mercy!!! The heroine of a tragedy. She married one man, one Justin, who was about seven years younger to her. She was then around thirty-five years old. He was dazzlingly beautiful with a body having the color of sandalwood, but with the mind of a real swindler!!! And the tragedy began there.

After six months of their marriage, Justin reached Toronto. There was a never-fading smile on his lips. And that smile, which made the onlookers suspect that even during sleep he will be smiling, was in fact that of a crook. To be more precise, it was a slayer’s smile. Wherever, I happened to see people with such a smile, I had always felt that they are dangerous. And the Smile of Justin was just the same. A man with a venomous smile.

Then a woman came to us, bringing the appetizer with her. A black, obese nurse. Although she walked like a mad she-elephant, swaying to both sides, she was in fact very humble. She saw the brown-colored Indians also as one of their tribe. Probably it was due to her anger and repulsion towards the whites that she exhibited love to the Indians.

Mercy touched and awakened me from the thoughts and asked:

Didn’t you hear her, Mr. Roy? She is asking as to which liquor you prefer. And it seems that you are in deep thoughts.

I was in the chariot of memories for a little while. And as we, two old friends, meet to-day after a long time, let us have champagne this evening. Special.

The fat nurse, filled champagne for both of us in thin, tall champagne glasses. Bubbles fizzed and hissed, and revolved in the glass like a small whirling blooming in a whirlpool water tub. Exciting, invigorating champagne. It opened our capacity to enjoy an intoxicant, making both of us loquacious.

Past events! Old stories! How short was the period of family life of doctor Mercy! None had anticipated such a big tragedy. When Justin arrived, somehow Mercy arranged for him the post of Pharmacy Assistant in Toronto General itself for the time being, that is, till he can get his pharmacy degree from his native place upgraded and registered in Canada. But the trickster, Justin, made her believe that he is going to upgrade his degree, but in fact he went to the world of fun and pleasure seekers. To Gambling casinos and night clubs.

And when his income was insufficient for his various enjoying, he took her money, using the joint credit/debit cards. And to hide it from Mercy, he began making false medical slips in the names of doctors and various units and collected various addictive drugs without the knowledge of the hospital pharmacist, the head of the pharmacy, and gradually became a middleman of the drug mafia and went on enjoying life as a squanderer. But at last he was caught along with the stolen goods. He had stolen goods worth sixty thousand dollars in six months!!! A case was filed against him and two security staff stood guard to him at the front lobby waiting for the police to arrive and take him. Meanwhile, a stranger wearing a mask and a long, black gown came very fast on a Motor Cycle, and fired twice at Justin’s chest, making him die on the spot. The security staff stood aghast, while the stranger returned as fast as he had come. As if in a Hollywood movie, everything ended within a moments. But these are not exceptional incidents here. The criminals, especially the drug mafias, have much more expertise in such matters than the police. No tip-off even has so far been received about the incident. A cruel murder committed in the twilight, even before nightfall!!! An unbelievable, yet real, incident!!!

Then Mercy said: I can imagine your thoughts, doctor. It is about the cursed past in my life. isn’t? Like everyone, I too longed for a family life, although a little late. And when I found that my expectations were out of place, I felt deep disappointment for a while. Yet, I could surpass it all. Her voice was almost emotionless.

Yes, I admit that the same thoughts were riding across my mind. After all, we yearn for and believe in something. But unexpected things occur.

But I have changed much now. And already learned to think with a positive mindset. Life taught me that a person can lead a happy life, even without a matrimonial relationship. After the tragic end of that relationship, I have not even thought about such a relationship. It is true that I had dreamt of a noble family life. But it is not always possible to get whatever we want to have.

You are quite right. And my experiences too are same. But it was so late, when I could realize everything.

What had happened to you, Doctor Roy? I had never heard anything extra-ordinary.

It all happened later. From a very low condition, I had migrated to this country with great expectations. But now I cannot claim that I was a perfect person. I had never thought that my beliefs and calculations about life were out of place. Maybe, it was all due to my experiences during the childhood. I am now trying to take it all in that way.

The ice pieces went on falling. In the darkness outside, under the extensive covering of frost, trees were asleep, while small animals like squirrels slept peacefully in the holes of the trees. They are all strong and sturdy. Able to face and win even adverse surroundings.

CHAPTER 2

M y mind began its journey, in search of the meaning of life. What is meant by life? What is right? And what is wrong? The clashes between right and wrong. So many questions without answer. Is it because of these reasons that the intellectuals brand life as a senseless phenomenon?

Mind flapped its wings and began its flight in search of right and wrong. The bitter childhood!!! Yes, it was from the graveyard of those memories that I was resurrected. Yes. The answer of everything lies there. The anger of a mind torn into pieces.

But where to begin? From my childhood?

When Father returned home as a pensioner, I was only Eight years old. The time when the wings of memories begin to grow. Alice was my elder sister. Between us, there was an age difference of five years. Such a long difference of age between two children was rather uncommon in our locality then. But here there was a reason for it. Our father was in Military. He used to come home only rarely. He was a compounder of medicines in a military hospital. Whenever he visited us, he used to tell military tales and war stories to us, and we grew up, listening those stories.

He had joined military, when India was not a free nation and the world war was going on. I am not sure as to how many times I heard the same war stories from him. Still, it is a fact that his stories always awoke a strange curiosity in me.

While hearing the stories, none us knew or bothered as to who were fighting and for whom they were fighting. It was enough for me, my mother and my sister, to hear the stories, again and again.

Once he said: "I was in Colombo then. Wasn’t it then that the British flag ship exploded? It made Britain reduce into an insignificant nation in the world map. What a plight it was to the nation which was hitherto known as a country where sun never sets!!! A mosquito-like Japanese madam had played the trick. She descended through the smoke pipe of the huge war ship, which was named as Prince of Wales, with a minute bomb as her weapon and using a small aeroplane as her vehicle."

ddddddhoooo Father made a deafening noise to make us understand the blowing up of the bomb and the subsequent bang of the ship’s explosion and then continued with his narration.

The Atlantic Ocean trembled and shuddered!!! Winston Churchill was shocked!!! A terrific blow on the nose of Britain!!!

And then? The question came out from me on its own as I was unable to suppress the curiosity.

Then what? Will Britain surrender to these? No. Not at all. They crushed Japan. Both in sea and land. And whichever Japanese ship came within their sight, they sank it all.

But the stories of such gallant stories did not make my mother or sister vigorous. But let me convey here the fact that stories of these heroic deeds were always an inspiration to me. Let the wars take place. It is inspiration as well as stimulation. The strong ones defeat the weaker ones. What is wrong in it?

And father went on narrating more and more stories.

"Do you know that when Prince of Wales, the gigantic ship was sunk, even the king of Travancore was frightened? And the divaan¹ of Travancore, Rama Rao, issued a notification, fearing that the war will extend to the southern portions too. He ordered to chop off the top portion of all cocoanut trees of Ananthapuri and to blacken the trees with Tar."

I asked: Why were they going to chop off the top of all cocoanut trees?

"You fool, When the Japanese will come to bombard the palace and surroundings and at the sea shore of Sankhumukham, they will see the black cocoanut trees without top, and will think that they are peeranki² kept ready for immediate explosion throughout the shores of Travancore!!!"

What shrewdness! I appreciated the imaginary characters of the so-called historic story.

The Christians cannot make the British people angry. Said father.

Why?

Although they stole and took lots of wealth from here to Britain, didn’t they do a lot of good to this country?

What good they did here?

"Who brought English Education here? Who brought Hospitals and Doctors here? Who brought Highways and Judicial department here? Who ended taxes like mulakkaram and thalakkaram, which existed in old Travancore?

I did not understand the mulakkaram³ and thalakkaram⁴

Father continued: "Once there was one Dalava,¹ namely Veluththampi, in Travancore. In the beginning, he showed affection to the Nazarenes. But why? Just to win his purpose. To get money. Who was paying money to Travancore treasury, whenever funds ended there? It was one Thachchil Mathooththarakan from Alappuzha. A merchant, who came up from the lowest level. In the beginning, he had a very small timber business only. Gradually, his business grew. He bought timber from