CHAPTER 6
Mayamma & Mayakutty
‘Although my conscience whispered a big ‘NO’, my unquenched thirst to know the unknown forced me to read whatever was there in that silk fabric. I started reading. It was written: ‘Among the forests, ‘Agasthyakoodam’ is the one with full of rare and unique medicinal herbs. In this forest you could find plenty of ‘Arugampul’ which has unique medicinal properties’. The name ‘Agasthyakoodam ’made me think and rethink for a long time.
Kottarathil Sankaran.
Valluvanadu!
Wherever you turn you could see only greenery. In the middle of this you could see bamboo trees in bunch. The wind which was blowing through the bamboo trees was making a ‘Ssssh’ sound continuously. Together with this the dancing of the bamboo trees in the wind created an atmosphere of unknown fear.
In that area of forest, which was filled with bamboo trees, some people were walking through a narrow muddy path carrying a plate covered with a black cloth. One couldn’t find out what’s inside it.
One man was carrying a cage in his head, inside the cage was a slender Loris. They assembled and stood in the in the middle of the forest, where there weren’t many trees except one very old neem tree.
Under the neem tree there was a trident with red flowers splattered all around it. They placed all the plates before it in order to properly cover with the black cloth. The man who had the slender loris cage, also placed it there.
“Shall we start?” a man asked.
“Hmm…” an elderly person among them nodded. Next minute they came one by one, took the plate and started a circumambulatory walk around the neem tree. Now, one man lighted a Diya before the trident.
The Diya was made up of a skull cap!
While it was burning, everyone sat around it silently. It looked like they were all in a deep meditation state. All of a sudden, they heard the whistling sound of a bird continuously which disturbed their concentration very much. One man looked back furiously at the tree from where the sound was coming. Traces of slight anger where there in his face. Now another bird started sounding vigorously.
“Mayamma is coming.” one person who was sitting there, whispered in the ears of another sitting nearby, confirming his statement, Mayamma came from one end of the forest. A full length wooden staff was in her right hand. She was blouse less in her dark green saree covering up to her ankles.
Unplaited long hair, forehead full of holy ash, intense red coloured lips with all these she appeared different but not horrible.
At the age of 46, the speed at which she walked showed how energetic she was even then !
The people who were sitting there noticing her arrival, stood up in a hurry with respect and fear. Mayamma, who noticed this, smiled egoistically.
She asked them to sit but no one was prepared to sit.
Finally, she came near them and looked at all of them.
“Mayamma, we bow down to you.”
“Good. Have you brought everything?”
“Yes. We have brought everything, Mayamma” She took the black cloth off from the plates one by one. In the plates there were sliced lemon pieces, whole lemons, stinking excrement. Seeing that some people turned away their faces.
Mayamma laughed at them and said, “No one will like this, I know. But this is my main weapon with which I control people who cannot be controlled otherwise.” while saying this, she pulled out the slender loris outside. It got scared and recoiled in her arms.
“I need its intestine. Take it out for me.” She gave the loris to a man standing nearby. He picked it up and cut its stomach with a pen knife without any emotions or feelings. The poor loris screamed as much as it could but in vain. He put his hands inside the loris’s stomach, pulled out its intestine with blood oozing out. He looked at Mayamma as if he wanted to ask, ‘what next?’. She snatched the blood shedding intestine from his hand and put it around her neck as a garland. The poor loris, which was dead by now was thrown away into the nearby bush. Mayamma’s body started shivering and she went into a trance. She acted like she was possessed by some spirit. The crowd stood there silently as mere witnesses for everything. In the middle of this, Mayamma took the lemon pieces from the plate and started throwing it in different directions then she took a watermelon from one plate and started eating it as fast as she could.
She started running around the neem tree.
Everything happening there was beyond the limits and imagination of quite an ordinary person! The people who were sitting there were witnessing everything very silently and stiffly. She ran one round around the neem tree and sat under it for a while as if she felt tired. She sighed. Her face was sweating. She looked up at the sky. Amid the bamboo trees, rays of sunlight were coming sharp like hanging ropes and touched the earth. A sparrow chirped and flew away from there.
Suddenly, Mayamma stretched her hands and joined it like a chain. She, who was sitting in a cross-legged position earlier, now changed it in to a ‘Dhanurasana’. Her throat stuttered frequently. She started chanting some mantras but in between she laughed “hee…hee…akkm” as if someone had tickled her.
None of her actions made any sense but the crowd was observing her with devotion and fear.
“Heeey…”
Suddenly Mayamma started screaming very loud in a state of trance.
Then she stuttered, “akkm..akkm” and asked,
“Hey, who has come from Madanoor?”.
The person who has come from Madanoor came and stood before Mayamma with anxiety and trembled with fear…
“Tell me what your problem is?”
“My relative’s son, Mayamma... he is in Madanoor.”
“What did he do to you?”
“He raped my daughter so cruelly without any mercy, she was considering him as an elder brother and was very close with him.”
“Hmm, then what happened?”
“He says that he has not done it and that we are blaming him purposely.”
“Is it true?”
“No, Mayamma he is lying, he ruined my daughter’s life and the whole village is now laughing at us, he should be punished Mayamma.”
“Do you want him to realize his mistake or suffer for it?”
“He has to suffer for the mistake he has done.”
“He will suffer. I will take care of him, from now onwards he or any one of his family could eat nothing from now onwards, whenever they touch the food to eat it will become excrement.”
“I prostrate before you, Mayamma. ”
Mayamma’s session was over. She stretched her body and screamed loud, “Mayakutty” with a sigh. At the same time, the plate with the excrement vanished from there to everyone’s surprise.
“All of you can go now. When you go, don't turn back and look even by mistake if you look, I will not be responsible for your life. Come on, all of you vacate this place immediately, this is Mayamma’s order” she said.
They got up.
They prostrated before Mayamma and placed bundles of currency notes in a bronze plate which was kept before her and walked away from there without turning or looking back.
Mayamma got up and started walking in the opposite direction of where others went and vanished into the forest. The place where the slender Loris was butchered and thrown away, a sandstorm came and took away it is meat and the plates kept there, the presence of an invisible force was felt there.
Madanoor…
That old, tiled house was in a busy street in the village. There were Jasmine plants before the house and the back yard was full of banana trees.
Inside the house the family members were sitting in a row waiting to take their lunch.
Banana leaves were there kept ready before them and one girl started serving rice. Suddenly she shrunk her face as she smelled some very bad foul smell!
Even the family members who were sitting there felt the same.
“Can't you smell poop?” one of them asked others while kneading the rice before him with his hands. Then he looked down at the rice, he was about to eat. He got shocked and screamed.
“Oh..Poop..!” He threw the banana leaf away.
“Poop…?” The girl who was serving the rice turned back and shrunk her face after seeing what was in the banana leaf.
“I asked you to serve rice, what is this?”
“I don't know anything. ” She checked the pot with the rice and there was only rice in it.
See, only rice is there in the pot. She showed the pot to them.
“Then how did this come into my banana leaf?” one of them asked.
“I don't know!”
“What is this nonsense! ” While everyone was in a state of confusion and commotion, suddenly that girl’s saree caught fire. It started burning rapidly.
“Aaaooo….” that girl screamed with fear and started running here and there. They poured water on her and put off the fire.
“How did that saree catch fire?” while they were seriously discussing this, they heard the sound of stones falling on the roof of their house. Now, they saw that stones are being thrown into the house from outside through the main door of the house!
One of the family members came out and looked but he could not find anyone there. Suddenly a stone hit his forehead and blood oozed out. He immediately came inside the house. All the members of the family stood there like statues without knowing the cause of all these miraculous happenings!
The youngest of the family was wearing a lungi all of a sudden it caught fire. He undressed it and started running into the street with only his brief on. Everyone in the street came outside their home and watched this with astonishment. The girl whose saree caught fire came out of the house and started running only with her blouse and skirt.
Seeing all this the whole street started laughing without knowing what really had happened!
