Our House - Adventures.

Each room in our so called haunted house, brings back loads of memories. Our pattima (dad's mom's sister) lived with us. Once it was raining and mom took the clothes hanging outside into the house...A snake must have been on the saree, that it fell down. Scared, it may enter the rooms, where we children are, she closed the door. There was no power as well. With all the commotion, we thought it was a thief who entered in. The family residing upstairs, came down too. We opened some doors, which we had permanently closed. Legend says, that one of my brother hid under the cot. Without power, it was difficult to spot the snake. But they found it near the calendar bundles and I think they killed it? My memory is very thin here. Not sure, if it had bitten my pattima, or amma on the big toe.. or was it another story?

I have seen 2 big snakes dancing standing intertwined in the garbage area ( corner of our home). There had been scorpion visits too. When it rains, all these seem to find its way to our house.

I used to walk from the main road to our home every evening. Earlier I used to stay at Ranjan house till my brother brought me in. I remember being stranded in front of our big gate. Tiger the dog, was jumping up and down on the other side. I stood scared for a long time outside.

Tiger was a cross of Alsation. It was purely white. Once a deer had stood near the MCC compound wall and our Tiger had snatched it and brought it in. It was a small deer. It had caught him by his neck and was bleeding. We somehow rescued the deer but he was bleeding and it stopped. The folks upstairs took it away. Don't know where.

I remember me and praveen burying a toad. I guess prem had dissected it, to see the parts and then stitched it back. He had put it in water, to see if it will survive, sadly it didnt. So I guess Praveen decided to give the toad a decent funeral. We put it in a box, burried it and covered it with a plastic glass, mud on it, and a stick cross and a wreath made of grass. No one was crying, so he hit me and I cried. Some tears for the toad! haha..

FOnd memories of pattima, drying her hair-saying 'velavula' The famous world war 3, that occurs often thanks to me, between my eldest and youngest elder brothers. I was a cry baby, and Praveen often pulled my hair or legs and I would cry.. which infuriated my elder brother Prabhu,and they would fight so madly. I remember once, mom was so furious, she locked prabhu in the center room, because the fight was getting out of hand. He was furious for more than an hour, and then we heard him tearing books, papers. We went from the bedroom, to the corridor, to peak into what prabhu was doing. HE was tearing Praveen's school books( the cover alone) sitting there and sulking. We waited even more, till Prabhu got bored and went back to his room. The books were in a mess!

Prabhu used to help me with all the book covering and labelling. He was my album artist for all and every school work. He used to write beautifully. I learnt lot from him.
Praveen had lot of little cars, that he used to play with. Vroom vroom went the cars, up and down the hills( makeshift bedsheets, pillows and stuffs). I had my baby dolls with me near my pillow.

Our house- Rooms

Our haunted house was located in IAF road, East Tambaram. It was on the main road, opposite to the huge MCC campus. Then it had only stringed compound and was pregnable of all animals. This was near the Farm gate, which was later closed permanently. Our house had an automobile workshop at the front, a HUGE wooden gate, which was quite tall for me to open. There was a jains provision store after our house.

The compound housed more than 10-15 huge trees. The shrubs grew everywhere and were knee high. You never know, what lies inside. Could be toads, frogs, snakes or even scorpions. The house was built in yester years, and the windows, doors and the walls were very sturdy, though they were ages old. The hall was huge, it housed nearly 5-6 big bicycles. We used to play paper cricket there. Dad had a room for his own, filled with calendar bundles, esoaps, screen printing tools, drawings,original paintings and loads and loads of books, comics, bibles, in huge big shelves.

'Enter at your own risk' was sketched in bold letters in the next door, which was my brother's room. When you enter, to the left, the entire wall from ceiling to the floor below was covered with posters. The left one had sports folks, all over. Maradona, Steffi Graf, Boris Becker and many many others. To the right, the entire wall is covered with musicians. Michael Jackson, Samantha fox,strypers, acdc. The third wall had posters of birds, animals on the move from national geographic books, weird pictures. The fourth wall had huge windows. The windows also leaked electric power, so we were instructed not to touch it. The window also housed a skull of cat, with some red bulbs on its eye socket. An old guitar was hung from the ceiling, and it housed a speaker I think. The room always had loud heavy music and was scary enough, to enter. This was primarily Prabhu's work,and I peaked in, whenever the boys weren't home.

There was a verandah, which was partitioned by Prem using news paper and home made glue. He had strings and closed the entrance with thick paper, so you cannot see what's going on inside. The way in was through the otherside, where you have to climb the opening, and jump in. Not feasible for the young or the old. Inside, we could peak in to see Horlicks bottle filled with Kerosene, and dangling scorpions and couple of snakes, frogs, cockroaches, and things he could lay hands on. A chart refuting Darwin's monkey to human story can also be seen hanging. This room thanks to the animals on bottle was another scary room of the house.

I also remember that much earlier, the boys had built Ooty with mud. There was waterfall, trees, Beulah park, chrispugg tea estate? prem bus stand?and lot of hair pin bends, and cars, and trucks going up and down the mud hill.

The dining room, had the huge table, weirdly I don't remember sitting and eating there. We did have the small 14 inch TV. Was it there or on the bedroom? Bedroom was huge, we could put 4-5 cots there. None of the rooms had any lofts. So dad had made a makeshift wooden loft to keep the pillows and other things, that hung from the ceiling in the bedroom. The windows were huge and airy. I remember our nick names written on a window sill. Puli, palli. The room between bedroom and kitchen and bedroom, ideal dining room, had the grinder and fridge? The kitchen was huge too.. But its funny, we did not have any water outlet or sink there. The vessels were kept on the floor. Mom made muruku and cookies, sitting on the floor in a kerosene stove. We did have 1 huge shelf. There was a basket hung from the ceiling of the kitchen to keep the onions. We also had the 'ami' the manual grinder used for making chutney, rasam etc( I don't think we owned a mixie or a fridge, did we?)

The bathroom was huge. It was bigger than our bedroom, we sleep now. The only outlet for water was found here and it was tilted, so you have to be careful when you turn it. You had to step inside rectangular block built probably half a feet high to get to the water. NExt to the door was the indian style commode, but it was so huge, enough for a little elephant to sit in. The funny thing was, it had to be climbed up, with 3-4 steps. Opposite to the only bathroom, was the store room, filled with boxes and suitcases of books, clothes, and things. I remember playing Monopoly here.. ( I wonder why we sat there of all the places. The way to these two room, was through a long corridor.I was afraid to go to the toilet at night, as we had a dim light only and it was quite far from bedroom.

There was a big well outside, I remember taking bath there. The kitchen vessels were washed here too. Strangely we did not have any tap here either. So the water has to be drawn out using an iron bucket, pulley and some thick ropes. I loved pulling it, and playing with it. We were never allowed to peek into the well. On the side of the well, we had an olden type pathway built in stones.. probably for water to flow through. Behind the well, were some abandoned rooms, which were so scary to look at. Broken windows, glasses, were there, filled with shrubs and weeds.
The corner of the compound was used to dump garbage. The other opposite corner had kodukapuli tree. At the front, there were trees, and the boys played cricket. Ahh memories! Thankful to God for the beautiful home we lived in.

Jonah

Dad was giving a message, and he had a translator beside him. It was the last day and the entire crowd was listening intently at him. And as he was talking, he felt the Spirit of God talking to him.

That the crowd of people loved God, and were there, wanting God's blessings. They were devout, they would help build a church or support a ministry. But their hearts were so glued on the worldly things and not on what God's heart was on. They made no effort to know. They were like Jonah. They loved God and tried to please God. But they had no concern on Nineveh. The people, who cannot tell their right hand from their left.

What happened next, dad isn't sure, but he knew God spoke directly through him. He remembers saying about being the donkey that Jesus rode on. The donkey is excited to see people placing clothes for him to walk on, the cheers and the loud claps, but fail to hear and feel the burden that Jesus had, as he cried for Jerusalem.

Dad had cried aloud for couple of minutes, and he had closed the the message sharp at 8.30, he said he got down the stage, and went back to a secluded place and sat down. The touch of God was so heavy, that he needed some air. Many elders who had been praying for a revival, came backstage to see him.

Aleela

Dad just got back from Vizag. It was a 4 day program with mission expo as well. On the last day of the program, they had just enacted the story of Aleela. A young educated mother, whose husband was in the deathbed in hospital. Doctors had given up hope and Aleela was broken, early morning, she took her young baby in her arms, and went to Ganges in Allahabad. She was upto her hip deep in the water. She cried and asked the gods for favor on her husband, and take her child instead. She let the baby go in the water. Crying and beating her chest, she was still in the waters, when a man called Varghese, spots her and asks what the matter was. She tells him. Varghese then proceeds to tell about Christ, and that He can save her husband from all illness. Hearing the truth, she asks, why didn't he tell this good news earlier?

Calm assurance!

"A man can receive only what is given him from heaven."
This verse was oft quoted by my friend's father in law. As she was sharing her experience, I thought she was quoting from James. That every good and  perfect gift is from God. We did a quick search, and finally she found it was in John 3:27

What an assurance! One can receive only what is given from heaven. Whatever situation we are in, we can be rest assured, He will see us through.

First thought comes about spouse, parents, promotion, situation we feel we are thrust in ( not the bad choices we make!)

What a relief. And what peace and rest we have in Him!