How I stripped Koonan

After a long time I went to visit my parents this afternoon. While having lunch, my parents were telling my daughter about my 'heroic deeds' in my younger days. One incident that I really found funny was one which took place in my grandmother’s house. Though I quite forgot about it came back fresh to my mind.How could I forget that commotion that was created for my unwanted curiosity???

This took place much before I started school. I must have been three or four years. It was a time when we had come to India for our vacations [my brothers were studying then]. My grandmother had servants and they were all from two families who lived behind her house. There was one particular child called “Koonan” who must have been four or five years older to me. He was always dressed up like a girl. He wore a lungi and had a bindhi on his forehead. He always wore earrings made of silver foil from cigarette packets. He wore glass bangles and chains. I was treated with so much respect and I somehow had a fascination for this queer child. I was fond of his bangles and chains. He would play with me and at times would do odd jobs for my grandmother. I always thought he was a girl.

I kept asking Mum, my grandma and relatives if he was a girl and they kept telling me that he was a boy. Since my knowledge in Malayalam was just very limited I did not know “Koonan” was a masculine gender. I thought that it was the name of that friend of mine. I never believed them when they told me that he was a boy. So I asked him if he was a girl. He blushed and bent his head very girl-like. So I decided to find it out myself.

One day he came home and called me to go out and play with him. Again I raised my doubt. He just smiled at me. I went near him and pulled off his lungi and found that he was a boy. The lungi was in my hand and I heard a shout from my grandma,

“Xinaaaaa entha ee kanikunne?”

“Ammachiii Koonan boy aaaaa” I replied like Archimedes discovery of the law of flotation

My grandma was not at all happy at my discovery instead she scolded me for pulling off his lungi. She was furious and pinched me hard. She took the lungi from my hand and gave it to the already running Koonan. Mum chided me for doing that and she said it was wrong to pull off another person’s dress. My grandma kept grumbling for days together.

When I think of it now I guess my curiosity knew no bounds. I think my grandmother must have been angry to find her grandchild trying to molest a boy. She must have heard only about males molesting females. She had found her granddaughter to be different.

I asked mum if she had any idea what this boy was doing and mum said he was running a teashop in his wife’s place. Anyway that was my first and last [I hope] stripping!!!!!