Once again December....a recollection..!!

it was a surprise to wake up on a fair morning finding him curled under one part of the blanket with shiver.I felt my uncovered feet numb and cold. My sore nose, dried out skin and the shivers passing through my backbone that reach my neck shacking me brought me to make it out that its again December. I rushed up from my bed pulling of the blankets and opened my curtains wide..my eyes lit up and unknowingly my lips widen with difficulty stretching my skin with a little pain.. Fog! the streets were wet, but not because of rain..paving the black roads with yellow flowers fallen like a beautiful carpet.. men in bicycle selling fresh leafs found feverish dressed up in sweaters, gloves, mufflers and socks effeortfully pedaling the cycle having the chains frozen due to the gone down temperature..their howls emitted white smokes of chilled air.. he passed by crushing a few wet flowers on his way.. the trees looked spookified with thick clouds of brume here and there.. the air was icy and refreshing.. my body shivered creating goosebumps persistently, i quickly unfold the sleeves that i had coiled up last night.. the whole neighborhood seemed lazy under the blankets..making the street deserted..normally if there is no humans around on the roads i would find some dogs straying around but today even them have escaped to somewhere for the heat..it was calm! all around that i could count my own heavy breaths.

The awning of my window was dripping a few drops of dew.. i turned around when i hear him moaning in sleep, it was then i come to know that i was being so cruel to him to throw those blanks off the bed. 

he looked liked a heated shrimp. i felt so sorry and i spread the blanket atop him and wrap him like a little one. i kissed him on the forehead and lean back on my foot. from a distracted sleep he fell into a sound one having protected from his nerves chilling in the cold.. a satisfaction of quite snore disturbed the silence for a while and after sometime it was again back to complete silence. an infrequent passes of rikshaws interrupted it, otherwise it was just like at "eden" - the heaven. i closed the window and once again intending to help him and came out of the room. It was a lovely Saturday! holiday for both of us and it turn out to be perfect with the start of a new season, my favorite one, indeed the nostalgic one...the floor was frozen too and i had to help me with a pair of socks. i took a long stretch to get rid of the last few bit of my sleepiness and tried opening the main door of my house. It made me do a little exercise on it pulling it and pulling it a couple of times. the wooden door was also jammed. How strange that everything, the living and non living has an effect of environmental changes. the news paper was thrown just on the side of my door spreading the front page open. may be the boy also wanted to rush in to his house as fast as possible from this whether. :) but i love it. i wanted to have a nice, slow walk enjoying the misty wind.. but then i thought of my daily kitchen chores. i am a responsible wife. ;) i cant escape from feeding my sweet heart. winter and the hunger wont go hand in hand. i once more take a look of everything around. all windows and doors seen shut. the vegetable-on-wheel sellers face looked fainted with the wrong anticipation. the dry whether seemed like dried his business of fresh items just from the yards. one of my neighbors cloths hung on top of the terrrace to dry the previous day looked like dried up the whole life from it..for a moment i imagined me being one of those cloths, what a faith it could be,  pitiful! 

i ran my eyes through the headlines and put it on my diwan aiming to come back and i walked to my kitchen to make a cup of steaming coffee. i glanced around my house. it looked pretty like an adolescent. 

.we really succeeded in putting it up this way though its a very small house as compared to others we know. the shelf with books, bottles, gifts and toys.. a braid big brim english hat hung on a side, bottles of four seasons rich wine, the lace table drape and curtains, woolen carpet; it was all cute as a new born. the noise of the water bubbling draw me back to reality. i pour it in my mug from the pair we bought for both of us, in invert colors, mine is brown outside and cream inside and his is cream outside and brown inside :P..lovely! i added a few milk cubes, sugar and then the most gorgeous thing in the wold, grounded coffee. gave a stir and then i was struggling to control the ecstasy and the blinding aroma.... a sip of it made it warm through all the way it traveled in, i prepared a cup for him too, covered it, came to the living room and sat on my diwan and flipped through the pages of the news paper. the steam from it soften my face..the coffee and the mist together got something to twirl a magic on human minds. each sip takes us to somewhere, sometimes to the past..sometimes to the fantasies of future.. its good at times to just get lost being at where you are.. after a vague scan through the daily i folded it neatly and kept it on its place on the table. I opened the door to our balcony to feel the wind blow me from all the sides.

Winter was the most invited season of my life. My memory goes with a lot of friends in the neighborhood. 

This is during we live at our grandma's house. Every year when it is November we started to count days for Christmas holidays. The only hurdle for our happiness was the exams coming in between.but we knew, from this none can escape. we prepared for the exams as well as for the holidays. life was as lite as the collection of feathers we had. the first weeks of the month was the most restricted as the parents care more about the marks scored. we had to say a short good-bye to the play time allowed after school everyday. our houses were close that i could listen one of my friend reciting the lessons loud clearly. the days went on and our eagerness grown. we spent times at the greeting card stalls opened nearby. some sold small gifts too. To tell a name about on of my childhood friend was of her the little, runny-nosed girl- "jincy". her fondness to me had no limits. she steals cakes and candy's for me that her mother made for the nearest confectionery. she gifts me her favorite dolls and play stuffs. she wakes me up on Sundays as soon as  she wakes up through my window and at times she gets scold from my grandma. but she never mind it :). as we were in the same class, during the "malayalam" exams my mom used to allow me to go and have a combine study with her. and it was during then she showed all her possessions. a box full of glass-bangle pieces of different colors that appeared like gems, satin gift ribbons that she saved from gifts given to her brothers, a bundle of name-slip stickers, a few handicapped dolls :), pebbles, marbles, spinning top toy, and a mud-money bank. she gave it to me to weigh it. to my surprise it was very heavy. she started to fill it  since last December. for every December she n her brother will break it and buy stuffs for them like dress for Christmas, shoes, for her nice hair bands like that. i peeped through the coin-hole and it had a very few space to get fully-loaded. i had one for me made out of talc powder tin. and as it is easy to open the lid, it never reach even till the half but i still have a little money in it sufficient for some cards or gifts for Christmas.

on Sunday before going for Mass at her church, she waked me up  

through the window. she promised me of coming fast so that we can go to the Christmas stall near-by. i got ready brushing, having and started waiting for her. the church bell rang and i stood up in excitement for the mass dispersed and my little friend will be rushing to me. I took permission from ma grandma to play for some while and pursed in a good number of coins from my powder-tin bank. i heard her calling shhh.. shhh.. hiding behind the big neem tree near our gate. We ran  along until we get sight of the stalls and then stopped, breathless. When we both were steady we  made our forks in position the frills and flowers and the laces. We slowly reached the first stall hold each others hands with excitement finding the new stuffs in store which is absolutely distinct from last years. our eyes were rolling from side to side from up to down not able to choose which one for who. We selected a few number of greeting cards and a gift for our Christmas-friend or "Secret Santa". It is a game played by a group of friends randomly assign a person to whom we can anonymously sent letters and gifts. it begin with writing the name of all in the group and churn or shuffle it in a mug. each one have to pick one from it and the name in the paper you choose will be your Christmas friend. as per the rule none are allowed to disclose it until the Christmas night. the game starts 5-6 days before. The game offers a way to give and receive gifts. It may be some from our collectibles, sometimes handmade paper things, sometimes love letters.it was a season of bundled fun. All the gifts are supposed to deposit in a box that we made out of my grandpas shoebox, colored and decorated by all of us. everyday in between studies, we secretly wrote letters, made gifts, paintings all in the name of that secret friend. Me and jincy wanted each of us to get each other unfortunate it didnt happen as we wished. i was sad and i found her too the same way.

On the last days of the School i gave out cards to three of my  

friends. and they returned one to me too.while saying happy holiday, i didn't forget to buy the apple shaped- sugar candy for jincy. I came home, thrown my bag in to the cupboard and ran out to her house to see her mother beating her. i felt sad and for a few minutes i hid myself behind the half  opened door. i heard her mom scolding her for spending extra money from what she was allowed for the gifts from her-own money bank.  for a moment i recalled that she hadn't bought anything in front of me. when i asked her she told nothing but wiped off her tears with a little stuff from her nose and smiled saying "lets go and call everyone to check the gifts. i didnt know what to say. her hand was designed with a couple of red lines from beating with the cane-stick. in a moment, seeing me, she forgot everything and that made my eyes blurred.

By now we all had 4 gifts with us including letters, i got a pebble, 

a car-shaped rubber, a drawing of an elephant and a letter saying the friend didn't get money from his/her parent and that's the reason why its only a "naragamittayi" (a sugar candy in the shape of an orange carpel). it was melted and sticked on to the paper. I had it in no time.

Its 24th December, every houses were decorated with string lights, Christmas tree and stars. everyone created a Christmas stable  in their house with different designs. while the children made the stables, mothers baked cakes, cooked the Christmas delicacies, most delicious of their preparations. Fathers took out the hidden jars of fermented wines. Number of Christmas carols  pass through with the Santa and chocolates and tiny gifts just for the children. we waited more like them to have the number of our gifts rise.

And then it was 12 o clock, we placed baby Jesus in the bed with

Mother Mary , father Joseph, the Shepherds, the sheep's around and the angle hanging in front of the stable. Its now time to unveil our secret Christmas friend.  The one who always encouraged this game was my white-haired, white-beard grandpa. We gave the box to him and then he started to call out the names on the gifts. He then asked the one who sent this gift to come forward. The same happened for the whole group. All of us was so delighted to know each of our secret friend. we hugged and kissed and went back to our houses to keep the gifts and come back for the next section; grandpa reciting the story of Jesus's Life.

While i went to keep my present i found something wrapped 

in a glitter paper on my study table, when i took it, there it was with, a small card saying" Merry Christmas dear Friend" "with love jincy". I  was astonished and didnt know what to do with it. i unwrapped and found the beautiful blonde-legless doll in a cream-color gown. that day when we went to the stall, i saw it and stared it for so long, thinking if i had enough money i could buy this for my Christmas friend. she misunderstood and gifted it to me. I love her! when i was marveling it she came sat next me. i dint say anything. she slowly nudged me, all i could do was to hug her tight... it was then i realized that the reason for her mom beating her was me. it was for me she spend extra and that too a very good amount. I felt so pained for her and happy that i got sucha nice friend like her.. While listening to granpa's stories, my mind wandered. i felt shy for not being as good as her to me to her..

its only when we are children and have friends of our age we exchange the most innocent form of love and care. i thought! and its true..

by now my coffee mug was empty. the street gained a few, walking 

through. i looked around to find my budded Lilly's bloom a purple bunch of flowers. i ran my hands through them and started spraying some water on all of the plants to wake them as well..i felt a cold hand on my shoulder, it was him with his cup of coffee. he caressed me through my neck, turning me to see the shadow of the risen sun aback the thick clouds. he offered a sip from his mug and i had it without any complaint. it was just warm not steaming, he drinks hot stuffs this way, strange! he asked me, what i was doing. 

"just gone through one of my childhood's Christmas" - I mumbled!