A TWISTER

During one hot summer afternoon, while we were playing beneath the shade of the huge ‘Payal’ mango tree, the south-eastern horizon was a little dark. All on a sudden a cool breeze started coming in from all directions. It soon turned into a twister or rather a small tornado. Its spiral movement took within its trunk dried leaves, waste-paper and other rubbish, dirt and dust, and moved from one corner to the other. Finally the whole rubbish, dirt and dust were left in one corner of the courtyard. In a few minutes the clouds thickened, blackened and invaded the sky. It seemed as if the dark cloud balls were moving towards us. The wind flung dust on us, and the whirlwind wailed and whistled, and began stirring the big coconut and areca trees. Bright flashes of lightning was accompanied by rumbling of heavy thunder and followed by the first drops of rain. We went inside the house and closed the doors and windows.  A flash of lightning entered through the crack in the door and blazed lights on the face of Pengal, my elder sister, and she was trembling with fear. The torrential rain that followed lashed the countryside. I gazed at the rain slapping on the verandah; I could hear it battering so loud on our tiled roof. Why nature was furious, mad and aggressive? Is it due to the excessive heat a low pressure zone was created? Such sudden storms are short unlike small showers, which last long. However, the rain cooled the roasting atmosphere. Far in the distance thunder continued to rumble.

After the rains we came out to ascertain the toll of damages made by the heavy storm. We gazed at an uprooted, tall, coconut tree; two areca trees broken off half way; a branch of a jack fruit tree broke and fell into the adjacent compound; the branch of a teak tree broken but still hanging from the trunk. Our courtyard looked like a war ravaged battle field with all the leaves and litter spread all over.

We noticed people running to the shore, we too joined the crowd. Two ‘Kettu-Vallangal’, large canoes with arched cabins, were held up on the fishing stake-line. The oarsmen were very experienced. They threw a few bags containing big and small onions to reduce the weight thereby preventing the canoe from capsizing. The tidal waves brought these bags to the shore. The oarsmen picked them up and loaded those bags back into the vessel. When the tidal waves subsided they headed complacently to their destination. 

Excerpts from

MEMOIRS

by

Joseph J. Thayamkeril

Lawyer, Kochi, Kerala, India.

josephjthayamkeril@gmail.com