GloMag GloMagApril2020 | Page 52

That led to the butcher's shop No longer there Where hung slabs of pink-reddish chunks of meat On hooks Where first I saw blood, innards, and bone And skulls of cows Thankachen's shop in the center of the junction from which we always bought provisions Sugar, salt, parippu, payaru, sweets, rice, and wheat.... Whose youngest brother was Unni who was my age O junction, you had your drunkard MR (Radha, short for Radhakrishnan) And your own version of the village idiot or madman in Oollen Paakkaren You had your vegetable shop which also had cycles for rent and two small ones for children, one red and one green, as if just for me and my sister Next to it was the ration kada with its green planks to shut it with and the sacks of rice, kerosene in cans, wheat and kadala in rough brown sacks 52