The other day I paid a visit to the school I studied back in the 60s. As I stood there, lost in the thought of my bygone schooldays, someone placed his hand on my shoulder. There stood Pachai. Was I seeing a person in flesh and bones or a gaseous ghost? I wondered. He should be not less than 100. Pachai was our school’s peon. He was around 50 when I left school in 1971.
He had his own way of ringing the bell. The first bell in the morning was a drawn-out affair — the strikes were equally spaced. The tongue would strike the sides of the bell rhythmically. The last three hits were harder and well-accentuated. In the evening, it used to be short, hurried, and loud, reflecting the impatience of the children waiting to burst out of their classrooms. By just hearing the way the bell was rung, we could tell if it was Pachai or any one of the other peons who was pulling the bell ropes.
Pachai took me to the same old hut that was allotted to him by the school. We spoke of the good old days. Pachai recalled the day former Chief Minister Kamaraj, during a visit to the school, called him aside and spoke a few words to him. “The words still ring in my ears,” Pachai said with pride.
As I was talking to him, something under his cot caught my eyes. It was the school bell that Pachai rang for 40 years. When the school installed buzzers in the classrooms, the bell was removed. Pachai’s heart broke when he saw the bell lying in the school godown with its clapper missing. He brought it home and kept it.
“What is your actual age?” I asked. “Nooti onnu (101),” he replied.
As I stood up to leave, a small girl came running and sat on Pachai’s lap. “This is Peela (yellow). I am Pachai (green), my son is Neela (blue), my grandson is Sikappan (red fellow), and my grandson’s daughter is Kamala (orange). Kamala’s daughter is this child Peela. Thanks to our Hindi teacher for suggesting this name for her in line with our family tradition,” said Pachai smilingly, showing his intact teeth.
“You are not just green you are evergreen,” I told Pachai as I bid him goodbye.
