Me and Dinkan's Forest !!

[Dinkan is a cartoon character who lives in the thick forest. I used to read stories about Dinkan in my childhood and wonder `if i were a superheoro what all things i would do!!..`]

This incident is very silly. But when i think about my childhood this memory stands out from the rest. Mariyapuram LP school... where i have done my first 4 years of schooling. People believe they start their career only after joining some company, i feel the other way. Whenever we start our studies, our career also starts. Offoo.. where am i going?? May be because of my genius friend "Smi.. effect", i have all this 6th degree thoughts coming in to my mind!! ;-)

My School is around 2 -3 km away from my house. I still remember my good old friend's face (Biju) who used to sit in front of my home for long time waiting for me. For my mom he was the ideal boy. But his family was very poor, even mine. He was very punctual and used to come to my home at around 8. But me.. I would be doing some or the other things till i see his face in front my gate. Then slowly start taking bath, get dressed. Poor Biju, he has to wait another half an hour for me. Then we walk towards our school along with some other friends. White shirt, one red color (not exactly) trouser and one tie that was our uniform. Hey don't think its a English medium high funda school. It was normal a Malayalam medium school. yah thats how i got a nice English vocabulary.

I cant tell this without mentioning my friends names. Kannan - He is staying near to my home. Aneesh -- he is a singer now a days. Pramodh -- my distant relative and friend. (He is no more with us). All five of us go school together. On the way to school there was an old temple - a Muthappan temple. There were so many gooseberry trees (nelli maram) in front of that temple. We wait for the 4'O clock school bell to ring. As soon as we hear the bell we run towards these trees to get some gooseberries. Most of the time i would be the last one to reach there. Somehow i manage to get 1 or 2. After that drink water from nearby well. Kool awesome. I cant believe my self. Everything has gone. All those good days are gone for ever.

Now let me come to the interesting part. One day Kannan told me he found out one alternate way to school. Good part was that we can save 15 minutes of our time if we go by this route. But the bad part is, the place that we have to cross is look like a jungle. We may find snakes, leeches and other creatures there. One more important thing, we all miss those Gooseberry trees. That day we were discussing only about this. I had many questions. Is there any problem? If something happened who will save us. Somehow my friend convinced me to go that way. He told us that are looks like forest is called "Dinkan's forest". So something bad happened Dinkan will come to save us. We heard about Dinkan from the comic books who save people in the Forest when needed. So we all agreed to take that risk and try the new path.

Time 4 O clock. School bell rang just like all other days. But today it was something special for some of us. I felt like i'm going for some kind of adventure. With half minds we reached the entrance of that place. Kannan was leading us towards that place. Everybody was looking at each other when we follow him. I was afraid by just looking at that place. Actually the place look like a jungle. I could see few snake holes few meters away. There was a small narrow path in between trees. We all have to go through that. Too scary. We almost tuned back. Kannan told us common guys lets explore this way. We may be the first people who use this way to reach home from School. Lets go....

Finally we started our hilarious journey. For each and every step we took lot of time. After each step we look around to make sure everything is fine. This place was filled with thick bushes and big trees. There was a small stream and we spotted some small fishes in that. We expected some snake like Cobra there. We have carefully crossed the stream. I still remember it was dark inside that forest. Sunlight was not coming inside because of the huge trees. It was just 4 30, but we felt its almost 9. We were holding each others hand to get some strength. Our hearts were beating fast. No one was uttering a single word. We almost cried and try to call Dinkan for help. Every one was expecting some tiger or a Cobra on the way. Somehow we reached the other side of the place. Ooo my god.. That moment itself we decided not to come that way anymore..

But next day same time we all gathered together and thought of taking the same way. I don't know, but some unknown force was calling us towards that place. This time also we were a little bit afraid. Days gone we started spending more and more time in that place. We found many fruits (karakaaya dont know eng name) there and started eating. Sometime we gave to our class mates and they wonder from where you guys getting this!!

One day when we are about to reached other side of the jungle, we see one old guy coming from the otherside. He was looking like tribal guy. He very dark, big mustache wearing only dothi. He started scolding us as if we have stolen something from him. He was shouting "who gave permission to enter in to my land? If you are coming that place again i gonna complain in your school". Sad... But that was the end of our expedition.

But those memories are still alive in my mind. Dinkan's forest.. and the journeys :-). I went that place some years back just to see the jungle which we used to mention as Dinkan's Forest. I could see nothing left there but a wide road towards Mariyapuram school. yahh.. my friend's word became true. We were the first people to use that path. Now i am glad and sad. I am glad that we found that way. Sad because no more Dinkan's forest.. That beautiful place gone for ever. Buried deeply in the graveyard of past time...

[This entry was inspired by the web log entry "closed eyes write". And i am dedicating to this to my old Good Dinkan Forest]