Chapter 10 Exodus

Renjith’s grandfather   approached him the next morning and spoke to him “you see now why I could speak kanada and   tulu   so fluently   don’t you

Let  me be  very frank  with  you I  was not  at all  happy with  my father’s   decision  to  move me  to Mysore 

But I didn’t speak a word against it may be because I was starting to feel lonely and

Sad due to fact that I missed my mother and my other siblings 

But I feel that interlude in Mysore was the one thing that changed my life

For the better at first all I wanted was revenge then it turned in to a drive to excel

My father used to say if you work hard your mother’s soul would be happy and contented

My Mysore interlude also saved me from becoming   involved in the left wing politics that had come to dominate our areas during the period

But all this could not mask the fact that our family was irreparable broken   and it would take   an eon to make it all right “

And for  that  I had to  bare this enforced exodus  I was one of  the thousands  of Hindus

 of malabar that let our birthplace in the face Of   wonton barbarism of people  

whom we thought as our own but we had to live in the face of it all

everyone talks about the great bloodletting  called  the  portion  or the 1984 and Sikh riots  or the  exodus of the Kashmiri pundits from Jammu and  Kashmir in 1988-90 I  know how  it feels like  because 

the blue print for all these atrocities was the malabar rebellion of 1920-23 but no one will talk about us 

or our silent exodus or the barbarities we witnessed”