LET US LEARN
Bala Spins Magic
It was a hot afternoon in the quiet village of Periya Negamam, near Pollachi. The village has tiled roof houses. Bala and his family lived in one such house. He sat under a tree, waiting for his father. He was going with Appa on a long journey.
A fly buzzed near his ear. The pleasant shade of the tree along with the steady click-clack of the handlooms from the huts nearby made him feel sleepy. He wondered if he could catch some sleep before Appa arrived.
Bala, like most of the children in his village, went to school but always wanted to learn more about things related to their family profession weaving. Veera thatha had made math easy for Bala by using skeins of yarn in bunches, sometimes adding all the blue skeins and subtracting the yellow skeins and then doubling the reds and taking away the greens. Bala thought, "This was a fun way to learn Math!"
Bala’s family came from a long line of handloom weavers. They had perfected the art of drawing, dying, warping and weaving the yarn. But it was a hard work. Unless Bala, his mother, father, sisters and cousins helped with the work, Appa could never weave the lengths, he needed.
Bala would often see Appa and Amma weave bundles of cotton into beautiful sarees with checks or patterns. He hoped to weave someday. He would also help Amma and sisters, roll, press and pack the sarees.
Bala wondered, “Amma, why you never wear the beautiful sarees we make?”
Amma said, “I can do that only if we become a very rich family.”
Bala woke up suddenly as he felt someone tap his head.
“Are you ready to go?”, asked Appa.
“Yes Appa.”, said Bala and started counting the bags around him.
Bala was going with Appa to Chennai to help him carry the sarees. Appa said, "We will get a better price for the sarees, if we sell directly to ladies in Chennai than to traders in Pollachi or Coimbatore."
They walked to the bus stop and had to wait for nearly one hour for the bus. It took them to Coimbatore junction, and from there they left in a train to Chennai. The train journey was not very comfortable. “Don’t worry Bala. Our return will be more comfortable as we will be able to reserve tickets,” said Appa. They reached Chennai and went to Purasaiwalkam, where Appa’s friend lived.
The next morning Appa was ready with places to visit to sell the sarees. Bala could not read the big instructions in the sign board and hence held his father tightly.
Soon, they reached a big house after what seemed like many hours. The guard at the door let them in. They sat in a big hall and unpacked the sarees.
A young boy saw them and called out saying, “Mom! There’s a man with two bundles to meet you.”
Appa was showing the saree to the aunty and trying to sell it to her. He made each saree sound special and unique. He even draped the saree over him to show the design. Soon, the other boy asked, “Mom, can I ask the boy to come and play with me?”
“What is your name?” asked the boy.
“Periya Negamam Balakumaran,” said Bala. “What’s yours?”
“Nithin,” said the boy.
Nithin’s room was full of toys. Nithin let Bala play with all the toys. Most toys had some electrical control. Since Bala’s home does not have electricity, he did not know to play with most of the toys.
In one corner, Bala saw a spinning wheel. Now, this was a toy he knew to play with!
“Do you know what to do with it? I don’t know to play with it,” said Nithin.
“This is Rattai. Do you have some cotton?”, asked Bala. Nithin did not have.
Bala dug Appa’s bag to get some cotton. Bala took the cotton fluff and attached it to the spinning wheel, and turned the wheel all the while.
“You can do magic!”, shouted Nithin, “Can you teach me?”
“Not like that. Do it this way. Here, hold this. Spin this!”, said Bala.
Bala had a wide smile across his face. Nithin struggled but soon learnt to spin.
Soon they stepped out. Appa had sold many sarees to the aunty.
“Mom! Mom! He taught me magic,” said Nithin.
Aunty laughed and said, “Well naturally, his father is a magician too. A weaving magician.”
“Yes! I will tell all my friends in school that a magician from Periya Negamam taught me this magic.”
