Sarvam Sree Krishnaarpanam Astu
The
Green Giant Gerald!
“Tell me, tell me all about him…tell me
now!” said a squeaky little voice from within a pile of blankets, even as
thunder rolled outside the quaint little house in Jones Mcintyre Street. A lone
candle cast a light in an otherwise dark room, with the latest storm knocking
out the power grids in the neighborhood. A pair of large, brown eyes shined
from within the blanket, illuminated by the candle light nearby.
“It’s really late, you must go to bed” said
another young voice, albeit older than the one from within the blanket.
“No no, not yet…Tell me about the Green
Giant Gerald!” came back the voice from within the blankets.
“We need to go to sleep now…Mrs. Viola
won’t be tolerant again to hear our loud voices at this time of the night…”
replied the twelve year old boy, with brown curly hair, freckled nose, dark
brown eyes and a mouth salivating excessively due to his newer braces. He was
sitting near the pile of blankets, adjusting his pillows and keeping an eye at
the door, fearing it to get opened any moment now.
“Mrs. Viola has taken her cough syrup. She
won’t wake up any time now!” said a four year old girl, who for a quick moment
removed the blankets over her, revealing her straight brown hair, puffy cheeks,
thick lower lip and big brown eyes. “Now tell me all about the Green Giant
Gerald!” she said excited at the same time nervous, before disappearing into
her blanket, covering herself from head to toe.
“Fine! But this is the last time…Promise me
that you would go to sleep right after?” said the boy, sighing.
“Yes yes…for sure…Promise!” smiled the
girl.
“Centuries ago, in the mountains of Jotunheimen,
on a thunderous and rainy night, just like today, a strange creature came into
being,” began the boy with a dramatic tone.
“Where is Jotunheimen? Why is he strange?
And-“ began the girl, but was interrupted by the boy.
“Jotunheimen is in Norway! He was strange
because his father was a giant, and his mother was a mud nymph. And no more questions!
We don’t have time to go into too many details. Mrs. Viola will get awakened
any moment!” said the boy nervously.
“Alright alright…just one question…what’s a
mud nymph?” asked the girl innocently.
“Gaaah! End of story!” said the boy
grumpily.
“No! No more questions…Go on…Pretty
please?” said the girl with a pleading look.
The boy stared at her for a couple moments,
breathing hard and then eased down.
“Fine…He was named Gerald. He was twelve
feet high, had hands and legs as large as the trunk of a red wood tree, had
dense orange beard that came down till his belly button, but didn’t have a
strand of hair on his forehead. Very weird indeed…” the boy agreed seeing his
sister about to interject, and the girl nodded from within the blanket.
“He
wore a large brown and green tunic, had a shiny golden ring on his right ear,
had a huge mole above his left eyebrow, and carried with him a log of tree…a
new tree log each day, that he bit, and chewed and spat out to nothing during
the course of the day. His teeth were rotten and were full of wooden pieces
sticking out. He kept humming a strange ghoulish song all day…Legend has it,
that his humming continued even during the night, while he snored and farted…”
A low giggle emerged from within the
blanket.
“His feet were huge! Was covered with his
own hair and mud…Big chunks of wet mud…”
“Ewwww…” said the girl, “Won’t there be
earthworms?”
“Hmmm…Some say that many of the hair on his
leg, weren’t even hair, but earthworms!” said the boy, making things up as he
narrated.
“Double Ewwwwww!” said the girl, sticking
her tongue out.
“When he walked, the earth shook. When he
sneezed, storms formed. When he puked, landslides occurred down the mountains!”
“Ewww…Ewwwww…and triple ewwwwww!” said the
girl.
“But that is not the worst. He was hungry
all through the day and had to eat at least six times a day. And he didn’t eat
fruits or vegetables or cereals. He devoured entire villages for each meal!”
The little girl gasped in horror and got
deeper into her pile of blankets.
“Landslides caused by his puking often
contained remnants of human bones, animal skulls and even bird feathers. When
he got hungry, he ate anything that lived!” said the boy in a horror inducing
tone, with his eyes wide open.
“No! How could someone be so mean!” said
the girl scared, “All those poor people!”
“Yes, he was the vilest being in the world.
None can match his strength. Entire armies have been gulped down by him.
Including their giant siege weapons and tough armors made of steel. The rate at
which he was eating, the entire Scandinavian region was feared to go uninhabited
in just a matter of months. But then she arrived…”
“She? She who?” asked the little girl,
meekly.
“The mom…The one who no vile creature in
the world should ever dare mess with…” said the boy in a mysterious tone.
“Whose mom?” asked the girl, now peeking
her head out of the blanket, seeming excited.
“She is not any mom. She is THE mom…” said
the boy with a smile. “Gerald, one evening felt like having a dessert, after
having gulped down an entire village of 700 people. He just needed something to
make his tummy soft. So he chose to devour the children of a shepherd woman who
was moving with her herd and two children just a few miles off the village that
just got eaten down. She first felt overwhelmed by the sheer size of the being,
when she first came across him, but convinced herself that she shouldn’t react
any differently to how she would react on coming across any normal man. She
just felt it would seem rude and hurt the giant’s feeling if she displayed her
surprise of seeing his gigantic size. She tried to be kind and polite to the
giant, even greeting him, not knowing his malevolent nature. The giant sure was
surprised by the woman’s reaction, but his craving for the children, walking behind
her, made him ignore her. He straight away nudged aside the woman and picked
the two children straight off the ground, by their legs.”
“Woah! Did the children cry? Did they
scream? I know I sure would have…” said the little girl, now standing on top of
her pile of blankets, too excited by the story. She didn't understand many of the terms used by the boy in his narration, but she just didn't care, as long as she understood most of what he said.
“No…they were in fact laughing…Because they
knew nobody could hurt them while their mom was around. Their giggling and
laughing made the giant very confused. He flicked them with his large fingers
and they just laughed even more. He thought them to be bonkers and even
wondered whether he should eat them, fearing to catch on to their madness. But
no, they weren’t mad. They were just so confident about their mom.”
“So what did she do next?” asked the girl,
unable to contain her anxiety.
“You know what happened…This is not the
first time you are hearing this,” said the boy, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion.
“I know…but this is the best part! Tell me,
tell me…TELL ME!” the girl jumped in excitement.
“Shhhhh! You are going to wake up our
nanny! Mrs. Viola is going to thump us hard!” said the boy, nervously looking
at the door.
There seemed to be no movement beyond the
door. The boy heaved a sigh of relief and admonished his sister for acting
unruly.
“Sorry! I just couldn’t contain myself…”
said the girl, looking apologetic. “Please do finish the story…”
“Alright, alright! Quiet down!” said the
boy, composing himself for a moment, before continuing the story. “The mom
initially thought that the giant was just playing with her kids in the way he
best knew, but then noticed a human bone sticking out of the side of his lips.
This terrified her and she right away kicked the giant in his shin, making him
lose his balance slightly. The mom used this moment to pull her two children
away from the giant’s grip, which was surprisingly not that hard-“ the boy
added wondering if there was some logical fallacy in his narration and trying to
fix it.
“He probably wanted to eat them whole and
not crush them before,” said the girl.
“Maybe…The two kids were taken away from
the giant by their mom and this only made Gerald extremely angry. He stomped
his way closer to the shepherd woman, who, after asking her children to run
back to the village, right away climbed up a papaya tree nearby. Gerald assumed
she was running away from him and began moving after her, but the mom just
climbed the tree, high enough to get close to Gerald’s head…”
“And did what?” interjected the girl.
“She grabbed hold of the giant’s ears and
twisted them hard. The giant flinched in pain. He grabbed the papaya tree and
shook it hard to make the woman fall down. But it was just large papayas that
fell on his head, making him shriek in pain and eventually get knocked out by
them…”
“Did the papayas kill the giant? Did the mom
get away unhurt?” asked the girl nervously.
“Nobody in Jotunheim knows the fate of the
giant after that. But as he fell down, his shriek was so loud that the trees in
at least ten kilometers surrounding the giant’s location, felt its impact, with
some smaller plants getting knocked out by the shock wave, and some larger
trees losing several of their branches…” said the boy, deeply contemplating the
possibility of his tale.
“What about the mom? Did she get killed by
the sound of the giant’s shriek?” asked the girl, almost tearing up.
“Well yes…” said the boy, but then noticed
the little girl’s lips quivering in sorrow, causing him to make a change to his
story. “I mean no she did not die…She is a mom. Mom’s don’t go away that
easily. They fight hard,” said the boy, his voice breaking up a little, as he
said it, contemplating the fate of their own mom.
The girl jumped up on the pile of blankets
and danced full of joy. “Yaaaay! She survived…”
“Yes…she sure did…But she wasn’t unscathed.
The shockwave from the giant’s loud shriek caused all her hair to fall and for
her to lose several kilograms of her weight,” said the boy, going into his deep
thought.
“Wh-what…oh no…poor mom…” said the girl,
her excitement suddenly disappearing.
“Poor mom indeed…” said the boy. “Hey, but
she defeated the giant…That’s what she matters. And she would go on to get her
hair back and her weight in a few months. The kids were safe, the mom was safe,
and so were the sheep. It’s a happy ending after all!” said the boy faking
excitement.
“Indeed it is! Happy, happy, happy!” said
the girl, regaining her excitement, being loud and jumping around, not caring
for Mrs. Viola being woken up.
Right at that moment, the door slammed open
and in came the large woman, standing over 6 feet in height, with a large
forehead, thick arms, legs and a big belly, a small patch of orange hair under
her chin. She wore a green and brown night gown, that she cared about so much.
Her legs were large and hairy, some even appearing like little worms.
“Do you kids never go to sleep?” yelled
Mrs. Viola, looking tired, grumpy and stressed, her terrible shriek causing the
books and toys in the vicinity to slump and fall down.
The two children were quick to fall back
onto their beds and cover themselves with their blankets. Mrs. Viola surveyed
the room for two more minutes and then walked back slamming the door hard, her
footsteps resonating, as she moved back into her own room.
“What about the giant?” the girl removed
the blanket from over her head and asked her brother.
“The large number of heavy papayas falling
on his head caused him to dissolve into mud and disappear into the ground. He
was after all half mud nymph. He wasn’t heard about in Jotunheim ever
again…Until years later, when he again formed back into his old self somewhere
far away…” said the boy, adding suspense to the story.
“Woooow!
Did he eat people again?” asked the girl in wonder.
“Not as many as he had in the past. For
whenever he came into being to eat people, there was always a mom to save the day.
He’s been defeated over and over again over the years across the globe…with him
now appearing in our own home town…”
“What? No! Really? Can we go see him?”
asked the girl with a mixture of excitement and fear.
“Oh no…Kids being close to him would only
make the mom battling him weaker…” said the boy cautiously.
“What? You mean to say he is now being
fought with by our mom?” asked the girl surprised.
“Yes…That’s why she has been away for the
past few days,” said the boy, facing away from the girl. His face appeared
glum, but he tried to sound confident.
“Will our mom be able to defeat him just
like the other moms?” asked the girl nervously.
“You kidding me? If the other moms could do
it, our mom certainly can. She is far stronger, smarter and faster than any of
the other moms in the history of moms!” said the boy. “But there will be
consequences. She wouldn’t have her hair for a while and she will appear much
thinner and fragile than before…”
“oh…that’s after she defeats the giant?”
“Yes…But you don’t worry about it. She will
become strong and have her hair back soon.”
“You sure about it?” asked the girl.
“Yes…I guess so…” said the boy, hesitantly.
“Then yaaay to our mom! May she return home
victorious!” said the girl with a smile and went to sleep peacefully.
“Yaaay indeed…” said the boy, with a sigh.
About ten miles away, in the multi-storied
Hospital, a frail, bald woman, puked into a bucket, even as a tube connected to
her arm sent through a pale blue liquid into her veins. A man sat beside her
rubbing her back, as a nurse kept holding the bucket close to her.
“This is hellish dear…I can’t handle it
anymore…” said the woman, puking hard into the bucket.
“Just a little more, ma'am…You will be
fine…Not many more chemo cycles left…” said the nurse.
“And then more tests…and then more chemo
cycles…” lamented the woman. “Just like the previous two instances…”
“We’ll overcome it when we come to it…For
now, let’s hope for the best…” said her husband, giving her a gentle hug.
“I can’t do it anymore. Just euthanize me…”
she pleaded.
“No…whenever such a thought comes to your
head, think about our two children…You need to beat this giant for them…”
The mom cried for some more and then
nodded, trying to control her tears. “For the children…”
- - A. Prashanth Narasimhan (Sri
Vishnudasan).
