We are about half way through the summer and I hope everyone’s having a good time enjoying picnics and barbecues and fireworks. While we were lucky enough to escape extreme heat and floods here in Ohio, we have had quite a few days with air quality issues due to the Canadian wildfires. Please pay attention to the alerts as you plan outdoor activities with family.
The COMA family canoeing event at Trapper John’s was a huge success, thanks to all the hard work and planning by our 2023 Executive Committee. We have another exciting event coming up this month, a 32 team COMA Cricket Tournament with men’s and women’s teams competing for trophies, prize money, and bragging rights. Please come watch and support the volunteers and the teams.
If you would like to submit content for future editions, please reach out to the EC team (coma.officials@gmail.com). Content should be 250 words or fewer.
— Smitha Nishant
A Wolf’s Guide To Revenge : Chapter 1 – Abel Davis
(Abel Davis is the son of Rosmi C. Jose and Arun Davis, and he lives in Dublin, Ohio. He will be going to 7th grade in Henry Karrer Middle School in the fall. His favorite hobbies are reading books, fishing, and playing on the Nintendo Switch.)
Hello, my name is Loki. Although you might not recognize my name as one you have heard many times before as the name of a wolf, you have probably heard some of my nicknames: The Big Bad Wolf, Fenris, Old Father Wolf, Werewolf, Wolfie, Death, Wolf, etc. Does it ring a bell? If not, then you are simply not normal. I am the infamous and notorious wolf who ate the moon, the one that demolished and destroyed two houses by just blowing them over, the one that ate the boy that cried “wolf”, the one that ate a grandma and came up with the genius plan to dress up like her in order to devour the little girl in the red hood who came to offer treats to her! I am the BIG. BAD. WOLF.
Now that my dramatic introduction is finished, let me tell you about my current situation. Because I am the Big Bad Wolf (BBW), I have had to take blame for many of the crimes I have been fabled to commit. Of course, because of all of the crimes I have been said to have committed, I have been arrested and entitled for a lifetime in prison. As though that were not enough, the humans and animals that captivated me further punished me by hiring an elite group of assassins to capture and murder every other wolf in existence so that they could make sure that they had tortured the right wolf. Worst of all, they decided that they would confiscate all my belongings, crush my den, and even throw my pups into the Volcano Of Doom while showing me the live video of them being thrown into the volcano. I was DEVASTATED.
The security guards in my prison even had the nerve to give away all my money to the three devilish boars and that blood stalking hoodie for the “trouble” I had caused. In reality, they had just framed me and had made stories, fables, and fairy tales with false information about me! They even took a video of me sneezing and a video of me dressed up as a grandma for Halloween just to Photoshop it and get false evidence of my “crimes”. And, the security guards around my prison thought it would be fun to force me to watch the footage of my pups being thrown into the volcano and having their life taken away from them every time it was time for me to go to my stone hard bed.
It has been five years since the day I was thrown into the nightmare of the life I am living, and the security guards thought it would be a great idea to celebrate by forcing me to listen to the screams of my pups as they were thrown one by one into the Volcano Of Doom throughout the entire day. Today, for breakfast, they gave me fish bones without a scrap of meat – just like they did for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; even though they knew that I am not a little dog that loves to chew on bones all day. After eating dinner, I pulled out the newspaper I got as a birthday gift five weeks ago from a stranger with a black hoodie that covered his face, named, Fauks. Strange, I felt like I somehow knew that name a long time ago before the day I was thrown into prison.
As I opened up the old newspaper, I noticed that there was a small box around the size of a phone hidden by the newspaper. As I opened the box, I wondered what could possibly have been gifted to a beast like me who has no living friends or family in this world. I looked inside and was taken by surprise by the fact that inside the box, there was a small key the size of a thumb. As I peered inside the box again, I noticed that there was also a shiny gold coin a little bigger than a quarter, a leatherback book with no words on the spine, the front, or the back of the book, a blood red pen, and a small roll of parchment addressed to me. I unrolled the roll of parchment and was astonished by what I saw in front of my eyes…
Sreejith Chandran’s Random Ramblings
(One half of his brain has gone nomad and the other has gone in search of the first. Glorifying his random ramblings and packaging it is his main hobby! Otherwise sane and grounded.)
ലോകം വെട്ടിപ്പിടിക്കാൻ പുറപെട്ടവൻ
ഏറ്റവും ഇഷ്ടപെട്ട സിനിമകളിൽ ഒന്നാണ് മണിരത്നത്തിന്റെ ഗുരു .. കാരണങ്ങൾ പലതാണ്. അതിൽ മുഖ്യം അത് ആരുടെ കൂടെയാണ് കണ്ടത് എന്നത് തന്നെയാണ് .. ഐശ്വര്യ റായിയും അഭിഷേക് ബച്ചനും കത്തി കയറുന്നു .. ഒരു സീനിൽ ‘ ഇത് കഷ്ടമാകില്ലേ’ എന്ന ഐശ്വര്യയുടെ ചോദ്യത്തിന് ബച്ചൻ മറുപടി പറയുന്നു, ‘നീ ഒപ്പം ഉണ്ടെങ്കിൽ ഈ ലോകം തന്നെ ഞാൻ വെട്ടിപിടിക്കും”! ഓ.. ഇത്രമേൽ പ്രണയാദ്രമായ ഒരു ഡയലോഗ് ആ അടുത്തെങ്ങും കേട്ടിട്ടില്ല .. ഞാൻ ഒളികണ്ണിലൂടെ അടുത്തിരിക്കുന്ന അവളെ ഒന്ന് നോക്കി, അവളെന്നേയും.
പിന്നെ മൗനങ്ങളിലൂടെയും നോട്ടങ്ങളിലൂടെയും ഹൃദയം കൈമാറിയ നാളുകൾ. ഒരു ചെറിയേ പ്രശനം മാത്രം, അവളുടെ ജാതകത്തിൽ എന്തിരോ ദോഷം ഉണ്ട്. സ്വതവേ കമ്മ്യൂണിസ്റ്റ് വിരോധിയാണെങ്കിലും ഈവക കാര്യങ്ങളിൽ ഞാൻ ഒരു വിപ്ലവ സിംഹം ആയിരുന്നു! പുല്ലാണെനിക്ക് എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞു.
കുറച്ചു കാലം ഇങ്ങനെ ശിശിരം മറന്ന പൂക്കളെ പോലെ പോയി .. അതിനിടക്ക് സുനാമി വന്നു, ഇന്ത്യ 20-20 ലോകകപ്പ് നേടി, സുഹൃത്ത് പാച്ചാളത്തിന്റെ പൈല്സിന്റെ ഓപ്പറേഷൻ വരെ കഴിഞ്ഞു .. അങ്ങനെ ഇരിക്കുമ്പോൾ അമ്മയുടെ ഫോൺ കാൾ ..
അങ്ങേ തലക്കൽ അമ്മ പറഞ്ഞു, ‘ഡാ, ചേട്ടന്റെ ജാതകം നോക്കിയതിന്റെ കൂടെ നിന്റെയും നോക്കി, നിന്റെയും ശുദ്ധ ജാതകം ആണ്.’
ആഹാ, അന്തസ്സ്! പരിശുദ്ധമായ ജാതകം, മമ്മൂട്ടിക്കുണ്ടോ ഇതുപോലൊന്ന്, ഞാനൊരു ‘കുല’പുരുഷൻ ആയിരിക്കുന്നു! വല്ലാത്തൊരു അഹങ്കാരം.
അമ്മ തുടർന്നു.. ‘ഈ ശുദ്ധ ജാതകത്തിലെ പ്രശനം എന്തെന്നാൽ, അത് ശുദ്ധ ജാതകവുമായി മാത്രമേ ചേരൂ .. ഇല്ലെങ്കിൽ മരണം വരെ സംഭവിക്കാം!’
ഓ ഡാർക്! ആദ്യമായിട്ടാണ് ശുദ്ധം എന്നുള്ളത് നെഗറ്റീവ് ആയി കേൾക്കുന്നത്. സർഫിന്റെ പരസ്യം ഓർമ്മ വന്നു, “കറ നല്ലതാണു”. സംഭവം തേപ്പിലേക്കാണ് പോകുന്നത് എന്ന് ഞാൻ വിഷമത്തോടെ മനസ്സിലാക്കി..
ലാലേട്ടനെ മനസ്സിൽ ധ്യാനിച്ച് കൊണ്ട് അമ്മയോട്‌ ചോദിച്ചു, “അല്ല, ഈ തന്റേതല്ലാത്ത കാരണങ്ങളാൽ ചെറിയ ദോഷം ഉള്ള ജാതകത്തെ ചേർക്കാൻ പറ്റുമോ? ഇല്ല, ലെ!”
ഒരു രക്ഷേമ് ഇല്ല, വച്ചിട്ട് പോഡ്‌റേക്ക എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞു അമ്മ പോയി..
സുനാമി അടിച്ചു പണ്ടാരമടങ്ങിയ ബസന്ത് നഗർ ബീച്ചിലെ ശോക സീനിൽ വെച്ച് ഞാൻ അവളോട് ഈ ദാരുണ വാർത്ത അറിയിച്ചു, എന്നിലെ വിപ്ലവകാരിയെ മുറുകെ പിടിച്ചോണ്ട് തന്നെ. പക്ഷെ അവൾ പറഞ്ഞു, “വെള്ളമില്ലാത്ത രാത്രികളിൽ കിണറ്റിൽ നിന്ന് വെള്ളം കോരാനും, തുലാവർഷ രാത്രികളിൽ കരണ്ടു ഇല്ലാതാകുമ്പോൾ കിടന്നു കാറുന്ന പിള്ളേരെ വീശി ഉറക്കാനും, എനിക്കൊരു ഭർത്താവിനെ വേണം, അല്ലാതെ കെട്ടി നാലിന്റെ അന്ന് ബൈക്ക് മറിഞ്ഞു ചത്ത് പണ്ടാരമടങ്ങുന്ന ഒരു സെറ്റ് അപ്പ്, അത് വേണ്ട.”
തകർന്നു പോയി ഈ പിഞ്ചു മനസ്സ്! ഞാൻ ചോദിച്ചു, ‘അല്ല, അത് പിന്നെ, നമുക്ക് ലോകം വെട്ടി പിടിക്കണ്ടേ ..’ നീ ആദ്യം ജീവിച്ചിരിക്കാൻ നോക്ക് എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞു അവൾ പോയി ..
കാലം കടന്നു പോയി .. ഞാൻ പിന്നീട് പലരിലൂടെയും ലോകം വെട്ടിപ്പിടിക്കാൻ ശ്രമിച്ചു. ഒടുവിൽ ഒരാളിലേക്കു സ്വന്തം ലോകം വെട്ടിച്ചുരുക്കി ആത്മസംതൃപ്തി അടഞ്ഞു ..
നബി: തേപ്പു എന്തെന്നാൽ, ഞാൻ ശെരിക്കും കല്യാണം കഴിക്കാൻ തീരുമാനിച്ചപ്പോൾ, മഹാനായ ആ ജ്യോൽസ്യൻ പറഞ്ഞു, ‘ആഹാ! മോന്റെ ജാതകത്തിൽ ചെറിയ ദോഷങ്ങൾ ഒക്കെ ഉണ്ടല്ലോ! സാരമില്ല പരിഹാരങ്ങൾ ഉണ്ട് “!
An Adventure in Big Darby Creek – Valsan Palika
(Valsan is a long time resident of Columbus and a very active member of the Malayalee community. He lives in Lewis Center with wife Vijaya and two children, Hrishikesh and Niranjan. He hails from Kannur.)
On July 8th, Saturday, the Central Ohio Malayalee Association organized a thrilling canoeing event at Trapper John’s Canoe Livery, about 10 miles southwest of Columbus. With the promise of a picnic with an enticing Kerala-style “Pothichor” lunch, the event received significant attention and participation. A diverse group of enthusiastic participants, including young children, adults, and seniors joined to enjoy the experience. The group included long term residents of Central Ohio and someone who just moved in a couple of days earlier.
Trapper John’s Canoe Livery served as the perfect venue for this adventurous outing. The previous day’s heavy rains had caused concerns about the event’s feasibility, and canoeing had been suspended. Organizers were closely monitoring and constantly in touch with Trapper Johns to provide updates to the participants. By Saturday morning, skies were clearer and we proceeded with the event as planned. Aware of the forecast predicting rain later in the day, the organizers aimed to complete the trip and enjoy the picnic and lunch before the weather changed.
Participants began assembling at the starting point in the morning, meeting old friends and making new friends. The chosen excursion was the “Sampler” trip, which takes one to two hours, covering approximately three miles of canoeing along Big Darby Creek. This trip starts at Trapper John’s and ends just before the I-71 bridges, where the participants are picked up and brought back to the starting point. As we had planned for the picnic at the end point, we drove there and parked our vehicles and came back to start canoeing.
At the booking office, the guides provided detailed instructions and warnings about safety measures. They stressed that individuals uncomfortable with the water level and flow conditions should refrain from canoeing or kayaking, especially due to the rain on the previous day. Most of the members proceeded with the plan; a few had to take care of small children as they were not allowed to be onboard a canoe.
Equipped with paddles and life jackets, we formed groups of two, some with children, and embarked on our kayaks and canoes. Some brave souls opted to ride alone! For many participants, navigating the kayaks and canoes proved to be more challenging than expected. Novices struggled to manage and guide their vessels, often spinning around in the slow-moving water! However, the river was gentle and wide at the starting point, and offered ample space for the crowd to do some practice and find their rhythm. As we paddled along the slow-moving water, the crowd gradually thinned out. After some initial hiccups, people began enjoying the tranquility. The journey offered numerous opportunities for capturing cherished memories. The serene waters provided the perfect backdrop for photographs, allowing us to freeze moments!
As the journey progressed, there were more surprises! The river narrowed and deepened, and the water flow was faster at several places, challenging the paddlers. Rocks, fallen trees, and other obstacles along the way made controlling the canoes and kayaks increasingly difficult. The situation became worse for a few, as two people paddling at either ends of the canoe were not able to coordinate well. Some of us bumped into these blockers, causing the vessels to capsize, and leaving us in neck deep water. Fortunately, the mandatory life jackets saved us from serious problems, except minor scratches and bruises. Some canoes floated away after flipping, needing the rescue team from Trapper John’s to help bring the canoes back. Someone commented that the experience was closer to “whitewater rafting” but in a much safer environment!
Most of the people reached the finish line by noon, but heavy rain began to pour soon after, threatening the picnic spirit. Some riders got stuck at different obstacles and were delayed finishing the ride. However, the enticing Kerala-style “Pothichor” provided a much-needed relief for the participants. We enjoyed the lunch under the shades of trees and inside our vehicles – while some curious children wandered around in the rain. Despite the inclement weather and some challenging situations, this event was an exciting experience and a lot of fun for the participants. Kudos to the executive committee for planning such an exciting and challenging event for the community!
Member Achievements
Malavika Nair becomes Golf Player of the Year
She achieved this amazing feat by winning all 8 Columbus municipal junior golf summer tournaments! Way to go Malu! Malavika is a 7th grader at Grizzle Middle School, going to 8th grade this fall. She is the daughter of Biji Gopalakrishnan and Prakash Balakrishnan (former COMA Treasurer), and lives in Dublin, Ohio. She is trained by Coach Stephen Lynn.