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Ammu said. Chacko said, “What‟s yours is mine and what‟s mine
is also mine.‟ He had a surprisingly high laugh for a man of his
size and fatness. And when he laughed, he shook all over without
appearing to move.
Until Chacko arrived in Ayemenem, Mammachi‟s factory
had no name. Everybody just referred to her pickles and jams as
Sosha‟s Tender Mango, or Sosha‟s Bananajam. Sosha was
Mammachi‟s first name. Soshamma.
It was Chacko who christened the factory Paradise Pickles &
Preserves and had labels designed and printed at Comrade K. N.
M. Pillai‟s press. At first he had wanted to call it Zeus Pickles &
Preserves, but that idea was vetoed because everybody said that
Zeus was too obscure and had no local relevance, whereas Paradise
did. (Comrade Pillai‟s suggestion–Parashuram Pickles–was vetoed
for the opposite reason: too much local relevance.)
It was Chacko‟s idea to have a billboard painted and installed
on the Plymouth‟s roof rack.
Now, on the way to Cochin, it rattled and made fallingoff
noises. Near Vaikom they had to stop and buy some rope to secure
it more firmly. That delayed them by another twenty minutes.
Rahel began to worry about being late for The Sound of Music.
Then, as they approached the outskirts of Cochin, the red and
white arm of the railway level-crossing gate went down. Rahel
knew that this had happened because she had been hoping that it
wouldn‟t.
She hadn‟t learned to control her Hopes yet. Estha said that
was a Bad Sign.
So now they were going to miss the beginning of the picture.
When Julie Andrews starts off as a speck on the hill and gets
bigger and bigger till she bursts onto the screen with her voice like
cold water and her breath like peppermint.
The red sign on the red and white arm said STOP in white.
“POTS,” Rahel said.
A yellow hoarding said BE INDIAN, BUY INDIAN in red.