Mar Papa

Muthi Ammamma was a devout Catholic, making it to the church for the early morning mass come rain or shine. It was her life long dream to see Mar Papa (His Holiness The Pope) in person and her grandson loved playing pranks on her about this.
Once when she was in her nastiest moods, he arranged for his friends to come and tell him, “have you seen the paper today? Mar Papa is coming to our church today.”
It was be loud enough to make sure Muthi Ammamma heard it. She immediately changed into her finest clothes, rushed to the church. Soon it was dusk and she was still there, waiting. The priest seeing her asked her, “Why are you not going home?”
“Mar Papa is coming.”
“Where? Who told you?”
“It is there in the paper.”
Knowing Muthi ammamma and her grandson well, the priest convinced her to return home. She returned convinced that if she had stayed a little longer maybe Mar Papa would have made his appearance.
To anyone who cared to listen she said, “Do you know, Mar Papa has a golden complexion and has the softest skin on earth?”

As she aged, her mind played tricks on her, she became very paranoid, afraid that the world and especially ammamma her daughter in law was out to get her. The mornings were usually full of complaints of the previous night.
“Yesterday night, I was sent to bed hungry.”
“Really”
“Mariam had made Kozhallappams and other Pallaharam and she waited till I went to bed, then crept off and ate it all alone when I was sleeping.”
“I will check if there is any left over from yesterday’s night feast.” Appan would tell her.
“No, No There will be nothing left over, I heard her sweeping the floor and cleaning after she finished eating.”
“Really ammamma you should have called me and we would have put a stop to it all once and for all.”
“You see I can’t do that, because she has little magic elves working for her and they come and tie me up in the night to make sure I don’t get up or call out.”
“Where are the ropes they used to tie you?”
“They are magic ropes and no one can see them. Yesterday I lay down on the bed to sleep but they pushed me on to the floor, which is where I was in the morning.
Then they climb on top of me and punches me on the chest, see look at the marks.”
In her hallucinating mind she lived in a world populated by elves and magician and Kuttichatans. For her the pallaharams and the punches were real, the marks invisible to all but her. Appan and his friends loved talking to her and her hallucinated stories were great fun as they grew up. She had a special affection for me as her first great grand daughter. At nights when I stayed awake crying and everyone was trying to get me to settle down, she would insist, “Check under her arm, there are ants biting her.”
She was convinced that the ants had a vendetta against me and were planning to bite me to death.