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Chi Chak Cho !!

        It's really interesting how memory works. Often, random things evoke memories, memories so old, you didn't know even existed in the first place. I find it really peculiar. Mine definitely. For as long as I can remember, I have had trouble remembering!!. Trivial or significant, it made no difference. 

A friend of mine @Anjoosee had randomly tweeted something and it took me for a stroll down memory lane. So I was pleasantly surprised when I suddenly recollected a song a friend of mine used to sing almost 2 decades back. Not that I could recollect the entire song, but I was able to reproduce the general mood of the song, how it sounded and some of the lyrics. 


Resmin, my old school mate, had joined our school, Rani Jai HS nearby old  and prestigious Nirmalagiri College, in third standard. Before joining there he had done his schooling abroad and was really good in English. He could speak the language, and quite brilliantly too. Though our school followed an English medium education system no one did really speak a word in English back then. Hailing from different parts of Kannur there wasn't too much of a need for anyone to speak the language.  And for us Resmin was like an alien coming from a different planet. He became an instant hit. And definitely your star value won't hurt if you could sing few English songs. There was this particular song that he used to sing more often. He sang this song for almost an year until we made a full Malayali out of him. 

When I checked online, interestingly I found out that several before me had searched for the same song. China Man song it is purportedly known as and was really popular back then. Grandparents used to sing it to their grand kids and they shared it to their grand children and so on, much like a family food recipe.  Several variants of this particular song are available online and I took one which followed the pattern that I had in my mind. 

Here it goes.  
Once in China there lived a funny man
his name was chika waka chi chai cho
his hands were long and his legs were short
because of that he couldn't walk at all  
chika waka chika waka chi chaka noma 
noma noma noma pakatoto 
ichi pie po 
ichi pie ichi pie chi chai cho. 
Then then then the big fat man, 
washed his face in a frying pan,
he combed his hair with his big toenail
and brushed his teeth with a horse's tail 
chika waka chika waka chi chika noms
noma noma noma pakatoto
ichi pie po ichi pie ichi pie
chi chai cho
chi chai cho
chee chhaai chhooo.........

Note: I am not sure about the chorus -chika waka- part mentioned here is what he used to sing.  And like I said earlier there are several variants of this particular song online I just picked one which sounded fine to me. Resmin doesn't remember it much himself. 

 He had shared a video with me when I told him about the song. 


May be this is one of my fondest memory of him from my school days and, which I guess, is the reason why it is still etched in my memory.

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