On 28 October 2023, at the Canadian Malayalam Writers’ Forum, I met Preethi, a charming young lady who had a dozen copies of her book വേരോർമ്മകൾ  (Verormakal) – meaning reminiscences. I asked her the price for a copy, and she had no clue as to how much her book must be priced.

“$10” I said handing her a $20 bill along with a cost-free advice – “Never give your book free to anyone – even to your best friends or closest relatives.  Neither will they ever read it, nor will they appreciate your efforts.”

The first chapter of the book narrates the story of a young girl cleaning her slate with മഷിത്തണ്ട് (Mashithandu) meaning ink-stem – stem of a wild weed which grow abundantly in Kerala.  As a child I too used it up to Grade 3, studying at our village school in Kerala. Today the slates have smartened up that they need no cleaning – hence the ink-stem is not all that important for today’s children.

Pepperomia Pellucida- Mashithandu, as its botanical name suggests belongs to the Pepper family.  It is known in North America as pepper elder, silverbush, rat-ear, man-to-man, clearweed. In southern Kerala, it is known as കോലുമഷി (Kolumashi) again meaning ink-stem, but there is nothing inky about it.  In Northern Kerala it is known as വെള്ളത്തണ്ട് (Vellathandu) meaning water-stick.  This name appeared most appropriate to me as a kid as the plant’s leaves and stem had very high-water content.  Thus, it was the slate cleaner for kids as it did not leave any residue and was not poisonous.

I never realised the ink connection to the little plant until Grade 4 when we did our first experiment.  The experiment was to show that the roots of a plant absorbed water and is pushed up to its leaves.  We took an empty ink bottle and filled it with water.  To the water, a spoon of red ink was added.  A Mashithandu plant was uprooted and placed in the ink bottle with its roots submerged in the red water.  After two weeks the colour of the plant changed to red.

The Mashithandu plant – of about 6 – 8” – is found in highly moist places and flowers year-round.  The blooms are also green in colour and looks akin to the pepper strands. It has plentiful, glossy green, heart shaped leaves that is somewhat fleshy and looks like rat’s ears.  Hence the name rat-ear.

Mashithandu, I never located the plant anywhere in India other than in Kerala.  Most other likely place could be in the North-Eastern states.  While posted there, I neither had any intention nor interest to look for one.

With the turn of the decade when I visited our home in Kerala, I explored the homestead looking for a Mashithandu.  With the advent of rubber cultivation in our area, many species of herbal plants and wild plants disappeared along with the Mashithandu.

Mashithandu  – a small plant arouses lot of nostalgia among Malayalees and Preethi is no different.