Mana Veli

Mana Veli is a inside fence - a fence inside the outer fence. Because there were no roads as such in those times, it was common that people walked from one house to the other through the property of other people. The mana veli would sort of demarcate the interiors into which nobody would trespass.

Old houses had courtyards (muttam) on all four sides. The first job of the morning for the girls of the house was to nicely sweep these courtyards. In achans childhood this was done by Bhargavi velyamma, Bhavani velyamma and Leela kochamma. Each would sweep a courtyard. The sweeping is done walking backwards. After the sweeping is complete, the courtyard used to look like a painting - it used to be a beautiful sight. Courtyard was usually spread with white sand.

The next job after sweeping the courtyard was washing the plates and utensils from last night. In those times, especially, there being no electric lamps, the plates/utensils used in the night were washed only in the next morning. All the plates and utensils to be washed were put at the bottom of a banana plant or coconut tree in the vadakkae ummaram (north). A portion of a ripe leaf will be cut from one of the many banana plants. This is used as the scrub. Instead of dish wash liquid, some ash (chaaraan) was taken from the aduppu. Washing was done with water from the pond.

Coming back to mana veli. Achacha used to make mana veli as thumbola veli. thumbola is the tip of the coconut leaf. 3-4 feet of the tip of a coconut leaf is cut out. The other tip (head - tip near to the tree) is cut off - it is usually used as firewood. The head portion is cut out and made into firewood. Some portion of the tip is also cut off, the leaf is split into two along the wood, and weaved for thatching. This tip that is cut off is the thumbola.

For the mana veli, 6 feet tall pathal (vertical structure for the fence) is put. Chembarathi, Ashoka Chethi, Kolambi etc. are used. This pathal does not use thick wood. (Maybe because it is a inside fence). Thin plants are used. Three varis (horizontal member) are tied to the pathal. A weaved ola (coconut leaf) is tied to this. Now a thumbola is stuck on to the portion of this weaved ola where the strands touch the wood. The tip of the thumbola is stringed through this gap formed between the weaved strand and the wood, may be one thumbola is stringed every second or third such gap. (more detail needed on how these are tied at the top and how these are tied to each other) Every four five olas apart are taken and plaited like plaiting hair ...

Sometimes one thumbola does not reach the whole length of the 6 feet tall fence. In that case, another thumbola is hanged from the middle vari. (Is a weaved ola first tied on to this vari?)

Thumbola itself is tied on to the varis.

After the thumbola is tied to the third vari, the bottom part is nicely cut out using a knife. The bootm of the thumbola will not touch the floor.

Dried thumbola is used. Therefore, weight is less.

In our house this type of veli was done on east, north and south.

Chavittu kallu. The houses in those times had two three chavittu kallu to climb on to the verandah. Iraan had a kindi with water. Anybody who comes to the house washes their feet using this before getting into the house.

The veli's gate was also made of pathal & vari.

Our house was made of vettukal. Some left over vettukal were put near the gate. Similar vettukal was used for steps into the ponds.

The main purpose of the gates were to fence in the cattle. "laavu vettathaokke pashu irangi poyi kalayum chilappa"

The north east corner had a pond. Water from this pond was used for drinking water. (Now it is a well). This pond never had salt. Other ponds nearer to the river (east) had salt because the river had tides. salt used to get in during tides. There will be no salt during rainy season. During summer salt will comes in from the sea. This salt used to get into the ponds through underground channels. Lot of people used to come to our pond for water.

There was another pond for bathing. This was in south west. (Still exists). It was sort of squarish. people from around used to come to take bath in this pond. Raman chettan, narayanan chettan, (chakkamdan raman, chakkamadan narayanan) etc (achachan's friends, karnonmar) used to come to take bath. Around 6PM, they would come and enjoy the bath. Then they would come to the house and be talking for long time. While going they would be given a lighted choottu (dry coconut leaf bunched at one end). The choottu will be kept ready. These will be lighted, but not only like embers - when light is needed they just had to wave it in the air - it would produce fire and light.

This pond had fish, tortoises and snakes. Snakes used to create no issues. If a snake was seen, achamma used to pray to paambumekaadu. "ente kannil ini kaanaruthu bhagavvane, njaan paambumekaattu vannu paalum noorum nadathiyekkaam"

ambambada rabana

(in achan's narration)

There was a princess. She was a big vidushi. Nobody could defeat her in a duel (of words).
...
Then there was a competition. Whoever defeats her in a duel would marry her. The competition would be word duels between her and another scholar. There we many other vidwans as judges.
...
The competition started, and went on for days. Nobody could defeat the princess. The defeat of all the men scholars turned many vidwans who lost sore.
...
Then they decided that they had to do something. They started looking for something to do. When they were walking around, they saw a man in the forest. He was cutting a branch of a tree - but, he was standing on the branch that he was cutting!
...
The scholars dressed the guy up and took him for the duel!
...
On entering the hall, the guy saw pictures of ravana and his brothers on the wall. He goes "ambambada rabana, kumbhakarna, vibeeshana! (the 'ambambada' could be a translation into malayalam, i don't think kalidasa knew malayalam :-) The princess was not amused - she says 'Fool'! Now the judge vidwans, who were pretty sore with the ever winning princess, catches on. They argue - that kumbakarna and vibeeshana has a 'b' in it, so, may be, the real name of ravana is rabana! At the end of the story, the princess loses, and marries the fool!
...
The fool turns out to have been a shepherd. In sleep, the princess realizes that she has married a shepherd - no scholar - because makes shepherding sounds in his sleep. She throws him out of the palace. She advises him to go to the kali temple and come back as a vidwan
...
The guy goes to the kali temple and sees the door of the sanctum sanctorum open. He gets in and shuts the door
...
Then comes kali, who had gone out of business - she sees her door shut. She asks "who is inside"? Out comes another question "who is outside"? Kali says that it is Kali outside. The guy says "Then it is Kalidasa inside". He tells Kali that he will open the door only if she makes him a vidwan. Kali asks him to show his tounge - he puts his tounge out through the door - and she writes something on his tounge through with her sword! Ooh la la la - The great poet Kalidasa was born!
...
He lives to be one of the biggest poets of the time, adorning the court of king Vikramaditya ...
...
He becomes wasted though, a big womaniser, creating trouble even for the kings and other affluents ...
The king passes an order to execute him. But he goes hiding.
...
Two lines of a sloka is circulated. Whoever completes it must be kalidasa.
kusume kusumolpathi (flower from a flower)
sruethe na cha drishyathe (seen, or heard of?)
...
Kalidasa, who predictably was in the house of a lady, falls in the trap and unknowingly completes the sloka as soon as he hears it. There was a price on his head - dead or alive. The lady kills him and claims the prize.
baale thava mukhambhoje (beauty, from your face)
nethram indeevara dwayam (your eyes ...)

On education

On Education

Because of all the responsibilities, being the eldest sister, bhargavi velyamma has done only till class 4. There was no family planning in those times, leading to a new baby every 2-3 years. Once achamma would be pregnant, she would need help. Some help would be provided by ladies in the kudikedappu (The families of the workers who stayed nearby). Bhargavi velyamma started working, helping with household work because of this difficult situation at home when she was in 4th (10 years). It was decided that she will stop her schooling. She keeps talking about this. She used to look after lot of household jobs. Her load-of-responsibilities (praaraabdham) started from then. After marriage also, because she married into a farming household, she continued to be having a lot of work load - making kanji and taking it for the people working in the farms, serving it for them, etc. It continues even today (2015).

Bhavani velyamma finished 10th and passed some exams for nursing and craft. But she did not get into nursing because of the bad stigma associated with going as a nurse in those times. Bhavani velyamma and a neighbour lady got memo intimating selection as nurse in fort kochi government hospital. achachan decided that she would not go for a nurse job. If she had gone for this job, she would have earned lot of salary and would be drawing a huge pension now.

Leela kochamma also passed 10th

Chandra kochamma passed 10th and then passed typewriting and shorthand. She entered into a job

Gopalakrishnan kochachan passed typewriting and shorthand and settled in Bangalore

Radha kochamma, Sobhini kochamma and Kusuma kochamma passed 10th and did not end up with any jobs.

Harikuttan elayachan did Bsc, Msc, PhD

Sivaraman velyachan passed 10th and did engineering. Engineering degree was offered then only in Trivandrum or Madras. These places were unthinkable of for the family. There were also diploma and certificate courses offered for engineering. There was an Ashan memorial institute of engineering in Trichur. Velyachan did four subjects from here (Survey and Drawing, etc.). He learned staying at Trichur. Commute was not possible (probably because of no easy transport for daily commute). He stayed at Ashan memorial hostel. Velayudhan (Father of Prasad chettan - Australia) and Chandran ammavan (amma's ammavan) also were studying here at same time.

As soon as velyachan finished course and came, achachan went and contacted Chathunni (Thevari Chathunni) who was a neighbour (padinjaarel) and had studied with achachan. He was an executive engineer in PWD. He was a project engineer in Peechi. Velyachan had finished these courses in 'certificate course' and was considered as passing engineering. Achachan, thinking of difficulties at home went and told Chathunni - "Chathunni, Sivaraman has come back from college - he has passed engineering". Chathunni: "Athinenthu Sankara chetta, we will give him a job". He immediately writes a order appointing velyachan as a work superintendent at Peechi. In those times engineers could make appointments. It was a government job. Velyachan went and joined Peechi. But after a month he cacthes malaria. Peechi was a forect in those times. When achamma sees his trouble, she says "ente mon ini aa panikku pokanda". He thus lost the job. After not having a job for some time, working some small jobs in kochi (for likes of Rs. 30 a month), velyachan felt bad about having lost a good government job. Now on request of achamma and velyachan, achachan went and told Chathunni of the situation again. Chathunni again appointed velyachan in same post. Velyachan joined again and stayed on that job. Chathunni wrote (pathichu koduthu) 4 acre land for velyachan. Velyachan gave that to a christian for farming, and this person finally made that his. Velyachan stayed in Peechi for 2-3 years, then got transfer to trichur, finally retired as a first grade overseer.

On poverty

11 kids. poverty ran high. sometimes achamma went without food. achachan used to always leave half his food in his kinnam as if it was cut with a blade!

When achan was 8 (or 10) years old, achachan used to struggle a lot for buying a kaayakola for onam.
Similarly when achan was 10 years old, achan used to go with a head load of coconut to kottapuram market for selling it. he had to do it every week to get money for daily needs at home.
Sometimes he used to go to sell them in front of shops. oro chaaya kadayude munnil-um chennu: thenga veno? aa irakku mone. irakki. avaru vila parayum. aa pattoola. avidennu kayatti. angane pala kadakalil poyittu venam oru nalla vila kitti kodukkaan.

school - every body was admitted into nearby school. no special attention from parents for school - just go to school, listen to teachers and study. poverty was high, so kids helped with lot of work. after waking up in the morning, before going to school, kids had to weave the coconut leaves. previous day the coconut leaves would have been put in water. these will be pulled out from the thodu and each kid will weave his fixed quota of leaves - bhavani this many, bhargavi this many, achan this many and so on, before going to school.

also chakiri thallal used to happen. (achan recounted this while talking about poverty, so he probably meant to say that kids helped with chakiri thallal to help the poverty situation) madalu thallunnathinidayil there is a process where you beat the madal. this beating removes lot of unwanted stuff (choru). achan remembers one time when achan was doing some other activity amid this madal thallal - (he was turning the chakiri?) - when the beating by mistake happened right on his back (by bhargavi chechi).

another memory is about cheli - ekkal from puzha. (again, achan recounted this while talking about poverty, so he probably meant to say that kids helped with this process to help the poverty situation) ekkal is the rich sediment of fish bones etc collected from the river bed. people used to come in boats and unload the cheli. (they would have been told in advance that we want this many vallams of chella. usually around 5, 10 vallams of chella would be unloaded for us. it was beautiful. cheli will dry and will crack like appa kashnams. one piece could be 10-15 kgs) To put the valam for the trees on the inside of the fence, the dried cheli used to be thrown from outside to inside. achachan may be on the outside, kids on the inside. kids will carry it to the bottom of the trees. one time achachan's throw coincided with the arrival of bhargavi velyamma to pick it from the other side. the cheli landed on her head. for a lot of time, whenever bhargavi velyamma got a neerdosham she used to say that this is because chella katta fell on her head that day ...

achan - seeing achachans poverty, running around, responsibilities - got the drive to free him from the trouble - from very young age. eventhough achan was second son, he turned out very responsible. His word had a stand. achachan used to call achan for going to market or sell coconuts or call the coconut kanakkan ...

On thengu krishi

On thengu krishi

Achachan (Sankaran) was a advani. Used to put in lot of work.
Basically was a coconut farmer.
He got 1 acre 27 cents after partition. Then there was an extra 45 cent vadakke thuruthu and 30 cents kizhakke thuruthu.

There were around 300 thengu
Different activities used to happen. Not like today - pick coconuts, cut leaves.
In rainy season (monsoon), the activity was thadam edukkal - or thadam thurakkal. A circlular pit was dug around the tree in which rain water could stay.
In chingam, when rains would be over, the thadam will be closed. thadam moodal. After this, the parambu will look very neat.
Now, by thulam, there will be grass in the land. This grass will be cut and made into valam. before this, the grass will be ploughed and heaped into small heaps - this is called kanni koottal. Later these will be put as valam (needs clarification)

valam is put in summer. There are two types of valam - fish and pachila (needs expansion)

300 coconut trees - 2000-3000 coconuts. trees were young. there were lot of coconuts. the kanakkan's name was supran. supran used to climb the tree. after climbing the cut was with eye closed - oooi and one cut, two bunches of coconuts will be down. there were two workers - vasu and narayanan. they were permanent labourers. they used to carry the coconuts and collect in one place. (vasu and narayanana - were retired with benefits later on, after that their sons kumaru, etc used to come for work). coconuts were taken in vaari kotta and heaped in padinjaare muttam. later on the kanakkan will come and count. the counting was peculiar. one coconut ola will be broken out, and the irkil removed. achachan will hold this. kanakkan will count two at a time and push backwards. after 99, instead of 100, alare is called. alare call prompts a breaking of the ola. after 2 days thekkenu velayudhan chettan comes and puts paara kutti in the center and de-husks the coconuts.

The madal is not sold. Achachan would soak this in the thodu after taking a kuzhi. There was a thodu in the kizhakku. now road goes there. we gave it for the road. The madal was put in the thodu by the kids. around 2000 thodus. after this, keeraatha ola madnjathu nirathum. the cheli got from the thodu is put on top of the ola. this is to ensure that the thodu does not float away even if the water rises. this cover is called kidu (?). it lies there for 3 months. after 3 months people will come to take the madal. these are kayaru piri people. they will come and ask achachan "sankara chetta, paakam aaya madal edukkaan undo". then these madal will be given away. this is an extra income.

vrishchikam, dhanu, makaram, kumbham, meenam, medam are good months - yielding 2000-3000 coconuts. idavam, mithunam, karkkadam, chingam, kanni are bad. kanni-il kanji-kku idaane thenga undaavuka ullu. thondu from the good months are ready to be given away in the bad months ...

during thengu kayaral every kid keeps 10 coconuts aside for themselves. achamma will keep aside 100 for her. off the rest, 100-150 coconuts are put in the attic (thattinte mukal). this dries up. fetches more money when sold than normal. these are sold before onam for extra income. this is called varad. onamthinu varad irakki pothichu kodukkum. it fetches 2-3 rs more than ordinary coconuts. 2-3rs more for 100! when achan got job, coconut was at 18-25Rs / 100. Now it is 25 for one. mootha thenga is put for varadu - else it spoils. after it dries, it is easy to make copra out of this. as soon as it is de-husked, the copra comes out of the shell. so, it can go directly to the chakk. Thus varad was used for more money, and moreover as a savings for onam.

onam - kodi dress. chips were plenty. kizhangu varuthathu, kaaya varuthathu, chakka varuthathu were all made to fill big bharanis. kids used to enjoy these snacks. kankathi used to come during onam with poovatti - they had to be given something in kind -

kanakathi - kali kanukkathi was anjana karumbi. used to come with pure white dress. naadan mundu and flat clothe on chest tied around neck. 1 week before onam, poovatti is made of kaitha ola. this is for picking flowers. it will hung from neck (kazhuthilninnu naathi ida). they will be given nenthra kaaya, chena, ari, etc. no cash. varadu income is used for these.

kondal krishi

coconut was permanenet krishi.

pokkam - the land we have now as partition is called pokkam. there was a flood in 1999. water rose till the roof of the then house. people survived in two boats tied together. house was made with cheli katta and chenkal. the construction was affected by the flood (ilakkam vannu). after the flood, the house was broken down. and house moved to the current tharavaad. the basement was not broken down, hence the land is called pokkam.

when varsha kaalam starts, after two rains, acahchan used to plough (vaaram korum). chembu, chena, pana kizhangu(?), achinga payaru, padavalanga, paavaykka. all kondal krishis. this mostly used up, not sold. some neighbours used to take somethings. especially leaves of the payaru. there were some neighbours koonan madhavan, koonan narayan - sons of koonan krishettan(?). koonan narayanan had TB. TB had no cure in those times. leaf of payaru was supposed to be good for TB. so, they used to take it. payary leaf was made into a thoran.

some of the kondal krishi harvest was given to velyachan.  even a good curry was shared, especially so because achamma and velyachan's wife were sisters. if a thirutha curry was made, one full bowl was shared. that would be as much as we make for a family now-a-days.

On tharavad history

On tharavad history - land

Kottapuram - name comes from cheraman perumaal-inte kotta.
his capital was thiruvanchikulam
there is a temple, with idol of cheraman
history is that he went to mecca after accepting islam
he built the first muslim palli in india (or kerala?)
the palli had a kidavilakku (nilavilakku)
Exists today as Cheraman Juma Masjid

old name of the area was Musri. It was a sea port. Biggest export of kurumulaku used to happen from here. Musri is another name for black pepper
Musri stopped being a port after sea withdrew from here to Azhikode
Kottapuram is in this area

Achan's achan's (achachan: sankaran) achan was Makotha. The area had predominantly Araya community (Dheevara, Vaalan, etc.) mostly river fishermen. Some Christians. Some Muslims. Ezhavas were less.

The tharavad was in Anapuzha desham, (thekku bhaagam) called Bunglaavin parambu. Chathuppu nilam nikathi edutha parambu. 8.5 acres

The tharavad house was earlier in pokkam. pokkam - the land we have now as partition is called pokkam. there was a flood in 1999. water rose till the roof of the then house. people survived in two boats tied together. house was made with cheli katta and chenkal. the construction was affected by the flood (ilakkam vannu). after the flood, the house was broken down. and house moved to the current tharavaad. the basement was not broken down, hence the land is called pokkam.

On tharavad history - people

Makotha had 5 kids - Kanappan, Raman, Govindan, Sankaran (youngest), Narayani. (? age of Narayani may not be in sequence)

Labourers were less in the time. Farming using labourers was not profitable. People would give away land if they could not farm by oneself.

Kannappan and Raman sold their property and moved to some other land they got towards east. Thekku bhaagam was sold.

Narayani - was fair and beautiful. Married Gopalan ammavan. He was a farmer - had punja krishi, and kondal krishi. kondal krishi is cucumber, snake gourd etc. grown between the punja krishi. he used to bring baskets of kondal krishi harvest for achachan and his brother.

Achachan used to visit pengal (Narayani). He used to come back home and tell the visheshams of the visit. kids used to sit around to listen. Achachan used to say "pengalu oru pothicha thengayolam ellu idichathu kondu vannu vechu - njaan oru punna kuruvolam eduthu thinnu".

Ellu idichathu - ellu was probably a harvest. ellu idichathu was ellu, thenga and chakkara idichathu.

chakkara is thengin chakkara. thengin chakkara comes from thengu - there are two types of chethu - thengu is given for chethu for these two types - one is for kallu, other is for chakkara kallu. after chethu if cheli is pasted we get kallu. if chunnambu is pasted we get chakkara kallu. This chakkara kallu is evaporated to get chakkara (sometimes fried rice is put during this process (may be for flavour)). sugar was not common. chakkara was used to sweeten stuff. Pathimukham ittu vellam thilappichu (becomes red in color), aattinpaalum cherthu pillerkku kudikkaan kodukkum. (PS; for chakkara kallu chethu, kooli was peculiar - one days chethu used to go to the chethukaaran, the next days used to be for the owner.)

Narayani - had 4 kids: kochu raman, kochu kumaran, narayanan, devaki.  kumaran married velyachan Raman's daughter lakshmi kutty (maadavana). Narayani wanted to marry Devaki to Sivaraman velyachan. But Sivaraman velyachan, after getting engineering certificate, wanted to marry someone with a job. Thus, narayani's wish couldn't come true - she got Devaki married to a person with same name (sivaraman). This person passed away early.

Achachan (sankaran) and Govindan velyachan married daughters of kelengezhuthu ayappan on the same day! Karthyayini and Ambujakshi

Govindan velyachan had 8 daughters.

velyachan's (govindan) house was closeby. it is where gopalakrishnan kochachan stays now. sumathi chechi and sarojini chechi were daughters of velyachan. govindan velyachan's daughters: kalyani,meenakshi,nalini,sumathi,yamuna,shantha,narmada,sarojam. as velyachan had no sons, achan was treated as their son. they used to take achan along for marriages and all. now and then, they used to give food for achan, achan used to be called over for any visheshams.

if velyachan wanted to go somewhere, achan used to take him. even after getting his job, velyachan used to go to azhikode hospital with achan. he had asthma.

sarojam and all used to be carried in arms by achan in childhood. achan recounts: annathe bandhangalkku kooduthal izha aduppam undaayirunnu. innathekaalum. like izhaaduppam of karalkada vs other stores.

there was no house where sumathi chechi's house is now (this house was made by govindan chettan, sumathi chechi's husband - sumathi chechi got it on partition. the land from west to east, like ours, was velyachan's).

On veli kettal (fencing)

Veli kettal was a big activity.
Only big houses, like palaces had boundary walls.
Most other houses had fences.

veli has to be made for 1 acre 27 cent land.
most houses had no toilets - none inside house, and not even outside.
veli makes house look good from outside, and gives necessary cover :-)

first, pathal was put in the ground. pathal is vertical members of the fence.
pathal is made using small trees - karinjotta, peenari, marotti etc.

karinjotta
medicinal
violet kaaya
beautiful to see karinjotta kaaya formed as bunches (kula kula)
kadamkatha - "chettikal chettikal, aadunna chettikal, kaathil kunukkittu, aadunna chettikal"
the wood is very light, and pest resistant. puzhu kuthilla
wood was used to make methiyadi

peenari: bad smell

marotti
medicinal
marotti oil is god for kidney diseases (?) - external application and internal use
the kaaya is as big as a ball
marotti kaaya was ground in chakku for oil

(Deviation on chakku)
Chakku - mara chakku - wooden chuck - was a rotary mechanism for extracting oil from copra, marotti kaaya etc.
It was a big wooden piece with a hole in the center. The hole had the "kozha" (the pestle). The pestle was attached to a handle, and was driven by man or bulls.
The enna aattal was done by chakkaalanmaaru (people who run the chakk). Was mostly done by chetty people

(Deviation on chakkalathil poru (fight))
when chakkaattu is going on, the wife will be near the chakku, (maybe, helping to put the material that mooves up inside the mortar back into the hole properly) and the husband will be running the handle of the pestle.
when the oil rises in the hole, the man will start a fake argument and fight. He will run behind the wife. The wife will, in the commotion, dip her saree in the oil and run inside the house, where she will wring the oil out of the saree into a container, effectively stealing oil under the nose of the person who brought the seed for pressing out the oil.
This is called 'chakkalathil poru'

After pathal is put on the ground, vaari has to be put. these are horizontal members of the fence - after the vaari is put, the fence will be pretty straight & flat. Vaari is made of old adakka maram. Once the adakka maram gets old, fruiting (kaa phalam) will be less. These are cut, soft center is removed. hard outside is cut into long, flat pieces. This is used as vaari. If the fence is 5' tall, vaari is put at 1' height, 3' and 4.5'. Vaari is tied on to pathal using coconut leaves itself (?) for this valli is got from ola - ola keerunnathinu munp vellathil ittu edukkum (?)

Now, the flat structure has to be covered with medanja ola (woven coconut leaf). This provides the privacy for the compound. Weaving the leaf is an expert affair. Coconut leaves are cut after rain. This is scientific. during rainy season, leaves are needed for the evaporation. during summer, cutting leaves is good to avoid evaporation. leaves are cut, then the two ends (kada and thumb) are removed. The approximately 6' leaf is now cut into two along the middle stem of the leaf and woven. (can expand)

Similar woven leaves were used to thatch roofs. Kottapuram tharavad needed 28 kettu ola - one kettu is 25 woven olas.

Now this woven leaves are tied on to the structure earlier made. More varis are kept and the woven leaves are tied. The leaves go on the outside of the veli to give beauty to the fence.

mula (bamboo) also called illi pathal was tied on to the fence to avoid cows etc. from eating the fence, and to discourage people from stealing the fence. the illi pathal was bought by chettys (moopanmar) during the time of veli kettal. comes as 100 kannu (1 kettu) (?). The illi pathal is pierced on to the fence.

Now, it is time for veli murukkal (tying). A soochi (needle) is used. The needle is actually a 2 cm wide 1.5' wood piece with a hole in the middle. Two people stand on two sides of the fence. A rope (?) is passed through the hole by the person on inside and the needle is pushed through the fence to the other side. He takes it around the vari and pushes it back. The person inside makes the knot.

The fence was not needed on the east side. east side had a river, it was a tributary of periyar, joining bahratapuzha. There was daily boat service through this river. The boat used to go at sandhya time to chettuva. If you get in the boat at sandhya, it used to reach chettuva in the morning. Achan used to go to chettuva like this with achachan. achachan used to go daily to guruvayoor for ekadasi. this was how they went. they will wake up in the morning in chettuva. chettuva had muslim population. they would have breakfast from a muslim's shop (tea and pathiri) and walk to guruvayoor.

achan used to go to help achachan for veli kettal even after joining for job in trivandrum. (labourers were scant)

Scribblings

Scribbling down ... need to be cut & post

On Sandhya namam at kottapuram

Prayer used to happen in 'kizhakke eraan', so people sat looking towards west. Photos of Siva, Krishna, Kodungalloor Amma etc, used to be in this 'eraan'. Achachan used to fume sambraani in the morning in this 'eraan'.

Bhargavi velyamma, being the eldest, used to sing some old prayers, carrying the current youngest baby in her arms

Achachan used to read Bhagavatham. Used to read in nice tune.

Murukan was the favourite god. Going to Pazhani was popular.

On Achachan's english

Studied till 5th. English started from "naal ara class".(?)
There were some old books.
Acahachan used to trouble 'parameshwaran ammavan" (panambukaattu achaachan) with some questions:
What is the english for "Kuthunna pashuvine kurukki kettanam", "uyartnnu parakkunna oor kuruvi paranthu aakumo" ?

Sabarimala Ayappan - old and new

Achan: Where did you get this photo from?

Me: From the room we stayed in Sabarimala

Achan: That is the photo of the old vigraham. Ayappan is a lot thinner in this one. The current one is a little fatty

(The topic drifts to the event where Sabarimala temple caught fire)

Me: How can a vigraham be destroyed in a fire, was it not made of stone?

Achan: Probably, the vigraham was mutilated purposefully ...

(...)

Achan: Sahodaran Ayappan's words on hearing the news about the temple destruction: "oru andhavishwasam nashichu"

...