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 ...
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 ...
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