13th January,2008

Dear all,

Thanks for the encouraging remarks about my last note. I am sorry there were a few mistakes in it. Sudev's remarks, I feel stemming from the bottom of his heart, on Ammamma put everything about her in a nutshell. Thanks for such a great statement.

Let me take you all to half a century backward. On one morning,Ammamma was making thin dosa (in Achhchan's language Ullitholikkusamamaaya dosa) and we were eating. Occasional cries that who should get the next and the usual loud din, the trademark of Kunnam family,enveloped the atmosphere. I had not yet started going to school proper. The dosa was very thin and crispy and with Ammamma's special ulli chammanthi (not the usual one, but shallow fried with coconut oil and cumin seed), there was no stopping by anybody until the dough finished or Achhachan made his appearance. As we were eating and Ammamma was making dosa, suddenly she felt unwell and requested Achhachan to take charge of the kitchen until we finished the break-fast. Perhaps, many of you do not know that Achhachan used to cook when she was unwell or on those five days. Any way, Ammamma climbed up the three steps with great difficulty (as I was sitting on the opposite side of the steps, I could see she was straining to climb up the steps and biting up the excruciating pain) from Kitchen to the hall and then to the next bed room. Those of you who were born and/or had come into the family later than 1967, might not appreciate of adequate rooms in the small house we were living. There were two open verandas (east and west with the west one covered by blinds made of bamboo), a small bed room and a hall in between and on thenorthern side is the so called kitchen. But between the west veranda and the cattle shed, the frontage was very expansive and beautifully landscaped, a vegetable-cum flower garden.

That reminds me of some interesting incidents that took place in those days. One night, we were all fast asleep, kids inside the hall and parents in the western veranda, you may say "eating cheese with the angels" and all of a sudden Achhahhan woke up and naturally Ammamma also got up and in the commotion all of us kids too. We could hear Achhahhan telling Ammamma that he dreamt one fully ripe pumpkin was about to fall down as its stem was detached from the creeper. Hewas so much engrossed in farming and Ammamma was heard consoling him that nothing would happen and that we could pluck it out early next morning. Alas! This premonition turned out to be true, as the yellow pumpkin was really detached and resting on the pandal. On another occasion, we had a good crop of the golden yellow `Vellarikka', the one now-a-days we see in Vishukkani, and as was the custom, all of them were hung horizontally using plantain fibre, on the small squarish wooden bars on the ceiling of our central hall, about which I had mentioned earlier. It was a treat to watch these golden vellarikkas dangling around the ceiling. Of course, there was no electric supply those days and we were depending on hurricane lamps using kerosene and coconut oil lamps. But occasionally, I used to switch on the lighting system of my own using torch cells (taken outfrom Achhahhan's torch without his knowledge). By the by, Achhahhanhad a special torch without cell, instead a dynamo was attached to it and this dynamo was cranked using the squeezing motion of the right palm. It used to make a squeaking sound as its lever was pushed downward and pulled upward and it is said reptiles around used to run away. As the scene was so set, one of our neighbours, (in fact the nearest house was a mile away from our home which was located in the centre of our big farmland) a beautiful lady with rosy lips and fairskin, very close to our family and our well-wisher too, but well-known for her so-called `black eye', visited us around 5 p.m. The golden rays of the setting sun entering the hall through the western door and windows added to the glow of those beautiful vellarikkas. Ammanna invited her to the hall and offering her a seat, an `avanappalaka',stepped into the kitchen to prepare coffee. The guest, resetting the seat ensuring that its rococo carved tail was turning left, sat down facing eastward and panned the whole hall, left, right, up and down.As Ammamma re-entered with the coffee tumbler on one hand and a plateful of pokkuvada on the other, this sweet lady remarked. "What abeautiful sight! All these vellarikkas were from your farm!" A fewdrops of coffee spilled out and fell on Ammamma's toes and she felt that was not a good omen. It was pathetic from the next onwards, they began to rot and fell down one after the other.

On another occasion, Ammamma was churning the curd with the `katakol' to separate butter from it. Some of you might have had the opportunity to see this very interesting method, in fact even today this isavailable and is in vogue in Kizhiyedathu ammathu. She was sitting on the `avanapalaka' with both the legs folded upright and the steps well balanced on the round pillar on which two separate loops of threads were hooked supporting the wooden stirrer. Pulling the two edges of the thread twisted on the stirrer, with the left and right hands, in a rhythmic motion she was turning the stirrer fast inside the `Bharani', a home made centrifuge and perhaps the base for the modern centrifugal system. As the butter was being formed, she had to go to the kitchen to check the cooking level of rice boiling on the country stove using wood logs as fuel. One of us was playing nearby,I mean near the Bharani. Taking the opportunity of Ammamma's absence,the kid put the right hand into the vessel and began to eat the butter. By the time Ammamma returned, the entire quantity of butter was swallowed by the kid with great relish. Ammamma got shocked and became panicky as she did not know what to do. The reaction on the kid was very fast. The only undergarment the kid was wearing, became wet and for a change a pleasant smell got mixed with the air around.One of us, as usual on a lighter vein remarked that the kid be placed on another Bharani to collect the liquid instead of wasting it.Ammamma was at her wit's end as the child began to show signs of exhaustion. She began to feed the child with more and more water and occasionally some light solids until all that the child ate came out. All this time, Ammamma was only praying God that nothing should happen to her beloved child, taking all the blame on herself for her negligence, leaving the child spared of any rebuke.Coming back to Ammamma leaving the kitchen with pain, Narayani was waiting for her in the bedroom (the only room with privacy) . A few moments later, we could hear the first cry of a child who was laternamed……

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Tale-piece: Sudev & Manju returned from their vacation at below zero temperature at Ooty! They said it was enjoyable. The photos they put on the net is being scanned. Read Chandrappan's addition on his blog.Very interesting. Anu is right, he is on a big job. Aniyan has not yet set the blog for me. Please speed up. ………………………….Ravi

30 December,2007

Dear all,

I opened the email today with the hope of reading chandrappan's Sunday write-up, and was a bit disappointed because he did not write anything for quite sometime now.To fill up the gap, I, therefore, thought of airing bits and pieces of my memories for the benefit of the younger ones. Hence this.

This note is dedicated particularly for the benefit of all grand children and their children of Kunnath Mana family.The very thought of writing this was initiated on the evening of Saturday the 23rd December, when a majority of our members took a trip to Chanthot Durga Temple at Naduvannoor in Calicut District, to offer prayers to our family deity. Some of you may wonder what it is all about. It is said that 8 nambudiri families (Kunnam, Kuni, Edasseri, Ilayedam, Maruthi, Munda, Kanda, Vavu) from this area were ordained by Kochi Maharaja to be settled in Thiruvilwamala, to perform Pooja at the Sri Rama Temple there, over a century (perhaps centuries) ago. So our root is Naduvannoor and traces of existence of our Tharavadu near the Durga temple are still found there. In fact, the prathistha in the Sreekovil of our Illam in Thiruvilwamala (now valiappan’s residence) is this Durga Devi and regular poojas are performed there uninterruptedly. Thanks to Rema Cheriyamma for updating me on this. For the last few years, Vijayappan persuades all of us to visit this temple and to pray for the well-being of our family.

Coming back to the commencement of the thought process, that evening I was alone as Valiyamma also had joined the team. I was late coming back from work and was very tired and hungry. Luckily, the fridge was full of food. I took a little of each of these and mixed with rice in a bowl and heated in the oven). I grabbed a spoon and started eating as if I did not eat anything for the previous one week. Ah! Aah! It was so tasty that my memory was in a flash driven back to half a century when from Valiyachan, Leeloppol upto Vijayappan all were schooling. As we used to rush back from school hungry, Ammamma always used to keep ready something to eat. One of items used to be this masala mix of rice, koottan, mezhukkupuratti, pappadam and of course thairu, all put together in the kalchatti (stoneware perhaps some of you would have seen). That mouth-watering taste I can never forget!

Talking of Ammamma, she was bestowed with a blessing that whatever she cooked turned out to be extremely tasty and dainty. (You know one of us is blessed with this gift after Ammamma, I don’t say who). Her, Iddli, Dosa, Payasam including ‘pathinarupalam’, Mysore Pa, Laddu were all well appreciated. Her perfect round Murukku, formed and twisted with the thump and index finger was so tasty that eating it alone would, and words cannot, explain its flavour and swadu. Sathiyoppol of course makes murukku, but using some mould to get the shape, but very crispy and tasty. Perhaps, Ammamma’s association with the Thathamangalam Brahmin community, while Achhachan was working there as the Health Inspector of Palakkad Municipality during the second world war, helped her learn this branch of culinary art.

After Achhachan resigned the job and took over farming at our family property at Oralasserry after partition, we had to undergo severe financial stress as our paddy fields, the only source of income, went dry as the nature was very unkindly and inadequate rain adversely affected our crops. This leads my thought to an interesting yet painful event when one of our farm labourers insisted to get his wages paid in spite of Achhachan sympathetically appeasing that he had no penny in hand. What happened in the process was that I (a small kid) was thrown into his hands by him saying this was the only thing that he could offer him then. I was lucky that the faithful labourer held me safely in his hands and appreciating the honesty of Thampuran, he left the scene, leaving me on the veranda where I was standing till then. The condition was at times very pathetic and even now it is very painful to pen it down. Why I said all these was, our Ammamma was always so concerned to look after the health of her children. At times there used to be no vegetables to cook, but then her magic fingers used to produce some unimaginable tasty curries, like Thaalincurry, morucurry and the ever enjoyable pappada puly. By the by, milk and milk products were plenty thanks to our Vellachi pashu (really our Kamadhenu), about which Chandrappan had dealt with extensively in many of his writings. So also pappadam was aplenty as Venkitti Chettichyar with the big gold thoda on her ears and the traditional pathakkam on the neck used to frequent us with her home-made pappadams.

Ammamma was so kind hearted and amiable that she was never an in-law for any of her relatives, always a daughter and sister in Kizhiyedathu and Kunnathu and above all a Mother full of kindness for all of us. I had seldom seen her talking badly about anybody, and if she heard anybody talking like this, she used to dissuade them saying so.

In 1964 when I was preparing for SSLC, after Vijayappan, I was occasioned to be bed-ridden along with Ammamma by a severe bout of Chicken Pox (no guinea ginia was heard of in those days!) which I steel feel adversely affected my destiny. But I had the opportunity to understand her more closely as myself and Ammamma were cut off from the other members of the family and put in a room in the Pathayappura and only Achhachan used to come closer to give us food and medicine. As I said, I was severely affected and Ammamma used to comfort me, reciting poems, lullabies, interesting tales, her experience in the joint family before partition and the like. All used to end always with the prayers for the well-being of her children.

I have just touched upon only the two qualities of Ammamma and time permitting I shall continue writing about the others in my next issue. It is now high time that I stopped this as we are in a hurry to go out to attend the engagement ceremony of Ashy (Sushma’s friend) at Dass Continental, Trichur.

As a matter of convenience, when I write Chandrappan, Vijayappan, Cheriyamma, Valiyamma, they also mean Ammaman and Ammayi. If I have gone wrong anywhere on account of fading memory, please bear with me and those who are in the know please correct.
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Tale-piece. The new addition of Sushma in Entesangeetham is excellent, ammu’s acting in the Star Wars exceptional. We expect more of these. Hope Sushma, Praveen and Kannan have had a nice vacation at Florida. We anxiously await the snaps.