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.
______________
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.
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.
______________
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.
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