Truncation (BH:D57)

September 29, 2011

By 7:45 am, a paling red 90s model Yamaha bike arrived: Vijayan and Sathisan with their coconut tree felling equipment. 

The appraised the prospective victim and then went for breakfast. If the tree trembled, it wasn't noticeable. In half an hour, Sathisan had changed to his work clothes: an old 'mundu'! I don't think this mundu had anything to do with his nickname, "munda", that Vijayan kept calling him. Vijayan was the middle-man, the retailer, the Google of coconut tree cutting. He performed the service of bringing together Sathisan and the trees that needed elimination.

There is hardly 3 meters separating the two houses on either side of the tree. In this space runs a 4 feet tall wall ready to mischievously bounce any coconut or frond onto the windows of the houses. So everything from the tree top had to be dropped with utmost precision. This was the most gruelling hour of labor for Sathisan. One by one the fronds, both dried and green, hit the ground before they could aerodynamically orient themselves. The coconut bunches plunged and shattered into individuals like diasporic Malayalees. 

Bundles of coconut flowers. Arboreal Abortion! 

Watching the gradual shaving of the tree top reminded me of the Jain sanyasins who pluck their hair in thick locks by hand. Visibly painful procedure.But the tree was not bleeding. 

Besides being the middle-man and the director of operations, Vijayan also played the coroner, stacking the fronds in the backyard and heaping up the coconuts in various stages of growth on one side of the tree. 

Since the newly installed metallic roof of the neighbor's needed protection, the part of the tree above it was cut into short chunks of 3 feet. Sathisan would hack away at one side till he reached 80% of the width. Then careful chops from the otherside, testing if the stem would give away every few hacks. Once the portion creaked and cleaved away, the rope tied to it and pulley-ed through a rubber automobile tire would be used to lower it slowly. Their experience with this work was obvious in the neat execution. Because of the heat Sathisan had to take a couple of breaks. In between, he got a small cut in his hand too. 

Yet nearly 30 feet of the tree was finished in 3 hours. 40 years of nature's care 

hatchet-ed. Sisyphus laughs, Naranathu Bhranthan guffaws!

While Sathisan was busy with the coconut tree, Vijayan went up the teak to hack away the leafy branches. This is done so that the trunk grows thicker towards the ultimate purpose of quality construction wood. Also the leaves are a hassle for the neighbors on the other side. We did not tell Vijayan about the purported "komberi" snake spotting earlier on that tree. Since it was not mentioned, Komberi did not show up today. Achan expected that it might present itself because couple of days back we saw a mongoose climb down the laburnum tree in our garden. I am aware that mongooses fight snakes to death but I don't think they go out of their way to hunt them down!

We had hoped that Sathisan would pluck some coconuts from one of the other taller trees in the backyard. He said he was too tired. Few years ago, he had once cut down 40 coconut trees in a day. It was a much easier kind of cutting down: topple at the base after clearing the top. But when he climbed to the top of the 41st tree, he fainted. So these days he doesn't risk it. We didn't want the risk either. 

Achan was rather pleased with their execution and paid them extra. I think he had nightmarish experience with the team that came here last time. While leaving, Sathisan gave a recipe to try. Slightly steamed mixture of tender coconut flesh with palm jaggery. He said it is a native healthy dish that he feeds his childrem. We'll try!

Since coconut tree cutting experiences have thankfully been few and far between, I have eaten the top pith of the tree only twice before in life. It is a unique flavor and texture. The focal point of all the growth. White, fresh, juicy, youth!

The survey drawings and data CD for our old hourse that were delivered this morning cost exactly the same amount as the tree felling. I liked this sychronocity that illustrated the fundamental income disparity that has been the cornerstone of human civilization ever since its inception. 

The use of technology to deliberately create a slave class (by any other name), the fruits of whose labor the technologically advanced can eat. Those making Rs 25,000 a day decide that Rs 25 a day is enough for others to make a living! Diseases, old age and death...these treat all humans with glorious equality, yet in the precious little time we have between birth and the inevitable deterioration, we play this game of differentiation.

It will take at least a month to burn through the leafy and flowery remnants of the coconut tree. But that process need to be done on a daily basis to prevent the heaped up remains from becoming a hatchery for snakes and a mongoose nursery. 

8 ft of trunk has been left standing so that clotheslines and trellis for other plants can be made. An aluminium (note the British i in the spelling) vessel has been installed, overturned, on top of this. Decapitated and capped!

A whistle-blower school teacher who had brought into the open the corrupt practices in a school under the management of a state-based political party, was brutally assaulted yesterday. Reportedly, a "paara", the heavy metallic digger that we use to dig holes in the backyard garden, was driven into his ass. He is in the hospital with permanent damage. A clear message to whistle-blowers: There is no saving your ass if you don't ignore all the corruption around you. The political parties are busy playing the blame game following the incident. Ethics had its ass irrepairably torn in India very long back!

Today is world heart day. This year WHO has decided to focus on the heart health of the family. Various activities being organized in the city. A young, famous heart specialist in the city was going to Reserve Bank to give a talk. Amma was supposed to give the welcome speech. She asked me to write down a couple of lines for it. The doc had written a short sweet write up about the heart and its care in today's Manorama newspaper. That made my task easy. 

The Navaratri season is here. It hasn't become as big a deal in Kerala yet as the new fads of Ganesh Utsav and Akshaya Trittiya. I guess not enough Gujarati money is coming into Kerala. However, the Vidyarambham event, the initiation of children into the world of letters, is, as is to be expected, keeps getting bigger literate Kerala. All the newspapers are having ceremonies in which stalwarts of the Kerala culture scene will initiate hundreds of kids. I presume it is these first letters are still written in Malayalam and not in the alien tongue that television show hostesses communicate in.

Though a lot of them are pure media hype, it must be admitted that once-in-a-while campaigns launched by newspapers here bring about positive change. Rain water harvesting campaign by Manorama and forestation campaign by Mathrubhumi are the ones that immediately come to mind. Now Manorama has launched a campaign for "vegetable gardens in the backyard"! Suits me. It is an interesting campaign to launch at a time when backyards are disappearing and mallus are increasingly living in yard-less apartments at the height of two coconut trees. Okra and spinach seeds are being distributed with this edition of Manorama weekly. 

The coconut tree isn't there anymore to hide the trajectory of the setting sun. I thought the twilight's eagles were redder as they banked in flight.