March 15, 2012
In his weekly column in the Malayala Manorama newspaper, Asokan Cheruvil has written today about two grannies, well past their 70s, who have culled open new vistas in Malayalam literature with the publication of their stark, simple, touching, realistic autobiographies. The accounts salted with tears...of their private and public struggles ...for the right to wear blouses, for the right to drink tea and so on...will neither stick to any existing genres of literature nor satisfy the rules of linguistic aesthetics.
But Asokan Cheruvil fears that such honest writing coming straight from the heart and drilling right into other hearts will soon put literary craftsmen like him out of business. He wonders why our political leaders don't write autobiographies any more; is it because alphabets are insufficient to tell their tales which seem more appropriately summed up in numerals: 1,80,000 crores, 8500 crores, 111 crores etc!
Reading that column while sitting in the verandah this morning, Achan went into flashback mode. He recalled both his grannies: Kochu Parvathi and Karthyayani Pilla. Kochu Parvathy though tiny (kochu) like her name suggests had the reputation of a dynamite temper. I had mentioned earlier in these notes her lineage that goes back to the woman from Kollam who moved to Thiruvananthapuram after marrying a priest of Padmanabha Swami temple. Kochu Parvathy died after being bedridden for 18 months from a stroke. Achan recalled visuals from his 5 year old eyes of this frail woman in her 80s swaying slowly and collapsing in the northern room ('vadakathi') of our ancestral home while she was making a garland for the evening puja.
My other great grandmother, the Mrs. Pilla, spent most of her life in Thiruvattar, my grandmother's native place. She visited Thiruvananthapuram only on the births of her grand children. She herself had borne 8 children, not all of whom survived. After the 8th child, her husband, Narayana Pilla, took sanyasam (asceticism) and left home on a pilgrimage of several years. She never wore a blouse. Both my great grandmothers were illiterate but they made sure that their children were not.
Next to a more dramatic episode: Achan's mother (my granny) received a suicide note from her younger brother back in the 50s. Love failure! The letter began, "Akka, aa vili ini undavila..."(Elder sister, You won't be hearing me call you like that anymore...). My granny rushed to the village immediately. Her brother was missing. Massive search operation for the young man well known in the area. Finally the search parties heard loud wretching from the area where my great grandfather had been cremated. There they found my grand uncle, writhing in pain from swallowing some "Kill Bug" pesticide! He was saved in the hospital but it destroyed his health forever. I found that hard to believe because I remember him as a very muscular old man with blackened lips who always smelled like beedi.
Achan has fond memories of one of his grand uncles. The man lost all five of his children in their childhood itself. He loved animals. Several times Achan has told me about a massive bull that was born in our ancestral home in Thiruvananthapuram. It had once managed to ditch the man who bought it and run back home from three kilometers away. Finally, this great grand uncle took this bull to the native village. While getting it on to the truck, he promised loudly to make a donation to "Alapangode" temple if they reached the village safely. The deity of this temple was known as a patron of cattle and their welfare. Achan had revisited the temple several years ago and found small clay cattle figurines that people had donated. From the facebook page of the temple, I learnt that the procession in 2011 featured 30 elephants. Apparently the patron diety cares only about cattle and not the torture of elephants in the name of devotional display.
The big bull thus transported back to the village apparently because of the blessings of Alapangode Appan was castrated only after he had an equally massive bull son. Post castration, there was no other bull that could be matched with him shoulder to shoulder on the yoke because of his height and so he had to be used alone for plowing the paddy fields .
From mere story telling, we soon moved onto, naturally, social analysis. Achan suggested that it is common trait among Malayalee married women to closely guard their family's honor and not let any "bad news" about them get to the husband's family. Once when he was 12 years old, Achan went to the native village to collect the lease farmers owed my grandmother. His grandmother who had collected the amount gave him Rs. 42 in a small pouch. Though Rs. 42 was quite a big deal back then, he innocently kept it in his trouser pocket along with the Rs.1.20 that he had for bus fare to return. Next day the pouch was gone. Rs. 1.20 was still there.
When he informed his granny about the loss, she promptly told him that her younger sons must have taken it! The matter was taken to the grand old man, the senior-most in the family, the "Karanavar". The man was lying shirtless on a wooden easy chair in the verandah of the thatched "Ettukettu" style home, the homes that have two roofless inner courtyards. He listened to the whole story from the granny silently. Then he spat out the "murukkan" (betel-areca nut chew) and declared: "Nellu vittitu tharam" (Will give the money after selling the rice harvest).
With this news Achan came back to Thiruvananthapuram, but his mother wouldn't let him get into this story in front of her husband's family. Her brothers image mattered! A new tale was invented that put the blame on a maid servant. The inexplicable part about why that servant would leave behind Rs. 1.20 was cleverly ignored. This same grandmother of mine who nonchalantly brushed off Rs. 42, later on gave Achan hell when he lost 50 paise (half a rupee) in school! That harvest and the old "karannavar" have disappeared from the face for the earth for several decades now, but the forty two rupees never came!
A trend setting event was organized this evening at the road intersection near Althara temple. Today is the 6th death anniversary of legendary Malayalam film music composer Devarajan. Devarajan master had set to music dozens of immortal songs penned by Vayalar in what was certainly a golden era of Malayalam cinema. His bust now stands at the end of Manaveeyam road and his songs are continuously played there all day much to the delight of people who visit the milk booth that doubles as a tea stall.
Devarajan foundation organized a concert, Mohanaragangal, of his songs on an simple but elegant stage erected on the footpath in the area. By 6 pm, there were couple of hundred people crowded on the road. Traffic wasn't disrupted. But every single vehicle passing by slowed down to check what was going on. A great team of singers including famous P. Jayachandran sang 20 songs of Devarajan, all of them tuned in Mohana ragam.
Achan thorougly enjoyed listening to all the songs, most of them from the 60s of his youth. Jayachandran opened the concert by singing his first movie song to be released, "Manjalayil mungi thorthi..." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79nX8c4jEcw) which was perfect for the mid-March season when the golden shower cassias begin to bloom. This song was followed by the old hit song "Maarivillin theen malare" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-JUfbdQQrk) penned by ONV Kurup. Half way through the concert, a tribute was paid to the recently demised music director Bombay Ravi with one of his greatest hits, "Chandana lepa sugandham" which is also in Mohana ragam.
Here are the other songs that I remember, mostly listing them for lovers of Mohanaragam.
Ezharaponnana: http://youtu.be/1140gK2kxiA
Ezhu sundara rathrikal from Ashwamedham: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68ZzCWqGMo
Devasenapathy swagatham: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UopjvAPbxZs
Yamashankoli: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSrc8shnjJA
Guruvayoor ambalanadayil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5IQNIGZmFg
Devadaaru pootha: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuMR65hUThk
Madhuchandrikayude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcGUdq5pAeY
Kayampoo kannil: http://youtu.be/ZxCidYKFZaQ
Chakkarapanthalil thenmazha: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ3tXtd9E14
Swargaputri navaratri:http://youtu.be/BQX3Rb7dEng
Aaayiram villodinju: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrTx9Njnso0
Yaahi Madhava: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t8-OCZwJTs
It was a great experience to see music lovers in this part of the city organize themselves by the road side and even stand on the dividers to watch the concert. By 7pm, crowd had nearly doubled. Nobody wanted to leave since more and more Devarajan's masterpieces were being rendered.
A great day of memories culminating in timeless melodies from the Black & White movie era.Today, "uppu karuvadu"(dried salted anchovies) for lunch and Keechakavadham kathakali in the evening.
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