Life in the Forties continues

Life moved very slowly and people had nothing to do except looking after their agricultural operations, if any,during the day..By 8 pm all people in the village would go  to sleep and the only sounds in the village  would be that produced by the crickets in the fields  and the cries of huge birds like owls, vultures .etc. living on the top of the trees.. These sounds used to be scary  making the children to fear death and ghosts. .Despite this, we  used to sit on the window sills of our bedrooms in the nights, looking at  the soft moonlight falling through the bamboo trees and hearing the  reading of Ramayana by an elderly woman, our neighbour   .. We were accustomed to fall into sleep hearing  her  Ramayana recitation.
 A maid servant used to come  in the night when father would be away   as mother wanted a female companion, being afraid of remaining alone  in a big house with small children. The people had practically no entertainment   and so when the grocery shop owner of the village bought  a radio for the first time , it was a great news and people rushed to his shop    to hear the songs and news from All India Radio.
Come rainy season and the whole village used to be full of water in all low lying areas,in the tanks, in the wells and in the rivulet(thodu)and in the paddy fields. .It was the time for we children to make paper boats and play in the thodu. and lots of newspaper used to be wasted for the purpose. for which I used to get scolding from father..
 ..
 We used to have only wooden palm leaf umbrellas  for the rains and black cotton cloth steel umbrellas were rare then.Only father had one,a sun brand umbrella manufactured  at calicut( probably by seth purushothamdas&co.., I think).
..When darkness fell ,  lot of insects(iyyam patta) appeared  from nowhere and it was necessary to close all  the doors and windows early in the evenings  The frogs would be croaking in a rhythmic manner in the paddy fields and   fireflies  would be  flying over the  bushes and the trees, very beautiful thing to see and enjoy.We used to catch a little fire fly and cover it with glass so that we could see how the fire fly moved around inside the glass..

 Strange it may seem now ,we were using at home a kaupin only as dress  till the age of 3or 4 and thereafter a kaupin and a small bath towel(thorth)  to cover the groins..Trousers(shorts) and shirts were the  dress for going to school and to far of places like Pattambi and Thrissur..For going to temple, however, we were allowed small mundu(cloth) with golden colored linings(kasavu mundu), given usually  during onam fesival days..

.After coming from  school it was the rule that we should take bath without which we were neither allowed to enter the kitchen nor allowed to touch other members of the family..So immediately on arrival  from school we all would run to the tank of our house(it was a big tank) and jump into the water.Soap was  rarely given and if at all given,  used to be lifebuoy, a soap red in colour, having  no scent at all.. We found that in big families having several children this type of soaps only were given to  children, soaps like mysore sandal, rexona, lux  were given to elders who were more careful in handling soap  while taking bath in the tanks...If we take oil bath we were not supposed to use any soap but only vaka powder(powder of bark of vaka trees available in the forest) to remove oil from the body and thali juice (juice of a herbal plant, kurumthotti)from the hair.Brush for cleaning the teeth was unknown to us and we used our index finger as brush   and umi kkari(burnt chaff of rice grains powdered with salt) for cleaning the teeth,and mango leaf. for cleaning the tongue.
 .We used to keep a tuft in the head insisted by father who used to say that being the grandsons of a  somayaji( person who had performed somayaga according to vedic rites) we should keep up our traditions and follow the orthodox customs of Hindu brahmins.We never used any comb or perfume.for hair dressing. . The tuft was removed  when we finally  moved to Thrissur(Thrissiva perur as was then known)  as  people there  stopped such practices due to modern ideas and even used to make fun of boys having tuft coming from remote village(kugramam).

As children  we would be  waiting for  the monthly poojas to be performed on the first  Tuesday or the first friday of the malayalam calendar ..These poojas used to be  performed by father-- .in the morning Ganapathy homam and in the evening Bhagavathy seva on the same day.  We would be given as prasadams, dry coconut pieces and jaggery after the Ganapathy homam,  and rice- jaggery neipayasam  after the evening  Bagavathy seva.The other poojas conducted  were onam pooja  to thrikkakara appan,  vinayaka chathurthy pooja to  ganapathy. both performed. by mother and    several poojas  performed by  father during the last three  days of nava rathri to Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathy..Our main attraction for these poojas used to be the various prasadams(like ada, neipayasam, thrimadhuram, malar and jaggery, appam etc.) distributed after the poojas .On ekadasi days we children were  given the special dish only a little though we wanted to eat more of it being very delicious.Same was the case with other vrathams also'.Father used to chant vishnu sahasranamam aloud on all ekadasi days nights and we were allowed  dinner only after the chanting was over..We would , therefore, be waiting to hear the last words "Sarva praharanayudha" to rush to the dining room floor. for food.

Birthdays(annual birthdays) used to be celebrated  meticulously by the mother for all of us.On the birthday we should get up early in the morning, take bath(oil bath was prohibited on that day) go to the temple wearing   a newly washed  mundu and also taking  an uruli, rice, fire wood and also a small pot of gingely oil for oil lamp for the deity. The uruli with rice and firewood would be given to the poojari (namboodiri)for making payasam  as neivedyam..After the poojas, it took pretty long time and we used to be impatient,. the neivedyam would be given in the uruli  to be brought  home duly covered with plantain leaf so that no impurities fall on the neivedyam on the way.Now a days you could book neivedyam on the previous day by  paying the approved rate and there is no need to carry firewood, ghee etc to the temple.The neivedyam would be given in plastic bottle or plantain leaf packets in many temples, if we do not have our own vessel. How days have changed for the better for the temple goers..

.It was the custom that while sitting for the feast of the birthday, on the left of the boy( whose birthday was being celebrated) his close friend should be seated and on the right side, boy's brother or sister .. .An oil lamp would be lighted and a small plantain leaf ( thoosan ila--tapering plantain leaf )would be placed before the lamp.On this leaf all items prepared for the feast would be kept and the mother  would offer it to Ganapathy by chanting a mantra ....Afterwards she would stand behind the boy.,offer prayers to the family deities(bhagavathy), shiva, and krishna, and would place a bunch of flowers known as dasapushpams on the head. of the boy  for his long and healthy life ..  Unlike other days, food would be served on plantain leaf  and not in porcelain plates .There was no system of birthday greetings or birthday presents then.and I never got any birthday present  in my childhood.We were prohibited to tell our age to anybody on the birthday, even if specifically asked, as it  was believed  that telling  the age on birthday would shorten  life