Life in the Forties continues
We celebrated onam, vishu and thiruvathira according to traditional ways and waited with great expectaions for these festivals for playing , eating and rejoicing with the friends..
Onam festivities used to be started ten days before thiruvonam day in the malayalam month of chingam
The saying is that"attham patth onam", ie on the tenth day after attham star, onam star comes.The houses would have been cleaned on the last day of the previous month of karkitakam with a ritual meant for sending away the jesta bhagavathy(goddess of all dirts, diseases, poverty and unclean things) and bringing sree bhagavathy,( the goddess of cleanliness, health., wealth and prosperity) to the home..
During onam days children should get up early in the morning, go out to collect flowers of different colous to make pookalam (floral arrangement) in the courtyard of the house.The beauty and size of the pookalams depended on the ability of children to collect maximum number of flowers of varied colors and their artistic sense . The flower arrangements would be continued till thiruvonam day.There used to be a small feast for attham, a special curry and pappadams and banana chips.but no payasam., to our disappointment.
The tenants would start bringing agricultural produce like bananas, elephant yam, ash gourd after attham and whoever brought anything for onam should be given a cloth(mundu) called ona pudava. and some money .They were given meals also .and would be invited to come for the ona sadhya without fail.
During the ten days of onam, , main eatables used to be steamed ripe bananas(pazam nurukku),banana chips(kaya varuthathu- salted one and the sarkara upperi- the sweet one)and would be given as much as we wanted.; .one special dish also would be prepared for lunch on all the days prior to onam..
We used to play with ola panthu(ball made of coconut palm leaves) as foot- ball made of leather was not common those days.We would be swimming and playing in the tank near our house in the afternoons .
If we were in Thrissur during onam holidays, we would go to the town to watch puli kali, a dance performance of people dressed like tigers and bears playing in the rythm of beat of the
drums.Kummatis(people covering their body with grass and leaves and playing)used to come to our house itself and play specifically for us and we used to give some money for each player as a token of our appreciation.
Vishu was a great festival for children as we were given money as vishukaineetam which could be used for our small pocket expenses, a rare thing those days for the children. We were never given any pocket money any time during the year and used to find it difficult to buy things we wanted when we go to school . We used to go to the tanner pandal( place where water used to be provided for drinking in the summer) near our school where sweetmeats like orange mithai, salted butter milk called sambharam and nellikka kept in salt water for few days for curing were available.Except the buttermilk, all other items were sold for a price These.thaneer pandals were run by charitable families as in those days people go from place to place mostly by walking or by bullock carts. by the roads and when thirsty they could always get water in these tanneer pandals.For those who carry heavy loads there used to be atthanis,( a stone structure of about 5- feet in height having two vertical stone pillars and one horizontal stone slab above it tofacilitate keeping the heavy luggage of the travellers ) near these tanneer pandals. Another's help to keep or unload the luggage was not a problem, if atthani was available.
On the previous day to vishu, the house used to be cleaned thoroughly and all wastes used to be burnt. In the night, arrangements would be made by mother to make vishu kani to be seen before sunrise on the vishu day by all members of the family.. .It used to be still dark when we would be woken up by mother one by one and shown the kani .The items kept in the kani were uruli with golden color with rice, konna poov, golden ornaments,silver ornaments, mangoes, jack fruit, specilal gourd known as vellarikka of golden colour.. A holy book(grantham) and a big statue of krishna would also be kept . There used to be a fanlike item made of pure cotton cloth and would be kept in a vessel(kindi) behind the uruli..After seeing the kani we would be given vishukaineetam by father.It used to be only one rupee coin for many years .We could, however, get lot of things for one rupee those days..-.For 1 anna(1/16th of a rupee) we could get 4 small bananas or 4 orange mithfterai..After vishukaineetam, fire crackers, patakkam, kambi thiri , matthap, vishnu chakram etc. would be lit one by one. by the eldest who could handle fire safely..There would be a feast in the noon and items like vishpuzukku, would also be served apart from a special payasam.
Another festival celebrated was thiruvathira, the birthday of Siva and also the day Parvathy was married to Siva. Women observe a sort of fast on this day and eat only friuts and items prepared with chama rice,and drink tender coconut water after praying to Siva and Parvathy . Special items like koova payasam (arrow root powder payasam) and thiruvathira puzukku ( A mixed vegetable curry of horse gram, elephant yam, green banana, chinese potatato etc)used to be made and offered to Siva Parvathy and the same would be distributed to all. .Girls were supposed to get up early in the morning on thiruvathira day , go to siva temple and pray for their own benefit particularly for a successful married life. . A swing, called unjal. in malayalam made by the servant and hung on a tall tree was the main attraction of thiruvathira for all children, girls and boys.. There used to be thiruvathirakkali ( a sort dof group dance with singing in praise of Siva and Parvathy) after the lunch by the women of the village and mother used to be the leading person with her good knowledge of various songs in praise of gods.
. A special flower called pathirapoov(blossoming at mid- night and red in colour) used to be worn by women on the head after duly worshipping siva on the previous night. Eating bettle leaves with processed arecanut and scented lime was also a tradtion observed by married women. on the day of thiruvathira.
We had once gone to see a kathakali performance when we were inThrissur.The occasion was the 60th birthday celebration(shashti poorthy) of a relation who was a famous traditional ayurveda vaidya(doctor). The kathakali performance was quite enjoyable as the story was from Ramayana, and the artists were all renowned katha kali artists from kerala kalamandalam, the institution started by maha kavi vallathol for reviving and developing the art of kathakali in kerala .The return of sri rama with sita after the marrige was the theme. The scene of srirama and sita along with the marrige party crossing a river was beautifully shown with the help of curtains and the variou mudras by the artists.Then came parasurama ,full of rage, challenging srirama for a fight and it was beautifully presented by the artist..When the performance was over, it must have been 4'oclock or so in the morning, I was physically carried to the bedroom by some one as I was in deep sleep on the mat spread in front of the stage.I did not go to any kathakali performance thereafter throught my childhood
We also used to go to see the temple festivals like poorams and the velas ...Though the elders would be watching the melam, panchavadyam etc. we children would be mostly busy in buying sweetmeats, peanuts, balloons, harmonica etc watching circus,playing three card game and other games.Though initialy we used to gain some money in the games, we would continue to play with the money we got initially and used to lose the entire amount we had with us after three or four games through the trics played by the master of the game..Father used to strictly forbid playing any card game and once he came to know of it we were physically beaten with sticks as a punishment.
After finishing my 4th class in the school,we bade good bye to our village in Malabar and permanently shifted to Thrissur in the then state of Cochin.
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Onam festivities used to be started ten days before thiruvonam day in the malayalam month of chingam
The saying is that"attham patth onam", ie on the tenth day after attham star, onam star comes.The houses would have been cleaned on the last day of the previous month of karkitakam with a ritual meant for sending away the jesta bhagavathy(goddess of all dirts, diseases, poverty and unclean things) and bringing sree bhagavathy,( the goddess of cleanliness, health., wealth and prosperity) to the home..
During onam days children should get up early in the morning, go out to collect flowers of different colous to make pookalam (floral arrangement) in the courtyard of the house.The beauty and size of the pookalams depended on the ability of children to collect maximum number of flowers of varied colors and their artistic sense . The flower arrangements would be continued till thiruvonam day.There used to be a small feast for attham, a special curry and pappadams and banana chips.but no payasam., to our disappointment.
The tenants would start bringing agricultural produce like bananas, elephant yam, ash gourd after attham and whoever brought anything for onam should be given a cloth(mundu) called ona pudava. and some money .They were given meals also .and would be invited to come for the ona sadhya without fail.
During the ten days of onam, , main eatables used to be steamed ripe bananas(pazam nurukku),banana chips(kaya varuthathu- salted one and the sarkara upperi- the sweet one)and would be given as much as we wanted.; .one special dish also would be prepared for lunch on all the days prior to onam..
We used to play with ola panthu(ball made of coconut palm leaves) as foot- ball made of leather was not common those days.We would be swimming and playing in the tank near our house in the afternoons .
On the eve of Thirivonam day(uthradam) preparations would start for making the statues of thrikkakara appan(Vamana), mahabali etc with clay available in the paddyfields and would be kept ready at the place where the pooja would be done on the thiru onam day, usually near tulasi thara( an alter for tulsi plant for watering and keeping particularly the evening lamp). The whole area would be cleaned and smeared with fresh cow dung for purification..On onam day the place where these clay statues would be installed would be decorated in an artistc way with a liquid of rice powder diluted in water.. The pooja used to be done by mother herself and after the pooja, prasadam would be distributed to all..Thereafter we would be given breakfast which consisted of iddli, steamed ripe bananas and banana chips specially the sweet one called sharkara upperi..We used to be given a mundu as ona pudava by father after the breakfast on the onam day.The feast at noon would be arranged for all including the tenants who brought ona kazcha described earlier. and after the feast we children would go for playing ola panthu in the nearby field.
If we were in Thrissur during onam holidays, we would go to the town to watch puli kali, a dance performance of people dressed like tigers and bears playing in the rythm of beat of the
drums.Kummatis(people covering their body with grass and leaves and playing)used to come to our house itself and play specifically for us and we used to give some money for each player as a token of our appreciation.
Vishu was a great festival for children as we were given money as vishukaineetam which could be used for our small pocket expenses, a rare thing those days for the children. We were never given any pocket money any time during the year and used to find it difficult to buy things we wanted when we go to school . We used to go to the tanner pandal( place where water used to be provided for drinking in the summer) near our school where sweetmeats like orange mithai, salted butter milk called sambharam and nellikka kept in salt water for few days for curing were available.Except the buttermilk, all other items were sold for a price These.thaneer pandals were run by charitable families as in those days people go from place to place mostly by walking or by bullock carts. by the roads and when thirsty they could always get water in these tanneer pandals.For those who carry heavy loads there used to be atthanis,( a stone structure of about 5- feet in height having two vertical stone pillars and one horizontal stone slab above it tofacilitate keeping the heavy luggage of the travellers ) near these tanneer pandals. Another's help to keep or unload the luggage was not a problem, if atthani was available.
On the previous day to vishu, the house used to be cleaned thoroughly and all wastes used to be burnt. In the night, arrangements would be made by mother to make vishu kani to be seen before sunrise on the vishu day by all members of the family.. .It used to be still dark when we would be woken up by mother one by one and shown the kani .The items kept in the kani were uruli with golden color with rice, konna poov, golden ornaments,silver ornaments, mangoes, jack fruit, specilal gourd known as vellarikka of golden colour.. A holy book(grantham) and a big statue of krishna would also be kept . There used to be a fanlike item made of pure cotton cloth and would be kept in a vessel(kindi) behind the uruli..After seeing the kani we would be given vishukaineetam by father.It used to be only one rupee coin for many years .We could, however, get lot of things for one rupee those days..-.For 1 anna(1/16th of a rupee) we could get 4 small bananas or 4 orange mithfterai..After vishukaineetam, fire crackers, patakkam, kambi thiri , matthap, vishnu chakram etc. would be lit one by one. by the eldest who could handle fire safely..There would be a feast in the noon and items like vishpuzukku, would also be served apart from a special payasam.
Another festival celebrated was thiruvathira, the birthday of Siva and also the day Parvathy was married to Siva. Women observe a sort of fast on this day and eat only friuts and items prepared with chama rice,and drink tender coconut water after praying to Siva and Parvathy . Special items like koova payasam (arrow root powder payasam) and thiruvathira puzukku ( A mixed vegetable curry of horse gram, elephant yam, green banana, chinese potatato etc)used to be made and offered to Siva Parvathy and the same would be distributed to all. .Girls were supposed to get up early in the morning on thiruvathira day , go to siva temple and pray for their own benefit particularly for a successful married life. . A swing, called unjal. in malayalam made by the servant and hung on a tall tree was the main attraction of thiruvathira for all children, girls and boys.. There used to be thiruvathirakkali ( a sort dof group dance with singing in praise of Siva and Parvathy) after the lunch by the women of the village and mother used to be the leading person with her good knowledge of various songs in praise of gods.
. A special flower called pathirapoov(blossoming at mid- night and red in colour) used to be worn by women on the head after duly worshipping siva on the previous night. Eating bettle leaves with processed arecanut and scented lime was also a tradtion observed by married women. on the day of thiruvathira.
We had once gone to see a kathakali performance when we were inThrissur.The occasion was the 60th birthday celebration(shashti poorthy) of a relation who was a famous traditional ayurveda vaidya(doctor). The kathakali performance was quite enjoyable as the story was from Ramayana, and the artists were all renowned katha kali artists from kerala kalamandalam, the institution started by maha kavi vallathol for reviving and developing the art of kathakali in kerala .The return of sri rama with sita after the marrige was the theme. The scene of srirama and sita along with the marrige party crossing a river was beautifully shown with the help of curtains and the variou mudras by the artists.Then came parasurama ,full of rage, challenging srirama for a fight and it was beautifully presented by the artist..When the performance was over, it must have been 4'oclock or so in the morning, I was physically carried to the bedroom by some one as I was in deep sleep on the mat spread in front of the stage.I did not go to any kathakali performance thereafter throught my childhood
We also used to go to see the temple festivals like poorams and the velas ...Though the elders would be watching the melam, panchavadyam etc. we children would be mostly busy in buying sweetmeats, peanuts, balloons, harmonica etc watching circus,playing three card game and other games.Though initialy we used to gain some money in the games, we would continue to play with the money we got initially and used to lose the entire amount we had with us after three or four games through the trics played by the master of the game..Father used to strictly forbid playing any card game and once he came to know of it we were physically beaten with sticks as a punishment.
After finishing my 4th class in the school,we bade good bye to our village in Malabar and permanently shifted to Thrissur in the then state of Cochin.
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posted by Bharat at 5:29 AM
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