Chapter 6
My Days in My Years
I do not know since when I started realizing the beauty of our village, its rural setting, elegance of its long stretch of paddy field, which gives the impression of a green carpet laid. Amidst the fields decked in the best of greens, there would be small huts, thatched with coconut leaves. Dots of huts spread across the fields were connected with narrow pathways, which was used by the hutment dwellers, mostly the labors toiling in the field paddy field. When darkness sets in, a new landscape became visible. The murmuring birds fly past to reach their nests. Little later, one could see the bats feeding on delicious fruits grown in the courtyards of adjoined the houses. After feeding on these fruits, which were grown in abundance in each court yard of a household, they flied past through the fields to hang themselves in a neem tree, believed to be several hundred years old, that was what the old people around used to claim.
In the thick of night that enveloped the sky after the setting in of the darkness, once could hear the loud songs sung by labors, who were entrusted to irrigate the land. Invariably, they would be intoxicated by that time, after a few rounds of toddy or arrack from a nearby tavern. Some of them used to carry a torch made of dried coconut's leaves. I often used to wonder why they sang loud songs on their beat. I was told that it was to keep the crawling reptiles like snakes at bay. Another one told me that it was to frighten the evil spirits, which used to wander around at night. I ddi not know whose version was right and I believed both versions.
The river that flown half encircling the village is still a delight to many. In our times, it went completely dry during the summer months except in certain patches, where it was very deep. That was the channel where the line boats plied connecting various villages on the way. When I was young, that was the only mode of transport available in the village. There were several sch line boats in service. I distinctly remember their names, Job, St.Marys, Vazhapilly, Beena and so on. Job and St Mary's plied between Paruoor, a nearby town and Kundoor, bang opposite to the dead end of our parambu (land). There was another boat that connected Kundoor with Puvathuusery, a another village some 15 kms away from our village. Once I had taken a boat ride when I was very young to go to one of my mother's sister's house who was married there. Though the land distance between the villages are only a a few kilometers, the boat ride used to take anytime between one and one half hours depending on the current of the water.
The river which flows near our place is called Chalakudy Puzzha (river), which is a tributary of Periyar. The river source is western ghats and the water collected from the uphills flow across to the North and it branches into several tributaries known in different names and finally joins the Arabian Sea. During summer months, the sea water inundates into the river and the water becomes salty and becomes unusable for cultivation. Earlier, there were temporary bunds built across the river to stem the flow of salt water. But invariably, during the rainy days, the the temporary bund used to breach or destroyed to allow the water to flow. Otherwise, water would be inundated to the nearby court yards creating a lot of damages to the nearby places. That had happened quite a few times. When this had become a regular feature, people living in nearby places resisted the construction of the katcha dam. That led to mass petitions to build a permanent bund and a bridge. During summer times, the the bridge cum dam prevents sea water entering the fields in our village. The construction of the new bridge cum bund started at least 35 years back and was completed only some 10or 12 years back.
I have vivid memories of the river-both good and bad. During summer months, the whole village children would be playing in the river either engaged in swimming or other games. We used to play handballs, throwing balls from one person to the other. During the summer vacations our bath in the river lasted for hours together and we used to wind up only when someone came to call us with the news that breakfast was served or someone had come to see us.
( To be continued)
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