Festive memory

My grandfather use to tell lot of stories .And those stories were assumptions however, we liked to hear it. Among the anthology of few wonderful stories here I recollected a white chariot’s story .There are two temples near to my home the name of the temples are Ponnathu kavu Bagavathi temple and Ayamkandazuthu temple .Ponnathu Kave temple is a little far from my home so that we have never been there much .However, my neighbors used to tell the specialty of a festival which I use to visualize while they narrated and got involved in the vibrant festive ambience Poneathu Bagavathi festival celebrated in the month of January. A procession use to come along with a decorated elephant and ,little kids use to imitate the musical instruments played in this holy procession .The procession plays a particular kind of drums and trumpets .These trumpets and Drums known as Chenda and Kuzal. Rhythm of this band is peculiar like jillam pada pada ! jillam pada pada !,Jillam pada pada! Jillam pada pada!. Jillam Jillam jillam pada pada pe ….pree pepe eeeeeeeeee
Along with this Jillam Padapada! The soothe elephant walk is also beautiful The serenely walk of elephant always compare with the walk of a pretty woman .When we juxtapose the soothe walk of elephant and the musical back drop suggest the ambience of well composed choreography .Later when I was watching the movie Gaga Kamini directed by M.F.Hussain I could correlated the soothe elephant walk
The holy procession reaches each and every home and collect various offerings. This auspicious occasion known as Para Eduppu .In order to give a glorious salute to the omnipotent god and goddesses people decorate the residence with various auspicious and colorful things .It include the vibrant hibiscus flower, light green tender Banana leaf , Ripen yellow banana ,off-white coconut tree leafs, Tinder mango leaves ,a bunch of saffron colored tender coconut and different colorful illumination . While the procession reaches to home so the people use to offer various things to god like Rice , Flower, yellow banana ,coconut and many more .

This auspicious ritual having relevance with agriculture . Because the festive season in kerala begun in the month of November and malayalam name of this month is vrishcikam and endup in the month of april Malayalam name of this month is Meadam .This was the time of harvest use to taken place and people gather various crops for the next year.Among the varity of crops the farmars use to offer a share of harvest to the almighty god and Paraeduppu an metaphor of appreciation to the omnipotent god .The elephant which includes in the procession also get a percentage of offerings The offerings include the sweet brown sacker ,orange coconut and yellow banana to .The way Elephant chew the bench of banana is pretty good
In this auspicious occasion people also use to wear various colourfull dress .



In order to watch this magnificent occasion We were use to run after the procession . Apart from this holy procession firework was also a specialty of those festival and it was visible to us .we use to stood in the veranda of the house and watch the colourfull amazing fireworks. Let us see what is the relevance of this temple and the story telling session of my grandfather as I mentioned in the beginning of this essay there are two temple near to my home

Three pretty ghosts

Let me begin this ghost story from a little shop which was near my school. This shop is known as chedattyuday kada .Chedahy is a reverential salute to the elderly women in Kerala .This elderly lady /.Chedathy was a typical old Kerala Christian, wearing different kinds of golden ornaments .Chedathy’s character in this story is a fusion of three Christian women who inspired me .The first two characters are of my grandmother and the chedathy (old lady) who is the owner of a little shop. The third woman is a character who is involved with various witchcraft and bombards her neighbors .My grandmother used to muse over the beautiful dress code of these distinctive women .In fact, the old fashioned Christian women used to wear a kind of dress having fleets and folds in the back of the drapery to look like the tale of an animal .Both my brother and I used to call valu(tale ); we used to pull the beautiful fleet of our grandmother and it would increase her temper .The style of folding can very well compare with a japanese handmade fan. No one knows her name so that she is known by her family name They were one of the oldest and richest families in kadavanthra .Due to her ghostly or supernatural powers the frozen dead body of Ambanadu chedathy did not perish. Later her tomb reopened and the superior priest of the church made some auspicious prayer for her soul. No one has seen this incident; in one word in otherworld it was an oral history may be to enrich the vitality of this spiritual creature.

She was a myth always included in the oral narration of my grandmother; among the others she is an archetype of ghost.. Overgrown lush green vegetation creates the sheer silence and darkness in the surroundings of Ambanadu family and it creates an eerie environment .when we recollect and juxtapose the narration My grandmother ‘s narration with the ambience of this home incarnates a ghostly character in our consciousness .My grandmother, shopkeeper lady and Ambanadethe chedathy used to wear the same fashioned Christian wear .Let us take a glance at the story, this little shop of Chedathy made out of wood and painted with some black oil. She used to sell a variety of home made cookies , candies, chocolate, salty grain and soft drinks .Apart from this she also sold name slips and popular little fancy Malayalam magazines. Always little boys ignored heroines; instead they chose the name slips having their favorite Malayalam .


Apart from name slips, and cookies , she also organized different lucky drops. Prizes included in this little lucky contest were a sheet of name slip, brined hog plum, a piece of pinky ripen pumelo fruit and many more.Chedathy’s shop is famous for the mother perfumed or flavored confectionaries. These confectionaries were neither wrapped with the sophisticated golden paper nor advertised. These home made confectionaries were showcased in a gigantic glass jar . Aesthetically she arranged these ingenious food crafts .The instillation or the juxtaposition included a bottle of yellow salty Karanda, hog plum in brine and various fried salty grains. She used to keep a small cup inside the bottle of the salty fried grain and each cup of this tasty and delicious grain fry cost fifty paisa. She also used to segregate the pink and creamy colored pomelo fruit into pieces and used to sell it .This little piece is more delicious than having a complete pomelo fruit The ripe fruit had pinkish tone inside but the raw fruit had cream tone and the little raw fruit she sold at twenty five paise .The little kids use to collect the peel of this gigantic citric fruit and used to wipe their slate and black board .

Among others Sarbath is a tasty and delicious drink available in her shop .The Sarbath is a concentrated sweet flavor having the color of honey brown. and it is a quintessential blend of sugar ,ingredients like grampus and cadmium However, ingredients like Grampus and cadmium enrich the taste of this indigenous sweet delicious drink and the perfume of this special drink is lip smacking .



She used to keep Sarbath in a whisky or brandy bottle so that this special drink looked like beverage. She carefully cut the lime into two pieces and squeezed the juicy substance into the glass immediately after.The handling of Surbath can very well compare with a goldsmith who measure the gold meticulously .

This strange mixture of lime juice with Surbath is delicious. According to the requirement of the customer she mixed Surbath with lime juice or soda lime .The aroma of Sarbath is remarkable. She always wear white long top and this costume resembles the shape of a shirt and this is known as Chatta . We can see the brownish blot or drop of stain on her long top . Both the Void of this shop and her smell is remarkable.

A pearl spot fish puffed with pride