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

Muttu is a fish seller having a rusted old fashioned dark green Hercules bicycle. Everyone includes the little mischievous cats and brainy crows are familiar with the busy and hectic schedule of Muttu. The loud pee!pee!horn of Muthu’s rusty green Bicycle is memorable to those little pets. He carries a big basket on his old cycle. While selling the fishes Muttu up-to-date or organize his fish basket he uses to threw little fishes and feed his little mischievous pets.Apart from Muttu ,Ms.Sreemathi also a fish seller depends her daily bread on fish selling .Her basket carries a mixture of sea fishes and the fishes catches from backwater. My interest always revolve around the rich color and texture of the back water fishes .Initially we used to see a variety of fishes like Karimeen (Pearl spot fish), koori (Mystus) Kaari (Catfish) Kanambu (Mullet) Pallathi (Orange chromide) Tilapia and Varal (Banded Snakehead). Among the other backwater fishes this work of art, deal with a phoshoped pearl spot fish Varal (Banded Snakehead)and a little pretty Orange chromide
Photoshop is an image editing software in one word .On the other hand, the Photoshop is a software through which we can generate various gimmicks illusions and visual effect and manipulate an image .In contrast, to the conventional usage of Photoshop here it functioned as an image creator. Though it is a two dimensional design software utility of various tools of photoshop suggest a carpenter or a mason who is accurately deals with various tools like chisel , plainer, and make a three-dimensional models with various complicated mathematical formulas .

If Mr. Roy takes bath definitely Peelu will laugh

If Mr. Roy takes bath definitely Peelu will laugh. This is a well articulated mischievous phrase appeared in an April fool day on the front door of Mr. Roy’s flour mill. Well, Mr. Roy and Mr.Peelu are two of my neighbors, and very interesting and at the same time peculiar personalities, making their life out of business. Mr. Roy is an owner of a Flour mill .
Kadavanthra was the hub for agriculture, variety of crops like bottle guard, snake guard, spinaches, paddy coconut and many more cultivated. Moreover, the substantial allowance of the people depends on those various crops ,domestic animals and aqua species. Roy’s mill, St.Joseph Church, Kadavanthra School, St.Sabestian Church Kallu pallam karayogam are the prime land mark of old kadavanthra. Mr. Roy’s mill has various food processors. He refine various raw food material for instances , he process oil out of coconut, wheat and rice flour.


My father’s name is Vakachan .However, there are two more people having the same name, thus people identified them either on the bases of their work or surname my father known as padathu vakachan .As I mentioned the kadavanthra was one of the hub of agriculture it seems our home was neighbor to paddy fields gradually the paddy field (paadam) has given an identity to my father .And my self and my brother known as padathu vakachantea makkal (sons ) .Though these fertility land is occupied by dwellings today, the name remains the same(PADDAM)


The idea of this mill may be begun from this rural agriculture context. Why did I say the idea of mill begun from the agriculture context because among the other mills in kadavanthra Roy is the only person having a rice refiner yet .Still, people bring husky rice from their villages and approach him Roy to refine it

This building is quite old and interestingly, the mill has one of the photographs of my parent’s marriage, which happened thirty three years back. Well, whenever me and my brother see that sepia colored obscured photograph we amusingly watch this old building. Roy’s mill having a huge oil refiner and this refiner would exclusively works in summer season and, this particular machine would be engaging from the month of January to end of April .During these months’ people dry the coconut and make oil out of it. The taste and smell of both the dry coconut and oil is delectable. We used to collect the desecration of the coconut oil and eat it the taste of this dry coconut waste is hot and delicious.

In fact, my grand mother also used to make oil out of a small amount of raw coconut. Initially, she crush, scratch the coconut and extract its substance once she takeout it again she squeeze the white springy substance and pull out its luscious white essence .This peculiar fluid resemble to milk thus this essence known as coconut milk the coconut milk is so sweet and capricious. Among other dishes Ediyaappam is one of the mouth-watering dishes in Kerala .Ediyappam is made out of rice flour and resembles noodles, except that it has a definite shape. Rice threads in the Ediappam are thin and more delicate than noodles. .Among many, Coconut milk and Eddiappam is the incredible blend of taste.
Let’s see how did my grand mother prepare coconut oil? She makes boil the milky coconut essence quite some time and it transformed into to yellow colored coconut oil. The perfume of this oil is just wonderful Even, Mr. Roy’s mill also having the same smell.

Mr. Roy was one of the most demandable person in Kadavanthra because; He is a monopoly in this peculiar business. Always busy in the auspicious days like Christmas and Easter because Pallappam is one of the tasty dish of Easter and Christmas feast, which requires rice flour. So, on twenty fourth December, and Monty Thursday we can see a large queue of Christian women with rice basket at Roy’s mill, apparently it is almost like a get together within the short time span the chitchat and gossip taken place there .The contestation maybe on the grant Christmas feast, Christmas carol song and many more .
Mr. Roy always appears in a casual wear. Every thing in this mill including Mr. Roy plastered or veiled with a thin layer of Flour. For instance, the window and the doors of this mill having light gloomy sky gray color but, due to the layer of flour the gray color turn even more ominous. There is a small table and stool in his mill. He collects and keeps money from the customers and save it in the tiny locker of the table. Surface of this table and also plaster by the particles and remains of dust and oil. Roy is a short and bald headed person having overgrown formless hair .Initially he had a Royal Enfield bullet bike .The peculiarity of this bike is the bright royal blue shade and the extra fitted huge sun glass .It seems the renowned Malayalam film actor Mohan Lal ride this bullet bike in one of the famous Malayalam movie Poomukapadiyelninnayum kathu. Eventually, Roy’s bike is the talk of the place and ive thriving hard till date to understand the similarity .The sad part is that, this bike met with a random accident and broken the fancy attached glass veil .Both the bike and Mohanlal are hero archetype so that this particular incident or the information narrated in the form of a story. Of course this incident was one of the core discussions of school going children to St. Joseph UP School Kadavanthra. .Though the mill and Mr. Roy looks shabby his blue elegant bullet appeared neat. He is a one of the land lords lived with all the facilities Apart from the royal Enfield bullet bike VCR and pets were the other attraction of Mr. Roy’s achievements .He had flowering plants and a beautiful aquarium at his home and, this aquarium carry a verity of fishes like Gold fish, white Angel, black Angel, white molly, black molly and many more .The way he cleaned aquarium is amusing because, he suspiciously use a small refiner and take out the fishes from it .And, keep all these tiny mischievous fishes in a small vassal and restructure the setup of this elegant and mysterious bluish aqua world


Weekends Roy uses to screen Malayalam movies at home. Little kids rush to his home theater however,the latecomers stood outside and watch film through a window He had a black Pomeranian dog . I did watch few movies in his home the movies were Meen, Mahayanam and many more.


Mr. Peelu’s shop is a little away from my home so that very rarely we used to go there. A huge mango tree is visible in the backdrop of this shop so, more than his shop my glance revolved around on the ripen yellow mangos in this tree. Presently Peelu’s son is managing his shop and he is an interactive and Joel in nature whereas .both the Roy and peelu are the extreme form of two different expression and the inspiration of the slogan If Mr. Roy takes bath definitely Peelu will laugh engender from this context

Amma manam

Amma Manam (Mother perfume) is an article written by the renowned Malayalam Poet Dr.D.Vinayachandran .And, it published in the Malayalam magazine Vanitha in the month of September. This particular work is a musical or lyrical musings of Mother and son time Rather than his mother the writer profess the mystical endurance of mother’s love or devotion to the creative and innovative minds .Moreover, he also establish two innovative mother archetype in this writing For instance throughout this work Dr Vinayachandran compare two floras with his mother’s love and affection .And, the two plants are Tulasi (Sacred Basil) and vanaya tree .Scent of vanaya and tulasi is astonishing. It seems his mother used to make a vayana ada .let us have a brief overview on this hidden ingenious culinary skill. Among the other Adda is one of the delicious dishes of Malayalee.
The vayana Adda is so sweet dish. And, the perfumed substance of vianaya makes the ada too tasty to remember. To make this peculiar dish initially we have to fold the Vianaya leaf like cone shape and fill the sweet rice pulp .After fill the delicious sticky rice pulp we have to boil it. After boiling the rice transformed according to the corn shape of leaf .Once it cooked we can peal and have the delicious dish .The process of the preparation almost resemble to the Tibetan dish Momo .Among the verity of dishes it is one of the delicious dishes of southern Malayalee cuisine in general particularly the vayana Adda is famous in the places like kottayam, Ponkunnam and many more. He muses such a way that the up growing and blooming vayana trees like his mother


Kerala is a place which blessed with luxuriant and green vegetation among the various flora and fauna Vinayachandran’s mother like Tulasi. Vinayachandran seeing vayana and Tulasi from a poet’ and his mother’s affection towards these foliage .Later the abstract and immeasurable phenomenon like love , affection caring, incarnate through the simple blooming vegetation like Tulasi and Vayana. When we read the work of VinayaChandran we read it as a article but it evoke or perfume an audible or lyrical sense reader’s psyche .He also acknowledge and appreciate his mothers contribution on his poetic meditation .Here he acknowledge the mother like a heavenly being for instance, initially, she use to collect various works of different writers and copy it in a book later as a writer it was one of the inspiration which he incorporated from his mother He amazingly narrate or elaborate this peculiar creativity to the reader .