Simple Pleasure; humble celebrations

The bygone era is marked by the simplicity that distinguished their lives from that of their descendants. The will to share, suffer and sacrifice; the readiness to walk in step with the fellow human beings; the sincerity of purpose and above all their conscious choice to live symmetrically with their own habitat!

They found pleasure in simple things; found reason to celebrate almost any occasion that could be something so characteristically informal in todays standards.

Thus there have been so many "kalyanam"s (കല്യാണം - marriage or celebration). The renewal of the thatching the roofs called to be the pura kettu kalyanam (പുര കെട്ട് കല്യാണം). The circumcision of the Muslim boys used to be markka kalyanam (മാര്‍ക്കകല്യാണം). The coming of age of the girls was celebrated as theendari kalyanam(തീണ്ടാരി കല്യാണം). And of course, the marriages are celebrated as the ultimate kalyanam.

Make-up Talk

Like the costumes, the methods of make-ups were kept to few and were as simple as their attire. However, one notable exception was perhaps the attention that was paid to eye care.

Indian literature speak volumes of the hypnotic gaze of the Indian woman in whose eyes a thousand expressions glimmer and disappear in a moment’s time. Simple their lifestyle though eye makeup was very much in fashion. The trend was to darken eyes thickly with “Kanmashi” (Kajal).

Njorinjudukkal (Wearing with a Njori)

In earlier times, especially for women’s attire, there was a prevailing custom of sticking to white color which symbolized greatest modesty. But the women were not entirely unmindful to the aspects of beauty in their dressings, altogether.

One could find that the “njori” or folding the dress’s one end in a fan-like arrangement was most common, especially in womens’ dressings, obviously meant as an adornment. The arrangement is commonly called the “njori” (fold, pleat) and could be found in the dress styles of all our communities.

(Photo courtesy Helen Cannon-Brookes who kindly consented to use this image)