Costume: Chatta, Jacket & Penkuppayam

I remember Neely Thalla, as people used to call her, who lived nearby and was visiting our house often. We children were amused to see her wearing only the half mundu, a white cloth tied at the waist that barely extended to her ankle. Waist up, she was not wearing anything at all but she was in her sixties at that time. Later on she started wearing a loose cloth that was tied at her neck which covered her upper torso but still left her arms, back and side torso bare.

She was part of that transitional period when the Hindu women were beginning to come out of the custom which barred them covering up of their upper body.

(Photo courtesy Anupama Sadasivan)

Costume: Men

White kurtha and equally white sherwani, the colored towel tucked between shoulder and the kurtha top, the colorful, a furry Jinnah cap on the head, the bright colored cardigan, the skull shaped black painted begging bowl in one hand, the large cotton sack bulging from the shoulder. The “Nagoor Khalifa” was seen only from a distance by us, kids.

(Nagoor in a place in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur District where the second most largest and popular Dargah – or tomb of a Sufi saint - in India is situated. Nagoor Khalifa receives alms for the Dargah.)

(Photo courtesy Kaashif)

Water Spots

Go zodiacal and ask me. I am a water sign and water amazes me. Amazement apart, there used to be an abundance of water sources at our village. West of us was the Canolly Canal; our connection to the vastness that is the Arabian Sea. In the east, Thanneer Kayal remained “in water” for the best part of any year.

In between these two water locks, we were graced with an abundance of Kulam’s (ponds) – large and small – and Kiner’s (mud water wells).

The larger of our ponds were common (public) facilities and were used by the ordinary folks for washing, bathing and other routines. There were two large ponds within the Main Mosque Compound, another one attached to the Manaloo Masjid. A couple of ponds still exist to the north and south west of the Puthukavil Nada temple.

But the largest of them all were attached to neither to a temple nor to a mosque. That pond was in Kumbalathe Akayil compound – a true secular public pond; this has, however, become shrunk over the years but still survives, if you could ignore the weeds.

Woods and the Thickets

A village should remain of course as close to nature as best as it could. Our village is no doubt full of trees, but the main plantation being coconut trees, whose lean trunk grows high but with absolutely no branches, provide entirely no shield from the sun or rains. An occasional mango tree, jackfruit tea, teak or the likes are seen in private yards. There were a few inevitable banyan trees close to the temples. The other tree of any note was the bamboo groves grown with a view to producing materials for building huts, fences sheds or for making handicraft items.

Kongini (image courtesy Prasant P Jose)

Thanneer Kayal

A “Kayal” is a backwater expanse consisting of canals, coconut groves, a variety of bird life and cultivated lands.

Thanneer Kayal’s cultivable paddy fields start from Padoor and Thirunellore in the western side. The Kayal lands extends to both the Venkitangu and Mullasseri Panchayaths.

A deep trench or canal is opened to the Canolly Canal at our border with Thirunellore (see “Idiyan Chira”).

A variety of bird life still survives in these lands, although the paddy cultivation has long been in a state of neglect. The heavy infection of weeds etc. was affecting the farming until recently.

Now the situation is beginning to change and cultivation is slowly returning. The Canal in the Thanneer Kayal is now widened and strengthened with formidable dikes. It is connected to Peechi Reservoir agriculture water distribution network, so water is made available for agricultural needs during the summer months.

Zone: Idiyan Chira

Going to Peringadu (or Thirunellore) was almost a routine thing that I did during my childhood. Many of our close relatives stayed there.

Peringadu is the neighboring village to the north and lies along the Canolly Canal. The mud road (which it used to be) touches the Canal while it approached our northern border.

All the time I walked by foot, as everyone else did. The exception was a rare bicycle rider but very few owned a bicycle in that age.

The Thanneer Kayal, lying east of Padoor, is extended to Thirunellore. A deep trench that carried the excess rain water from the Kayal to the Canolly Canal was separating Padoor from Thirunellore.

The Idiyan Chira (literally the sunken weir or water trap) connects the two villages across this trench. Basically the Chira was constructed to trap the sweet water in the trench so this could be utilized for the Kayal agriculture. It also keeps the saline waters of the Canal from getting entry to the trench and thereby sully the paddy fields’ fertility.

Only during the monsoon months the Chira’s barriers (made of wooden planks) are kept open, so as to regulate the water level at the trench and the Kayal.

The narrow wooden beams - used to hold together the planks - at the top made up for a walking bridge. It was more like taking a little walk on a trapeze; but that was the fun thing to do if you were a kid. In the space between arrays of planks and beams, they used to fill with mud; which never remained a level mass. That is why perhaps people started calling it the Idiyan Chira (sunken water trap).

The Idiyan Chira is now replaced by a modern bridge complete with a fully aligned road; so both the villages are now connected by an automobile route.

Zone: Pandikasala (the Warehouse)

As a child it was a daily ritual going down to the Seethi Thangal’s pandikasala (or godown) in the afternoon. It situated right next to Pulikkakkadavu; where none of us goes unless one want to cross the canal (which you don’t normally do or require).

The pandikasala housed the branch post office in our village. This post office first used to be the branch of Chowghat (renamed Chavakkad) main post office but later on assigned under the Mullasseri. This required that all the letters bore an additional address line showing the main post office (thus we write “(Via) Chowghat” or “(Via) Mullasseri”).

The post office is kept open for two hours (3 – 5 in the evening); a post master and a postman were the employees. The postman had to collect our incoming letters from the main post office as well as deliver the outgoings. He used his bicycle to do this but in case the man doesn’t know cycling he had to walk 4 k.ms up and down from Mullasseri (read no buses to Padoor at that time).

Once the letter bag reached our post office, our postman has to affix the date stamp on each of the incoming letters. Then he used to read out the names of the addressees. The village folks who gathers around his at the time of this ritual could collect letters for their family; or letters meant for their neighbors. If you don’t do that, the letter gets delivered at your house at the postman’s convenience.

As children it was fun going to check out if our family had any letters (most of the days you don’t get one) but some of us made it a point to be regularly present at the time anyway.
This was the only time when the pandikasala building appeared to be with any life. Otherwise it had all the appearance of a perfect ghost-house.

Apart from the post office, the pandikasala had another large room, with an array of wooden planks positioned together for an entrance. The planks were fastened by a thick iron lever running through them on both sides and which were latched to a lock fitted to the central plank. The room remained locked perennially. Two windows type shop-counters were seen on the sides but these too remained tightly shut.

Curious sounds were coming out of the room even in the broad day light hours. But we know these were coming from the bunch of flying bats that were breeding freely in the safety of the darkness of the perpetually closed room.

A small room with a single door and a single window at the western end was used by Mr. Seethi Thangal as his office was in intermittent use. The never in use upstairs consisted of a decent sized hall that could hold 40 – 50 people easily.

The baked clay tiled roofs, bare red laterite walls and the wooden ceilings had all given the building a perfect classical look. Contrary to the ghostly atmosphere and appearance, the elders say that the building used to be the centre of active commerce when the water transport was relied upon for movement of goods. The building – which I had seen in my childhood - was built post the 1941 Cyclone when the original building gave in to the nature’s forces.

The glorious days were well past; however, the existence of our post office ensured that pandikasala continued to be a signpost until 1980s. This was the time when the post office was shifted to a new location having been upgraded in to a Sub Post Office (Pincode #680524).

A new building replaced the Pandikasala about 10 years ago but the newly built Pulikkakkadavu bridge alignment road completely obscured its sight. Sadly, this new building too thereafter remained in a state of disuse.

Zone: Karagos

The importance of Karagos center was perhaps attributed to the existence of a small mosque that was built entirely by a private person. There was a small commercial building which time to time hosted some grocery or beedy shops.

It was such a grocery started by a couple of friends which gave the place its name. These friends were returnees from Bombay who decided to name their shop after a famous Bombay grocer or store. Thus the locality comes to be known with an utterly unfamiliar epithet; perhaps origin of which is traced to Greek or Latin.

The locality still remain almost as sleepy as the older times.

Zone: Shappinte Avide

The Shappinte Avide ( or near the shop) itself derived from the fact a toddy shop was present at that place which – I was told – was an undeclared no-go area for the sections of repute in the village.

Until the present Mullasseri – Padoor road was constructed, people used to take the route along the thodu (trench) going almost parallel to that road a few yards towards the north and ending in the Thanneer Kayal and without touching the Shappinte Avide.

In my childhood, the center remained a sleepy place, until the evening. In the evening, at about 4 O’ clock, the fish vendors bring their stock to sell in the market. That is the time when it was goaded in to life and some notable activity. The fish market was located at a yard in the east end of the centre, just opposite to Janardhanettan’s teashop.

There were a few permanent shopkeepers in the place, notably a stationery store run by Raghavettan. He employed a few people who used to roll beedies for him to sell. Raghavettan’s beedi was a popular brand at that time. There were two types of beedies, “Cheru Beedi” (small sized beedi) and “Valiya Beedi” (larger sized).

His was the only shop we, the students, were interested in anyways, an array of jars were displayed right at the front with several types of toffees, not seen in any other shops at the village.

Janardhanettans teashop, Vijayettan’s barber shop, an ayurvedic herbs’ vendor, Rawther Mohammedikka’s grocery and a vegetable shop - and later a ration shop - were all that to it to the Padoor Center (market).

Zone: Chanthappura

The Govt. Mappila U P (GMUP) School near to Pulikkakkadavu is still called by the nick “Chanthappura School”. The nickname came from the fact, a Chanthappura (the village market place) did exist in the compound near to the school. The school compound also housed the Kundzhiyoor Panchayath (abolished 1962) Office.

The Chantha extended from the present GMUP school compound up to the Pulikkakkadavu. People used to sell and buy all sort of things there including live cattle.

I don’t recall seeing the Chantha there in my childhood. The market was - by that time - shifted to the present day Padoor center (Shappinte Avide).

Zone: Pulikkakkadavu

Lying at about the midway point of Padoor at the waterfront of the Canolly Canal Pulikkakkadavu used to be our main Kadavu (ferry landing station) in the earlier days.

Automobiles reached our village late in the 1950’s. Until then and after so many years it is your foot, or a rare bullock cart. If it is some faraway places or you need to take the woman folk, say for a marriage celebration, the primary option is using the waterway.

In its glorious days, the kadavu witnessed hectic activities. Padoor chantha (market place) adjoined the Kadavu where the traders used to collect and forward finished coir products to important trading centers such as Cochin. Water transport was the main means of freight traffic during those days.

The Pandikasala (warehouse, godown) right at the Kadavu was exclusively used to stock the coir products.

Pulikkakkadavu was then sort of relegated in to a mere canoe station. It was the only place where a regular ferry existed between our place and Engadiyoor to the west.

Other canoe landing places did exist along the length of the canal but not every other landing station was open to all. Some stations were the private properties of certain clans or households. Moreover, none of them did have the luxury of any form of a paved platform as Pulikkakkadavu.

During the 1960s, the Highschools at Engadiyoor were popular with students from the eastern shores of the Canolly. Pulikkakkadavu was the crossing point for pupils from Padoor.

The new bridge connecting Engandiyoor to Padoor has now eclipsed the Kadvu entirely.

Kodunkattu (The Cyclone)

In Padoor’s history, the Malabar Cyclone of 1941 is considered to be a historical tab holder. Rarely an older incident is narrated by our Gran's without the reference to the Kodunkattu (Cyclone). Invariably an event is either that many years before the Kodunkattu or so many years after it.

It is only too obvious that how severely the cyclone must have affected life in our area.

Meteorological analysts say that cyclonic storms coming direct from the sea are not normally struck the Malabar Coast. Since 1845 there have been just three recorded storms of this type that hit Malabar. The types of storms that develops in the sea and directly hit the coast, cause more destruction in the coastal areas.

In this instance, the coastal area of the Ponnani Taluk (including the now defunct Kundazhiyoor Panchayath) was the most terribly affected.

The cyclonic storm and rain lasted for two days on the 26th and 27th May 1941. Widespread destruction was reported caused in Padoor. The Canolly Canal was virtually turning in to a sea, houses were submerged, people were trapped inside or on rooftops of their own houses, houses collapsed and properties damaged, paddy crops went under water. There were not enough canoes available to rescue trapped people. The canal was bringing corpses of people and animals as well as uprooted trees from the elevated plains.

Shops and warehouses were also affected and the food stocks were spoiled or lost. People were starving and some had to even survive on eating grass or leaves long after the water had subsided.

In the aftermath of the destruction, the district collector of the Malabar had come to visit Padoor to assess the damages. A reception was hosted to the Government delegation and memorandum submitted.

Reportedly Mr. Ibrahim Sulaiman Sait, who at 19 was the rising star in the All India Muslim League at that time, was accompanying the delegation. The elders who met that delegation included Bukharayil Koyakkutty Thangal (father of B V Seethi Thangal), Puthenpurayil R P Bavoo Sahib and Kariat Kunhi Bappu Sahib.

The People - Bombay Connection

We grew up in an agrarian atmosphere. The family yard was full of vegetation. The vegetation extended even to the fences (a fence was mandatory for every respectable household).

Made of skillfully woven coconut leaves and cut-bamboo parts and branches, the fences were extremely eco-friendly in today’s context. The fence provided an opportune space for the agrarian minded people. Climber plants of delicious fruits and edible vegetables are grown alongside these fences. Those produces come in handy during the scanty months of summer.

Prior to the Independence, the people mainly engaged in farming (usually paddy cultivation and coconut planting) and farm related jobs and enterprises and some fishing. It was much frugal and very simple existence.

Thus every inch of the available space in the house yard is meticulously utilized for producing food (not that we did have much space to talk about anyway). In such an environment finding a space for us, the children, to play was difficult. Fortunately for us, we did have a neighbor with a copiously spacious plot of land surrounding an impressive house. His house was built of rock and concrete whilst most of the neighboring houses were –including ours- made of the mud and thatched wooden roofs.

Proudly enough for me the house belonged to my maternal uncle, who made it to the riches in the rough and tough world of Mumbai. At that point of time, a decently kept and furnished house implied that a member of the family was out in Bombay.

In our mostly agrarian society, emigration had become very popular during the late 1940’s. A lot of the youngsters were out of job or were very disillusioned by putting up with rigors of the rural life. Some were incited by the usual flare up of usual youthful rebellion against an imposing hierarchy. Whatever the reason, the youths streamed to the luring metropolis of Bombay (Mumbai) in a big way during that period.

In Bombay they found employment and some went on to establish small businesses that were enough to earn them hefty profits. Our businessmen either set up a restaurant (which in Bombay terms they call a “hotel”) and kiosks that made and sold beedi (small sized cigarettes made of tobacco and tobacco leaves) or served tea at the street side pavements (out of their humble samovar). The employees were mostly manual laborers.

Not that the Bombay-ites were the pioneers in emigration out of the village. There were a handful of people who went to Malaysia, Singapore and later on to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) – all part of the then British Empire. There were a few other people who made a living as sailors in merchant marine vessels.

However, unlike their predecessors, the Bombay-ites did have a profound impact in the economy of the village. Their income become its main economic backbone and remained so for a long time to come. They were socially committed too as some of the village’s community institutions were built or run by their active support and contribution.

Gulf emigration was started in a big way during 1970s but there were a few early scouts who reached the Arabian Gulf decades before and some of whose epics rightfully warrant another chapter.

Much has been written about “the Gulf Boom” in which the village was having its natural part. As such, there is perhaps no need to elaborate on the subject here. “The Gulf Boom”, ended the prominence of Bombay as an employment destination.

Even before that the rising political and security troubles - chiefly the “son of the soil” agitation spearheaded by the Shiv Sena - were diminishing the Bombay’s charm.

However, Bombay remained the most important transit point for the Gulf migrant travelers, the city being the main gateway station to the Arabian Gulf countries, having connected by both the sea and air routes. That position remained intact until the Trivandrum Airport was accorded the International airport status in 1991.