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.

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.

Padoor - The Place

The legend goes that Padoor acquired its name from the combination of the Malayalam words “Padam” (paddy land) and “Ooru” (neighborhood). The name thus means the Place of Paddy Fields.

True to its name, the village used to be interspersed with paddy fields (lowlands), placed between the corridors of inhabited coconut estates (elevated lands). It almost looks like the elevated lands were man-made landfills of then originally existing paddy fields.

To cap it all, the lowlands of Thanneer Kayal (which used to be opulently cultivated rice fields) provide the boarder to Padoor at the east end.

Padoor is locked between the paddy field stocks of Thanneer Kayal at the east and the inland waterway of Canolly Canal in the west.

Thoyakkavu lies to the south and Thirunelloor (Peringadu) to the north. The boundaries on both these fronts are separated by canals; the smaller Thannolli Thodu and newly broadened Irrigation Canal - that hooks Mullasseri to the Peechi Irrigation Canal network at Elevally - respectively.