On the way to school, every day there were incidents which usually went out of our minds by the next day. The main road had too many huge mango trees which have disappeared now. The road was not tarred, but gravelled, or not(?). We sused to see at times heaps of rock stones off loaded for metalling the road. But that happened at a much later stage. Earlier times, when we used to walk to school, the road was gravelled only and whenever a vehicle, which were of course rare, it brought up a lot of dust if it was a fast vehicle. Mostly there were bullock carts only and they did not bring up any dust.
In such a road, one day we had a sight! The children with us were getting excited and they whispered among themselves! "The old ho-ho antie is coming! Run!" Every body ran to the sides of the road and hid themselves behind the huge mango trees. One or two simple people were on the road and the ho-ho auntie shouted at them saying 'ho'...'ho'....again and again and showed the long bamboo stick at them. The people slightly astounded and looking at the frail lady in her late eighties, slowly moved away without saying anything, but kept on closely observing her having empathy and sympathy to her situation.
The frame of an old woman came up fully clad in white with a long bamboo stick in hand. She was touching the road, with the stick in front and also shouting "ho.." "ho.." I looked closely without her seeing me. She should have been a very majestic lady once. The whole sight was pathetic. She was too old to have ventured out on the road and none of us knew where she came from and where she was going.
My friends told me that she belonged to a very rich family who were jamindars who have now become paupers and the old lady is set out to some work as all the workers of the family, have left them. The family has lost heavily due to the improper governance of the house in the "Karanavar" (Head of the family) way of handling things. Now that the family head has passed away the old lady is alone. A pity. The old lady, in olden days, used to go with a servant man walking ahead of her shouting 'ho..ho.." to warn people not to come too close to her as she is an important woman belonging to an important family with the authority to govern the near around places! That is all gone now, and the old lady is really helpless!! We looked on the passing frame but she did not have any defence when fast moving vehicles or bullock carts came. Slowly times changed and she or anybody like her, was not seen any more in the streets or major roads! The bullock carts disappeared and gave way to mini trucks. The mango trees were not on the road sides any more when I came back after forty years. The children walking to schools had disappeared. Now the children went in mini vans. They were all dressed in neat nickers and slacks well inserted with belt and boot, with identity card cords round their necks, with the school emblem on their shirt pockets. The gravel roads changed to tarred roads. Times did change, indeed!
Pranthathi Mariam
This was another poor lady not very old but in tethers and mostly seen wandering in the major city market and near about. As children, we never thought we have to do anything nor did any body else thinking in those lines. Most of the people in the city knew her as she was seen always in the market and none of us missed her. Her looks were blank and her hair was always seen to be cropped close. We did not know who cropped it for her as she was not in any sane mind to do it herself or request others for the same!
But this was no body's affair. All were people of great standing moving around and those who were not of great standing were poor and not able to help. Even if they wanted to help, they did not know what to do. There were no organizations looking after them. People simply thought that it is their 'fate', a too very misused and mistaken word, indeed! Since everybody was busy practicing piety, no body thought that this poor middle aged insane woman deserved any help or support.
Life was slow and things were routine. Children went to school, if they could, provided, the family was good enough to send them to school. There were many children who missed school totally to learn different types of works and start working early to support parents. But, by and large, all of them went to school, thanks always to the Malayalee nuns and priests who were bent on spreading education through out Kerala.
The elders went to work, mostly hard work. Business was less and the more shrewd went into business, provided their parents had money enough to go for it. The common man or generality did not have ambitions as they all understood that it was not proper for average people to have ambitions as they may not have to feel sad about it later. Those who were rich or more than well to do, always thought they were specially blessed to be good and the others were cursed and that is why they had to do hard work.
The village centre had a common man's place called 'Sathram'. Even though it was called 'Sathram', the people who lived there were unusually poor and those who did not have any thing at all in life except the tattered clothes they wore. This being a publicly donated place by some important individual of the olden times, there was no body looking after the place now. There was a huge 'madras eentha' tree in front of it, a stone plaque showing the name of the place and the name of the donor and an 'athani' for those who carried head loads on long distances. The 'Athanis' were prevalent in olden days when carrying head loads as a means of transportation were common. When the person carrying the weight when they feel too tired, looked for an 'athani' and
when they found one just pushed the load on to the athani without the help of any body else. If they had to put it down, they needed the help of another strong person. Here with the help of an 'athaani' they can off load and take it back on their head by themselves. The lady in question in her tattered clothes went into this 'Sathram' at times to spend the nights. This place being a public place were also a place of stay for bad people and such people came and left at will as all were allowed free stay there and as far as we children saw, there were nobody controlling anything or any body there.
The elderly Mariam kept walking by the side of this shop or that all through the day!! Everybody referred to her as if she is a pillar or part of a boundary wall or so. I could never connect with the puja and sermons I attended to her, nor could anybody else. We were small children in any case. None of the big people who were around also felt any thing amiss. But those good people of the city village centre did not have any thing against her either. They just allowed her there as she did not actually belong to the place.
It was rumoured (in the village, everthing had a rumour behind it which only the inhabitant of the village knew) that she was a daughter in law, married of to a rich family. The mother in law of the family is said to have struck her on the head with an 'ulakka' (the wooden pole usually used to beat rice paddy to dehusk them). The poor Mariam lost her mind and got injured and was thrown out of the house. Time healed her or was she helped by someone with any treatment were not known. She appeared in our village and either we all saw her near this wall, or that shop corner without speaking to any one, at times speaking to herself or looking blankly at the skies far off, or at times sleeping in front of a closed shop.
Once or twice she got pregnant and in those days nothing was reported as of today and there were no TV broadcasting as there was no TV at all. One time, she delivered a baby, we don't know how, but as she was insane, she carried the child around for a long while. In between, the child died and she still kept on carrying the child, without knowing the little soul is no more! Afterwards she was found moving without the child. We do not know what happened. Some do gooders of the time would have got the poor child buried. The poor Mariam the insane, kept on moving on the streets without any special remorse but could have been sad at times, as she kept on talking to herself at times!
Surprisingly all the good people and the philathropists passed that way and would have seen that sight of the tattered Mariam. All the ulsavams and perunnals took place on time so also the festivals of all other concievable religions around there. Onams came and went. Church festivals were celebrated with pomp and show. But....the poor Mariam....was forgotten and she moved about in the market place like a shadow, unseen and unnoticed by any one, even though all the children could see her very much in the streets.It was a paradox which we could not understand then as we were all busy scrambling to get into some job or the other as soon as we finished our studies with great difficulty swimming against all odds and taking them jovially as part of the game.
I got a job which was not enough to make a proper living by the standards of the time and had to move away in search of better prospects. I kept on coming and going like the Maveli of old times once in an year and in one of such years one of the general news I heard was "Nammude aa pranthathi Mariyam ille, avaru marichu poyi'. So simple. She was no more. No body knew who did her last rites, but every body knew that 'SHE WAS NO MORE'!..There would have been such unowned lifes in other villages and human centres through out the country..Who knew?
In such a road, one day we had a sight! The children with us were getting excited and they whispered among themselves! "The old ho-ho antie is coming! Run!" Every body ran to the sides of the road and hid themselves behind the huge mango trees. One or two simple people were on the road and the ho-ho auntie shouted at them saying 'ho'...'ho'....again and again and showed the long bamboo stick at them. The people slightly astounded and looking at the frail lady in her late eighties, slowly moved away without saying anything, but kept on closely observing her having empathy and sympathy to her situation.
The frame of an old woman came up fully clad in white with a long bamboo stick in hand. She was touching the road, with the stick in front and also shouting "ho.." "ho.." I looked closely without her seeing me. She should have been a very majestic lady once. The whole sight was pathetic. She was too old to have ventured out on the road and none of us knew where she came from and where she was going.
My friends told me that she belonged to a very rich family who were jamindars who have now become paupers and the old lady is set out to some work as all the workers of the family, have left them. The family has lost heavily due to the improper governance of the house in the "Karanavar" (Head of the family) way of handling things. Now that the family head has passed away the old lady is alone. A pity. The old lady, in olden days, used to go with a servant man walking ahead of her shouting 'ho..ho.." to warn people not to come too close to her as she is an important woman belonging to an important family with the authority to govern the near around places! That is all gone now, and the old lady is really helpless!! We looked on the passing frame but she did not have any defence when fast moving vehicles or bullock carts came. Slowly times changed and she or anybody like her, was not seen any more in the streets or major roads! The bullock carts disappeared and gave way to mini trucks. The mango trees were not on the road sides any more when I came back after forty years. The children walking to schools had disappeared. Now the children went in mini vans. They were all dressed in neat nickers and slacks well inserted with belt and boot, with identity card cords round their necks, with the school emblem on their shirt pockets. The gravel roads changed to tarred roads. Times did change, indeed!
Pranthathi Mariam
This was another poor lady not very old but in tethers and mostly seen wandering in the major city market and near about. As children, we never thought we have to do anything nor did any body else thinking in those lines. Most of the people in the city knew her as she was seen always in the market and none of us missed her. Her looks were blank and her hair was always seen to be cropped close. We did not know who cropped it for her as she was not in any sane mind to do it herself or request others for the same!
But this was no body's affair. All were people of great standing moving around and those who were not of great standing were poor and not able to help. Even if they wanted to help, they did not know what to do. There were no organizations looking after them. People simply thought that it is their 'fate', a too very misused and mistaken word, indeed! Since everybody was busy practicing piety, no body thought that this poor middle aged insane woman deserved any help or support.
Life was slow and things were routine. Children went to school, if they could, provided, the family was good enough to send them to school. There were many children who missed school totally to learn different types of works and start working early to support parents. But, by and large, all of them went to school, thanks always to the Malayalee nuns and priests who were bent on spreading education through out Kerala.
The elders went to work, mostly hard work. Business was less and the more shrewd went into business, provided their parents had money enough to go for it. The common man or generality did not have ambitions as they all understood that it was not proper for average people to have ambitions as they may not have to feel sad about it later. Those who were rich or more than well to do, always thought they were specially blessed to be good and the others were cursed and that is why they had to do hard work.
The village centre had a common man's place called 'Sathram'. Even though it was called 'Sathram', the people who lived there were unusually poor and those who did not have any thing at all in life except the tattered clothes they wore. This being a publicly donated place by some important individual of the olden times, there was no body looking after the place now. There was a huge 'madras eentha' tree in front of it, a stone plaque showing the name of the place and the name of the donor and an 'athani' for those who carried head loads on long distances. The 'Athanis' were prevalent in olden days when carrying head loads as a means of transportation were common. When the person carrying the weight when they feel too tired, looked for an 'athani' and
when they found one just pushed the load on to the athani without the help of any body else. If they had to put it down, they needed the help of another strong person. Here with the help of an 'athaani' they can off load and take it back on their head by themselves. The lady in question in her tattered clothes went into this 'Sathram' at times to spend the nights. This place being a public place were also a place of stay for bad people and such people came and left at will as all were allowed free stay there and as far as we children saw, there were nobody controlling anything or any body there.
The elderly Mariam kept walking by the side of this shop or that all through the day!! Everybody referred to her as if she is a pillar or part of a boundary wall or so. I could never connect with the puja and sermons I attended to her, nor could anybody else. We were small children in any case. None of the big people who were around also felt any thing amiss. But those good people of the city village centre did not have any thing against her either. They just allowed her there as she did not actually belong to the place.
It was rumoured (in the village, everthing had a rumour behind it which only the inhabitant of the village knew) that she was a daughter in law, married of to a rich family. The mother in law of the family is said to have struck her on the head with an 'ulakka' (the wooden pole usually used to beat rice paddy to dehusk them). The poor Mariam lost her mind and got injured and was thrown out of the house. Time healed her or was she helped by someone with any treatment were not known. She appeared in our village and either we all saw her near this wall, or that shop corner without speaking to any one, at times speaking to herself or looking blankly at the skies far off, or at times sleeping in front of a closed shop.
Once or twice she got pregnant and in those days nothing was reported as of today and there were no TV broadcasting as there was no TV at all. One time, she delivered a baby, we don't know how, but as she was insane, she carried the child around for a long while. In between, the child died and she still kept on carrying the child, without knowing the little soul is no more! Afterwards she was found moving without the child. We do not know what happened. Some do gooders of the time would have got the poor child buried. The poor Mariam the insane, kept on moving on the streets without any special remorse but could have been sad at times, as she kept on talking to herself at times!
Surprisingly all the good people and the philathropists passed that way and would have seen that sight of the tattered Mariam. All the ulsavams and perunnals took place on time so also the festivals of all other concievable religions around there. Onams came and went. Church festivals were celebrated with pomp and show. But....the poor Mariam....was forgotten and she moved about in the market place like a shadow, unseen and unnoticed by any one, even though all the children could see her very much in the streets.It was a paradox which we could not understand then as we were all busy scrambling to get into some job or the other as soon as we finished our studies with great difficulty swimming against all odds and taking them jovially as part of the game.
I got a job which was not enough to make a proper living by the standards of the time and had to move away in search of better prospects. I kept on coming and going like the Maveli of old times once in an year and in one of such years one of the general news I heard was "Nammude aa pranthathi Mariyam ille, avaru marichu poyi'. So simple. She was no more. No body knew who did her last rites, but every body knew that 'SHE WAS NO MORE'!..There would have been such unowned lifes in other villages and human centres through out the country..Who knew?
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