Angaadi is the village market place. At the city of Ollur this was a four cross. a north south road was criss crossed by an east south-west road. Coming from the east road was the old red bus called Sreeramachandra. It came from a hilly terrain called Thrikkur far up in the east. When we came out of our house from the bye-lane, it appeared with its face to the west and proceeded after taking passengers waiting for it under the Madras Eeantha tree.
It also stopped whenever some one showed a hand, generally a left hand as the entry was from the left and the road driving in Kerala was always keeping to the left. It stopped at the Police station where the Conductor got down ran to the Police station, made a signature, gave a polite reply to the police man who threw a question or told him to keep the timings etc., ran in shouting "weiisss..." This is the other form of saying 'Right' which was used to warn the Driver to start. In fact the driver kept on looking at the direction of the Conductor and as soon as the Conductor made a hissing noise the bus shook, shivered and moved on spitting a lot of smoke at times. Emission was not a problem in those days.
There was no need of any lane driving as the road was a small one and only one vehicle could pass through it at a time. If any other vehicles came from the opposite side, they came straight at it and near the vehicle, Sreeramachandra moved a little to the left and the opposite oncoming bus moved a little to its left and both passed in their directions peacefully! The bus moved at a sluggish pace and there was no problem of overspeeding ! The Driver spoke to as many poeople as he cared to, many in the bus spoke to him and so did the
Conductor. There was a gentleman who was a 'Cleaner' of the bus (he was a mechanical cleaner cum general cleaner - such Cleaners later became Drivers in those days - they learn the ropes propitiating the Driver and the Conductor) who had a lot of people, of course, all passengers, to speak to!
It reached the four cross junction, the Driver looked to all sides with caution and went ahead at the central lamp post donated by a village elder and turned right. The lamp post had a beautiful round and slanting base with a copper plate with the writing "Donated by Mookken.....Thoma....etc." There the bust turned right to the north to proceed to the Trichur Town City the end point of the bus carrying all the passengers travelling for various works or attending offices. The market had all kinds of shops from ware shops, grocery shops, barber shops, tea shops, vegetable shops, cloth shops, tailor shops, bakery, hotel etc. etc. and one particular village mall for meat and fish. A mall in the village was never called a mall but a market only. Some people called it the fish market.
The fish and meat market was followed by the Toddy shops and Curry shops which was the star attraction of the able bodied gentlemen who had the mind for it. Both the places were the dirtiest of the whole place. But the place was frequented by all the families of the village for various items from vegetables, to fish to meat and other assorted items. Since the market and the surroundings had a lot of unused land the waste and waste water were pushed into those places and hence, the dirt and filth was not so much of a trouble to the visitors. Now such places always called 'puramboke' or village land which is not in any body's account, but only in village records, are all disappeared.
Any body reaching the angaadi stood around for a while watching the evening going-on for a while. There would be special on the spot sales, at times, village doctors doing instant treatment, some doing a little magic show or acrobatics etc. A gentleman offered to take ones painful tooth and offered some odd treatment. Another one was making a clairvoyant speech and offering various forest herbs treatment in which he was elaborating on the 'vella pokku' of youngsters. I also once joined the crowd who generally stood around such people to hear their local ,google, speeches of olden days. The 'vellapokku' was the normal change of puberty to youthhood and many poor people were befooled by such simpletons of and on. All kinds of vehicles from buses, cars, bullock carts and single bullock carts came and went from all sides to all sides.
Sometimes, a local police man controlled the traffic. This appened only during peak hours. Aroma of foods came from all the tea shops and hotels and filled the air. Most of the village people visited the village centre for buying daily necessities and see the goings around. There were star attraction shops, ordinary shops and little box shops. The star shops were the grocery shops and the stationery shops. The biggest grocery shops was in the centre of the angaadi.
The owner of the shop was a local gentleman who sat at his mahogany desk which was also his cash box. He had quite a few employees who arranged or packed the different wares for his customers. Customers only had to mention how much of each item they wanted to any one of the employee and they would neatly pack them in either teak leaves of old newspapers and give to the customers. Before the items are handed over to the customer, the value of the items are added by a clerk next to theowner of the shop.the employees packing the items told the items in quick successionn with their measures which the accountant clerk quickly took down and priced according to measure and passed on the slip to the owner who collected the cash from the buyer and handed him over the account slip. This was the old time manual computing in its finness!
Anybody of that period liked or hoped to run a shop like that one day! None of the things were packed in polythene in those days as polythene were not there. This was good for the surroundings as the problem of plastic and polytheene were not there! Oils were measured with different 'thavis' (thavis are small laddle type vessels with an upright handle to dip into the oil tins which are generally deep) and poured into bottles which the buyers brought with themselves. Since the lentils and pulses and other day to day needs were simply packed on the spot or measured out into the natural bags or bamboo kottas (kotta is another type of bamboo basket used to buy groceries and keep other carryables from the market) the packing charges were not there and hence the items were not very costly.
In the fish market one got live fish to all types of sea fish. All assortments to be added to a fish curry was also sold in bits and pieces in the market. There was a few ayurvedic medicine shops which was a busy shop in those days. People from all walks of life came with prescriptions for kashaayams and aasavams and also needing ready made medicines which the shop keeper always kept. The shop keeper was an Anthgonychettan who memorized most of the kazhaayam ingredients and did the packing deftly which was a joy to see. He had a wooden tray in which he put the different ingredients and once all the ingredients were put he would recheck the whole thing with the prescription. Then he packed it in teak wood leaf or old news paper.All people were happy with the Ayurvedic medicine shop and thought that their health depended on the well being of the shop.
That was true to an extent. Every body bought the children's requirement called the 'chembaratyadi velichenna' or kashaayams for over all health, the eye cleaner and eye treater called the famous 'elaneer kuzhambu' which I personally used to use. There were many other medicines in his shop including the dashamoolarishtam and lohasavam and a number of other aasavams which were all dispensed to each according to ones requirements.
The ubiquitous tea shops and barber shops were always patronised by all those who could have the need and afford. The rates were nominal but the money was less. Still, when compared to these times, it was small or minuscule. When ever one wanted to have a hair cut, one strolled into one of the barber shops one liked and had a patient sitting at the bench reading a newspaper or magazine, which the shop keeper would care to put there, until one is called to the cutting chair. Once there, the barber would jovially address the patron and do the cutting or shaving with a small dialogue going all through the cutting ceremony which is normally enjoyed by all patrons. At times, some people went for a cutting to a particular shop just to enjoy the company of the barber speaker.
The barber shops in the village city centre was slightly of a higher grade in that their rates were slightly higher than the ones a little far away from the centre. The one we went were near the police station which we always hated to go! This place was one of the terrible difficulties we faced once in a while under the care and supervision of our father. We suffered the barbers rough hands turning our little heads in this direction or that or he pushed our head down to the front to clear up the back of our heads. For suffering this trouble, father always made it good by getting us to the nearest tea shop. We got the customary white tea and 'parippu vadas' (this is a ground lentil recipe wetted and mixed with onions and fried in coconut oil) the fried smell of which always made our mouths to water!
The road from the east in which the Sreeramachandra bus came was not tarred, but a gravel road and from the village centre called the 'gramodhaarana kendram' it was tarred. Then it joined the national high way at the village city centre with the lamp post and all the market shops called the angaadi. The national high way passed the angaadi coming from the south and going to the north to the Shaktan Thampuran's Thrissur.
Passing him to the north was other shops selling cloth, kanji, and bamboo wares and mats and mattresses of old. On the right side, which was opposite to the cobbler was the cuppola of Angel, St. Raphael where many said a prayer. The Angel is the protector and co-travellers for those who call upon him! His statue was a beautiful one with a gold ring on his hand and his other hand is in the hand of a boy, Tobit who also holds a fish on one hand! Behind the cuppola is the common market selling meat, fish and other assorted items connected with making the daily curry in houses which goes with the staple food of rice.
After the cuppola is a vacant land where all the rubbish is dumped and a part of it is a walk way to the Toddy Shop with is a wetting outlet for the men and oldies who had the mind for it. The Toddy shop is also interspersed with many shops called the 'koottan shops'' which are shops which sold toddy liquid (this is a mild alcoholic drink extracted from the coconut palms) in retail and charged more. Those shops attracted their customers by their captivating curries with great aroma which arrested anybody's attention if they passed by those shops. Whenever I passed such shops, my mouth watered! I never told anybody about it. As a child one cannot do it. The place is considered taboo and any body going there are considered a drunkard!
Then came the barber shop of the city town. This was a part of a dilapidated building. Slanting tile roof and a barred wooden crazy on one side. The barber's chairs faced the wall and the on lookers in the chair always saw wall calendars with pictures of half naked film actresses on them. Those who had to wait had news papers to read, which many read from back to back and at times discussions followed. The shop keeper took part in most of the discussions always adding a bit of his own knowledge without joining sides!
In totality it went well for all and increased his custom.
After the barber shops is the bi-cycle shop and the great tile companies. One tile company had a small St. Mary's Statue and this company central entry was lovingly remembered by all of us the school children for the small earthen drum with a tap which always held clean cold water to drink along with a few glasses kept ready near by. The Company Manager could have been a very godly person as it was always cleaned by one of the employees and water filled again and again, especially in summer when we the children went there to have a drink on our way to school or off from school. We never had an occasion when we did not get water there! Of course, those days are gone now.
Then comes a few of the great houses of the rich of the city town where no one saw people generally, but cars going in and out at times. In those days of yore, when the roads were quite free, the going and coming of the cars were looked on by all of us with great surprise.
Now here came the School, the St. Mary Convent Girls' High School, a Catholic Sister's Convent which imparted free education to almost every girl child of the place around and to little boys upto the class III from quite far back in time. The school had a lot of roses in its gardens when rose gardens were unheard of in other places. Sisters were always pleasant, jovial and a great support for the girl children of Kerala. Little boys studied there upto the third class.
From the convent onwards a number of great houses a huge pond called the Chira which had special steps to get down inside for both, separately for men and women from far back in time. These were done, perhaps, in the Kings time! Any body wanting to take a dip could do so without fear or avour and it was free. The local panchayat looked after the place and cleaned it once in an year during summer!
The came the inter connected rivulet which carried the extra water from the pond during the rainy season! Elephants being given a wash was a common sight in this rivulet! Many famous elephants used to be brought here for a healthy dip in olden days when the water was very clean! Hereafter comes the star attraction of the place the St. Antony's Forane Church! St. Anotony is the main deity here. But on a side altar is set up the consecrated statue of Arch Angel St. Raphael along with Little Tobit who is holding a fish in his hand. eople all over the state and near by states come here to pay obeisance and receive blessings from the Angel, St. Raphael, who is the protector of travellers. People in Ollur always thought it is a matter of great advantage to be a member of this place and this church!
The Church festival was the biggest event we all saw and witnessed every year! There was celebrations all around the City and the Church and almost everywhere in the Ollur City!! It was th festival of angel, St. Raphael who was the protector of travellers!
It also stopped whenever some one showed a hand, generally a left hand as the entry was from the left and the road driving in Kerala was always keeping to the left. It stopped at the Police station where the Conductor got down ran to the Police station, made a signature, gave a polite reply to the police man who threw a question or told him to keep the timings etc., ran in shouting "weiisss..." This is the other form of saying 'Right' which was used to warn the Driver to start. In fact the driver kept on looking at the direction of the Conductor and as soon as the Conductor made a hissing noise the bus shook, shivered and moved on spitting a lot of smoke at times. Emission was not a problem in those days.
There was no need of any lane driving as the road was a small one and only one vehicle could pass through it at a time. If any other vehicles came from the opposite side, they came straight at it and near the vehicle, Sreeramachandra moved a little to the left and the opposite oncoming bus moved a little to its left and both passed in their directions peacefully! The bus moved at a sluggish pace and there was no problem of overspeeding ! The Driver spoke to as many poeople as he cared to, many in the bus spoke to him and so did the
Conductor. There was a gentleman who was a 'Cleaner' of the bus (he was a mechanical cleaner cum general cleaner - such Cleaners later became Drivers in those days - they learn the ropes propitiating the Driver and the Conductor) who had a lot of people, of course, all passengers, to speak to!
It reached the four cross junction, the Driver looked to all sides with caution and went ahead at the central lamp post donated by a village elder and turned right. The lamp post had a beautiful round and slanting base with a copper plate with the writing "Donated by Mookken.....Thoma....etc." There the bust turned right to the north to proceed to the Trichur Town City the end point of the bus carrying all the passengers travelling for various works or attending offices. The market had all kinds of shops from ware shops, grocery shops, barber shops, tea shops, vegetable shops, cloth shops, tailor shops, bakery, hotel etc. etc. and one particular village mall for meat and fish. A mall in the village was never called a mall but a market only. Some people called it the fish market.
The fish and meat market was followed by the Toddy shops and Curry shops which was the star attraction of the able bodied gentlemen who had the mind for it. Both the places were the dirtiest of the whole place. But the place was frequented by all the families of the village for various items from vegetables, to fish to meat and other assorted items. Since the market and the surroundings had a lot of unused land the waste and waste water were pushed into those places and hence, the dirt and filth was not so much of a trouble to the visitors. Now such places always called 'puramboke' or village land which is not in any body's account, but only in village records, are all disappeared.
Any body reaching the angaadi stood around for a while watching the evening going-on for a while. There would be special on the spot sales, at times, village doctors doing instant treatment, some doing a little magic show or acrobatics etc. A gentleman offered to take ones painful tooth and offered some odd treatment. Another one was making a clairvoyant speech and offering various forest herbs treatment in which he was elaborating on the 'vella pokku' of youngsters. I also once joined the crowd who generally stood around such people to hear their local ,google, speeches of olden days. The 'vellapokku' was the normal change of puberty to youthhood and many poor people were befooled by such simpletons of and on. All kinds of vehicles from buses, cars, bullock carts and single bullock carts came and went from all sides to all sides.
Sometimes, a local police man controlled the traffic. This appened only during peak hours. Aroma of foods came from all the tea shops and hotels and filled the air. Most of the village people visited the village centre for buying daily necessities and see the goings around. There were star attraction shops, ordinary shops and little box shops. The star shops were the grocery shops and the stationery shops. The biggest grocery shops was in the centre of the angaadi.
The owner of the shop was a local gentleman who sat at his mahogany desk which was also his cash box. He had quite a few employees who arranged or packed the different wares for his customers. Customers only had to mention how much of each item they wanted to any one of the employee and they would neatly pack them in either teak leaves of old newspapers and give to the customers. Before the items are handed over to the customer, the value of the items are added by a clerk next to theowner of the shop.the employees packing the items told the items in quick successionn with their measures which the accountant clerk quickly took down and priced according to measure and passed on the slip to the owner who collected the cash from the buyer and handed him over the account slip. This was the old time manual computing in its finness!
Anybody of that period liked or hoped to run a shop like that one day! None of the things were packed in polythene in those days as polythene were not there. This was good for the surroundings as the problem of plastic and polytheene were not there! Oils were measured with different 'thavis' (thavis are small laddle type vessels with an upright handle to dip into the oil tins which are generally deep) and poured into bottles which the buyers brought with themselves. Since the lentils and pulses and other day to day needs were simply packed on the spot or measured out into the natural bags or bamboo kottas (kotta is another type of bamboo basket used to buy groceries and keep other carryables from the market) the packing charges were not there and hence the items were not very costly.
In the fish market one got live fish to all types of sea fish. All assortments to be added to a fish curry was also sold in bits and pieces in the market. There was a few ayurvedic medicine shops which was a busy shop in those days. People from all walks of life came with prescriptions for kashaayams and aasavams and also needing ready made medicines which the shop keeper always kept. The shop keeper was an Anthgonychettan who memorized most of the kazhaayam ingredients and did the packing deftly which was a joy to see. He had a wooden tray in which he put the different ingredients and once all the ingredients were put he would recheck the whole thing with the prescription. Then he packed it in teak wood leaf or old news paper.All people were happy with the Ayurvedic medicine shop and thought that their health depended on the well being of the shop.
That was true to an extent. Every body bought the children's requirement called the 'chembaratyadi velichenna' or kashaayams for over all health, the eye cleaner and eye treater called the famous 'elaneer kuzhambu' which I personally used to use. There were many other medicines in his shop including the dashamoolarishtam and lohasavam and a number of other aasavams which were all dispensed to each according to ones requirements.
The ubiquitous tea shops and barber shops were always patronised by all those who could have the need and afford. The rates were nominal but the money was less. Still, when compared to these times, it was small or minuscule. When ever one wanted to have a hair cut, one strolled into one of the barber shops one liked and had a patient sitting at the bench reading a newspaper or magazine, which the shop keeper would care to put there, until one is called to the cutting chair. Once there, the barber would jovially address the patron and do the cutting or shaving with a small dialogue going all through the cutting ceremony which is normally enjoyed by all patrons. At times, some people went for a cutting to a particular shop just to enjoy the company of the barber speaker.
The barber shops in the village city centre was slightly of a higher grade in that their rates were slightly higher than the ones a little far away from the centre. The one we went were near the police station which we always hated to go! This place was one of the terrible difficulties we faced once in a while under the care and supervision of our father. We suffered the barbers rough hands turning our little heads in this direction or that or he pushed our head down to the front to clear up the back of our heads. For suffering this trouble, father always made it good by getting us to the nearest tea shop. We got the customary white tea and 'parippu vadas' (this is a ground lentil recipe wetted and mixed with onions and fried in coconut oil) the fried smell of which always made our mouths to water!
The road from the east in which the Sreeramachandra bus came was not tarred, but a gravel road and from the village centre called the 'gramodhaarana kendram' it was tarred. Then it joined the national high way at the village city centre with the lamp post and all the market shops called the angaadi. The national high way passed the angaadi coming from the south and going to the north to the Shaktan Thampuran's Thrissur.
The national high way is a small
constriction at the Angaadi entry area when it enters from the south
passing the 'Sathram' a place for all the poor on the right. The
entry constriction is constricted by the buildings on both sides and
the little box shops attached to them. The buses and hig vehicles
have to be careful not to take away the tiles from the little box
shop. The drivers were experts, so such incidents were rare and the
vehicles were always careful in road crossings.
Once it passed the central lamp post,
the buses stopped on the left to help passengers to alight and to
enter. On the same side was a large grocery shop which had a huge
verandah which allowed everybody to wait there while they awaited
their buses. On one side was a cobbler who polished the foot wear
and made leather chappals and shoes in his spare time. He also did
assorted other works as mending old foot wear and ladies bags.
Gents in those days never carried any bags. Only elderly, only some
of them, carried a leather purse which was local made. He made that
too with leather binding tag which was always very long.
The cobbler sat with his cobblers box
full of instruments and his twine and pins, nails and top pins,
leather and other attachments for various items he made or repaired.
He sat near the dirty waste canal and suffered the stench. Luckily
he was unaware of the stench or he had no other go. I never asked
him. No body else, I knew, did. Every body thought it is his way of
finding his livelihood and all liked him to be there as it was very
convenient to find him just before getting into the bus or when one
is in the angaadi.No body advised him on any thing nor did he take any advice either. He was unaware of the goings around but for his custom.
After the cuppola is a vacant land where all the rubbish is dumped and a part of it is a walk way to the Toddy Shop with is a wetting outlet for the men and oldies who had the mind for it. The Toddy shop is also interspersed with many shops called the 'koottan shops'' which are shops which sold toddy liquid (this is a mild alcoholic drink extracted from the coconut palms) in retail and charged more. Those shops attracted their customers by their captivating curries with great aroma which arrested anybody's attention if they passed by those shops. Whenever I passed such shops, my mouth watered! I never told anybody about it. As a child one cannot do it. The place is considered taboo and any body going there are considered a drunkard!
Then came the barber shop of the city town. This was a part of a dilapidated building. Slanting tile roof and a barred wooden crazy on one side. The barber's chairs faced the wall and the on lookers in the chair always saw wall calendars with pictures of half naked film actresses on them. Those who had to wait had news papers to read, which many read from back to back and at times discussions followed. The shop keeper took part in most of the discussions always adding a bit of his own knowledge without joining sides!
In totality it went well for all and increased his custom.
After the barber shops is the bi-cycle shop and the great tile companies. One tile company had a small St. Mary's Statue and this company central entry was lovingly remembered by all of us the school children for the small earthen drum with a tap which always held clean cold water to drink along with a few glasses kept ready near by. The Company Manager could have been a very godly person as it was always cleaned by one of the employees and water filled again and again, especially in summer when we the children went there to have a drink on our way to school or off from school. We never had an occasion when we did not get water there! Of course, those days are gone now.
Then comes a few of the great houses of the rich of the city town where no one saw people generally, but cars going in and out at times. In those days of yore, when the roads were quite free, the going and coming of the cars were looked on by all of us with great surprise.
Now here came the School, the St. Mary Convent Girls' High School, a Catholic Sister's Convent which imparted free education to almost every girl child of the place around and to little boys upto the class III from quite far back in time. The school had a lot of roses in its gardens when rose gardens were unheard of in other places. Sisters were always pleasant, jovial and a great support for the girl children of Kerala. Little boys studied there upto the third class.
From the convent onwards a number of great houses a huge pond called the Chira which had special steps to get down inside for both, separately for men and women from far back in time. These were done, perhaps, in the Kings time! Any body wanting to take a dip could do so without fear or avour and it was free. The local panchayat looked after the place and cleaned it once in an year during summer!
The came the inter connected rivulet which carried the extra water from the pond during the rainy season! Elephants being given a wash was a common sight in this rivulet! Many famous elephants used to be brought here for a healthy dip in olden days when the water was very clean! Hereafter comes the star attraction of the place the St. Antony's Forane Church! St. Anotony is the main deity here. But on a side altar is set up the consecrated statue of Arch Angel St. Raphael along with Little Tobit who is holding a fish in his hand. eople all over the state and near by states come here to pay obeisance and receive blessings from the Angel, St. Raphael, who is the protector of travellers. People in Ollur always thought it is a matter of great advantage to be a member of this place and this church!
The Church festival was the biggest event we all saw and witnessed every year! There was celebrations all around the City and the Church and almost everywhere in the Ollur City!! It was th festival of angel, St. Raphael who was the protector of travellers!
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