Shaping up the bigger picture ??

This is a short thought which happened to me some days back and I thought of penning it for posterity. It talks of why Kerala is still very close to my heart, with its ever green greenery, large hearts of the people and friends, in spite of its dirty politics and politicians !!

Maybe because my father was working in the bank, SBI, the exposure it has given me to the different places and culture of kerala at a very young age, is tremendous .. The only regret I have is not staying to the north of Kerala, ie. Calicut , Kannur, area, though I have passed through this area for many years during my stint in Goa.

When I came to Kerala around, 5 years of age, after stint in Andhra and Chennai ( in Chennai I did my nursery and started schooling ), it was Kerala for the next seventeen years. Shoranur, Trichur, Irunjalakuda, Ernakulam, Alleppey, Trivandrum, Palghat, Kottayam, Kollam, Adoor, Chennithala, Wayanad, Tirur, Tiruvalla, Peermade, Idukki etc. etc .. I cannot recollect the many places I have stayed may be some for weeks, some months, but many for years !! My studies in Kerala ended at the Govt College of Engineering, Trivandrum after graduation in Mechanical Engineering in 1986.  Thereafter I worked with MRF Tyres, Goa and continued education outside Kerala, in Goa and Bombay.

It was just divine providence to be born into one of the top and noblest Christian family of Kerala. When I say this, I am sure to invite lot of criticisms and comments, but I should stress here that point again. At a time when the Travancore Maharajah was looking at communal classification of the population in Kerala for political eligibility for self rule and freedom from the British, to be at the forefront of the struggle for independence is indeed a great sacrifice. When I was studying Kerala history while in 6 th or 7 th standard in Kerala, we came across the term Thrimoorthikal of Kerala, meaning the three great leaders, Pattom Thanu Pillai, C Kesavan and T M Varghese. My mother at that tender age told me how my grand uncle T M Varghese, quit a very successful legal profession and jumped into the Indian independence movement. Though he held top positions in the cabinet as Home minister and so on, it was service of the state and the people foremost for him.

The benefits of staying at many places within Kerala, is that you are not subservient to the culture and traditions of one place, but are exposed to the many dialects of language, festivals, culture, behaviour of people, the camaraderie etc. I have friends from all places of Kerala and many many of them, Good God ..  That way one can distinctively look at the culture detachedly, and enjoy the goodness of everything .. No bitter feelings, only pleasant thoughts !!

In my many encounters with people and cultures, a simple and lasting finding has been this one. The people from Central Travancore ( I am one among them) are not so open and sincere as are people from North of Kerala ( zamorin effect ? ). The same reason why I hold people of North Kerala to such great admiration and adoration .. I even had the good opportunity to stay at the house of the grand son of Zamorin of Calicut in Irinjalakuda for two years .. My close friend Ramachandran from NIT Calicut and my former colleague from College of Engineering, Goa is a living example of how straightforward, simple and less complicated  North Kerala people are with respect to people from South Kerala. In fact, it is the North Kerala people who have borne the brunt of attacks by Tippu Sultan from North, unlike the South Kerala people who only had to face the navies of Dutch and English forces ! 

The beauty is that all my experiences throughout the length of Kerala have been very pleasant and memorable. Nothing in the world can replace it. If given a second chance to live, I want it to happen the exact way it has happened to me till now. 

Indeed for a simple Malayali, educated with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering / Operations Research from top Engineering / Technological Institute in the country, who consciously took the decision not to fall into any material trap to "migrate" or make a quick buck, the pull of the motherland and the lure of temporal pleasures on the other side, was very tempting .. However, I stayed back in India.

I should bow my head to all my Professors, colleagues and relatives who preferred to stay back in India and contribute to her, despite its highly competitive academic and job environment. Despite the temptations of Akkara pacha and resistance to the lure to make some quick oil  money, or for that matter heavily "debted" US dollars ( which is nothing but Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen or Gulf oil, loaned out by these countries to US), the experience in God's own land has been very pleasant all the time. Indeed I get pained when I see the incidences of corruption, political murders, high handed militant trade unionism and irresponsible politics by our present day illiterate and less educated politicians cutting across ideologies and leanings, which if eliminated could take our country to the forefront of the world ..

( though silently I should clearly mention the patriotic stand taken by my father Mathai Easaw and mother, as I finishhed my Engg studies at Trivandrum,  to motivate me to continue my studies and job in India, despite a highly competitive academic and job environment. Most of my cousins and uncles having migrated to US, it was a tough decision then, but looking in hindsight, that was one of the best decisions I had ever taken in my life. My father did not even allow my elder sisters to be married amd sent out of the country. A highly competitive and exacting environment at home of accomplishments and the competitiveness it builds in oneself is also something that matters .. A loving, supportive wife, kids and relatives to share in the ups and downs of life counts maximum in life ..)

Over the years, I have understood that if we are sincere, even "remotely" patriotic, hardworking and dedicated to the cause,  India does provide enough opportunities to study at the best Institutes in the country under the best professors of the country, learn from the experience of others and lead a very fulfilling, satisfying, respectable, culturally rich life, despite the terrific competition for jobs and educational opportunities !! You will come across local family issues and money problems in life here at times, not to forget about the perennial issues of corruption and as Justice Santosh Hegde calls it, the "Greed over Need" disease ..

But the understanding that anyone who indulges in corruption, will not go out of this world, without themselves or their generations suffering for it, and that whatever you make here has to be left behind, not taken to the other world once you die, gives you total peace of mind. And though the Indian legal system is slow and lengthy, giving the guilty many opportunities to defend themselves, it is sad, that this magnanimity of the State is misused by the corrupt and mighty to escape the long arm of law !! But it does catch up with the corrupt, ten in hundred ...

If material riches and pleasures pursuant to the pressures of the Western civilization is what one is slave to or what one desires for, India or Kerala does not give a solution, true !! We are living in a totally different intellectually higher plane of cultural, social amity and common well being, not, personal material pleasures and wealth !!

Because my cousins consider themselves politically more mature and conscious than me, they find some of my writings very irritating and show their resentment at all opportunities, though I care less for their resentment and objections..

The other great advantage for which I will ever be indebted is to my parents, grand parents and society is to be born into an educated and forward looking religious family of teachers from my father's side in Mavelikara / Chengannur, for whom education was the corner stone of all activities in life and to a very patriotic, nationalistic family, educated too, who took part in the Indian Freedom struggle from my mother's side .. It is just divine blessing to be born into such a great family, you have many a brother, uncle, brothers-in-law as Industrialists, CEOs, Central Govt Secretaries, State Govt Secretaries, businessmen, social entrepreneurs running Medical colleges in the state, educational entrepreneurs running Engineering colleges, respectable Professors etc etc..

Pen is a very sharp tool, it can expose one's shortcomings and create impressions much deeper and permanent than any other tool known to mankind .. To be able to point a wrong thing and tell it is wrong, requires guts and courage. Education has provided me with that !!

The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict - William Ellery Channing

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History behind Aanakurissu, Kuttikanam, Peermade..

The legend of Aanakurissu, Kuttikanam, Peerumedu.

If one is moving from Kuttikanam towards Pallikunnu, enroute Kattapana, between Kuttikanam and Pallikunnu, you will come across a cross (kurissu in Malayalam) near a bridge, the aanappaalam (elephant bridge). On either side of the road, there are tea estates, some working and some closed. But there is greenery everywhere. Students and nuns from the nearby St Pius X School and Marian College frequent this place very often.

This cross has a very tragic history / legend behind it. Many years ago, on either side of the road, inside the estates, there were line houses. A line house is a typical cheap, one room accommodation provided to the estate employees, consisting of houses, usually seven or ten, in parallel. Each house consists of a verandah, a room and kitchen. The common bathroom shared by the inhabitants of these line houses. These line houses were built by the estate owners for their employees and families to stay. These line houses also gave enough security to the estates from encroachment by people and attacks by wild animals. Living together, the employees too were guarded against attacks from wild boars, wild elephants etc which were plenty in that area.

Diseases have always been a scourge of human beings and at a time when science and medicine had not advanced as much as today, most of the diseases were fatal. Small pox (vasoori in Malayalam) was one such disease which never had a medicine. There was no treatment available and the only precaution was to isolate the patients to prevent it spreading to other healthy people.

The surrounding areas of Aanakurissu was the place fifty years or so back, where people who contracted smallpox were brought for solitary confinement , away from the healthy population. (Like in the famous movie 'Island of Shadows', leprosy patients were isolated and were made to live in colonies inhabited by other leprosy patients). A care taker used to give food to these patients at regular intervals. People were scared to come to these places and the people who were brought here, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and close relatives, never got to see their relatives and friends again, as these people died a very sad and painful death here. Neglected and despised by the society, the local people never came to these places.

Legend has it that the dead souls of these people who died a painful death in the line houses were wandering these areas as ghosts and scaring travelers and people staying nearby. A cross was brought from Mattanchery, near Ernakulam to this place and erected by the catholic priests in this area. With frequent prayers at the cross, it is said that the scourge of wandering dead souls scaring people disappeared.

Motorist traveling long distances also make a stop at the cross these days to pray for a safe journey. Often the prayers are accompanied by some offerings which are collected by the Catholic church at Kuttikanam which looks after the maintenance of the place. Local people around here say that the prayers at these places also yield results which is evident by the large groups of people who come to this place every Friday for prayers and requests. If these prayers are repeated for five or seven weeks, called as niyogam by the local people, it is believed that the prayers are heard. These days, it is also seen that infertile couples have started tying small toy cradles on the cross for blessings of fertility, and  more often than not, it is granted.

If you are interested in offering prayers at this place, visit it on Friday at 5 PM for prayers there and place your wishes and requests. More often than not, it shall be granted.

George Easaw (As told to George Easaw by Jiji, of MBC College of Engg, Peermade on 17 Aug 07..)