strike

We children were always afraid of strike. I have heard all horror stories of students being hit by policemen during strikes, and many innocent students having hit by the stones thrown by striking ones. I have in mind that these innocent students are pushed to strike by cunning politicians to take mileage. In those days, the main schools that are prone to strikes were, Fort High School, SMV high school etc..The Holy Angels Convent, St Joseph;s HS were not affected by strikes.

One such group of striking students came to our school too. The gates were closed and their usual prank of long bell did not work.i.e. The schools had a typical bell resembling a dosakallu. There was a small log and when it is hit for a number of times at a time, it is called Long bell. This can be seen in a recent advertisement also.
The students then threw stones. We in the classrooms hid under the desks because the stones alongwith the tiles would fall our heads. The class rooms are also unsecured. The walls along the side of the road are about 6 to 7 ft and then there was a very old and thin bamboo grill and thereafter the tiles. On the other inner side of the school compound, the walls are only 4ft and then the bamboo grills. The class rooms had plenty of natural light.

Many of us were timid and afraid to go out to the compound. We all were thrilled to see our leader Mr.Eugine catch a stone by the student strikers. At last because the striking students managed to have the long bell ordered by the HM. The gates were thrown open and we had to go to our school.

When i came out, there was a big crowd on the road. I was afraid and so i caught hold of another friend and instead of going to my home, i went to my grand mothers house because that friend was near my grandmother's house.
As there was no phones or mobiles like these days, one can imagine the great difficulty we had to reach our parents.

pranthechimi

Whenever i go to navarathiri mandapam at trivandrum, this haunts me. One day during the navarathiri days,when i was below 10, i went to mandapam alongwith some of my friends. as they would not allow us from 6 pm to 9 pm ( there will be concerts of great stalwarts like MDR, Semmangudi sir etc and the kings and queens would be there to hear it) we chose 3 pm. There was no one as it was not darshan time. Yet we tried to explore the heritage ( i always scored very less in social studies and i used to write the same things whether it is the golden period of Aurungaseb or Akbar) I being s shortie, would jump and see through the kilivathil ( a beautifully decorated small window through which the kings and queens would see us but we cannot see them - an engineering skill) Eda atha rajavinte kasera - a big cushion seat with golden decorations - (the ranis always were an attraction for me, the white skinned beautiful ladies dressed in Kerala style)then the mural paintings of the devi riding on the lion, the large wooden pillars decorated with wooden betelnuts, and the new coconuts from Chenthengu a variety of coconut trees that rises only upto about 5 ft.and the coconuts were of orange colour. We took pride among our peer group who stayed far away and knew very little of this mandapam, and told of these sights in the palaces..

Suddenly somebody from our group was yelling "eada odikko, pranth echimi is coming" She was seen running towards us. She was yelling, Kallan Kallan..The policemen in plainscloth stopped us..We lost the strength in us and did not know what to do.. but when they knew that we did not steal anything we were left free.. That was a lady who was mentally challenged..But she dressed like any other brahmin lady ( 18 gajam)..Her face was full of pox marks..I had even seen my grandmother giving meals to her at our house. She eats rice kept for 4 people.

After that incident we never went to mandapam at that time and we never met her face to face...

golu

It is navarathri times. it is mainly a joy time for girls. Every evening the girls and mamis, dressed up in pattu will be visiting houses, friends and families and by the time they return there will be a big bag with chundal of many types, a bundle of vettiali and pakku and some coconuts and also blouse pieces. The male children will go along with them only till the age of 5 or 6 or even 7. Sometimes there will be fights in our house for these chundals, because at some houses, they will be tasty. The male children will be busy showing their part of the golu. The golu will have bommais that have been bequeathed by three generations. The Chettiar and wife, dasavathara, saraswathi are main attractions. Then there will be our park in a corner. We will be eagerly waiting for the comments on the park and enjoy the appreciations, while having a deaf ear for disapprovals. My brother who has an engineering bend of mind, will arrange a rotating fan at the back of Saraswathi. the fan will be camouflaged with silver and golden papers and also the lighting. Our skills will be seen in the flower arrangements etc. In our house, the golu will be only for the last 3 or 4 days. The pooja eduppu will be done by the Harihara vadyar. The 8th day is the happiest day for us because our books will be kept in pooja and my mother will not say "Pdadida, padida"
I dont remember when the vadyar pooja stopped. now i am doing pooja, thanks to sabha's publishing the pooja vidhi abnd archana mantras in a book.
but my wife will be making the kolu at our house and preparing chundals. She knows classical music.
In trivandrum, the navarathri starts with the arrival of Saraswathi from Padmanabhapuram palace on the elephant(this vigraha was supposed to be used by Kambar), Muruga from velimala in the Velli Kuthirai, and Kundani mangai from suchindram. Saraswathi will be in the Navarathiri mandapam inside fort where there will be music festival. murugan and kundani mangai will be in Arya salai and chenthitta. We will go to these temples in groups.