NOSTALGIA: My Beautiful Village

Childhood.... The most special time of one's life. Mischievous, careless & carefree. The time of our life we can never forget. I was lucky to spend a good part of my childhood in the beautiful village of Murukumpuzha, my mother's native place. The things that come to mind when I recall about my village is the beautiful lake, coconut trees, smell of mud, the water lillies... So many emotions run through me. I had a wonderful time there.

Murukumpuzha is about 20 kms from Thiruvananthapuram. I remember my father dropping me, my sister & my mother (here after referred to as 'Amma') at the PMG bus stand, when I was young. I will hold on to Amma's hand & tease my sister as we wait for the rare bus that goes there :) The bus will drop us off at the lake side where the road ends called 'kadavu'. We can see people waiting for the boat to take them to the opposite shore.

Amma's ancestral home was a beautiful old style house. It was called 'Panayil Veedu'. From the back side of the house, a 100 yard walk will take us to the lake shore. The breeze, the rustle of the coconut palm leaves & the glistening water especially at night with the moon light reflecting from it is mesmerizing.

I have a lot of cousins (Unni, Kannan, Viji chettan, Manu chettan & 'chettan' means elder brother) whom I played & fought with. We will throw stones at mangoes... the sour taste of unripe mangoes is still fresh in the tip of my toungue. We will catch fishes from the lake. It was Kannan, my uncle's son, who taught me the technique. We will stand still in the water near the shore till the poor little fish comes close & then all of a sudden we splash the water with our foot & the fish gets thrown on to the shore :)

Tired after play, we come back home for lunch. If lunch isn't ready we'll go to the kitchen & start to eat from here & there... In the end Amma & aunts gets fed up & will chase us away :) Lunch would be rice, pickles & my favorite dish- fish curry & fry. My grandmother was very caring & she would make us eat till our stomach was about to explode!! Sadly she is not with us today :(

In the evening, Amma & my aunts would take us to the temple nearby. We would buy cute toys like 'Kattadi' (A circular ring toy that rotates when wind is blown) & eat 'Kappalandi muttayi' (A toffee made from groundnut). At night, me & my cousins would cuddle up & sleep together in the hall room. It was a wonderful time at a wonderful place. An unadulterated village.

But how time has passed. After grandmother's death, the house was not looked after well. It is in ruins now. As I walk through the weeds that cover the ground & look at the cracks in the wall, these memories of childhood flashes past... In the end as our life goes on, only thing we can truly say as our own is our memories.

"Memory is a way of holding onto things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose"

Visakh. A
[Photography and Text]