Days of dearth

Those were the days when our villagers could not even dream of electricity and many houses in our village situated in Kerala, South India, had to depend on kerosene lamps. It was a small pyramid shaped aluminum container filled with kerosene with a round wick made of cotton at its top which burned and lit the houses. Children learned their lessons , their moms cocked food, the family ate their meals and the elders conducted their discussions ; all in the dim light and flame of these small kerosene lamps. These lamps had to be kept out of the reach of children who might try to play with them , burn their hands or other parts of their bodies or spill the kerosene on the ground leading to unpleasant situations Even elders had to be careful while approaching these lamps or else the wick might go off and plunge the house into darkness or the power cut described by the present day politicians as load shedding to fool their unfortunate electorate.

When people went out during night time, they used what was called “choottu” in Malayalam which is the tail end of dry coconut leaves made into a long round bundle which were lit from a lamp when ever they wanted to go out during night time. When they reached their destinations those “traditional torches” were put off and were re-lit when they wanted to use it again. There were, however, many in those days who did not even bother to use this "choottu" during their nocturnal movements. They went to wherever they wanted to visit unmindful of the risks of groping in darkness .

In nineteen sixties our village had only one or two lower primary schools where students could study up-to Class V. The classes were conducted in sheds where our teachers taught us telling us stories stressing the importance of moral values and the sanctity of human relations. I still remember the story of Mannamkatta ( lump of earth ) and Kariyila ( dry leaf) who went for a picnic . When it rained on the way, Kariyila covered the Mannamkatta to protect it from the rain and when wind blew Mannamkatta lay on Kariyila to save it from being blown off .But the tragedy occurred when it rained accompanied by wind as water carried mannankatta away and the wind blew kariyila off. Though this was the story of two inanimate objects, I don’t know why I still feel sorry for them.

The Govt High School in the nearest city Chavakkad was situated around 5 miles away which meant that the students from our village had to walk 10 miles a day to and fro to attend high school classes since there were no bus services and the national highway running through our village at present was then an unpaved path full of white sand . During the rainy season, crossing the canal in wooden overloaded boats to attend the classes was risky and the ponds on the road side overflowed making it difficult for the pedestrians to find out where the deep ponds beside the road side were. Once on my way to the school, I stepped into a road side pond and thus dipped myself in the pond. I had no time to return to home to change the wet dress and had to attend the classes wearing the wet shirt and dhoti . Umbrellas were of course used during the rainy season but in times of heavy shower and wind, they were of little use. One umbrella was often shared by two students. When they walked, each one used to put his hand on the shoulders of his 'umbrella mate' clinging to each other which created a sense of cooperation, sacrifice and unity among students.

Despite the boom created by gulf goers there are still people in our village who cannot afford to make both ends meet, those having no financial means to treat deadly diseases they are suffering from, those who cannot get their   daughters married as  the grooms demand dowry in terms of money and gold but one feels relieved when he finds that days of exploitation and tyranny practiced by some greedy land lords are now dead and gone .

The father