part-2 .....that never returns...

                                           

                                          google image

The majority of the buildings were typical village type houses, befitting and fulfilling the little-little needs of the owners. The houses of haves were mostly a ‘Nalukettu-type’ with an open large quadrangle(Nadumuttam) in the centre, surrounded by spacious verandas . These sorts of houses allowed free flow of fresh air and entry of sunlight aplenty. 

These houses had annexes-some of them were exclusively meant for the cattle and the others for piling up logs, keeping agricultural tools, heaping up manures and so on and so on. At least two bullocks, three or four milch cows and their calves regally enjoyed the special care of their masters, as equal as the children did. 

The elders as well as the children took pleasure in fondling these cattle on their forehead and cuddling the calves. In fact, they bowed before the masters in order to get caressed. So everywhere one could smell the fragrance of a bondage of affection among the inhabitants. 

The oxen plowed and ploughed the fields and cows fed the children. And moreover, goats that produced nutritious milk also had their part to play  in  village-dwellers’ health matters. They all, swinging the body, blissfully filled their bellies with the foliages of the vacant lands and pastures. Cow-herds were the ambassadors of cattle-care, whereas the duty of   milking the cows was entrusted with the Cow-men. Mother Nature also had graced the village with ample grasses and greens for her offspring to graze stomach full.

 Besides these animals, Cats and Hens proudly occupied the interior of some of the houses. Dogs watched the houses as a reward for the shelter he obtained, though he wasn’t as fortunate as today’s ones. Today the dogs are VIP’s[very important pets] and hence they lead a majestic life and their locomotion is fully like that of the inmates inside the residences.

  Coming to the person in me, who had her childhood in that paradise, telecasts now her own experiences. The visuals of the early years of my infancy are not so vivid rather a bit blank for me. As I view that of my younger siblings and  younger cousins, I assume that I had had a similar profile. Almost all the childhoods of the neighborhood buddies resemble one another in the general mode. Procuring adulthood also exhibited a parity. So mostly I’ll walk through the path of  ‘we’ not ‘I’. 

Most of the families followed a joint family system and hence selfishness could not obtain its room there. The vacations collected all the grandchildren in grandpa's residence and therefore no draught for the children's number as play pals. Since the families were not of nuclear type, the elder children, may they be siblings or cousins, took charge of the younger kids, not necessarily the mothers

 Havenot's from houses around extended their hands to help the Haves, to a greater extent, in domestics as well as child-rearings. They were not paid any cash, but they enjoyed meals like breakfast and lunch in return. 

During the main festivals like Vishu, Onam, etc. the poor peasants gifted a part of their yields, to their masters, though their petite compounds provided only a wee bit of produce. Of course, these celebrations were occasions in which some amount of money used to migrate to the labourers' fist from their master’s pockets. In general, the pecuniary circumstances owned by the villagers were not so sound, yet they were content with whatever they had.