Parappanangadi

May 03 2014

Yesterday, while travelling from Palakkad to Kozhikode, I saw Parappanangadi Station.. From the age of three to eight, I have lived there.. Often I have run along that long railway platform.. No platform tickets then.. Even while sitting at home those days the station was always in my memories and dreams becuase my grandfather and Narayana mama would come from Palakkad by train once in a while and often I would go to station to receive and see them off.. The station is very near the BEM LP School where I had the first three years of schooling.. We would cover our way to school along the railway track and walking under the overbridge.. The platform was very long but the station was just a small bulilding fifty seven years ago.. All I could see in the platform that I could relate with my past was the old banyan tree...

fishy taste

I remember I tasted non-veg once in my life when I was a boy of 6years, studying in the 2nd class at Parappanangadi.. BEMLP school. fifty four year ago.. 

Gazing at the sky with open mouth was a habit for me then, as it is today too.. 

The school was near a beach and I was sitting on the corner of the playground ( I was never a good sportsman)..

A crow carried a dead fish in its beak and dropped it into my open mouth.. 

I bit into the body of the fish even before realising what had happened. 

True, I spat out the offending thing immediately.

At that age, living among non-brahmins (many Muslims) all around me, and knowing that I was a brahmin( as told by my father and mother) and that the distinctive feature of ours was not to eat fish or meat, the incident meant a great sinful event for me.. 

So I got perturbed.. 

What will my parents do if they knew that I had tasted fish...?
I remember to have shed private tears for expiation from the grave sin...

And I retained the episode as a secret exclusively with me for so many days and months before I could open out my heart to my thatha( grandfather) who had come on a visit, and who was the ultimate authority for me in matters of truth and untruth, right and wrong (He is still so for me, though He is in heaven)..

He said God will forgive mistakes which are beyond our control

But I never had any occasion to change the view that taking fish or meat is not okey for brahmins.

touch of the divine feet..

In fact I was starting to write about a blessed experience I had during my childhood.. There are three great advaitic mutts, headed by nambuthiri asecetics of the Shankara Order, thekee madom, naduvil madom and thrikkekatti madam( in Tanur, near parappanangadi.). My father had worked almost as a servant in that Thrikkekatti madam.. before he became a government employee , married and I was born.
I was then two years old..
The pontiff.. Sri Arithottathu Thirumanassu .. was very benevolent to my father. One day he sent word that my father should pay him a visit along with me the child.. It was a hot day in the sun and my Mamappa (my mother's uncle) was carrying me, my father walking in tandem.. All walking from Parappanangadi to  Tanur.. five kilometres away..
We all reached the madam in time for bhiksha.
Then the Pontiff did a great thing... Usually the sannyasi does not touch anyone. And more so if the other person is not a nambudiri of the highest order.. When I was placed in namaskarams pose before him, he raised both legs and placed them on my head and said "Sriramo Rakshatu..."
It was an unusual gesture..
I trust that blessing has remained with me for ever..

RIP Mohammed mama...

RIP Mohammed mama...

a memory which is more than  sixty years comes back.. I was just a child of one and half years.. born at Kottakkal in a predominantly Muslim and non brahmin area..and having not much of exposure to Iyers and their ways till then..My constant companion in my infancy was a mohammed mama..Our family migrated to nearby places like Tirur and Parappanangadi. and still he was with us. I never found anything queer in having a Mohammed mama with us at that time, and even now I cannot find anything amiss..
He is now dead and gone. He was sort of assistant to my father and he used to occupy the front of our house when there was no other work..

Once I remember, I was venturing out of the house
-- it must be in Thrikkandiyur, Tirur--
 a small boy of one-and half years, and fell down and hit my lower jaw on a sharp stone and there was a free flow of blood.. No doctor nearby and the gash needed stitches. Mohammed mama saw me fall and get wounded, and he would not even wait to warn my mother about it.. my father had gone out on some work..Mohammed mama simply ran carrying me to the dispensary four miles away, and got the wound mended.. Doctor's fee was not an issue because the latter was known to my father..

But Mohammed mama had ruined the only white shirt, that is his sole possession to give him the  semblance of modern man.. the entire shirt was soaked in blood..

Of course, my father gave him a blue shirt in place of that white shirt and I have seen him wearing that every day afterwards..

That deep wound scar is seen in my lower jaw to this day..

At our house whenever food was cooked those days, one member who was included was Mohammed Mama. This is in spite of the fact that our parents were orthodox to the core.. Poojas, Japams... Ganapathi homam and what not..

But Mohammed mama was always there..

Subsequently, we migrated to Palakkad and Mohammed mama could not come with us because of his personal commitments..
When the news was received  that he had passed away a few years later, I know I have cried as if a close relative, an uncle, and a benefactor has left the scene..

RIP Mohammed mama...