My Palakkad

My final settling in Palghat was a real surprise to everyone including me and my wife Uma. This little town bordering Kerela and Tamilnadu is the home town for both of us. Kalpathy for Uma and Sekharipuram for me. Even the name has changed to Palakkad from Palghat .But both of us have never stayed here, though we had visited this place enough. In fact it was in this same place Palghat ( it was known as Palghat at that time), that I had the only Ponnukannal ceremony( seeing the girl) and saw Uma for the first time at the BPL guest house way back in 1976 . We tried to see those houses but were unable to find them.
During our first week here in Palakkad with nothing special to do, we did plenty of walking. Each day we used to travel in different directions. We went to Vinayakanagar where my father had a house, Suraaj . This house has been modernised and was looking quite nice,
We saw Uma’s father’s house,Srimatha ,also. The surrounding of this house has totally changed .I recollect the paddy fields opposite to this and the ducks in these fields (as Darshana also remembers). None of them are there. Now you can see only houses in all shapes and colours. I am suddenly reminded of the famous writer Malayatoor Ramakrishanan’s book “VERUKAL” (meaning roots) in which he tells the story of how he comes with his children to Palghat from the city for a holiday. This was these children’s first visit to the village and as soon as they saw the lush green paddy fields, one of them commented, “What a nice lawn”. The father corrected him saying these are paddy fields and not lawns and the son says “ Arisi Chedi”.( Rice tree). Palakkad is moving in this direction and very soon we may have to show our children paddy fields, village wells etc in the museums.

During our walks we went and saw my father’s house in Sekharipuram and also Uma’s

ancestoral house Kalpathy and Sekharipram. It is so ironical that after having disposed off five houses between two of us , we are finally back to our roots in new surroundings .
Palakkad has changed. Like the name has changed we could see that even the sleepy and conservative town has changed . As you walk in the morning you can see quite a lot of people of all ages with different dresses also walking. Amidst tee shirt and shorts wearing men we can see men with the typical Mundu( dhoti) tied up also jogging. The weather here was outstanding with little rain.
On Monday, it was fun to go to a typical Chanda( Flea Market ) and buy village grown fresh vegetables,
On the other side, going into the town you can see BIG BAZAAR, selling all the latest products from across the globe under one roof(a three floor building as good as you can see in any other city). Palghat has grown out of its conservatism.
Classical examples are while you are walking in the morning through Kalpathy, you can see ladies doing rangoli in front of the house .In the evening you can see girls with laptop sitting on the verandah along with ladies discussing .
Aiswarya mess in the heart of this gramam serves you typical Palakkad cuisine like Sevai, pongal , vada , etc.. On the other side you can also see bhel puri, veg. Manchurian on the same street.
Palakkad has arrived for us

Ayakkad

It is almost a week since we came to Palghat from Mumbai to start my retired life. As my house was not completed we had decided to stay with my Uncle’s house in Vaidyanathapuram. My uncle hails from a village called Ayakad, about 20 kms from Palghat.
When he announced that Kumbabhisekam is being celebrated at this Ganapathy temple and he is planning to go, we decided to start our journey of visits of temples from there and hence we decided to join him.
So we left in the morning around 9.30 am and after a beautiful drive for an hour we reached this village. We cruised along the NH47 towards Trichur till we reached Vadakkenchery and took a turn towards right to Ayakkad. This Vadakkencherry is in Palghat district as there is one more Vadakkenchery in Trichur district,
It was fun driving in the small roads which had paddy fields on both sides and finally we reached the village. I was quite pleasantly surprised to see the village temple and quite number of cars . The temple of MahaGanapathy is a small temple and looks quite prosperous. Vedic chants filled the air as number of Brahmins staying in the village and visitors from outside participated in this last day of the Kumbhabhisekam festival.
We were able to witness different types of abhisekam taking place live. Quite an interesting abhisekam was the one made of coconut water. After these abhisekams the idol which was about two feet in height was decorated with sandalwood paste,
The young priests who took over the decorations made a very professional job and ultimately the Vigneswar was looking wonderful. Later Puja by the priests took place and by now we were quite hungry.
Meanwhile we went around the Gramam and saw the old house which belonged to my uncle. Quite a nice house but has been modernised for the latest facilities. It was noticed that most of the houses in the Agraharam has been dilapated .We proceeded for the temple lunch. This was provided inside the temple. All of us sat down on the ground and had a full meal. The village youngsters were the persons serving us. It was a proper Sadya (feast) and was very tasty.

The old temple and surroundings were looking prosperous and we were told that people around the globe belonging to this village are regularly participating in the upkeep and maintenance of this temple and hence it is quite heartening to notice that the old culture of taking care of your ancestral village is becoming popular.

One of the main dishes at the feast was RASA KALAN the recipe of which we are trying to give below for all to try.All in all a very enjoyable outing.