MY VISITORS
If there is a place for the town with the least number of Malayalees in the world, in the Guinness
Book ,Limca book or any other book, Delareyville will be a top contender for that coveted
position,because we are only four Malayalees here,ie Mr Koshy Mundakathil, Mrs Valsa
Koshy,myself and leelamma.Sometimes, when I lament about this over the phone to
some friends,they say that the lack of Malayalees is a blessing in disguise,because they say,
if Malayalees are too many,there will be groupism,rivalries,disputes, hatreds,discontent,
tensions,so on and so forth.This is most likely because in Kerala, we have a political party
in which the father and the son are the major players,and often they are at loggerheads,
or with horns locked.So one can imagine the situation here,if this town had 20 or 30
Malayalee families.As we are only four here, and in good terms,with no bones of contention,
we live in perfect peace and harmony.
Here we don't feel that we are in a foreign country,because I don't feel anything
foreign here,except the currency and one or two local languages spoken by the people.
The house is full of Malayalam,from the various Malayalam channels.I haven't seen any
Hindi or English films since we started getting malayalam channels.
As for the food,there's nothing foreign here.When we return from our trip to India,we
bring a lot of spices,seeds,pappadam,puttupodi,unakku kappa etc.In our vegetable garden
we grow all sorts of our favourite vegetables,which grow abundantly from November
to May.Every malayalee I know of,is keen to plant something in the backyard.A vegetable
garden has a psychological effect ,because it gives us us a sense that we are in our own
country,even though geographically incorrect.
In Malayalam we say," Kannullappol kanninte vila ariyathilla''.This is particularly
true in the case of our national attire 'Mundu'.The mundu is a metaphor for freedom.
In winter we have to wear many layers of warm clothing to protect from the cold,and
to make matters worse, dressing and undressing consumes a lot of time!To wear or
unwear a mundu,it takes only split seconds.The mundu allows a lot of air circulation,
which is good for the skin.The mundu has many many uses.for example,if you feel
that it's a bit cold in the night,simply remove the mundu,and use it as a 'puthappu'.
The mundu has some effective uses in the legislative assembly also.If my memory
is correct,long ago,Mathai Manjooran lifted his mundu in the Kerala Assembly,as a
form of protest.In my school days,my brother and I used to compete in collecting cashews
from our purayidam or parambu.We used 'madakki kuthu'as a bag behind.Plastic bags
were unknown in those days.I had a problem when returning home with my cashew
collection,sometimes the mundu would become loose and fall down. It wasn't a big deal
because nobody would notice what happened.The whole place looked like a forest.
Returning to my topic ,ie the lack of visitors,I'm compensated by the numerous birds
that visit my compound every day.All the compounds here are large,and have very
big trees,mainly for shade,to protect from the summer heat from November to March.
The birds find a safe haven on these trees.From morning till sunset,I hear the flapping
sounds of different types of birds.Some of them make their nests on the trees.There's
continuous singing of birds all around.
The pigeons live on the rooftops,and never venture to land on the ground for fear of
Appu,my cat.The other birds,of which the names are unknown to me,just pass this way
every day,and have a look from the safety of the tree tops.I have two television antennaes
of the old type,which serve as a transit point for birds.They perch on them,in pairs or
in large numbers,and fly away after some time.
Very beautiful birds are rare and fewer in numbers.For example, there is a type of
woodpecker around.Last month,I thought that he is a visitor from far,but recently I discovered
that he is living somewhere nearby,and is accompanied by his mate.They are in friendship with
two blue birds,which are extremely beautiful.They were all together,about ten days ago,
when Appu sat on a tree just to take rest,and was challenged and humiliated by all the
birds forming an alliance and "Neighbourhood Watch '' against the common enemy.
According to them, Appu had trespassed into a 'no go' area.
Sometimes I watch Appu in action.He has enormous patience,vigilance and perseverence.
There are some overconfident,absent-minded birds (arippravu?) which are slow to detect
danger.They usually land on the lawn and walk around.Appu would watch from a distance,
motionless,and dash with the speed of lightning, when the birds's back is turned.Other
times,he would watch a bird sitting on a tree,from a distance of 10 metres.At the right time
he would race like Usain Bolt to the tree,and would catch the bird in split seconds.
There is a group of brownish,long-tailed kilis,whose flight look like an air show.They
are frequent visitors to the vegetable garden,because they are fond of the tender leaves
of murinja.To defeat them we put a plastic net to cover the murinja plant.
These days,my favourite visitors are two kuruvis who frequent the aloes.They are
equipped with pointed,curved beaks to suck the nectar.One is deep,shiny blue,with
a golden neck,and the other one is a bit brownish.Such beautiful birds are rare and few
in number.They are very sensitive,alert,nervous and fast,and don't like to be observed
by humans.What amazes me is a sort of rivalry between them.I think the blue one is
the male,and the other one the female.They never appear together,even though there
are many aloes.Let me call them Ram and Sita respectively.They have some kind of
rigid rules,the first one being,'' You should not come to the aloes when I'm sucking
the nectar." So they appear alternatively,every 20 minutes.If Seetha shows "akrantham'
and land on the aloe,Ram chases her away.Both of them regard me as an intruder,and
avoid me by hiding in the branches of the nearby tree.For some unknown reason,Sita
was on the aloes most of the time yesterday.I parked my car nearby,hid behind it,and
took some photos and videos.Sometimes,Sita was irritated by bees flying around.
Both of them are hardworkers,sucking the nectar from different angles,upright,sideways,
dangling,movi
ng from one aloe to another with great speed and skill.Appu doesn't have
any interest in such birds because they are too small.
The past two days were happy days,being holidays ,and also for having birds and human
visitors.Yesterday Mr and Mrs Philipose visited,and today Mr John Zacharias ,Mrs John
Zaharias and their two daughters visited.A rare confluence of happy events indeed.
If there is a place for the town with the least number of Malayalees in the world, in the Guinness
Book ,Limca book or any other book, Delareyville will be a top contender for that coveted
position,because we are only four Malayalees here,ie Mr Koshy Mundakathil, Mrs Valsa
Koshy,myself and leelamma.Sometimes, when I lament about this over the phone to
some friends,they say that the lack of Malayalees is a blessing in disguise,because they say,
if Malayalees are too many,there will be groupism,rivalries,disputes, hatreds,discontent,
tensions,so on and so forth.This is most likely because in Kerala, we have a political party
in which the father and the son are the major players,and often they are at loggerheads,
or with horns locked.So one can imagine the situation here,if this town had 20 or 30
Malayalee families.As we are only four here, and in good terms,with no bones of contention,
we live in perfect peace and harmony.
Here we don't feel that we are in a foreign country,because I don't feel anything
foreign here,except the currency and one or two local languages spoken by the people.
The house is full of Malayalam,from the various Malayalam channels.I haven't seen any
Hindi or English films since we started getting malayalam channels.
As for the food,there's nothing foreign here.When we return from our trip to India,we
bring a lot of spices,seeds,pappadam,puttupodi,unakku kappa etc.In our vegetable garden
we grow all sorts of our favourite vegetables,which grow abundantly from November
to May.Every malayalee I know of,is keen to plant something in the backyard.A vegetable
garden has a psychological effect ,because it gives us us a sense that we are in our own
country,even though geographically incorrect.
In Malayalam we say," Kannullappol kanninte vila ariyathilla''.This is particularly
true in the case of our national attire 'Mundu'.The mundu is a metaphor for freedom.
In winter we have to wear many layers of warm clothing to protect from the cold,and
to make matters worse, dressing and undressing consumes a lot of time!To wear or
unwear a mundu,it takes only split seconds.The mundu allows a lot of air circulation,
which is good for the skin.The mundu has many many uses.for example,if you feel
that it's a bit cold in the night,simply remove the mundu,and use it as a 'puthappu'.
The mundu has some effective uses in the legislative assembly also.If my memory
is correct,long ago,Mathai Manjooran lifted his mundu in the Kerala Assembly,as a
form of protest.In my school days,my brother and I used to compete in collecting cashews
from our purayidam or parambu.We used 'madakki kuthu'as a bag behind.Plastic bags
were unknown in those days.I had a problem when returning home with my cashew
collection,sometimes the mundu would become loose and fall down. It wasn't a big deal
because nobody would notice what happened.The whole place looked like a forest.
Returning to my topic ,ie the lack of visitors,I'm compensated by the numerous birds
that visit my compound every day.All the compounds here are large,and have very
big trees,mainly for shade,to protect from the summer heat from November to March.
The birds find a safe haven on these trees.From morning till sunset,I hear the flapping
sounds of different types of birds.Some of them make their nests on the trees.There's
continuous singing of birds all around.
The pigeons live on the rooftops,and never venture to land on the ground for fear of
Appu,my cat.The other birds,of which the names are unknown to me,just pass this way
every day,and have a look from the safety of the tree tops.I have two television antennaes
of the old type,which serve as a transit point for birds.They perch on them,in pairs or
in large numbers,and fly away after some time.
Very beautiful birds are rare and fewer in numbers.For example, there is a type of
woodpecker around.Last month,I thought that he is a visitor from far,but recently I discovered
that he is living somewhere nearby,and is accompanied by his mate.They are in friendship with
two blue birds,which are extremely beautiful.They were all together,about ten days ago,
when Appu sat on a tree just to take rest,and was challenged and humiliated by all the
birds forming an alliance and "Neighbourhood Watch '' against the common enemy.
According to them, Appu had trespassed into a 'no go' area.
Sometimes I watch Appu in action.He has enormous patience,vigilance and perseverence.
There are some overconfident,absent-minded birds (arippravu?) which are slow to detect
danger.They usually land on the lawn and walk around.Appu would watch from a distance,
motionless,and dash with the speed of lightning, when the birds's back is turned.Other
times,he would watch a bird sitting on a tree,from a distance of 10 metres.At the right time
he would race like Usain Bolt to the tree,and would catch the bird in split seconds.
There is a group of brownish,long-tailed kilis,whose flight look like an air show.They
are frequent visitors to the vegetable garden,because they are fond of the tender leaves
of murinja.To defeat them we put a plastic net to cover the murinja plant.
These days,my favourite visitors are two kuruvis who frequent the aloes.They are
equipped with pointed,curved beaks to suck the nectar.One is deep,shiny blue,with
a golden neck,and the other one is a bit brownish.Such beautiful birds are rare and few
in number.They are very sensitive,alert,nervous and fast,and don't like to be observed
by humans.What amazes me is a sort of rivalry between them.I think the blue one is
the male,and the other one the female.They never appear together,even though there
are many aloes.Let me call them Ram and Sita respectively.They have some kind of
rigid rules,the first one being,'' You should not come to the aloes when I'm sucking
the nectar." So they appear alternatively,every 20 minutes.If Seetha shows "akrantham'
and land on the aloe,Ram chases her away.Both of them regard me as an intruder,and
avoid me by hiding in the branches of the nearby tree.For some unknown reason,Sita
was on the aloes most of the time yesterday.I parked my car nearby,hid behind it,and
took some photos and videos.Sometimes,Sita was irritated by bees flying around.
Both of them are hardworkers,sucking the nectar from different angles,upright,sideways,
dangling,movi
any interest in such birds because they are too small.
The past two days were happy days,being holidays ,and also for having birds and human
visitors.Yesterday Mr and Mrs Philipose visited,and today Mr John Zacharias ,Mrs John
Zaharias and their two daughters visited.A rare confluence of happy events indeed.
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