Ammumma, my memories

My first memories of Amumma are of her in Guruvayur, the summer vacations that I would spend with her.  It was just her, amma and I and I picked up my love for good Malayalee food from those days.  Her hair was curly and peppery silver, always neatly combed and tied, well oiled, her ‘mundum veshiti”a clean white, starched and perfectly tied, not a crease anywhere, ‘chandanam’ or ‘bhasmam’ on her forehead, head held high albeit tilted to one side. 
I have never seen her sit idle in the morning.  She was an early riser and in the kitchen by 5:30 a.m. brewing coffee and churning out delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner.  By the time I woke up and went downstairs everything would have been cooked and ready for us to have for breakfast while the lunch was almost cooked.  Kunjalakutty would be taking the empty utensils for washing under a young coconut palm so that the ash with which the utensils are scrubbed and the water remains there and nourishes the plam.  Incidentally, the water from the bath area and the kitchen went via a drain (Challu) to small banana groves.   Amumma would have a bath and while she put on her fresh Mundu and Veshti call out to me to take a bath and get ready for a visit to the temple.  By 9 am we are out of the house, she holding my arm ad walking the 2 km to the Krishna Temple in Guruvayur.  On the way she would smile and nod at the passers by, occasionally stop and talk to the lady at Leela Niwas (the place where now stands the huge R V hall).  Opposite Leela Niwas was a set of 4 row huts, in one of which lived our milk lady, Radhamma.  A plump and short person, with a huge note pin in each of her nostrils, She would talk about her buffalo and how the milk produce is low and how her son is not looking after herself.  A widow, brave and strong managing her home.
We would  go past the Hydrosekutty’s (at least thats how I always heard his name) cycle shop from where for Re 1 per hour I could borrow a cycle and thats how I learnt to bicycle, cross Balettan’s house  where sometime we would stop to talk to him and they would exchange notes. Balettan was one of the go to persons for help, when amma was having a problem while she was expecting my sister, it was he who took the three of us to the hospital in Kunnamkulam on a rainy day.  I was cold and shivering and standing in the verandah with him and he took my hands kissed them nd started rubbing them to keep me warm.  Such was the man who also told stories of elephant Keshavan, the temple elephant.  We passed the truck repair shop where Pranji worked as a child and later he drove trucks and today he is a silent, gentle person, whose children have studied and done well for them selves.  Then we would walk till manjulal, past the public library (which by the way is still functional) and then go past hotel Elite and reach the temple.  Much before the grand stores came up the humble shops used to be where today the kalyana mandapams and the stage was.  At one vegetable shop, amumma and I would hand over our chappals and umbrella and walk into a temple that used to be empty (can you imagine that today?).  We took as much time as we wanted, stop inside the temple wherever and whenever we wanted, take as many pradikshanams as we felt like.  Amumma an and I would enter the sanctum sanctorum and stand in front of Guruvayurappan where the Namboodiri will tell me to pray hard and long (today ifwe get to stand there for a second we consider ourselves lucky).  As we round the sanctum sanctorum, the Melshanti would acknowledge us and give us some prasadam and we would go to the outer cirle where some elephants will be idling, and we take our shanre of chandanam and walk out.  The vegetable vendor would have the vegetables ready in newspaper wrappings and she would carry them back in her plastic, woven, basket.  As we walked back she would ask me if I wanted some bangles or a ring and buy me one if I said yes.  We might meet Appunnimama or Janaki Amma, sometimes Balettan again, at times Chandrashekaraammaman.  A 5-10 minute chat with each.  We would walk back and amma will have laid out lunch and after lunch she and Ammumma took a nap which is when I would take all the bel metal utensils and play with them.  Ammumma would have ket a set aside for me.  Evening coffee ritual was when black coffee would be made ready for Lazappan’s family and mistly Lilly would be there to take it back and I would go to their home with her and have some coffee with them, roll some beedis with them, between Lilly and Maruykutty they rolled about 2000 bidis (Kajah Bidi is the company they worked for). 
Ammumma managed the small “parambu” we had and mist of her earnings came form the land, the coconuts, the leaves of the palms, the fish from the three ponds.  She made sure that the boundary with the prickly bamboo was redone, the “thengukettam” was done periodically with “Mashu” being the bookkeeper, recording the coconuts plucked from each tree, and Lazarappan managing the gathering of coconuts, sorting them and selling the coconuts, the copra and the leaves.  Lazarappan also managed the parambu by building the dykes for rainwater to stand around the palms and the “parambu”.   
After the lamp is lit at dusk, Amumma called me for dinner and after that we would sit in the veranda chatting with Lilly, Marukutty, Jose, Thomas and then Madhavan came to visit.  He was probably a clerk in the postal department when my grandfather was alive and served there and he came as a courtesy to check on Amumma, he paid our bills and such.  I used to look forward to his visits because Amumma gave him banana chips or jackfruit chips and a glass of water.  He respectfully sat a distance away in the corner of the verandah.
Ammumma was widowed at about 45 years of age but I have ever heard her what life doled out for her.  She lived a full life, reserved yet maintaining friendships and relationships.  She was her own master quite independent.  In her last years she moved to Delhi and stayed with us and she took the responsibility of cleaning our shoes!!  Deepti and I had spotless white PT shoes and shiny black black shoes for school everyday.  She would peep into my books to make sure I was turning the pages and check if I was day dreaming or actually studying, she loved it when Deepti painted her face and made multiple plaits with her hair.  She stood with me when I broke the news of Raja at home. I wish she lived to see her great grand children and enjoy them but well life is limited.
Today in Guruvayur she is remembered fondly, for the people she fed regularly, her sense of responsibility, how she stayed alone in a rambling house till she could and how she was the little big lady!  Lilly and Marykutty still speak about the feast she used to give them, a full “sadya” on my birthday every year, a day they say they had a full stomach and oil for their hair.  Today all my friends at Guruvayur are well off, they have their ups and dows but all are well and for that I am thankful to God.  To my Amumma who even managed to celebrate her “shashtipurti” herself and invited family and friends to enjoy.