A PICTURESQUE SCENE

We used to get enough paddies for our use and the balance was sold in the open market. Jacob and I used to supervise all the work like - tilling the soil, sowing, replanting, weeding, manuring and harvesting. It was very interesting to watch the re-planting of seedlings, and the harvesting with sickles, and trampling out grain on threshing floor. There was such a festive air as women worked to the accompaniment of folk songs sung aloud by Thanka, (a gorgeous woman, wife of Purushan who was the grandson of Ayyan Nurukanni), one of the best singers among the women workers. While cutting with sickles and binding the grains the other women workers joined her for the chorus. Folk songs like -  

“Ponnriyan Padathe. Chudum Konde..e….

Illimulam Kaderi Pokum Katte…e--.

Yi Pavizha Padathu Neeyum Vayo…o…..

Yi Pavizha Padathu Neeyum Vayo…o….”

Hoyyaro… Hoyyaro… Hoyya. (Chorus)

Here, the workers in the paddy fields are beckoning, “the winds that carried the heat from the paddy fields, grown with Ponnriyan paddy, into the   bamboo forest.” The summer heat is unbearable and “the workers are requesting the winds to carry the heat from their workplace also, which is ready for harvest.”

Yet another folk song that lingers on my mind is as follows: -

“Yellarum Padathu Swarnam Vithachu.

Yen Yente Padathu Swapnam Vithachu.

Swarnam Vilanjathum Nooru Meni…

Swapnam Vilanjathum Nooru Meni…”

She sang, “Everyone sowed gold in their paddy fields; but she sowed dreams in her paddy field.  However, both yielded hundred percent.”

This song was written by a well-known lyricist Shri. Vayalar Rama Varma. This film song was sung by a veteran playback singer Smt. P. Suseela.

These songs bring to my memory those picturesque scenes in my tiny village during the harvest season. These simple joyous expressions on their faces are all things of the past! Years later during my travel in and outside Kerala I observed that this was a very common sight – “Women donned in their work attire, a ‘Kaily Mundu’, coloured check dhoti, and a colourful blouse with a ‘Pottu’ a red round bindhi or any other mark and colour of their choice on their foreheads singing out during the times of replanting and harvesting, all this colour and music transformed the entire paddy field into a stage performance.”  This is a typical picturesque scene prevalent in most parts of India and the South East.

These men and women in the paddy fields belonged to the lowest castes in the caste ridden society. They lived in miserable huts often sheltered the livestock as well as the family. Their doors so low one had to stoop to enter and the huts were poorly lighted. Their clothing was coarse and their food was scanty. They had to work hard and their compensation was small. They had little opportunity for travel, education and amusement. I have heard a few landlords punished them severely for slight offences and were deprived of medical aid and in some cases, of spiritual comfort. They were down trodden, who were socially, culturally, economically and educationally backward. They did not have any platform to express their feelings of love and affection towards their beloved heroes, leaders and brethren and also express their love of nature. They recognized their dependence on Mother Nature to produce their crops, and in time of drought they offered sacrifices and psalms of praise to persuade the spirits to grant favourable growing seasons and bountiful harvests.

They did   not have another stage to air out their grievances against atrocities meted out to them by their landlords, kings, police or any other officials who governed them. So singing was an ideal medium for them to open up through a melodious note.

I cherish to re-create the environment but the prohibitive labour charges and lack of sincere, devoted and efficient workers deter me from doing so. Those years of total uncompromising dedication is a story of yester years.  Mechanization is the one and only dependable alternative to improve agricultural production.

Excerpts from

 MEMOIRSR

by

Joseph J. Thayamkeril

josephjthayamkeril@gmail.com