Mangoes

Last week I had read some mango memories in Tulika's blog.  These days some thoughts drawn some nice images from my childhood.  Everyone has memories related to mangoes.  Still I am recollecting the old frames with that old frocks and my cousins with lot of vigour to collect the falling mangoes.  The big mango tree in the yard was our play area.  Very close to that there was a bamboo forest.  We believed that there were snakes inside these forest.    The big mango tree with a wide slot in its wood.  We always played hide and seek game around this tree.  This play area has a back ground colour of greenish yellow that from the bamboo forest.  We played around the mango tree and ate all the mangoes that had fallen.  It was a 'Nattu mavu'  Its fruits will be very small but very tasty.  My heart is longing to see my cousins with lots of love.  We had lot of memories about the thamarind tree very near to the mango tree.  Last month one of my elder cousin had started the construction of her new home at that place and they had cut our thamarind tree.  It was a sad news for me,  the tree had seen all generations of my mother's family.  Now I thank Tulika for inspiring my lovely memories. 
Now I miss the breeze that helped to fall these ripe mangoes,  the shades of these old trees,  the dry mango leaves that make a voice when we run and  all the love and care we got from our elders in the childhood...

Panji Maram or Elavum ka

Shots of panji maram from Idukki.  It was a nice scene to see balls of cotton hanging from panji tree.  Sree had collected some of the fruits.  He broke it and played with pure cotton.  Hari was so curious to know about the use of this cotton.  We had seen lot of panji trees. 

Panji fruit

When we travel through Idukki District we can see this scenes every where.  My husband recollected his memories associated with this tree during our long drive.  In those days this tree was their source for soft mattresses.  Mattresses were made in home itself.  First of all they will collect the dried fruit.  Open them and collect them in large vessels or 'kotta'.  They had to remove the seeds from the panji.  For that they will churn the panji with a 'kadakol' made of wood.  For all these processes we have to cover our nose and mouth because we are playing with the original cotton.  Panji tree is also called as 'Elavu'.  I think now everyone is comfortable with foam mattresses and that may be the reason for these hanging cotton balls in highrange.

Vishu Ashamsakal

Wishing you all a very happy vishu with your loved ones. We have lot of celebrations which we can celebrate with nature.
Vishu has always a back ground colour of yellow. The colour of konnapoo, the pattu chela of sree krishna, gold coins and above all the yellowish 'Kani vellari'. In our childhood we will celebrate the festivals in the shadow of our elders. They will arrange everything for us.
Now every festivals make me busy. Some cleaning, some purchasing and my mind planning for the feast, kani and every thing. Every kani reminds me of my mother always beautifying the kani in late night. This post is dedicated to my parents who made these celebrations so memorable and also to my late grand mother.
We have some celebrations at office also. Anyway its a smiling time for me to have these occasions. Wishing you once more a lovely day ahead.
Kani konna poo
Vishu kani

Pana

I had done a detailed post on pana (Palmyra tree) in this post.

http://aswathikasimadom.blogspot.in/2010/05/pana.html
We had taken these snaps from the Ilankavu devi temple. These images we can see the pana nongu. Its so interesting to watch these leaves. These leaves are used to make umbrellas in temples. Its also used to make the roof of houses. 'Pana nongu' is an excellant thirst quencher.

'Panayola kuda' is now used in temples. Its a tedious task to make these umbrellas from these leaves. The handle of this umbrella is made up of Bamboo sticks. What a nature friendly idea!!!

Typical Kerala house

Iliked this house which I noticed during our visit to Thalayolaparambu. Typical Kerala Architecture with thulasithara, veranda and roof with Tiles. The Kerala architecture is most suitable for our climate. We can feel the coolness in these type of houses. I had already posted an 'Ettukettu' in my earlier posts. For the images

http://babuscamera.blogspot.in/2007/11/ettukettu-mazhuvancherril-home-at.html

Alliyambal kadavil ninnum...

Pink ambal poo from the river

Kula kadavu at the temple

Poetic scenes captured from the 'kulikkadavu' of Ilankavu devi temple, Vaikom. Remembering me of the evergreen romantic song 'Alliyambal kadavilannarakku vellam annu nammalonnay thuzhanjille kothumbu vallam nammude nenjilake anuraga karikkin vellam.....

Ilankavu devi temple is very near to the famous Vaikom Mahadeva temple. Main deity is Bhadrakali. A calm temple with lot of panas and one side of the temple is a cool river. The lillies are from this river. In ancient days there was separate bathing spaces for men and women in temples and in homes. Here the temple authorities had kept the old buildings as such. My photography skills are not enough to capture the shaded images from this area.

The violet lillies caught our attention then. When we travel through Kerala we can see some sceneries like this.

Another song which can be mentioned under this picture is 'Aambal poove, aniyam poove neeyarinjo ivalente murappennu...'

It was my mother in law's wish to visit the temple. Her origins are from Thalayolaparambu. She was very curious to watch every nook and corner of the temple. She insisted that its the ritual of the temple to wash the foot before entering into the temple. Thus we entered into the 'Kadavu'. The first thoughts I had into my mind was of some famous novels in malayalam. Their descriptions about the steps, the washing sounds, the coolness and more and more.

Pink colour ambal poo was very catching. I had seen the white and the blue varieties.

From my home

Images right from my home. Its a great pleasure for me to water it and nurture it. At night its fragrance will fill our courtyard. Most of the flowers will go to temple. At the evening we can see a flower bed at the bottom of this plant.

I like 'mulla mottu' more than 'mulla poovu'. I think its the variety 'Kudamulla'. Its fragrance is unbeatable. This flower is an inevitable part in our culture too. Now it had got a great market. A variety of jasmine known as 'Kutti mulla' is cultivating on a large scale.

It is an all time subject to our poets. Some lyrics which I had noted

'Mulla poom pallilo mukkutti kavilino allimalar mizhiyilo njan mayangi....' Nazeer and Jayabharathi

'Kudamulla poovinum malayali penninum udukkan vella pudava...'

Hartal thoughts....

'People don't always need advice, sometimes all they really need is a hand to hold, an ear to listen and a heart to understand them.' You can see this nice poster in Aarathi's blog. I think its very true, so I am sharing this words with you through this post.
Share some time with your friend, neighbour or with your spouse and try to be a listner. It will help you to have more strenghthy relations. Relations that based on some quantitative results will be a failure. Its very painful to have a broken relation.
During my bedtime I always think of the memorable face of this day. We saw many faces in a day. Sometimes it will be a kid smiling at me during traffic block, some times it will be an old man trying to cross the road. Anyway its a nice thing to memorise the day in the night.

One year back I am in the bus stop waiting for my bus. There was a peanut seller and my children was very fond of hot 'Kappalandi'. Here they roast the peanut in their mobile shops, Welcoming smell of frying peanuts in the sand and we can see heaps of peanuts and grean peas in front of the gas stove. So I bought two packets, here we don't get packets its 'Kumbils', they will fold the paper in a triangular shape. Its a nice packing method and its nature friendly too. I had safely placed these two kumbils in my bag. Then a girl approached me and asked for one kumbil. She may be of the same age as of my elder son, I suddenly given her one kumbil, within that time my bus came and I could not ask her name or anything. I always think that why she asked me for that, was she was suffering from hunger or may be she was a great fan of hot peanuts like my children.....

Annual day at School

Its a nice thing to watch a performance in a stage without worrying about the unending works behind the curtain . That was our weekend activity. Hari and Sree's Annual day celebrations was on 26th. Hari was part of a drama based on Ramayana. It was nice he was in the war field as a soldier for Ravana. The drama consisted more than 100 children and the monkeys and the deamons are from his class. In the warfront we saw monkeys with their 'Gadas' and deamons with their swords. During this crucial war they were smiling....Anyway its nice. Sree had great dance with the song 'Adada mazhada..'. I was so thrilled to see his dance. Basically he is a child with lot of shyness.
Lot of programs with two sessions. Very well planned and executed by the school. Each and every child participated. During the program I had some memories about the last six months. We had some drama like situations in our life and by seeing my children performing their roles in the show its a victorious moment to both of us for surviving all these situations.
Share every moment with your child with great love. They are the great blessings from god. Allow them to grow in their own way, nurture them with great care and vigour.