Bond and bonding

 

 

Rama Rama Rama Pahimam... the sound of pure bliss coming from the corridors of my traditional home. My Ammamma's chanting. Chanting mantras, shlokas etc., while doing her daily chores was her practice which we kid observed adoringly, her ability to remember each verses of Ramayana was amazing. Her daily routine begins at sharp 4'O' clock in the morning. The first thing which she would be doing is (adupu tekal) that is cleaning and polishing the mud stove with cow dung and mud water. Which not only sanitizes the kitchen but also purifies it. The mud stove would be lit up with chopped woods or fallen dried branches collected from orchards which would be stacked on attics/ tattu of the adukala/ kitchen. She used to  stand on the kitchen platform and would pull out the required woods for lighting up the aduppu. Once lightened water would be kept for boiling for her bath. The next ordeal is milking the cow,🐄 we children would follow her to the (touithu) cowshed. Ammamma would call out to her cow very affectionately, all the cows and calfs kept in the( touithu) have names and respond by mooing accordingly. She would feed the cows first with Kaalitheta/ cow feeds, and the calfs with fresh banana. They licked her hands with affection, an eye-catching sight indeed with the morning breeze cooling down your body and mind. The calfs would now be allowed to drink milk of the mother cow before milking. Ammamma will take out one cow from the cowshed and would tie her up to a tree near by for milking.She would keep a patram/vessel for milk,  and with a slight pat to the cow's (adikku)udder with water she will start milking. All this while Ammamma will be continuing her chanting of mantras and we kids would be observing her with utter silence. This morning scenario was a bliss worth watching absorbing the nature's nector. Sometimes during her milking sessions we would play a prank. The cow would be tied in such a way that the cow 🐄 would be facing the side opposite to  Ammamma; while milking, her hind legs would be tied down and  Ammamma would be sitting under her udder and milking her. Ammamma won't be able to see the one standing in front of the cow. Seeing the cow tied down we naughty and now courageous children would feed the cow with banana🍌 which was  really dangerous, for the cow seeing the feed would start kicking her legs to reach the feed,which might hurt Ammamma too. This sudden dis balance results in the spilling of the milked milk in the vessel, on to the ground, doing the bhumi pujan. We all within a second would vanish out of her sight hiding. The day then turns into a day of lathi charging by Ammas. All the excitement of the morning were out on clouds and our eyes would be doing the sharavarsham(raining tears), with, in between thunder of sobs.

 

Ammamma after her bath would do tulsi pooja. And the daily chores of activities will begun. One of Ammamma's daily activity included churning of curd into butter. This was the most exciting one as we all would crowd around her for the freshly churned butter. During her churning which takes approximately one to two hours she will be telling us stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.This stories of her was once again refreshed to me after a long time, when I read it through AmarChitra Katha books, which I used to buy for my children. After the churning these curd mutkas with the churned butter in them would be hanged high up on Urri to keep away the cats and other pests. These high hanged Urris would be our next target of prank. Oh what a wonderful childhood we had. We were completely bonded by the threshold of nature and were resting in the lap of innocence blissfully.

 

Now coming to my story as I told you, the cows and cowshed or thouithu were an ordeal of every household in Kerela on those days. Where, not only cow for milking were kept, but bulls and 🐂 oxen too were kept for the farming purposes also. There was a thouithu in my Acchama's place too. It so happened that one of Acchama's cow got lost while grazing. After the milking session all the cows are usually taken for grazing to the fields or parambu/open areas of the owner, and they would be grazing till evening and will return back on one call lining up for their evening feed of Kanji vellam. Even if they get lost, that is, they wander away in search of mate for mating and returns themselves safely to the place where they are reared within a day or two. Now my Acchama's cow didn't return even after a week, a complaint was registered in the Panchayat about the loss. After a week, some of the native villagers spotted the cow, with somebody, in an another field and reported it to Acchama. In Acchama's place the cows were taken care by our Valiamma(Bua) and Valiamma had given a particular name to each cow of hers. She went to Panchayat and reported about the latest developments in the case. The person was summoned but inspite of accepting that the cow is not his, he started arguing and claiming the cow to be his.The argument continued and there was no way to prove whose, the cow was. So the Panchayat decided to go and see the cow itself. All villagers, Valiamma and the other man went to the field where the cow was tied down. Seeing the cow, Valiamma recognised immediately,

and called out to her "Sitakutty"..........the cow 🐄 gave a large mooing sound and ran towards Valiamma and started licking her hand. The case solved Valiamma got back her 🐄 cow.

 

The bond was so strong in those days that not only humans but animal too were tied down by sheer love.

 

Blessed and blissful era.