The dining room at Kunnumkulam had 2 foreign elements, which is still very close to my heart, from the two nations which influenced many USA and UK.
One was the black and white portrait of an extremely charismatic man and his amazingly pretty wife with an adorable daughter in the middle holding her parents hands, the picture was in motion they were all walking forward and I always felt they were walking towards me. I cant remember the number of times I have stood in the dining room watching the portrait with absolute admiration.
I still do not know why that portrait was hung above the dining room door and where it came from. However this is the portrait which made me close to history, I was keen to read all about this family, and I admit to this day I am still in shock at the assassination of JFK.
The second element was the “icepetty” FRIDGE, from UK, it reminded me of our Morris Minor car, and the fridge door was rounded like the bonnet of the car. It was like a strange round almarah, a huge one. The stainless steel handle reminded me of the car door handle. Those days in the 60’s this was a rare piece of equipment and no one had the permission to open the same, to keep kids out of reach, the fridge was kept on an elevated stainless steel pedestal, at least a feet high.
This grandpa fridge had a murmur and there was a continuous free flow of electricity in this mammoth structure, less than a mA giving a tingling sensation all the time
If I am not mistaken it’s inside this box that I first saw icicles. There was no defrosting mechanism for sure!!!
The last I remember was the mA frequency increased and the icepetty fell on top of someone, I am sure the person was crushed to pulp…..
Coming to think about the entertainment and household gadgets which were considered as a symbol of effluence, luxury and Do Not Touch category of the 50’s and 60’s, like the Radio, Transistors, Tape Recorder, Record Player, Mixi etc and the 70’s Television, VCR, Camera, Video Camera, Telephone, Calculator, Microwave, Food Processor, Hand Mixi, Wet Grinder,!!! the transformation of all happened in our life time. My age groups were fortunate to see gadgets from mammoth, dinosaur sizes to miniatures, made in Japan, USA, Germany, UK to made in China and made in Kunnumkulam, a culture that wiped off repair shops, photo and video shops, to Use and Throw culture.
Set Mundu, the typical Kerala Mundu and Neryathu, the two piece homespun off-white attire with an elegant border in color for daily wear and pure gold kasavu for occasions is my favorite dress of all times. This was etched in the celluloid of my mind from the time I was born.
Kunnumkulam Valiammachy used to wear this attire every morning after her bath and by 6am after overseeing the chores at home and kitchen, she would be ready in the front verandah, it was a picture postcard scene, Valiappachen would walk around in his lunky tucked to the waste and rolled in the right side many times to keep it tight and the end result was the lunky was always up and down and looked like a midi, he had a paunch, and I was told it was filled with the most natural and pure fermented coconut water of all times, kallu, Valiappachen walked around in his garden brushing his teeth, a concoction of umikkari (rice hull charcoal) salt and pepper would be held in his left hand palm, every now and then, with each bit of breaking news he would dip his right hand forefinger and brush his teeth with the concoction and he would spit the aftermath to the roses and the grand finale would be polishing his teeth with the stem of the little mango leaf he plucked from the charming mango tree or a neem leaf from the neem tree.
Valiammachy would read the newspaper starting from the obituary column and progressing to the last page and finally the first page. This was customary for every elderly woman I have come across in my childhood. Newspaper had a distinct reading pattern. Appa and all elderly men took the front sheet and Amma went for the middle with the obituary first. Youngsters had to wait till that time the paper was dropped on the coffee table like an orphan.
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