The first and perhaps the most grandeur wedding in my memory was the one of my one and only older cousin, Mollymamma alias Molas, at Kunnumkulam. It was days of royal celebrations!!. All under one roof, all at home, unlike the weddings of current times, managed by event managers and held at hotels or wedding halls, Molas’s wedding was an elaborate and extended feast just at home, along with the usual ceremony at church.
Valiammachy’s and Valiappachen’s siblings, an array of family, cousins and friends from all over assembled at Kunnumkulam. It ran to three digit numbers. Everyone stayed at the palatial home, packed like sardines perhaps but happily, heartily.
I was still at junior school and it was lot of fun, running around as a guide, showing kith and kin the nook and corner of the home, getting elders to swing in the cot that dangles on 4 chains looking down to the front of the home through the stained glass. Rushing in and out of the banana room, running back and forth from the verandah to the kitchen taking instructions for food. Reminding everyone of the time, and making sure everyone is ready for the various activities throughout the day.
Food was getting prepared nonstop by a stack of people, truly people were pulled out of a stack one after the other 24×7, ആട്, മാട്, പോത്തു, കാള, എരുമ, പോർക്ക്, കരൾ, ബ്രെയിൻ, ഏട്ട മീൻ, ഏട്ടയുടെ മുട്ട, വെള്ളയപ്പം, കള്ളപ്പം, വട്ടയപ്പം, കോഴിപ്പിടി , മുതിര ഉപ്പേരി, എന്നു വേണ്ട ഒരു നൂറുകൂട്ടം ഭക്ഷണ പദാർത്ഥങ്ങൾ, ഇറച്ചിയിലെല്ലാം കൂർകയും, വാഴക്കയുമൊക്കെ വെട്ടിനുറുക്കി ഇട്ട പ്രത്യേകതരം കറികൾ, കുരുമുളക് ചതച്ചിട്ട കറികൾ, പലഹാരമാണെങ്കിൽ പലവിധം ഹൽവ, കേക്ക്, നൻകട്ട, ഡയമണ്ട് കട്സ്, മുറുക്ക്, അച്ചപ്പം, കുഴലപ്പം, അവൽ വിളയിച്ചത്, പഴം ജാം, മുന്തിരിക്കൊത്തു, എന്ന് വേണ്ട കയറി ഇറങ്ങി എല്ലാവര്ക്കും കഴിക്കാൻ ഭക്ഷണത്തോടെ ഭക്ഷണം!
In between I would spot the older men coming in and out of the office room, and every time they came out they tend to become more jovial and in higher spirits and not bothering the kids who were sliding down the sloping half wall by the side of the front steps.
This was unusual, of them who used to be warning the kids, all the time of breaking their bones, if they fall. The only thing I didn’t understand then, was why they were not eating at the dining table!! Why was the steaming hot, fried food being taken to the office room all the time.
Well now I know what prohibition meant those days.
It was a weeklong affair the wedding and the celebrations, Appa and Amma were members of the lead conductors team, and had congregated in Kunnumkulam weeks before the actual day of the wedding, many a times, both Amma and Valiammachy would sneak upstairs to check on the goldsmith, who was playing with fire, blowing air through a metal pipe and smashing gold into the finest and unique jewelry for the bride, Valiappachen would ask the ladies to check on the brocades that came from Chakolas, in the bedroom suite upstairs.
Every evening there were distinct activities and I still remember the day before the wedding, when all the sister in laws of Valiammachy, sat down to prepare a dish which was so unique depicting the harmony of families together, staying strong to bless the bride for her future life. Rice powder was mixed with hot water and rolled and boiled with chicken pieces into a mouth watering dish kozhipidi, then raw rice was pounded in the uralu with ulakka, another traditional activity called Nellu Kuthu by the ammayi’s all three of them had to do the pounding like synchronized dancing along with the sharp shrilling musical note – kurava by the women folk. It was truly a balancing act not to have 2 ulakkas in the uralu together, the pound rice was mixed with jaggery and given to the bride by each of the ammayi’s. There were many other ceremonies like Madhuram kodukkal, Molas was mouth fed by pretty much all elders, a mixture of coconut and sugar together. Well those days there was no issue of calories and cholesterol…
Ponnammama my ammas oldest sister in law and dearest, was one among them, the tallest of the lot in saree while others were in chatta and mundu, the traditional attire,.
Molas would sit like proud mary!! Quite composed and serious, she was dressed in Benares silk sarees gilded with gold embroidery prints, so thick and very deep bright colors. I remember one of her saree was deep green with floral pattern, with vines and leaves which were in thick silver kasavu. Molas had her extremely thick and curly long hair put up like Hindi actress of those days, may be Mumtaz and flowers adorned her hair.
Mollymamma, Amma’s youngest sister, who was always keen to adorn me, got a bit of the jasmine flower in a string and put them on the left side of my head with a metal black slide, I was wearing a deep brownish grey half skirt and polo neck blouse.
I think Molas was carried to the church in a chair adorned with thick fabric, the ceremonies were very cute and strange, it was very typical of Kunnumkulam. Her friends Jayasree Chechy and Rema Chechy had attended the wedding and ironically, Rema Chechy’s daughter is married to my brothers friend and Amma’s close friend and my well-wisher late Usha Ravi (Ushammai’s) son Prakash Nair. Jayasree Chechy is a leading attorney in USA and I met her by sheer accident because of her brother Ram Cheerath, and she still remembers me as the little girl who used to frequent her home with Molas.
There was music and timely prayers, and never ending supply of food during the days of celebration. There was no work in the workshop as each and every one of them were engaged in making the place look colorful with festoons and lit with tiny light bulbs like stars. It was indeed like a movie set.
All I knew was Molas was getting married to a Doctor from Chathannoor, near Kollam, Dr.Thomas Mathew, a Trivandrum Medical College product, known lovingly as Sunnychayan to all of us in the family, it was established that, they will not move to Chathannoor or Kollam permanently.
She will be eventually settling in Kunnumkulam, according to Amma, Valiappachen had adopted the bridegroom to the bride’s home; for many reasons, being the only daughter and to carry the rein of the dynasty, it was important for a Doctor to come and take charge of the surgical instruments business and the future hospital they had in mind.
Both her parents were at peace my parents were at Kollam to be her guardian temporarily, Sunnychayan did practice in Chathannoor for some time, Molas and Sunnychayan stayed in a beautiful Doctors cottage up a hill in the backdrops of Kalluvathukal, Chathannoor, very pretty green hills and valleys, and I remember there was a serious looking priest, who was in charge, of the diocese and the hospital he worked, a devoted person bent upon serving mankind. Strange enough no one could go too far with their power and position in front of Molas. She knew how to put people in their place, and on ground zero.
Molas had quite a few pets in her custody all the time, she had squirrels, puppies, parrots, love birds, maina, monkeys on top of the young ones like us, the strange python who goes into deep slumber after the live chicken meal.
She did her home science degree at St Teresa’s, and was an avid home maker, she had magic fingers, made the most beautiful flowers with fabric, silk, paper and anything she can get her hands on. She was very fond of twisting and turning human hair into knots and patterns which made the young and old look different, a real face lift. She knew how to do make up, the first time I heard words like foundation other than in my civil engineering was from her, she knew how to manage the eye liner, and the pinky puff with shining powder.
She was one of the first ladies to start a beauty parlor in Kerala, her parlor was called, In Style, I can never forget Valiappachen teasing my aunts who ran to the beauty parlor to make them look prettier, at no cost, as soon as they land in Kunnumkulam even before they pay visit to the elderly.
She was extremely talented, being an expert cook, trying out any recipe and never giving the full away to every Jack and Jill who would ask her for the same. She had a knack to feed a little and make them believe it’s complete; her strategy was very simple, she knew it was just a habit for people to ask for recipes, just to appreciate her dishes and it’s never ever to try making them. So she made sure to drop a few ingredients. I don’t think anyone has ever told her the dish didn’t taste the same. No one had the courage for that ever….
I think her only match was my Amma. They were quiet close, this is always the case we are much closer to our favorite aunts than our mothers. We have more freedom with them than with our disciplined mothers.
Molas never raised her voice ever; she managed everyone with her looks, if you want to know what stern means in looks, you can watch her. I do not think anyone can excel her innate talent in managing people, without making them feel they are being managed. Her wits and sharp pranks can crack mustards!!!!
Molas and Sunnychayan went out of Kerala studying and working. And I had many opportunities to be with them as part of their progressing life outside Kerala and from the beginning of ROYAL HOSPITAL KUNNUMKULAM after ROYAL SMITHS…
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