OTTAPALAM TILE HOUSE
P. Krishnamoorthy
The Calicut express arrived two hours late in Ottapalam station, Kerala. . An elderly woman carrying a bundle as her luggage, boarded my compartment and occupied the seat opposite to me. Her white hair and the wrinkles on her face were helpful to assess her age anywhere between eighty and ninety. The wrinkles were the indicators of a life, lived in adversity and also the signs of sadness. Though her eyes were inwardly drawn, I could see a magnetic power in them. The train resumed its onward journey with a moderate speed; but within few minutes it had to stop as the outer signal had not given the clearance . I was gazing the outside natural scenery. The clear blue sky had patches of white clouds drifting at snail’s pace. The lovely green paddy fields on both sides of the railway line with laid out tall coconut trees on the boundaries was picturesque. Amidst the lush green paddy fields on one side, the sight of a lonely tile house and a mansion at a distance was strikingly serene and an added attraction.
“Why are you so much interested in the lonely
tile house” was the question by the old woman.
“I am surprised as to why no other houses exist here except the mansion and lonely tile house at a distance”. My counter query turned as a reply to her.
“This tile house has a legend – OTTAPALAM
TILE HOUSE - dating back to half a century before when a damsel by
name Vandana with her mother Vasuki
lived in this tile house. A rich man, Kunjan Nambiar with his wife Subadra and
their only son, Anand were the inhabitants of the mansion. Vandana
was a dancer. She dedicated her life wholly to that art. She was well versed in
Kathakali, Koodiyattam, Mohiniyattam, Bharatanatyam and other indigenous performing
arts.
These art forms, in the olden days, were generally performed in
traditional stages attached to the temples, known as Koothambalams..The festival at Chathan Kandar Kavu was very
famous one in Ottappalam. The legend goes that the temple was built by the
local Kanjoor Namboothiri family at a place where a scheduled cast person
called Chathan found a stone bleeding while he was sharpening his knife on it.
The deity of this temple was Durga. The annual festival was Thalapoli .
As it was
customary, once in fortnight the dance recital was performed and the local
people looked for this event in the temple. It was the turn of Vandana’s
performance on that fortnight when the whole Ottapalam was present there. It
was presided by Kunjan Nambiar, the Trustee of the temple. Along with him, Anand,
his son was also in the celebrity seat witnessing Vandana’s Mohiniyattam. Anand was more attracted by the beauty of
Vandana and her performance was indelibly imprinted in his mind. After seeing
her he felt he had moved to a world of fantasy
where he and she alone lived and no sign or scent of anything negative
in any form existed there. There was no day or night for, it was a period of
total delight. He simply adorned her disciplined innocence. He
instantly decided to marry her.
After few days Anand
was able to meet Vandana while she was
returning from shopping, and boldly
expressed his love towards her and also
his wish to get married to her. Vandana
was in confusion with the sudden and spontaneous proposal by Anand. When she reached
home, she wanted to forget the incident but her thoughts of meeting Anand the first reponsive man in her life and his offer was indelibly dwelling on her
mind. Anand was young and
extraordinarily smart and she could not erase his image from her thoughts. She
was well aware that their wedding would not be feasible due to the status
difference – tile tile house and the mansion.
Apart from this, Vandana was an illegitimate child of Vasuki. Vasuki in her
youthful days, while returning from the temple on a rainy day late evening, was
raped by a stranger in a dark street and Vandana was born out of that incident.
Kujan Nair had
negotiated a marriage alliance for Anand with Parvathi daughter of Madhava Chakyar, a
rich landlord from Payyanur. When Anand was informed about the alliance, he
stubbornly rejected the offer and confirmed his intention of marrying only
Vandana as he was in love with her. Anand’s father argued that Vandana was an
illigitimate child of Vasuki who was already an outcast. He vehemently countered that it was not the fault
of Vandana nor her mother, as the whole incident was accidental. As Anand’s father
was drunk at that time and exchange of arguments between the father and son reached
high, he slapped his son on the left
cheek so strongly he fell on a iron
pillar causing head injuries and instant
death. After this incident Anand’s father was mentally disturbed at Anand’s tragic
death caused by his own hand and in a
week’s time he also died. After Anand’s demise, Vandana lost interest in
everything including her dance recitals. She felt as if she had lived with him in real life and
the sight of his mansion, often reminded of
him.
It was the tenth
day ceremony for Anand and the kith and kin were all assembled to participate
in the rituals. The priest, after pereforming the rituals, wanted to know
whether the deceased had a wife and if so, separate ceremonies were to be
performed by woman to make the spouse of the deceased a widow. One of the
relatives confirmed that Anand died single and hence it was not applicable. As
these developments were taking place outside the mansion, Vandana heard the
priest’s version of the ceremonies. She went inside her home and dressed in
pure white as a widow since she was living in her thoughts as Anand’s wife. When
she saw herself in the mirror, she became too emotional as she could not see her as a
widow in contrast with that of colorful dance costumes in which she used to be.
As the local people had already made her
mother as an outcast, she feared that she would also become their next target. She was totally confused that she wanted a way out of her loneliness. A
bottle of sleeping pills lying near the mirror was very handy for her
predicament and instantly consumed all the
pills for a quick end.
Vasuki , on
returning home, saw Vandana lying dead. She got terrified and shouted for help.
The villagers, who came for the ceremonies, on hearing her shouting, rushed towards
the tile house. They were shouting slogans
that the curse of her illicit relationship and illegitimate
child was mainly responsible for all the misfortune. They had accused her for tragedies
that followed like the deaths of Anand, his father and Vandana. They insisted that she had to leave Ottapalam immediately. Having
sensed the imminent danger to her life, Vasuki fled from that place leaving
everything except Vandana’s dancing anklets as memoirs of her daughter.Having
heard Vandana’s death, Anand’s mother, Subadra completed Vandana’s last rites and as a token of appreciation for Vandana’s
sacrifice, continued daily offering of prayers in that house. She also felt that Vandana’s dancing beat and the rhythm
were still heard in that house. With the
passing of time, the villagers believed that Vasuki was also dead later.
What a soul-stirring story! I was spellbound all through her narration. A
soul trying to balance the extremes of life. An example for undaunted faith and
trust in the institution of truth which
disciplined her mental set up to bear the series of tragedies that befell in
her life. Probably only adversity would be able to provide this uncommon
courage and not the affluence that instilled only weakness.
“The death of Vandana at a young age was an uncomprising tragedy. The daily prayers of Anand’s mother Subadra
and the haunting beat and rhythm were surprising” This was my response after
hearing the impressive narration of the old lady. The train stopped at the next
station where one family of five people and an old man with amputated legs, got
into my compartment. While the family got their seats, the old man crawled his
way and sat on the floor near me. The old lady continued after a brief pause. “what
right the Ottapalam people had to make Vasuki flee from the village when the
same people were not able to give security for young Vasuki when she was returning
to home from the temple and still they were not able to find the culprit who raped Vasuki.”
I had to respond to her accusation. “Madam! This was part
of present day daily life wherein
everything had become deceptive. We had to accept these even though they
were unacceptable to us”. She reacted with signs of frustration in her face.
But I continued. “Tell me what was the personal interest you had in Vasuki’s
life that made you to argue so intensely”.
Her face became red on my query, and reacted as if she was holding some
secret. She took a pair of anklets from her baggage and said that they belong
to Vandana. She also revealed a secret that as villagers think, Vasuki did not
die and still alive”. She looked around
and said “I am that Vasuki. The anklets were the only remaining remembrance of
Vandana” As she finished her eyes were shedding tears. In the next station she got down and bid good bye to me. The
train again resumed its journey to its
destination.
Suddenly I felt
somebody was holding my feet. When I turned to see, the old man without legs
was holding my feet. He looked at me through his dirty bi-focals and said “Sir
You should take my confession”. He pleaded
compassionately . “Who am I to take a confession from you?’ I queried
him and continued “you should go to a church or a temple to make a confession”.
With tears in his eyes he said “Sir, I am the sinner. I raped the lady nearly
fifty years ago, who was talking to you now. But I got the punishment for that
sin from God immediately after the incident. A lorry ran over my two legs when crossing
the road after that rape. I could not confess to her when she was with you as I
do not have courage to face her” I could
observe his placid face relieved and relaxed after his ‘confession’ for, after all
he was bearing the cross all these years. He crawled again to get down in the next
station.
After listening to the narration and meeting
the survived actors of the legend, they still lingered in my mind with
all intensity as it happened.
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