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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