I am not an extraordinary man in any way. I do believe that I am a mere ordinary man. The circumstances under which I grew up were also very ordinary. I am not from any aristocratic back ground, rather, am from a middle class family more so from a low middle class family if classification is based on material accruals. Farming was the main occupation of most of the people in my village, though there were a few small business men,mainly doing coconut and other seasonal cash crops business. They were also not very rich if we compare the business men of today. There was no industry in Pavithreswaram. but in the nearby village called 'Poreekal',there was a cash nut processing factory owned by the famous TKM Group of Kollam. The only service class,which I understood in my early childhood is of 'teachers', as we had a few teachers in our village. As I grew up, may be at the age of 10 or so I learned that there are Village officers, accountants in village office etc. who are all falling in the category of service people. Teachers' profession was considered to be one of the dignified positions and they were viewed with great respect. My village,at that time, had a school with primary and middle school sections. This school was about one and a half Kilometers from my Home. Needless to mention that we all had to walk down to the school on those days. In fact, the secondary school, I studied must be at- least 4 KMs distance which we walked down. That was the practice on those days and affording 50 pause per day for bus trip was much beyond imagination of children like me.
My village, with a very quite life was occupied by lower middle class family who lived on daily earning. One important thing to be mentioned is that on those days I did not find a single person in my village who did not believe in God. Of course,there were marxists but they were all temple or church goers. May be that they neither knew the hard tenets of Marxism nor did they gave any importance to the hard tenet. Almost all the family had the habit of evening prayers as per their faith or worship. People on those days were almost peace loving barring a very few. There were no communal hatred, thanks to God, even today my village is free from this menace.
My village even today maintains the natural beauty of Kerala, the God's own land. The greenery, though it has considerably diminished, still pleases the eyes. No pollution, quite a peaceful oasis,away from the Hurley-burly of a busy town or a city is still very dear to my heart and I adore my village. My memories are still fresh of my maiming cattle, taking them away to nearby stream for a bath,etc.etc.. I still remember the day when my little nephew Raju was brought to home at the age of 3 to stay with us who followed me where-ever I went and in fact, he was my favourite and this continues.
The villagers were very keen to send their wards to school though the earlier generation lagging behind in education. But, people were more or less literate. The Public library existed at Pavithreswaram even before I born illustrates it. People in Kerala on those days were also politically conscious, but unfortunately, today the generation is over-conscious and lacks far sight. Being in Kerala, my village is also not free from the clutches of this trend. The concept that hard work alone can bring prosperity is missing from the minds of younger generations which is a dangerous signal. Sooner it is corrected, the better.
The older generation of Kerala believed in duty,beauty and fortune, so also people in my village.
Now people are failing in duty which does not add to beauty but can only invite misfortune.
I cross my fingers and hope for the best as the outcome.
Posted on 09th of January 2011.
