ASTRO- A WINDOW INTO ETERNITY

                 

            Average malayali psyche is very strange. They will boast of India’s achievement in sending a mission to Mars- And simultaneously will go to a Siva temple to pacify the Gods for the daughter’s chovva dosham. Superstition has dug deep in them that they live with the believes of 18th century although carrying a 3G phone. 

            What is our position in the Universe? Are we alone in this vast stellar expanse? Is there anyone out there to shape our destiny? All these question find answers once we visit ASTRO, a rare phenomena in these days of renovation of decaying temples, at Vellur, atop the Echilamvayal hills. You will get a direct vision of the night sky from there unobstructed by city lights. You can see the deep abysses in the lunar surface, the satellites of planets, comets, distant Galaxies, exploding stars and star clusters, the birth place of new stars.

              Astro is a venture to shake of age old believes. A novel idea put forward by the amateur sky watcher Sri. K. Gangadharan Master took wings when the Kasaragod M P, P Karunakaran extended a helping hand by constructing a building for the society atop echilamvayal hill. A huge telescope was donated by Vellur service co- op bank. The other paraphernalia for sky watching were procured from funds raised from the public. Now the Institution has risen to the rare distinction as the single institution in the State giving thousands of classes to school children and the public, every year. There is no Govt. funding for running the institute and the institution is raising its own funds from the public. The institution is growing fast. There is a display of charts and working models. The sky watching session led by Shri. K Gangadharan Master starts in the evening extending up to midnight to be continued in the early morning next day. After a class at ASTRO every one will be able to locate his position in the Universe. There are thousands of galaxies, milky way, our own galaxy, is a small one among them. In the Milky Way there are thousands of stars and our Sun is a comparatively small star. The new vision gives thousands of new insights.

                 Now the Institute is planning to construct a planetarium. Even though it is a big leap forward, the cost of a conventional planetarium is beyond the scope of an Institution, run on contributions from the public. But Gangadharan Master’s experience in constructing a peoples’ planetarium at Payyanur Gandhi Park a couple of years back, has a solution to offer for the challenge. A permanent people‘s Planetarium could be constructed with five lakh Rupees. A committee comprising of Shri. Pavoor Narayanan as chairman and scientists like Shri. V. P. Balagangadharn(ISRO), Shri. K V Raveendran ,Dr. Siddarthan (ISRO) along with Prof. T. P. Sreedharan, Shri. E. Bhaskaran , Narayanan Master and several prominent figures from public life have joined hands for the materialization of this dream.

                     If you are interested you could join this venture by becoming a life member of the Institution and also by contributing a small sum.
You may reach ASTO either through
                                                www.astropayyanur.org
           And pl email Shri. Gangadharan Master:       kgvellur2003@gmail.com

CHAYILYAM -A FILM ONE MUST SEE

                Chayilyam is an eye opener. We are masters in turning every real feelings into formalities-love into wedding, spirituality into religion etc. Modern society has become schizophrenic turning every original biological occurrence into superstitions. Thus blossoming of womanhood is under utter believes of dark superstition  A girl on his periods is treated as an outcast. Women are elevated as goddesses only if it benefits those in power. The original feelings of womanhood and motherhood are never taken care of by the present society. Women are but easy prey in the modern hostile society. Manoj Kana, the gifted Director direct from the world of drama focuses these issues in his debut film Chaliyam. Chaliyam means the red paint used to colour the faces of theyyam. It dwells in detail how religious believes paint masks around original faces leading everyone into pseudo personalities. In the beginning all religious believes should have been conceived as an ordered way of life. But as times pass the same believes degenerate and decays. It kills originality. Manoj takes the cue from the pseudo believes of the society. There is a mass hysteria going on in the name of belief which is totally against women. Society use women for maintaining an order which enslaves them further. Chaliyam is the story of a girl who understands this facts distinctly  She fights with the society with all her might alone. Can she change year old believes? No ! But she poses a serious question- Are we all sane?

               Gouri a village girl belonging to the malaya community falls in love with a boy belonging to vannan community. Even though both these communities makes their livelihood by performing theyyams, inter caste marriage between the communities is strictly forbidden. To make matters worse, one day while he was performing kathivanoor veeran, his uncle die of heart attack in the sanctum sanatorium which is very inauspicious. Everyone searches reasons of this odd occurrence  Kannan openly confesses his first sin before everyone. He had indulged in the 'sacrilegious' act of making love to his beloved just before the performance of the theyyam. This cuts a hole in his psyche. The incident turned to be the end of his artistic career as he was expelled from his home and community. The lovers elope to a friends home. Deprived of his artistic livelihood he is compelled to undertake hard labour at a stone mine. Life turns to be a real toil. A son was born to the couple. They settle in a hut constructed in a Govt. Land. Here things turn upside down as Kannan out of melancholy turns into an alcoholic beating his wife and son and finally committing suicide.

               The film opens with the widow accompanying his father in law, a traditional vaidyar to their home. Here everyone opposes her. The community elders came and threaten the family to expel them from the community  and from performing theyyams if they allowed the widow to live with them. Gouri hearing the heated arguments reaches a trance. Shouting and howling she performs a peculiar theyyam dance known to the elders as daivakoothu performed in the village years ago by women. All present were taken aback and after the melee every one concludes that she is the incarnation of mother goddess. The news spreads fast and everyone competes to worship her. She and her father in law (who takes her to a psychiatric who attribute the symptoms to an early menopause  seems to be normal but the entire community turns psychic and compel her to perform the daivakoothu usually played by women after menopause  She out of compulsion consent to play for only once where as the Hindu fanatics who visit her want her to be changed permanently as a mother goddess. The 41 day penance is about to end and she had to perform the theyyam the coming day. Torn between her motherhood and her spiritual adherence her periods returns back thanks to the treatment she has been undergoing under her father in law. She blossoms into a women again and her son who was wholly against the entire idea of this madness visit her at mid night and they escape in a boat to freedom.

          Film making was no easy task to Manoj Kana. This gifted youngster has directed some 15 dramas which were well received  He collected the huge amount for shooting from 'bucket collection'. He took great pains to get the film released. Finally the opposition leader has to intervene to get it released.

             The crew gave good support to the director. Anumol who played Gouri needs special mention. She was exceptionally good portraying the different moods in a superb way.

            I saw the film yesterday from Sumangali theatre, Payyanur. It was the last show and there was a good audience. But no one left their seats after the film is over. The end was so abrupt. It should have been shot much more vividly. Last impression is the lasting impression. It was as though some calamity has occurred which had prevented the film to close naturally

            There indeed are some negative points. Being the debut film these are not serious. Some scenes reminds an earlier movie on the same subject. The scene with the Hindu fanatics seems to be patched up.

The film is indeed a commendable venture.

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPES OF PAYYANUR

         

    In the past Payyanur had a very beautiful landscape. The great perumpuzha winding along the eastern side separating kunhimangalam from payyanur took a sharp turn at changoorichal and merged with the kavvayi lagoon in the west. The water sheds near the river were picturesque with multicolored water lilies. These riverbeds were the breeding ground of all marine life. Fish, prawn, mussel, crab etc. Innumerable cranes and other birds - native and migratory perched in trees. The emerald paddy fields started from here. The raised platforms called kuthiru, where small thatched houses were built were like islands in the emerald fields. There were very few huge constructions in payyanur which blocked distant view. From the eastern nada of payyanur temple one could see a car moving through kokkanissery and from the western nada one could see a train whistling past. The air was pure.

       People were very poor except a very few. The landlord and the upper class clerics had big houses. The land belonged to the temple and the landlord. All others lived in thatched houses. The construction of a house was very simple. Earthen bricks were used for construction. These bricks were made from muddy sand paste available in the compound by the members of the family. These bricks were dried in the sun for a couple of days. The platform and the main structure were built using these bricks. The ceiling consisted of a skeleton made with coconut beams covered with woven coconut leaves. Above these a thick covering of rock grass is paved. The inside of these houses were always cool. The upper grass covering needs replacement every year. Constructing a house was in fact a social event involving friends and children. No money is paid. It was pure service. In my childhood we had a real jolly time helping thatching houses(What fascinated us most was taking the grass up the bamboo ladder leaned against the house). My house was really big with a number of rooms and verandas- three storeyed.

    The main occupation was cultivation. The other occupations were in the fields of khadi and beedi. Hundreds of men and women were employed in these fields. The wages were meager-  just sufficient to procure food. I weaved khadi for some ten long years. (Being a student, I was granted special permission for the same)I met almost all my expenditure from it.

           The first wave of change in payyanur came with crape revolution- the demand for crape cloth in America rose to such a high degree that the demand could not be met from traditional inputs. In Payyanur  weaving was confined to weavers street. Weaving crape cloth gives you wages ten times more than weaving khadi. So people from all other occupations shifted to weaving and every household installed looms in their houses. I weaved crape for some time. It brought some foreign money into the economy which revolutionized the life style. Small concrete buildings started to emerge in Weavers street where once whole families shared a common house. The revolution was so great that people started to spend on luxuries for the first time in their life- some non veg hotels like jubilee restaurant opened up in payyanur town at that time.( I remember those evening when the entire village will be there -at Jubilee -eating porottta and meat salna for just one rupee)

 The second revolution was the gulf revolution. Many Payyanurians tried their luck in Gulf countries. Foreign money started to flow in and construction took new wings. Everyone started to construct huge houses spending their life savings on it as if it was the sole aim of life. Now the madness has reached to its maximum. Now payyanur is a large residential area like the metropolis. The landscape has completely changed.