THIRUVANATHAPURAM-KIZHAKKE KOATTA TRIVANDRUM –EAST FORT PART 2
Dear friends, Recently there was a mail to mefrom our esteemed member Sri Ramani to write about Trivandrum experiences. Ireplied to him I would write in a fortnight. I had been long thirteen yearsat Trivandrum. This period was the most eventful period in my life. My childrengetting employment, the marriage of my children, my promotion as DivisionalEngineer at Calicut and Asst. General Manager and posting to Kerala Circleoffice was during the period. Throughout the period I wasliving in the Kaimanam RTTC Quarters near Karamana. Once Sri Ramani fromBangalore has visited me at Trivandrum. Kizhakke kkotta was my centralpoint of Travel. I startmy writings with East fort- Kizhakkae kkotta. Hope an interesting reading. Hereand there slight humour is added. The posting is in parts. Later developmentsare also added as I have visited Trivandrum after my retirement many times.Main reason- My daughter in law is from Trivandrum. This is part 2 of the posting. Here after I will discontinuethe introductory lines. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 29-3-2012. Re- written and posted in parts with additions and updating. R. GopalaKrishnan 01-06-2021 5. Appa and kuttiyana I do not know how I developed aliking to small elephants in qualitywood and polished brown. The platforms near the temple and shops there sellvarieties of elephants. In Thampanoor platform sellers also had wooden elephants. I purchased a few of different sizesand kept in show case. I complimented later most of them keeping three with me-One male, one femaleand one infant. Theyare well polished and still in my showcase. During my first visit to Dubai,my son in law desired two medium sized fair priced elephants. I purchased two quality ones fromKhadi craft, and packed and kept in hand as hand luggage. Each weighed about 4kg. I got them billed perfectly with all details. The security at Trivandrum opened and said it would be repacked but simply tied and gave back to me with a smiletelling I would have no problem with my elephants at Dubai. At Dubai airport, I had a toughtime keeping the elephants and my brief case together in the escalators without slipping and falling . It was the first time Iwas using escalators. There were four or five escalators to reach out. As if she had ten years regularexperience in escalator riding, with her simple hand bag my wife was enjoyingthe escalator ride. Mami- why did’t you help mama in carrying one elephant-Seeing from the above, waiting with our visa, my son in law asked. She smiledand diverted the topic calling grandson. I was travelling with a Xerox copy of visiting visa. When I see the advertisement of ladywho has difficulty in climbing escalator, but easy to select mutual funds inTV, nowadays it takes me to nostalgicmemories of my first going in escalators. For returning and confirmingticket via Oman airways, their office was in 2nd floor of a building not having stairs orlifts but only escalator to go up and down!! I learnt at Dubai touse escalators. 6. The chalai bazaar Extending from East fort foranother 2 KMs towards East is the Chalai bazaar. In Trivandrum one of the roadsI have seen almost straight is this chalai bazaar. Many other bazaars have comeup later, but the chalai still hold its head with prestige. Especially for Brahmins, the place where every thing is available ischalai for all their samskaras. If anything is not available inchalai bazaar, it is difficult to get that item in Trivandrum. During my 60th birthday for danam one walking stick was required. Finally I got one from chalaikoyikkal umbrellas. Palm leaf hand fan and aavani palakai were obtainedfrom Panduranga storesin Chalai. The swamy stores, in thebeginning of Chalai bazar is an indication Brahmins had textile business and other business while migrating from Tirunelveli. They did not came merely for annadanamfrom Padmanabhaswamy temple. But many depended on the food from the temple isalso a fact. Quality textiles on fixed cash purchase are available at Swamystores. Swamy stores had / have everything from needles to different varieties and priced silkdhoties. 6a. Chalai language. Most merchants are Saiva pillaiseither from Nagerkovil or born and brought up in Trivandrum. The gold andsilver smiths in Chalai will talk Tamil very beautifully and Malayalam stillfluently. Seeing the customer, they would change the language. If at all aBrahmin lady or girl ask for an item in Malayalam, she will be answered in Tamil and continued withTamil. 6b Valiya chalai Valiya chalai is an extension ofchalai road with lesser business nowtaking a turn to left, seen from East fort side. I am not sure how this placegot named so. Valiya chalai was the areaof mat, bed and furniture merchants while I was in Trivandrum. Update- Now Valiyachalai has so much of business as the name indicates 7. Kottaikkakam and temple sides. Initially I had confusion aboutthe temple sides and fort sides. In some sides it is close and some sides the fort is away. Specially in thewestern side the fortside is about 700 meters away from the temple side. 8. Ananthan kadu Having Sree Padmanabha lying onAnantha, I had a thinking the place is called Ananthapuri. There is anotherreason also. After a year I settled inTrivandrum, I joined the engineering employees society. When I asked the way to collect a loan amount,the person told me to come to west nata,there is a small growth of trees in the western side of the temple for about200-300 square feet or so area called as Ananthan kadu. Take a turn to right, I can seesociety’s board. Nagaraja and Nagalakshmi arehoused along with other serpent Gods in Ananthankadu. As in Mannar sala and Vetticode, Ayilyam and other sarpa poojas days are important herealso. Always we can see people crowdedthere for Naga worship. During those periods, I used to ask people (coming for astrologicalconsultations at Sreekanteswaram sabha), having sarpa dosha to worshipat Ananthan kadu. 9. The west side of the temple and west fort. The west side of the temple started developing fast. What was there in 1991 was not the westside in 2004 when I left Trivandrum. It had become very busy area. I have towrite more on west side. I will go one by one. 9a. Potti’s petty shop Potti’s petty shop on the westside of the temple was supplying upaveetham to most Brahmins. Always I could see there crowd to getupaveetham. Potti used to keep upaveetham of different lengths, single, doubleand three’s and it was my practice to purchase and keep at least ten numbers. My son and son in law used totake 3 or 4 sets when they return back to Arabian countries after vacation. 9b. Rasavada, sambar vada and thayir vada. There is another potti hotel onthe northern side of west nada, run by Tulu potties. The hotel was not looking good in1990’s though the stuff were good. By 2002, the entire hotel was reconstructed, with nice look. If potti was not there it was a bulky potti ammamanaging the cash counter. While thayir vada and sambar vadawere with urdu dall(black gram) mostly, occasionally they too were with parippuvadai(Thurdal). Some days all vadais were parippu vadai. The rasa vada was served in very hot rasam, The rasam vesselmight be on a dim heat oven. My son usedto relish it more than other vadais. 9c. Swamy hotel Similar to potti hotel, the swamyhotel was in an old building on the western side, on other side of the road. The speciality withswamy hotel was valsan(Elayada) used to be there on all days. Swamy too modified thebuilding and by 2001 itself it gave a good look. Swamy had special customers, whoknow the timings he would prepare,vegetable bonda, vada etc. 9d Swamy hotel valsan In season with chakkavaratti,valsan was prepared with it. Otherwise, the valsan was prepared with bananafruit cut to pieces added to rice dough with jaggery and added spices. Thisvalsan prepared in plantain leaf, gave 50-60 % satisfaction on consuming. 10. West side Kalyana mandapams We have new Kalyana mandapams inwest side- The biggest one Srivaikuntam. Then smaller ones like Pancha janyam, NSS and Ratna mahal. Brahaminspreferred mostly the Ratna mahal ifavailable, which give a domestic look. We have a number of caterers whoarrange every- thing in the western nada. Depending on the period, there would be change in items. I had taken for my daughter’smarriage Pancha janyam, which gave a good look and less costlier. It is managedby a trust at west nada and has sufficient parking facilities. For my son’s marriage, which wasproposed to be conducted with in a fortnight after betrothal, the NSS was selected, a good looking one, butdining hall with lesser space, the only one available on the date. 10a. Son in law and daughter try to get three seats for my GMs in the dining hall . There had been a good number ofinvitees from my side as well as from my sambandhi’s side for my son’s marriage.The marriage too was on Sunday after noon. My friends and officers, my sambandhimama’s friends and officers working inpostal side, mami working as senior scientist in ISRO, her friends andofficers , in short even in the third panthi, there was full rush. My three GMs were waiting chit chattingspending somehow the time and my son in law reccognised it. In the fourth panthi he got inwith my daughter ,occupied one desk, andafter serving in 4 leaves, came out and my GMS were asked to follow. Though they were telling no hurry- still theirface was telling they were hungry. 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