Tales to remember, from the forgotten past!!!

Pooram Diaries - 1


Perhaps, unlike anywhere else in the world, Elephants are treated as superstars only in Kerala.

Common Day scene in Kerala. Pic credit: Binto P Anto

Legends, exploits, notoriety of these giants are discussed in Kerala with the same excitement with which chennai talks about Rajni and Jharkand speaks about Dhoni.

Here, I wish to remember some of the forgotten giants from the past.


Chengaloor Ranganathan.

Standing a majestic 11'5 feets tall, he was the tallest Asian elephant for a long time even after his death in 1917.

Which takes back to the incident around his death or rather, murder.

The tallest one in the centre is Chengaloor Ranganathan. He is neck and shoulders above others. Circa 1913

In 1914 Thrissur Aarattupuzha pooram, as usual Ranganathan took the centre stage adorning the Thidambu (deity's idol).
Being the most handsome and macho among all the other jumbos, there has been no pooram in which Ranganathan was a sidekick.

Naturally, other elephants also gave into his masculine superiority.

But in 1914, there was one notorious tusker in the group who himself was huge, muscular and equally majestic. But just falling short of  Ranganathan.

It was the Akavoor Govindan.

Standing on the left side of Ranganathan, in a moment of madness, the jumbo stabbed Ranganathan with his tusks in the neck.

Ranganathan, never recovered from this attack, neither did he ever take part in any pooram after that. 3 long painful years of treatment later, Ranganathan breathed his last in 1917.

Ranganathan was the first superstar reigning the pooram grounds for 10 years before his untimely death.

Skeletal remains of Ranganathan is still on display at the Thrissur zoological museum.

Skeletal remains of Ranganathan on display at the Thrissur zoological museum, over a century old. Photo Credit: K.K. Najeeb

What made Ranganathan a crowd puller was not just his physical appearance but also his docile and loving nature.

Speaking of nature, that takes me back to Akavoor Govindan, who was a pole opposite.

Govindan, was known with other adjectives as well,   the killer (kolayali Govindan) or the vazhakalli Govindan, the one who picks up fight with anyone.

And these adjectives pale before his deeds.

Govindan has killed 17 elephants in his lifetime and injured 15 other pachydrems. And add to it half a dozen people.

He was strong and displayed almost human like emotions of jealousy and need to dominate.

Killer Govindan, having a leisurely morning bath.

Everyone came to see the bad boy, who was not that bad looking either.

Despite his violent record, he was in demand for a whole decade ruling as the big bad boy.

Yet another pooram season. Govindan was having a bath in the chalakuddy river, getting ready for the pooram in the near by temple.
An other elephant too entered the waters for the bath.

No sooner did it enter, Govindan broke loose, charging.


Mahouts of the other tusker knew, its end game for it and unchained the disciplined elephant so that he has a chance to run away from the killer.

What next happened, was shocking and stuffs legends are made of.

The Elephant, instead of running away in fear. Turned towards the raging Govindan. Flung the chains at Govindan and upturned him into the river with ease. Brute force was what people witnessed.
That was not it, the elephant stabbed Govindan in his stomach as well.

After the bloodbath, the elephant calmly walked backed to his Mahout and acted as if nothing happened.

It was after all, the majestic and king of poorams of that time, the Guruvayoor Pazhaye Padmanabhan, who taught Govindan the right lessons.

Guruvayoor Pazhaye Pathmanabhan

It is said that after that incident Govindan never attacked anybody and mend his ways.

The injuries were not grevious, may be that was the whole intention of the majestic Padmanabhan.

Govindan recovered, but his aggression to win had not died.

In the famous Guruvayoor Aanaottam (Elephant race) in 1920s, Govindan was the unbeaten champion.

Guruvayoor Aanayottam, 2019

Something out of the ordinary happened in 1930. Govindan was leading upto the last stretch of the race, and suddenly a young, muscular and charming tusker emerged from behind and pulled off a stunning last leg victory.

It was the legendary Gajarajan Guruvayoor Keshavan. The one who would later go on to become the most famous, the most loved, the divine elephant of lord guruvayoorappan.

This was the beginning of the legend of Guruvayur Kesavan, who in 1934 went on to take over from pazhaye padmanabhan the duties of being the Elephant of the presiding deity of Guruvayoor.

The King of Elephants, Gajarajan Guruvayoor Kesavan.

In this first of the series, I take leave by just introducing Guruvayoor Kesavan. Look out for more tales from the past.

Odiyan!

Odiyan....

One who can change forms.
One who has magical powers.
One who is feared by all.
One who fears none.
The strongest.

Kerala is indeed God's own country. Yet it is strife with tales of yakshi, chathan, redlaans and of course the odiyans.

My summer vaccations as a kid were mostly spent at my ancestral home in kerala. Despite being a city kid, everything about my kerala village seemed to blend into me seamlessly.

And so did the tales of odiyans.

I recollect.
As we walked thru the damp pathway surrounded with ancient trees, towards the family temple, my father points out to tattered remains of a house and mentions in a tone that is devoid of any emotion....
"There used to be an Odiyan there, long time ago".

What I could gather from all the questions I later posed to my father was that:

Odiyan was the practioner of the odi vidya. A form of black magic which could turn a person into any other form; it could be an animal, a tree, a creeper or even another person.
Usually an odiyan is called into service by the affluent families to carry out a revenge attack on their arch enemies. The magnitude of revenge could be varying from just scaring the person or even up to murdering them.

One tale my dad recounted was that involving my grand dad.
My grandpa was a soldier in Burma during the world war two and had just returned back to Kerala. In his absence, the land belonging to him was encroached by another person in the village. There was a bitter legal battle between the two for some years before my grandad emerged as the rightful owner of the land.
It was just months later, my grandad observed that there was this big black dog following him everywhere. My grandad who was usually at ease with animals, did not find something quite right about this dog . The dog had a vissible limp and always had its teeth unsheathed at him.

This continued for some weeks and one night when he was returning from the temple, out of the bushes the black dog jumped at him, attacking. My grandad kicked the beast away and picked up a stick and hit the dog hard on its head. The dog howled in pain and a small packet fell off from its ears. Villagers rushed to the spot hearing the commotion. Granpa asked them to tie up the dazed animal to the tree for the night.

In the morning what everyone saw was instead of the black dog, there was a naked man tied to the tree. The guy was known to all, he stayed near the temple in the secluded house and did odd jobs. He was called channakaalan vasu ( Vasu, who limped).

It was then revealed that Vasu was an odiyan and was instructed by my grandpa's rival to grievously injure him.

Both the rival and the odiyan were banished from the village.

The story here definitely sounds exaggerated and in tune to village tales.
But the fact of the matter is the reference and mention of the odiyans.
They were akin to hired rowdies or quotation groups of modern age. Just that they were more creative in their ways.

The odiyans not only used the cloak of night to execute their plans, they also indulged in a well thought out psychological scare tactics. Which also made the victim believe he had an encounter with the super natural ( if he survived it). Scare tactics, hypnotism and illusions played a major part.

And the myth always grew generation by generation. With many add-ons.
Some of which were viz,

To transform into another form, they had to place a packet behind their ears. The packet would have undergone various black magic spells and contained ashes of an unborn baby.

The most usual form assumed is that of a dog or the wolf.

The assumed form would also carry the exact bodily deformity as that of the Odiyan.

The effect of the packet wears off over the night.

Experienced Odiyans could turn invisible.

Only males could practice odi vidya.

And sooo on.

Odiyan's biggest weapons were stealth and secrecy. Even today grandmas around Kerala would refer to the Odiyan once in a while in their bed time stories to the kids.

And the young kids in their impressionable age would give wings to their imagination to figure out whether the dog that passed by was just an ordinary dog or...an Odiyan !!

Two Cups of Tea

Today was just like yesterday. Wretched!

Was it morning, evening or was it midnight...? I didn't care. I wouldn't be even sure about when did I have my last meal.



At 28 years, working in an asset management firm, I had everything in my life that money could buy. Yet had nothing that a life needed. All alone at 2AM at my workspace, I kept clicking the mouse. Mind wandered far away....but eyes transfixed to the screen of my laptop.


I force myself to shut down my laptop. I never carry work home. That was a promise I had to keep. I slid the laptop into the pedestal and locked it.

I stride out of my floor, brooding, as always. The security personnel on duty tonight was an old guard, I smile at him and wave him a good night. Perhaps, that was the only time I smiled in last week or so.


Lifts at work places are generally like taxi cabs in Mumbai or New York city. You never find one when you need one. But at this ghostly hour, they are not much in demand.

I quickly get to the basement and revved up my black outlander. Coming out of the parking lot, at the exit, taking a left would set my path towards home. But, I choose to take a right. I speed up, windows brought down. Wind gushing in and with my hair flying, I feel no different about the day or my life. Wretched! That's what both are.


These are familiar paths.....ones that I have rode on so many times before. At this hour of the day, you have places where you get piping hot tea. These are the road side vendors on bicycles or mopeds or small shacks. You wouldn't find them plenty in number. They always operate in a constant fear of police on night patrol harassing them.


Common thing about these places are, they would always have customers. Soon, I find one of the places I frequent, open. I park my car.

There were 4 guys, 3 bikes, seemingly IT nerds, smoking and having tea.

There was a red indica cab parked, odd color for an indica. And there was a sumo and a tavera. Both white in color, cabs. One of the cabs was playing the song "Aap ki kashish...."


The 3 cab drivers were having their tea near their vehicles.


I ask for 2 cups of tea.


As I sip the tea, I overhear the nerds discussing about one of the latest movie; to be precise, the actress in the movie.

It was a balmy night. Wasn't exactly a cold night.

I sip my cup of tea and watch vehicles zoom by on the road. The streetlight above me flickered and I looked up. The night sky looked darker.


The moon was bright yellow, with grey velvety clouds all around it. It was as beautiful as an oil painting, at the same time had a sense of melancholy about it.

Having finished the 1st cup, I quietly and slowly reach out for the 2nd cup of tea. Did my hand tremble? I didn't care.


She came from a place where people loved coffee more than tea. Perhaps because they grew a lot of coffee there. She loved coffee. Yet, she would always insist to have a cup of tea with me. I am a tea person.


She wasn't here tonight with me to have her share of tea.


It's been a month now. I still order two cups of tea.