MAZHA- RAIN Dear friends,
In my boyhood days people knew rain may occur duringtwo specific period of the year for about a month in Kerala . They are called Edava pathi and Thula varsham. Rarely rain occurred in summer. During rainy seasonall precautions were taken to ensure damages due to rain and river flooding wereless. The same continued even in my college days. This is a simple write up relatingto rain, rivers and flood-Nostalgic memories. No serious matter is told. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 13-6-2021 1 Flood duringMalayalam Era 99 I am born in Malayalam Era 120. So the flood duringthe period was heard through elders talking. Throughout Kerala it was flooding.All rivers overflowed, and receding took long time. Water entered in all lowlying areas. Other than great damage to cultivation, nothing else was told tous. Sun light was not seen for days together. Probably being children, other damages mightnot have been told to us. 2 Purchase ofumbrella Because of the heavy rain during school opening duringJune in Kerala called Etavapathi,parents might purchase umbrellas to their children. Along with study books,note books, food for afternoon, umbrella also was an item for going to middleand high school. In the class room allumbrellas were kept in a corner. Shops displayed umbrellas are available during the season. Repaired umbrellas were used by elders. That much carewas given to school going children. Primary school children mostly went with their mothersto school, mother would hold large umbrella. Mothers used to bring backchildren. It was the period of no school or college buses. Thiswas the condition even during 1964, when I graduated from Kerala University. Therewas no college bus. Most of us walked about3 KMs to the college. 3 Care aboutriver bath First mother would go to river for bath. If the riveris flooding or water is muddy, we children were not permitted to go to river .We were asked to take bath fetching well water in iron buckets standing on theplatform of the well. Though became adolescent in high school days and young incollege days- for parents we were children. The practice continued. 4. Domesticated cows Equal to children, domesticated cows and calves weregiven attention. They were brought out only when sunlight appeared for sometime in the afternoon from cowshed. Cattle feeds were reserved in advance. 5 Trembling andwalking I recollect a rainy period evening, my mother asked meto get some coconut oil and coffee powder while I was in high school. Water levelwas rising in the Achhankovil River at home. I had to cross the bridge to reachthe shop. While going water was about one foot below the pillars. But while returning the water level had increased and itwas about touching the bridge top level. With great fear somehow I returnedwith things. While father returning from school, three or four people holdtogether and crossed the bridge and came. He first said- Holiday forschool till water recedes. Pandalam Bridge is under water. Mother was specificnot telling father about my crossing the bridge for going to shop. Now there is a new bridge in RCC. Old iron bridge because of river current during a flood wentwith current to about 1 KM away. How it remained there is not clear to me. 6 Falling ofcompound wall and soil sliding While I was studying in the college the collegecompound was still under construction in the south west area. Our physics laband class room were in south west corner. It was heavily raining and for lighttwo bulbs were switched on in a winter period. Suddenly a sound-patapatapata, the soil on the compound wallarea and compound wall under construction fell down. Hardly fifteen feetdistance from the class room, the soil was sliding!! All of us were fearful ifthe soil near class room fell down? 7. Rain inschool compound till the floor level. Because of the continuous rain, the school compound gotfilled up with water while I was teaching in Trikkariyur High School.There is no near by river. Seeing so much water in a school compound was new tome. Students and teachers reached school, lifting the dress to knee level forone or two days. Though in Trivandrum it was a common scene experiencedby me in later years at East fort and Thampanoor, still the memories of thisincident remains with me. Probably being in bachelor days. 8. Rain andPalar River flooding. It was during 1970. Heavy rain in Tamilnadu. The Palardry river started overflowing with waternear the Arcot Bridge. Bridge came underwater. Even now I cannot imagine the current with muddy water I was working in Ranipet,and telephone exchange was about 400 metres from the river. Water came up to200 metres near the exchange. At that timeonly my wife saw a river overflowing being born in Chennai . We were married abouta year before the flood time. How the telephone poles can with stand such a current?About 15 posts bend in the middle at right angles and we could not see thewires. After about 15 days, the posts were replaced with old rails. My Asst. engineer, and Divisional engineer came fromChennai to see thedamage and flood also! 9 Rain on mostof the days I was in Nagerkovil and in charge of Kanyakumariexchange during 1980. When my officer told, Kanyakumari might have rain on alldays for some time, I did not believe. It was on a summer day. I got in to bus and reachednear Kottaram, rain started. To cut short, I entered the telephone exchange fully wet after gettingdown from bus. 10 River waterbehind RTTC compound at Trivandrum. Actually Karamana river flows about 1 M away from the RTTCBuilding. But during flood water entering very close to the building wascommon, along the approach road to NSS Women’s college road which was just 300metres away. Behind the training centreduring flood one foot water flowing was common. 11. Conclusion Kerala experiences rain during the specified times andnow most rains result infloods. One reason for flood istold as removing of almost sand from rivers. Another comparing to earlier times, more rains andflooding of rivers in recent years. Most probably the recent floods in 2019 and 2020in Kerala might be worse than the floods in Kollavarsham 99. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1501239381.4235499.1623587781507%40mail.yahoo.com.
