KALAKAATTU PPAATTI ( 6 )

                                                         KALAKKAATTUPPAATI  (  6  ) 

                                               It should be admitted that the family responsibilities  of KP increased with the  efflux of time as is true in the case of any woman approaching the middle age say 40 years and  above, . From 40 to 60   women  have to  bring up their own children ,take care of the old people and to be busy in all the family matters including supporting their husbands. In this process, in most cases ,they fail to take care of their own health.KP was not an exc eption in this case. In 1952 to 1957she had a lot of health problems ,which led to appoint cooks for her assistance. Only at that time Pichu ammal was asppointed and her daughter Valli's marriage happened, as already explained.  

       Moolikaippaatti ( Maragatha Athangar ) This  paatti is the  athangar of Sankarippaatti. Grand old lady who lived in Ambur.Our uncle arranged  M A  to help KP. She helped us  for a few months. Very couragious lady that she was, she use to wander alone in some forests nearby ,collect moolikais and produce  oils like " marunthuthaengaayennai ,klaakkalathenai ' and so on . She also sold them to maintain her life. During her stay at Kalakad, , I   have accompanied her on holidays to the interior of forest on the northern side 4/5 kms distance and plucked and brought sacksful of  "aavaarai  ilai " ,and under her instruction dried on the hot sun on the terrace and powdered  the leaves into soft powder.This was highly helpful for our elder sister K.I am reminded of  her feeding us in the morning times with the remains of the previous day's rice watered and preserved in a kalchatti. In a separate vessel she use to mix this with curd of good quality and supply in our hands with tasty vadumaangaay.She use to quote " pazhaiyathu,dhanavasyam ,paahi thayir   aavisidham kadukkena  vadumaangaau , sundalkeerai vadaabhyaam bhagyavaan, bhagyavaanae " For some time Sankari and myself too shared the kitchen                                                                                              There was a cradle in her house which has seen numerous children. I do not know wh en it it became a part of the house and started functioning! Some lady will be giving birth to  a child and the twelveth day of the birth there will be a grand celebration and in those days deliveries were only normal unlike nowadays.Our Mother, her sister in law ,her own daughters, our sisters had begotten their children with some exceptions at Kalakad in the same house and the same cradle had been used in all cases  . So the cradle was too busy.From 1950 and there afterwards the job of making the children sleep in the cradle became the responsibility of Sankari and myself.In order to make children sleep we used to sing divine songs like "Theeraadha  vilayaattuppillai  ...."       " Karn vizhithezhun thirudaa  ..." some songhs of Bharathiyar.That made both of us very busy. Bhava was the last child in this respect                (  to be continued )