Southward bound

With the traditional Tapulli (welcome) and the beating of the chandamelam (drums), the Keralaotsavam 1998 was inaugurated at the hands of Ra...

With the traditional Tapulli (welcome) and the beating of the chandamelam (drums), the Keralaotsavam 1998 was inaugurated at the hands of Rajya Sabha member Suresh Kalmadi on Saturday, November 14 at the B J Medical Grounds.

Organised by the recently floated Pune Malyalee Federation (PMF), the festival gave a glimpse of Malayalee food and culture as a host of stalls were set up to cater to those seeking a piece of God’s own land. Speaking at the occasion, Kalmadi pointed out that he had a personal connection to Kerala as his daughter is now settled in Kochi. “And the Malayalee community is one of the most enterprising communities I have come across,” he said, drawing on his experiences of interaction with the community from his Air Force days, “When I was flying to Leh, the moment we would land we would rush to a small hut near the airstrip for some delicious masala dosa. Even at 11,000 ft we had this Malayalee gentleman preparing the dosas for us.”

For the federation, the festival has been a major boost as the idea was floated a month back and the arrangements were taken care of in 15 days flat.

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The PMF is an amalgamation of 30 Malayalee associations that have come together under one umbrella. The federation is lobbying for the return of direct train services from Pune to Kerala. The services had been discontinued after the introduction of the Konkan Railway.

But the festival went beyond the railway issue and the visitor was grabbed by the aromas that emerged from the stalls, be it the chicken biryani that is cooked with a little bit of coconut to give it the Malayalee touch or the sukhiyan, murkka, the payam vartada… they were all there. And of course the old reliable culinary soldier, the masala dosa, made its presence felt too.

An interesting feature of the festival was the interaction that took place on various levels. On one hand the present generation of the Malayalees have assimilated themselves into the cosmopolitan nature of the city, on the other hand the elder generation got an opportunity to reminisce of their homeland down south. Dressed in traditional finery, the women were out in full strength rubbing shoulders with the menfolk who seemed undecided between the traditional mundu and the more common trouser that has edged out traditional dress forms.

The PMF is spearheaded by C Shamsuddin who points out that, “The PMF would be a common platform to represent issues of society in general and of Malayalees in particular by keeping the objective and activities of the member organisations intact”.

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The people hailing from a land of scenic beauty and exuberant lush greenery, excellent climate conditions, famous for its sea ports facilitating global trade and boasting of a 100 per cent literacy rate have adjusted to the place with their unique adaptability.

Pune itself houses around four lakh Malayalees and accounts for approximately 11 per cent of the population. The other plans listed in the agenda are a directory listing and giving details of all the Malayalees in Pune with information such as professional background and render their support to educational institutions like the CMS at Chinchwad, Pt Jawaharlal English School at Maharishinagar, Hill Green High School which is under the Kerala Education Society and a vocational training centre at Pisoli (Kondhwa). They also visualise the creation of a University on the lines of the SNDT. A special career oriented course too is on the agenda and they also propose to release a periodical publication which highlights issues to draw the attention of the concerned authorities for remedial measures.

With many such programmes lined up, it’s just a beginning of the quest to find a route to `God’s own land’.