I went to Punnayurkulam to see proposed site of a Khathar based NRI for design and construction of his future house.It is near to a place at Punnayurkulam called Aalthara which really has an aal tree by the side of the road with a boundary around it constructed so that people can sit and chat under the shade of the tree.
After the site visit I started enquiring about the old tharavad of famous Malayalam and English writer Madhavikutty who is also called as Kamala Das,Amy and Kamala Surayya.Unlike in other places where people were fond of directing and welcoming some one coming from outside to have a look at old place of a person who made their place famous,people here were sceptical about showing me the place.They looked at me as if I am mad to go in search of Nalappat house .Some body on the way told me that there is nothing there except a snake pooja place(Pambu kavu)
On the way I saw a good looking house with good slope roof with tile and Mukhappu.Here is the picture.
When I reached the place where Nalappat house of Madhavikutty once remained with all majesty of traditional Kerala architecture there was only an old well of the house about 140 years old with plastic glasses thrown by alcohol drinkers inside.Some body is constructing a new house just behind the place where Nalappat house once remained.All that remained as property of Madhavikutty recently handed over to Kerala sahithya academy for construction of memorial for her is only what you can see in picture below.Just 17 cents of land.A nearby large pond possibly the one used by Nalappat family is there .This was sold to sahithya academy for memorial by a nearby land owner.
Then I saw a house nearby with a good charupady.I took this photo of the house
Then owner of the house came out in search of the person who took photo of his house.He was the only person whom I met at Punnayurkulam talking with reverence about “Amy Oppol”He is the one who sold that pond to sahithya academy for adding space to the memorial building.He said that heirs of Nalappat family purposely sold the old house for dismantling as they could not stomach the idea of some lower level people buying the house and staying there.They decided to end the story of that old Nalappat house with traditional Kerala architecture works rather than keeping it as memorial of one of the greatest writers of Kerala.
He said he was willing to buy the house and keep it as a memorial of Amy Oppol.Picture below show closer look at his charupady and front door of his house
On the way back I got down at a place called Aanathavalam where they keep elephants used for temple festivals.Lot of people and foreign tourists come there simply to see elephants
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