PANNIKARE VITTOLU

The earliest memory I have of seeing Panikker is him standing on the one platform only Parappanangadi railway station as he waited for us to get down .

The train would trundle down tired after its exhausting journey from the erstwhile Madras and todays Chennai .

we would get down with all the luggage and Paniker would be there in a jiffy a smile pasted on his face .

It would turn into a grin and slowly into a short guffaw as he came near us ,

engene undayirunu yatra ? ( how was the trip ) he would ask .

He was a short man neither thin nor fat with a pencil line moustache adorning his upper lip ,

wearing a white neat dhoti and shirt

Paniker was our tharavadu Karyasthan

I dont know how one can translate this very malayalish occupation

One could call it as an all in all ,a sort of manager ,housekeeper ,accountant cum clerk ,PRO and spokesperson of the said house all rolled into one .

( please note the picture shown is not of panikker )

It was an art to be a good karyasthan and a trusted one for years for any big house

He needed to be multifaceted and should multitask ,he needed to be a behaviour psychologist ,management executive ,and a smooth talker to be a succesful one .

He then would be like part of the family ,

our panikker was every inch a sucessful karyasthan and could easily take classes for potential karyasthanmars .

" Chozhi aa pettiyokke eduku nokki nikundenda ? "

( Chozhi take those luggage and what are you dreaming about ? )

he would command and immediately our luggage would get transported to Chozhi and his minions heads and we would start our long walk home alonside the railway track

( There was no road to my ancestral house then ) .

The booming steam engine would thunder past us with its grinning facade as it went on its way to Kozhikode .

All along our way home Panikker would keep us amused with intresting tidbits of Parappanangadi ,who died where and when ,who married whom and what happened to whom and how ,

He would also introduce us to many unknown inquisitive people and explain thier realtionships to us ,of course my mother knew most of them .

almost all of them would ask

eppo vannu epalla ponnu ? ( when did you come when are you going back ? )

Over time as I grew older his talk to me would turn purple and blue as he recited juicier anecedotes and escapades with that typical guffaw .

Panniker would be a changed person in front of Karthiyayani amma my grandmother and the reigning queen of Thekkepat Kovilakkam ( kovilakkam means palace but this name was just added because it was thekku or south of parapannat kovilakam )

The only link to royalty in my house was my grandfather P.C.Manavedan Raja of Mangavu Kovilakkam Calicut ,he was of pure blue blood the Samoothiri kind .

But he was one of the most unpretentious royalty I have ever laid my eyes upon , not that I have over many .

Thambran as he was called by the locals was most of the time in dhoti ,shirtless pottering around the garden or dragging the cow for milking or going to the market with his sword like umbrella ,very unroyalish activities

He often reminded me of lord Emsworth of Blandings castle the famous PG Wodehouse novel ,like the lord he wanted to be left alone to his garden and cow

He was a monosylabbic and would get angry very rarely ,mostly his answers would be by grunts but he would open up with Panniker as he stretched his legs in the poomukam (front of the house )and panniker would stand near him with the rain pattering its beat over thier muted conversations .

Paniker knew how to manage both these diametrically opposite individuals ,he would be all attention to my grandmother as she began her diatribe and his soft replies would be lost to my deaf grandmother who once in a while would look at him in a "ee panikerentha pariyunadhu "manner

( what the hell are you telling ? )

I wonder if she ever heard her own talking !!

she had a soft corner for me and would send Panikker running to Kuttiyappus the local mall to get me yellow banana chips to which I was addicted to ( even now )

Early morning paniker would come and would dicusss about the days work the harvest details coconut felling market rates etc

he would lead the great coconut felling expedition as I would call it

I hitched along on one such excursion ,

we started with a parambu ( field ) beyond the river cherooti having a quick swim on the way thanks to Panikers idea of telling my grandfather to walk in front before the sun comes in full force .

The moplah buyers with thier huge nets to keep thier catch would walk with us

it was fun as they counted the coconuts which fell from the trees

onnne onnu rende rendu

one had to be very vigilant as sometimes the numbers would not move up ,one also had to be alert of coconuts which fell in the bushes disappearing dragged by sleighting hands that appear from nowhere .

Tender coconuts would quench our thirst and thier soft white delightful insides cool us

We would then move offf to the next parambu ,

All this time paniker was extremely busy

During harvest time too when stacks of grain was loaded in our backyard he would be on his toes arranging everything including food for the workers

The local temple Sariyekkil Bhagavathis festival during Navarathri was one time when Panniker would be at his smiling best or during marriage receptions when his smiling face mostly hovered around the female guests .

As I grew up paniker became more of a friend

Actually I never felt like calling him paniker etta though he was elder to me by many years

he was ageless

He came to chennai for my wedding reception and the day after I went to central railway station to send him back ,I put him in his designanted seat with a nice masala dosa packet for his dinner he was happy and looking forwards to going back , suddenly someone came and said "this is my berth " to Panniker

Both paniker and the other person did have the same number in thier tickets so we called the ticket inspector he looked at the tickets and said it was a mistake by the booking clerk

( no computer reservation those days )

I took it as a good oppurtunity to do a Suresh Gopi

I raved and ranted about how stupid could the railways be giving same number to two different people and troubling both and I had a receptive audience who murmured ascent

Paniker was looking at me with pride

"Monu inginyekko patto ? "( you can talk like this ? )

suddenly someone tapped me and said

"hey look the date in your mans ticket is for tomorrow better get out before the inspector notices this,he would kill you for all your talk ."

I quickly grasped paniker and his luggage

"panikkere vittolu"

( let us go )

I never gave him time to think only later when we reached home I told him you are only going tomorrow ,you see we want you here for one more day

adhunendha kutty ......santosham ....said our poor paniker ..

paniker did live long after that but left the world and us following an inocous injury and consequent tetanus .