Within / Without

Apart from the locked rooms upstairs in Palakkad, there is also a secret room of sorts between the ground-floor store room and the main passageway that can be accessed from both sides. For years, I only saw the door from the passageway and all I could see were two large utensils (about 3.5 feet diameter) used for cooking when the house must have played host to large gathering on the various occasions that provide for ritual keeping and gossip.

Discovering the other doorway that actually had access to the underground room was wonderful. So much more to dig through and unearth. My grandmother would patiently (and so indulgently) sit on one of the wooden trunks and have answers for every question as I wasn’t allowed there without adult supervision. She gave up many an afternoon nap for me. I would hold up an object and ask about its history, the stories, who owned it and for what it was used. Despite the dust, the occasional mouse and paper turned to crunching old yellow, I was happy to enter that place and stick out my head to hear my grandmother talk. It was more difficult to find stuff in the dark, and sometimes I would take a torch or a hurricane lamp.

One time, I found figurines of Nataraja and Annapoorna. They were almost a dark brown. Each about 1.5 inches tall. Both of them were slightly different from the images and figurines I had seen till then. My grandmother helped me scrub them with tamarind till they were shining like gold. Apparently my great-great grandmother owned them and used them in her pooja routines. The King of Dance and the Goddess of Plenty. They now sit on the shelf with other members of the pantheon. More than theistic symbols, they’re a reminder of unseen ancestors whose names will possibly be forgotten.

Posted on November 1st, 2006 by Neha Viswanathan
Filed under: Culture, Family and Friends, History and Monuments, Self