MUNNAR

                       

I grew up in Munnar. Pappa was an executive in KDHPCo Ltd. Mummy was a homemaker. The Company had provided free furnished accommodation to Pappa. It was the Company’s policy to extend the facility to all its officials.  The labourers were provided free accommodation. I am not certain whether it had been furnished. The officials were staying in single houses or tantum – twin- houses. The labourers stayed in coolie lines that were known as liams. Most of the labourers were Tamils whereas the officials were Malayalis and Tamilians. The Company had permitted all the employees to cultivate the land adjacent to their dwellings. They grew vegetables there. It was a riot of quality vegetables like Cabbage, Cauliflower, Beans, Peas, Carat, Tomato, Potato, Garlic, Corn and fruits like Plantain fruits, Peach, Mulberry, Gua, Orange. The list is endless. They could sell the produce to merchants and supplement their income. The produce of Munnar found its way to markets in the plains.  The employees were encouraged to raise Cows for milk. The Company provided assistance in the form of Cow sheds and labourers for taking the Cows for grazing. Milk was available in plenty.

Munnar Town was owned by the Company. They had a Town Department to take care of it. I am now settled in Thiruvananthapuram. As I move around the roads that had been recently rebuilt, I can see the employees of the Road Authority cleaning up the roads. The roads have reflectors to enable vehicles to move within the lanes during night. All these came in the past few years. I was born in 1950. What is wonderful is that whatever I have mentioned that happen around me today had been happening in Munnar in the 1950s and 1960s. The roads in Munnar were all kept very clean. The drains were kept free of obstruction.

We were staying in a house two miles from Munnar that was in between the roads to Mattuppetty and Grahamsland, There were very few vehicles on the roads. A bus would leave for Mattuppetty in the morning and return in the evening. There was a Van service for Grahamsland and estates beyond in the morning that too would return in the evening. All one could do most of the time was walk, walk and walk no matter whether it was heavy rains or biting cold. Munnar Town has an elevation of 5000 feet above sea level. The Yellappetty and Gundumalai estates were beyond 7000 feet.

Opposite to the mountain where our house was located there was another mountain. The tributary of the river Periar flowed in between in all its majesty to meet the tributary form Nullathanni. The rivers met at Munnar at the point where the Head Quarters of the Company was situated. Legend says that the Railway in Munnar once operated from there.

The road across the mountain took one to Devikulam where the powers of the Government were seated. The General Manager of the Company had his Bungalow- Ladbrook – at Cigarette Point. I still do not know how that name came about. Perhaps the British in the earlier days must have stopped there while they were riding their horses to their work stations or on their return – before the advent of vehicles – for a smoke to beat the cold.