ALAPPUZHA - When One Looks Back

Alleppey is euphemistically glorified as the Venice of the East. Its canals and its waterways have always been its pride. It was once a lourishing sea port, the best in erstwhile Travancore. Gone are those days of glory, though the potential for reviving it is still there, with proper planning and administrative initiative, its waterways can be revived as a valuable asset. In fact, from Thiruvananthapuaram to Cochin and even beyond, the backwater can be made navigable. There could be a splendid alternate commuting system, with speedy motor boats and placid, capacious country crafts, plying the whole length,carrying merchandise and hiking passengers more economically, with leisurely grace. The tourist attraction of this unique backwaters-linked canal system is immense. Those who are fed up with the hurly-burly of the highways can sojourn through the canals and lakes and lagoons and drink in the incomparable scenic delights of the hinterlands.

Apart from the political jingoism of the region, there is this yearly snake boat gala day, which draws huge crowds to the festival. Competitions elsewhere in the neighbourhoods seen not to evoke similar high pitch enthusiasm. Thousands congregate to cheer the teams. It is, nonetheless, only an annual carnival. Alleppey has many things besides to make the inquistive listen to its heart beats.

The place is replete with reverberations of the not distant past. In Ambalapuzha,there was onc a petty kingdom. How it was undone is an instance of state-craft and treachery. King Marthanda Varma was the one who forged the erstwhile Travancore State, by forcibly annexing small fiefdoms of the neighbourhood. The King's Dalava, Ramayyan,was a past master in intrigue. Her persuaded Ambalapuzha's commander to betray his master. The petty principality was annexed spilling not even a drop of blood.

Alleppey's abiding fame is , however, owing to the illustrious men of letters of the region. Ambalapuzha saw the flowering of Malayalam's satirist par excellence, Kunchan Nambiar, His down to earth wit and humour is one step more plebian than that of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Father of English Poetry. He developed a new art form – a blended dance song mode- more popular in appeal and endowed with the carefree realism of the people's bard. Kunchan Nambiar sought to secularise Malayalam Muse.

The greatest writer of kerala was cradled by that same landscape. He is Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, the septugenarian novelist , who had authored masterpiece of fiction like Chemmeen, Randidangazi, and Kayar. Through these and his innumerable short stories he has given unforgettable vignettes of rural life, the like of which you come across in Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels.

Death, the pitiless antogonist of life, has inadvertently added a feather to Alleppey's cap. The sad drowing of modern Kerala's most illustrious poet, happened at Pallana, 30 kns south of the port town, in the main water way to Quilon. The poet happened to be in the ill fated boat, Redeemer, which capsized owing to overloading . The poet in his prime was destined for a watery grave. Like P.B.Shelley. He had much in common with that of Kumaran Asan. The mortal remains of the poet are cherished on the canal bank. The spot has turned a haloed one with monuments coming up to perpetuate his memory. A school and library have been established. The death anniversary is occasion for mammoth public gatherings where his poetic contribution is assessed afresh. In a poet's Meer, living bards congregate,to pay homage to Asian and to be inspired by his life and work.

Yet others are also there in the roll-call of honour.Ramapurathu Varrier and novelist P.S.Kesavadev also are shining lights of the region. Vayalar Rama Varma sang melodiously of human weal and woe. Vayalar-Punnapra where the first popular struggles were fought for wresting the rights of man are neighbourhoods. The urban centre itself with its numerous coir factories witnessed the beginnings of working class militancy. The trade union movement in india had its baptism at Alleppey. Its pioneering leaders like V.K.Velayudhan, T.V.Thomas, and R.Sugathan unfurled the flag of proletarian revolt in Kerala , nay India.

Gone are Alleppey's early glories,
Extant yet are its rich memories.