Kudallur: Educational Facilities

The village has five schools, two of them private. They are
1, AJB School Kudallur,
2, GBLP School Kudallur,
3, GUP School Kudallur,
4, Al Hilal English Medium School Kudallur (private),
5, Sandeepani English Medium School Kudallur (private)

The first two schools offer education for standard 1to 4. GUP School has 5, 6 and 7 standards. The last two schools offer classes from 1 to 10. Kudallur depends outside for higher education. Most of the students prefer Thrithala High School, Thrithala for High School studies. Govt. VHS School Vattenad and Govt. HS School Mezhathur are the next options. Some of the parents - especially those who are working abroad- like English medium schools for their children. For inter-mediate (Higher Secondary and Vocational Higher Secondary) education the village goes to near towns such as Kuttipuram, Kunnamkulam, Koottanad, Pattambi and Edappal. A lot of parallel institutions work at these towns. They entertain a large number of students. Wisdom College Kumaranellur is the pioneer institution in parallel field.
Students from Kudallur depends SNGS Arts and Science College Pattambi, MES College Ponnani, MES Engineering College Kuttipuram, all the colleges in Thrissur city, some of the colleges of Malappuram and Kozhikode districts for collegiate education. Now a day a considerable number of students of the village go to distant districts and other states. Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Trichy and Mysore are the places of attraction for professional education.
But, one of the many new trends in the educational concepts of the village causes a great concern. The new English medium schools pose threat to the Government schools. In the case of AJB School, it taught seven or eight generations. But the flow of students- even the children of low- income families- to the new schools made the student strength of the AJBS low. Now it struggle to survive. GUP School also faces this threat.
Even then, the fact that village is 100% literate is a matter of joy.

Kudallur: Old Masjid Gets New Face

The oldest Masjid of Kudallur, the Jumua Masjid Kudallur is undergoing a renewal process, a rebuilding process actually. For this, the old beautiful masjid was demolished and the old valuable Indo-Islamic sculpture was disappeared. It was a beautiful masjid. It stood in the midst of the large khabrsthan (cemetery). Roof top of the masjid was beautifully decorated with single wood sculptures. The main woods are the Teak and Veetty. Big doors of the inner masjid were marvelous. It had four to six big flowers carved on each of them. Four inch iron belts were there on it, at the top, middle and bottom. The doors had no metal hinges.
One should go to the upstairs to enjoy the real beauty of the masjid. Big wooden beams which elevate the roof, wooden carvings which shine as new and so many other things were there to remember.
The beautiful picture of the Sree Muthuvilyaumkunnu Siva Temple could be seen from the terrace of old masjid building, just a few meters away from the masjid. It is heard that one of the oldest rural landlord gave a large area to build masjid and temple near to each other. Do you know that the Hindu- Muslim unity of the village is well appreciated during the 1920’s, the age in which the struggle against the British colonization became powerful in Malabar. The British people used to divide Hindus and Muslims by spreading false stories about tortures. But this kin of rumors had nothing to do with Kudallur’s unity.

Kudallur: Hills are Disappearing

Yes, it is going to happen at last. The Parappuram kunnu, part of Kudallur Hills is going to loss its face. It was better known as Kaadu by the very local people. But the thing now going to happen is, somebody has bought the kunnu and they wish to make it a rubber estate. For the first time I couldn’t believe it. There are many reasons for it. The first and the foremost is the kunnu has a straight slope. Slope means complete slope. Now somebody has come to ‘green’ it. People say he is from some other district mostly, Kollam or Thrissur. The pain haunts me now is the future of the natural spring Chola, in the foot of the hill. The crystal clear water and green surroundings! Some years ago one of the biggest rocks on the hill lost its foot and came fast to the valley. Some women were there near the well in the deepest part of the hill, near the Chola. They cried out and men folks arrived quickly. They saw the fearful picture of destroyed woods and rocks in the path of the big rock. Leave it.
The hills in Kudallur, as anywhere in Kerala are disappearing or losing their green face immediately. The Thannikkunnu, mentioned in MT’s works is a quarry now. Thus the beauty of plain surface over the hill is vanished.

Kudallur: A scenic blend of hills and paddy fields.

Kudallur has a long range of hills. The southern borders are hills, locally kunnu. In M T stories we feel the broadness of Thannikkunnu, lies above Kudallur centre, Koottakadav. Another kunnu is Parappuram hills. While the Thannikunnu is in a plain in its shape, Parappuram kunnu is truly a slope.
In Thannikunnu there was a small natural pond surrounded by black rocks called Thavalachira (Frog Pond). But it was destroyed recently by the quarrying people came to the village from the neighboring districts.
Now the plain is not there. It is made a big barren zigzag land forever. You will be amazed to see the beautiful scene of joining together of the two rivers, Nila and Thootha from Thannikunnu. There is a railway bridge at this meeting place of rivers: Karuvannur Bridge. You can see it in your journey from Shoanur to Calicut (From Pattambi to Kuttipuram). At a far distance you may see the Malampuzha hills fading in to snow. On the other side of The River Nila, beyond the railway line there lays a vast sea of paddy fields. During the rainy season it will reflect the blue earth and will appear like an ocean. A small natural spring called chola is there in the valley of the Thannikunnu hills. We will discuss about Parappuram kunnu later.

At last it happened!

Thank god! It was the expected moment for many years. Yes. The Nila flowed in full swing, touching both banks. It collected energy from the continuous rain of five days
I am proud to say that I spent a whole day to enjoy the wild beauty of the river. At 7.30am I crossed the Kuttippuram Bridge. The river was flowing like laughter. At 100pm at Thrithala I could see another face of the river from the new Velliyamkalu Causeway cum Bridge. When I reached Thrithala town, there were a number of people who were enjoying the ‘new’ old face of their river. Almost a meter height of the Pump house of The Pavarotty Area Water Supply Project (the biggest drinking water project in the river) was under water. The water irrigation pump houses at and Ayyapan Kadavu and Velliyamkallu were under water. Today the Nila overflowed the Pattambi Bridge after a long period of 25 years. What happened to the river!
Hundreds of people were there at both ends of the bridge to enjoy the scene.
Akkare (the other bank of river) lands were under water. I could see Pallippuram, Perassannur, Kodumunda and many other villages were in red water. Fishing had been there.
The Thootha too was in a wild power. It empowered the flow of the Nila in the part under Kudallur.
Any way I am very happy today to see Nila as a river.

Paddy fields now Fading fields

Kudallur, as any other village in Kerala, got a vast change during 1990’s. The most interesting thing is the village had its old families and their ancestry houses (tharavadu) in the valley of hills, adjacent to the end of paddy fields. During that time every rich family had a heap of hay (Vykkkolkoona) in front of their houses. It was considered as the sign of wealth and prosperity. The old people say this koonas had a major role in determining the fate of marriage proposals ie. the height of the heap was a successful indicator of prosperity of a family. Simply, the amount of paddy field in possession was a cause of dignity during the time.
Now, what’s the picture here? The panoramic view of the paddy fields is affected by big two- three storied concrete houses. A large amount of fields was filled or leveled for building purpose. Construction of new roads made the situation more badly than ever. More the road constructed more house were built, on the both sides of roads.
Alas! The green blanket has been going slowly.

Nila cries

It’s raining. In the olden times a small rain would beautify the river. Now it has been raining for at least four weeks. But it failed to do anything with the river. Sand excavation made the river flow less and dry. Alas! Nobody is worried about it.
The destruction of the river started since the construction of Malampuzha dam at the beginning of the river in 1955. Then came a number of small and big water irrigation projects. This was a move during the late 80’s and early 90’s. Controlled water flow led the way to a number of modes for exploiting the river. Sand excavation became common and it was supported by major political parties as they took the excavation as a way to earn something for personal and organizational benefits. During the period of 1991-2000 sand excavation broke all barriers neglecting the protest of local environmental organizations. Media failed to give enough coverage and the authorities paid no attention to the issue. The most interesting and dangerous thing was the panchayaths (local self govt. bodies) saw the excavation as a source of income. Hundreds of lorries ran to Tamilnadu and bordering sates with the clean white sand form Nila. Trade unions formed local organizations to make the sand excavation employees authorized ones.
Now everything is out of control. Though the Hon. High Court of Kerala gave strong directions to protect the river, the state govt. did nothing. The problem still continues and the river remains like a silver thread.

The Nila And Kudallur

The river Nila (bharathapuzha) and the village are closely related to each other. From the olden time itself the village depends the river in many ways, mainly for irrigating the agriculture on the river bank. There is traditional kadavu (a place where people get small rural boat thoni) called Koottakadavu.
Koottakadavu is the joining place of the two rivers Nila and Thootha. Bharathapuzha originates in the Aana malai hills in the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu, and flows westward through Palakkad, Thrissur and Malappuram districts of Kerala, with many tributaries joining it, including the Tirur River. For the first 40 km or so, the Bharathapuzha follows an almost northerly course till Pollachi. At Parli both Kannadipuzha and Kalpathipuza merge and flow as Bharathapuzha and follows a westerly course until it empties into the Arabian Sea at Ponnani.
M.T Vasudevan Nair, the famous short story- writer and Novelist writes in KADAVU magazine published from Kudallur: ‘kadavu is pacca symbolic. The village goes to the outer world, and the outer world comes to the village through the kadavu.’

WELCOME to kudallur

This blog simply deals with Kudallur, a calm and beautiful village in the Palakkad Dt of Kerala. Let's share silly and serious thoughts, to know and to be known