Note:
Few terms may seem unfamiliar to the readers, please refer to the Index for their meaning.
It was 1999, I was a small kid then. My world was full of Books, Cricket and Mickey Mouse.. I used to travel to my Ammaatth almost every weekend, with my Perasshi's son Sajith Mathoor, whom i fondly call Kuttettan. We used to have lot of fun there. It was a very nice house with lot of Mangoes and many other things to eat. Since her husband worked in another district then, my Perasshi used to stay there with her father and mother (who are my mutthasshi and mutthasshan). She had two kids, one being Kuttettan and the other, his elder sister Soumya. We use to call her Soumya Oppol. We were enjoying the golden moments of our childhood there, with other visiting cousins such as Naveen Ettan, Shini Oppol, Rinju Oppol, Anju Oppol, Arun, Sreejith Ettan, Chithra, Hari etc. My brother was too young that time, that he could not get much involved in our activities. Even then, he showed his presense now and then, by some fights with me!! My Mutthasshan, Sri. A.K. Raman Namboothiri was the Panchayath Precident of Vellinezhi Gramapanchayath back in the 1970s. This thing, and more significantly him being the head of such a Royal family helped him find a high position in the society.
Nobody who met my Mutthasshan can deny the fact that his behavior and character was extremely gentle and kind. Thats the reason why everybody respected him a lot, and decided to celebrate his 84th birthday in a grand manner.
We were so much excited when we came to know that our Mutthasshan's birthday is going to be celebrated, that we even did not care to remember that there are 4-5 months remaining for the function. As part of the birthday function, a series of Cultural Programmes were planned, which would be performed by various members of the family. We could not stay back, we are the kids and we have to show our potential!
So we planned to perform skits, and we selected few stories for that. The stories were mostly selected from Namboothiri Phalitham, Balamangalam and few TV programs like Comi-Cola. We started practicing them, the scripting and direction were done by Kuttettan. Sreejith Ettan, who is the son of my Ammaaman also joined us.
The practice went on, and the special day was arriving..
Apart from our programs, there were also cinematic dances by Anju Oppol, Rinju Oppol, Soumya Oppol, Sreeja Oppol etc. Another team for the cinematic dance was the Thrikkadeeri team, apologies, I dont recollect most of their names. :(
Finally the day arrived, and the cultural function was planned on the previous night of the birthday. Mutthasshan came to the stage, accompanied by us, the 'Kids team'. I cant stop mentioning about my outfit that time, it was in a piece of Lungi, and a fake moustache.moustache, which were obviously the part of my make-up for the skit. :P
Few younger cousins of mine were scared to see this 'Goon Look' of mine. A lot of speeches by various relatives took place, and few Kavitha-s by Pallissery Ramettan, Seetha Ammaayi etc followed, all of them praising Mutthasshan.
Kuttettan also spoke about Mutthasshan, in a minute he broke down to tears and ran away from the stage.
Then the programs started, and we performed our skits.
The dances and the songs were also very good, we could see many people singing, whom in the past, we had never seen even humming a tune. Few notable performances were 'Jack and Kill' by Narayanan Ammaaman, Ligh Music by Lekha Ammaayi, Radhakrishnan Ammaaman, Fire dance by some Ettan (Sorry about not mentioning the name :( i dont remember, really..), Classical Music by Mahesh Ettan, rhymes by Saju, Prabhath, mimicry by Rohith etc etc...
My extreme apologies to all those whom i missed out in the list...
We got the VHS of the function after few months, that time CDs were not so popular. We used to watch it whenever we got a chance, pure NOSTALGIA!!!
Mutthasshan passed away in 2003, but he is alive in our hearts, for ever.. Later after so many years, now we realise the fact that how stupid our performances were, and we were appreciated by everybody just because of our sincere attempt!!!
Here is the video of the function, have a look!
Few terms may seem unfamiliar to the readers, please refer to the Index for their meaning.
It was 1999, I was a small kid then. My world was full of Books, Cricket and Mickey Mouse.. I used to travel to my Ammaatth almost every weekend, with my Perasshi's son Sajith Mathoor, whom i fondly call Kuttettan. We used to have lot of fun there. It was a very nice house with lot of Mangoes and many other things to eat. Since her husband worked in another district then, my Perasshi used to stay there with her father and mother (who are my mutthasshi and mutthasshan). She had two kids, one being Kuttettan and the other, his elder sister Soumya. We use to call her Soumya Oppol. We were enjoying the golden moments of our childhood there, with other visiting cousins such as Naveen Ettan, Shini Oppol, Rinju Oppol, Anju Oppol, Arun, Sreejith Ettan, Chithra, Hari etc. My brother was too young that time, that he could not get much involved in our activities. Even then, he showed his presense now and then, by some fights with me!! My Mutthasshan, Sri. A.K. Raman Namboothiri was the Panchayath Precident of Vellinezhi Gramapanchayath back in the 1970s. This thing, and more significantly him being the head of such a Royal family helped him find a high position in the society.
Nobody who met my Mutthasshan can deny the fact that his behavior and character was extremely gentle and kind. Thats the reason why everybody respected him a lot, and decided to celebrate his 84th birthday in a grand manner.
We were so much excited when we came to know that our Mutthasshan's birthday is going to be celebrated, that we even did not care to remember that there are 4-5 months remaining for the function. As part of the birthday function, a series of Cultural Programmes were planned, which would be performed by various members of the family. We could not stay back, we are the kids and we have to show our potential!
So we planned to perform skits, and we selected few stories for that. The stories were mostly selected from Namboothiri Phalitham, Balamangalam and few TV programs like Comi-Cola. We started practicing them, the scripting and direction were done by Kuttettan. Sreejith Ettan, who is the son of my Ammaaman also joined us.
The practice went on, and the special day was arriving..
Apart from our programs, there were also cinematic dances by Anju Oppol, Rinju Oppol, Soumya Oppol, Sreeja Oppol etc. Another team for the cinematic dance was the Thrikkadeeri team, apologies, I dont recollect most of their names. :(
Finally the day arrived, and the cultural function was planned on the previous night of the birthday. Mutthasshan came to the stage, accompanied by us, the 'Kids team'. I cant stop mentioning about my outfit that time, it was in a piece of Lungi, and a fake moustache.moustache, which were obviously the part of my make-up for the skit. :P
Few younger cousins of mine were scared to see this 'Goon Look' of mine. A lot of speeches by various relatives took place, and few Kavitha-s by Pallissery Ramettan, Seetha Ammaayi etc followed, all of them praising Mutthasshan.
Kuttettan also spoke about Mutthasshan, in a minute he broke down to tears and ran away from the stage.
Then the programs started, and we performed our skits.
The dances and the songs were also very good, we could see many people singing, whom in the past, we had never seen even humming a tune. Few notable performances were 'Jack and Kill' by Narayanan Ammaaman, Ligh Music by Lekha Ammaayi, Radhakrishnan Ammaaman, Fire dance by some Ettan (Sorry about not mentioning the name :( i dont remember, really..), Classical Music by Mahesh Ettan, rhymes by Saju, Prabhath, mimicry by Rohith etc etc...
My extreme apologies to all those whom i missed out in the list...
We got the VHS of the function after few months, that time CDs were not so popular. We used to watch it whenever we got a chance, pure NOSTALGIA!!!
Mutthasshan passed away in 2003, but he is alive in our hearts, for ever.. Later after so many years, now we realise the fact that how stupid our performances were, and we were appreciated by everybody just because of our sincere attempt!!!
Here is the video of the function, have a look!
Index:
Ammaatth: Mother's Native House
Mutthasshan: Mom's dad
Mutthasshi: Mom's mom
Perasshi: Mom's elder sister
Ettan: An affectionate suffix added at the end of an elder brother's name.
Oppol: Same suffix, added to elder sister's name.
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