Chandy

The computer is fascinating and kept me free of boredom and busy the whole day. As soon as I was ready in the morning, my walker took me straight there. E-mail was my first preference. Then came the games. Google Earth was a big attraction. I could not enjoy google talk much because I am a little deaf and my right eye is not too good.
My favourite game was Free Cell. But then came Sudoko. I felt very happy after completing a VERY EASY game. Completing an EASY game was also an achievement. Whenever it got too hard I went back to the easier games to get the satisfaction of achievement. Chess also I enjoyed, but the computer was always smarter!
But I was foolish in not using a proper chair. As time passed, I did not realise that my spine was unhappy at my position on a very uncomfortable chair. One day there was an open protest by my spine, in a slight backache. But I still went back to my beloved computer. By evening it was worse and the next day I couldn't get up from my bed. The net result is now I am on complete bedrest!
Beware all approaching their 90th year, of their computers (overdoing it)

67 Years Ago

My parents-in-law stayed in a village in Central Travancore. The mode of transport was mainly by boats. We had two boats that were brought up on to land and tried up with strong iron chains in the boat shed at night. The motorable road was about 1½ km away.

It was an agriculture community mainly cultivating rice in the low-lying paddy fields. Coconut trees were grown on the higher land. The labourers were mostly of the ‘lower caste’ who lived on the land of the landlords. They were paid so many measures of grain as their wages, every evening. During the lean months, in karkidagom (July), when there was no cultivation, the poor people took loans of grain from the land lords!

There was no electricity. But we had beautiful lamps, which were cleaned and filled with kerosene and lighted in the evenings.

There was a canal adjacent to our property and beyond that were rice fields stretching as far as the eye could see. During the monsoon the fields were full of water and it looked like a big ocean. How beautiful it was.

Once we, Ammachy, Sarasu and I got into the boat to go to Niranam. Our old Chacko Chettan—the boat man-- manoeuvred the boat with his long bamboo pole in to the bigger stream and from there on to the Manimala River, which was in spate and looked like a huge big lake. We were going to visit my sister-in-law in Niranam. I remember being on the lake in that wide expanse of water without seeing any other boat. The water was so deep that the pole would go down almost to its limit. That was frightening, but beautiful.

80 years ago

I lived in the city, Thiruvanathapuram, the capital of erstwhile Travancore State, now a part of Kerala. We attended a girl’s school quite far from our residence. In the morning we used to go by jutka, a horse drawn carriage. In the evening we walked carrying our books. It was not like the present day,,when students have to carry a heavy load when they go to school. Travancore state was ruled by a Maharaja with the help of the dewan (prime minister). It was not directly under the British rule. There was a British resident posted to the state.

The money that was used then was called the sarkar rupee. 16 kaash made one chakram, 4 chakram, made 1 panam and 7 panams made a rupee.The rupee and panam were made of silver and chakram and kaassh of copper We also had British rupee. That was valued at 28 ½ chakram. We did a lot of Arithmetic sums changing sarkar rupee to British rupee and paisas and vice versa. As you can imagine, that was not easy,.It was tough!!!!Later the monetary system was changed to rupees, annas and paisas.