at my laptop for the last 2 hours getting some work done. I am shutting down the laptop
when my Mom tells me that the 'thandaan' (Mallu term for coconut-picker) has come to
pick coconuts from the coco-palms on our 3 properties and that I need to go and help my
Dad gather the coconuts.
I have done this chore every 3 months or so during the 2 years I spent studying in Kerala
in the '80s. But it has been a long time. Anyway, I ask my wife if she would be interested
to join and she decides to bring along Aman too. We walk to our river-side land where the thandaan would be picking coconuts first. By the time we reach there, he is done plucking coconuts from half the palms there and is doing the remaining palms.
Coconuts are lying all around & my Dad is trying to get them all at one place. We join in
while Aman looks around. We have gathered all the coconuts that fell on land in one big
heap, but there are some lying in the water. These are from the few palms that stand
on the river's edge, like the one in the pic below which is bent over the river.
I used a bamboo pole to pull the coconuts that are floating in the river close to the bank.
Since the edge is slippery-clay, I balance precariously on the edge & pull in the coconuts
one-by-one using a sharp sickle to dig into the husk of the coconut. By the time I get all
the coconuts out, my shorts are stained with clay - when I almost fell into the water due
to my feet slipping on clay.
Next the coconuts are counted and need to be carted home. There is usually a guy who
helps my Dad with odd jobs around the home & whose job it is to get the coconuts home.
But he has gone for some wedding and will not be available today. Since we can't leave
the coconuts there till next day, I think of other options.
We have some 10 jute bags into which I ask my Dad & wife to put 10-12 coconuts each,
which I guess is what I can carry without too much exertion. My Dad's bike is parked
some 50 metres away and if we bring the bags till the bike, I can get them home 3 bags
per trip. I can do all the bags in one go if I get our car, but the road is too narrow and
there isn't enough space to reverse the car.
As they pack and tie the bags, I carry the bags till the bike and then it takes me 4 trips
to get all the bags home. By this time the thandaan has moved to our other property,
which adjoins acres of fields (not tilled for a long time though) and has already started
picking coconuts there.
Since Aman is kinda bored of all this activity, we drop him home and me and my wife
go to collect and bring home the coconuts. Not only is the number of coconuts less on
this property, since the trees yield much less than the river-side land, but a neighbour
wants to buy some coconuts for her cooking. So, it takes me only 2 bike-rides to get
all the coconuts home.
She picks 15 coconuts @ Rs6 a piece, and hands me a hundred-rupee note. Since I don't
have my wallet with me to return her the balance of Rs.10, I ask her to take another 2
coconuts. Coconut-flesh is an integral part of almost all Keralite dishes & a typical home
would easily use-up atleast 1 coconut a day for cooking. This is apart from the coconut
oil in which most cooking is done.
By the time we reach home with the coconuts, the thandaan has already started picking
coconuts from the palms on the land where our house stands. The total yield from the 3
plots was around 300 coconuts, which would be Rs.1800 in money value, when sold to
someone who buys them to extract oil from them.
After some 2 hours of hard work, I am tired and what better way to rejuvenate than to
drink some tender coconut water. As I go to freshen up with a cold-water bath, I ask my
wife jokingly if she thinks it is fair to make a keyboard/mouse using software-engineer
do such manual labour.
As usual she has the last word when she says, "Wasn't it your mother who asked you to
do this chore ? So why ask me ?". :-)
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