Ayakkad is a small village in the rural out-backs of Trichur in Kerala. Three decades ago, the place was filled to the mark by Brahmins. But then suddenly the need to go to cities for a livelihood took precedence and there was a mass exodus. The nearest town is Palakkad. The area is surrounded by green mountains with a strange flavour of the yellow sand you see in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. Ayakkad was a part of Tamil Nadu and the four Brahmin families that are left behind still speak the Tamil dialect of Malyalee script.
Ayakkad has three ponds. One is a huge pond infested with water snakes and surrounded by coconut trees, where the respective genders take respective ends of the pond which has recently acquired a stone walled exterior. The snakes look cute but if you are bitten by the water snake than the local remedy is to fast for a day.
Of course, the speckled band which we saw outside the village temple has no remedy only death, in 2 minutes. The speckled band was first mentioned in Sherlock Holmes’ book by the same name. There are other huge snakes that are non poisonous.
Oh these snakes are so much like women. You never know which one is lethal.
The second pond is deep and has dried out. The oldies say that there was a huge python in there just around twenty years ago. This is exactly behind the temple. It is a fertile piece of land which has banana trees and coconut trees that look menacing on moon lit nights. This is Mowgly country.
The third pond had a crocodile that ate the cattle every now and then. That was thirty years ago. This is opposite the temple and today is filled with lotus leaves and millions of snakes.
The temple is beautiful and makes wishes come true. Lord Ganpathy has granted this people all their wishes. And the faithfuls still come back every year for the annual function.
But I forgot the fourth pond which was actually used for bathing just about fifteen years ago. My friend in his school days bounced inside this very pool like a monkey. This pond is in the middle of the fields, which are again filled with snake holes and there’s a river on the other side.
