Heron’s Pool: A town, a house, a book and a ship

The town. Mundakayam is just starting to come on the tourism map of Kerala. It is a flourishing town on National Highway 220, almost halfway between two popular tourist spots – Kumarakom and Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.

Many places of great interest to travelers are easily accessible from Mundakayam. The natural beauty of the areas surrounding the town can be gauged by the fact that over a hundred movies have been shot there. It is also the entry point to Kerala’s High Ranges and the plantations.

Mundakayam is prosperous place and the people have a distinctive way of life. But !50 years back it was a thick forest inhabited by hill tribes. In 1843 Pastor Henry Baker ventured into the area where no white man had ever set foot before.

He found a number of herons nesting around a quiet pool and named the place Heron’s Pool. Translated to Malayalam, the local language, it became Mundikayam>Mundakayam (Mundi=heron, kayam=pool).

Many other sahibs followed Baker to seek their fortune in planting – tea, rubber, coffee, spices. The most famous among them was the Irishman J.J. Murphy.

The house. The quaint bungalow was the residence of the well-known planter and industrialist, late Jose Kallivayalil (my maternal uncle). Many important personages including political bosses, top officials, British nobility, and other nationalities had enjoyed Kallivayalil’s legendary hospitality there. Now his son Chacko and his charming wife Sheila have converted the place into a home stay with the name Heron’s Pool.

What is amazing about the 70+ year-old building is the amount of teak and rosewood with intricate work used on the walls, flooring, trellis, and furniture. The eight feet long dining table is made from a single piece of teak! The food there has been traditionally good.

Given below is a photo of the front veranda:

Photo by me. Copyright reserved. Click to enlarge.

The bungalow has a lovely cobbled nadumuttam (inner courtyard) with a large guava tree in the center. On one side is a veranda which can be used as a stage for cultural events.

The house is nestled in a plantation that has several types of cash crops. It is on NH 220, about 3 kilometers east of Mundakayam Town. Next to it is the Mundakayam Club established by J.J. Murphy in 1912. You can visit the website http://www.heronspool.com/

The book. ‘Above the Heron’s Pool’ (ISBN 0 907799515) by Heather Lovatt & Peter de Jong is an interesting book which deals with the history of the High Ranges. Heather had lived in the area for many years. She has also written a reference book on the subject, titled ‘A Short History of The Peermade/Vandiperiyar District’ (CMS Press, Kottayam. 1979).

The ship. SS Heronspool was freighter of Ropner Shipping Company. In a valiant night engagement with the German submarine U48 off the Irish Coast she was torpedoed on 12^th October 1939.

Ends.

Also see Irish father of Indian cardamom, rubber and pepper planting

Kerala plantations: The bed tea ceremony that was

In my childhood Kerala’s High Ranges where full of sahibs, almost all of them connected with plantations – tea, coffee, rubber, cardamom, pepper. I remember that in the Planters’ Clubs that I used to visit with my maternal uncles during summer holidays, they far outnumbered the Indians.

With India’s Independence, the situation changed. By the 1950s, the plantation sector in Kerala was in turmoil. Mainly labor trouble. The sahibs, most of them British, started selling out to Indians and leaving the country. After my youngest uncle Michael A. Kallivayalil bought JJ Murphy’s Yendayar Estate and my brother Joe (PKJ Tharakan) was posted as manager there, staying in the Irishman’s bungalow, I went there to spend a weekend, I think in December, 1959. Murphy’s staff was still there and the place was run on the old routine.

Those days the plantations had no public power supply. The estates with tea or crepe rubber factories had their own generators. But they were run only during the day when the factories worked. As a result there was no power in the bungalows during nights.

Before we retired after dinner, the butler, a pleasant chap named Muthu who had spent years with Murphy had checked when I wanted bed tea to be served.

At the appointed time there was a knock at the door. A ceremonial parade was on. In front of the line was a bearer carrying a Petro Max lamp; it was still quite dark and cold. The second person had a small light table, I suppose in case I preferred to have tea in bed. They were followed by Muthu in full livery, turban and all, holding the tray in his right hand in level with his shoulder. All very proper.

After the ‘good mornings’ Muthu gave me an enquiring look and I pointed to table in front of the sofa set. He placed the tray on it and waited. I told him thank you, I’ll pour myself. The trio withdrew, but in reversed order – Muthu first and then the other two.

On the tray were tea pot, milk jug in case a guest wanted to be sacrilegious enough to add cream to unblended estate tea, cup and saucer and one ripe yellow banana. That was the standard menu.

All that is gone. Now it is more down to earth bed tea, or coffee.

Ends.

Also see: Irish planter, punter, soldier, playboy