19 Stay outside the campus and some problems

On return from I.I.T.Madras after  higher studies, accommodation problems were acute once again. As we are not supposed to retain the quarters while we are away from the campus for more than a few months, we had to surrender the F-type quarters we got with great difficulty before leaving for Madras. No vacant quarters were available and chances of getting one in the near future was very bleak on our return. The only way to bring my family was to find out some place to stay outside the campus.

As mentioned earlier Chathamangalam was  effectively a  chatha(dead) mangalam outside the REC campus. Very few houses outside were available for rent. Even among those available, either water will not be available or sanitation facilities will be also very poor. The typical Malabar  houses with a room upstairs were mostly made with laterite and mud and very few  concrete houses with proper ceiling were  available. In Kattangal, a few line-buildings were available for students. But accommodation for students in the hostels was adequate. It was really difficult for people like us coming from far off places to stay outside. Teaching and nonteaching staff staying within 25-30 KMs of the campus could use the college bus or public transport and come in the morning and leave after work. Many teachers from other states were also in the same boat, unable to find an accommodation. They had the additional problem of not knowing the local language.  

When I was searching for a house, someone told me about a new house half a KM from   Chathamangalam Panchayath junction. The house belonged to one watchman Gopinathan Pillai (  known as Guruvayurappan Pilla or Chit Fund Pillai)  of REC. It was a tiled house with no ceiling on the side of a hillock. The building was precariously placed on the slope and we had to climb several steps from the panchayath road to reach the house. No wells  were available for water, water  had to be brought  from a house  500 meters away . Our children were both small and were running this way and that way and we could not think of their falling on the slope to the road in front.  One Chacko, husband of a hostel sweeper Thankamma  promised to  fill water in a few cement containers in the  morning and if we are careful we could manage with that water for the whole day. Chacko did not have a regular job and he could make something for his drinks in the evening.

So, we collected the few pieces of furniture kept in different   houses in the campus and moved into this house. Our only hope was the Faculty house for bachelors that is being constructed and was likely to be allotted within a few months. I thought, if I can get a room allotted there, somehow I can exchange the room with the quarters of a faculty  member whose wife may go home for delivery.

But we  came  face to face with  several  problems during our stay outside. It was comparatively a damp area and the building had no ceiling, I picked up a nasty cold which was troubling me almost every day. This resulted in a  prolonged dry cough which has  never left me after that. The poisonous gases coming from the Gwalior Rayons Pulp factory, Mavoor  was already creating respiratory problems for many living in that area including those inside the campus. Fortunately, our kids did not have any health problems and they were enjoying the stay.

One plus point was the opportunity we got  to see  how the  people  outside the campus lived. The war between India and Pakistan was going on after India supported the formation of Bangladesh. There was acute shortage for essential provisions like rice and vegetables. Many common people did not have the resources to buy rice for   even one meal a day. The only food item available was the tapioca from Wayanad   used to be   brought in a lorry in the afternoon. People used to queue up for buying these tapioca for hours and buy 3 or 4 Kg of tapioca and fish for a Rupee  or not and that was  the food for the family for the whole day. 

There was a panchayath road in front of our house leading to a river about a KM down. On the far side was a country-made compound wall with small crevices in between. The land beyond the compound wall was full of weeds. One day, my wife noticed that a few people were just pushing their head through one of the crevices in the wall, drink something,  take  out their head after a few minutes , and move  out after wiping their lips. This was being repeated by many from about 11AM to 130PM. She was curious about what was going on. I did not bother initially but when she reported that this was a regular   phenomenon every day, I started enquiring about this. My secret investigation revealed that this was the secret sale of spurious liquor made by someone  near the river and brought and kept  in bottles kept in pits  dug on the far side of the wall during nights. People were just taking one or two glasses of this liquor by pushing their head inside, and then moving   away after wiping their lips. Regular customers know when the stuff is available. When the customers appear,  the  vendor squatting inside will take  out a  bottle from the pit, fill glasses and serve. By about 130PM or so the sale will be  over when the available material is  finished. As the sale was brisk on a working day, many of the customers might have been from REC itself. We  were really  wondering how  these people could get money to drink this  spurious liquor when  many do not have  money even to buy rice   to feed their children. This brew, it seems, was made with  battery, leech  and some such dangerous stuff and was dangerous to drink. But who bothers, if they can get intoxicated with just one or two glasses for a pittance whether it is dangerous or not.   

As the completion of the faculty house was getting delayed, my breathing problems were also on the increase. We had to live there for almost 8 months and then I got a room allotted in my name. It was Room No 4 on the ground floor.  As soon as I got this allotted, I started   searching for a member of faculty whose wife is pregnant and how soon they will be going home for delivery. Even though this is an indecent encroachment on the privacy of a colleague, we did not have any other option as family quarters were not yet being constructed. As most of the members of faculty were young and some of them newly married, it was not difficult to identify one or two to whom I could make a request for an exchange of the bachelor’s accommodation in the faculty house with family accommodation in their quarters. With the kindness and cooperation of such colleagues, we could move into the campus once again after our miserable stay outside the campus for 8 months.