The Streets of Punnala

Susamma Oonnoonney stands on her balcony looking over the great city of Glendale, California where she resides today. As I walk up to her, I see that her face has grown old and tired. I see a woman that has gone trough many happy and difficult times. Susamma was born and raised in India and has seen many extraordinary things that some people don’t see in a whole lifetime. Susamma lived in a crowded house in the village of Punnala, knowing every person in that village by name and face. She had grown up in a time when poverty was at its greatest and when the caste system was playing a huge role in society. Traditional festival, school, and summer vacation all kept her going through her life in India and neither religion differences nor poverty excess kept her down. Susamma greatly valued life in Punnala and says that she is extremely lucky to have such a childhood.

My best friend growing up in Punnala was Vishwanathan. He was our neighbor’s boy. I have known Vishwanathan oh, since I can remember. He was in my classes from Kindergarten onwards until seventh grade. 

I didn’t know anyone famous personally.

I lived in a village, in a farmhouse. It’s a big house with seven bedrooms and we had my grandmother, my grandfather, my father’s sister, my father’s older brother’s son, my mother, and my father. The seven of us, four sisters and three brother. And we had two servants, Libin. And we had farm workers at home. Some days they stay over, some days they go home. It was very crowded in my house.

Notorious people were not in the village I lived when I was growing up. The village was pretty safe to live in.

Information got around by newspaper. Word of mouth mostly. All the gossip we had. Women used to come to our house and gossip. We had magazines all over. Magazines called Mangalam. That used to be the magazine that comes with the stories. Short stories and novels. So we all used to go rush to it. Every week we go there and buy that. That’s what our storybooks were like. And we had Sports Illustrated, Femina, fashion magazines and all those. And we had radio. We didn’t have any radio at home. The only radio and music and news is what we hear from the stores when we walk on the streets. That’s all we had. No radios at home when I was growing up until ten or so. No televisions then, this is in the 1960s. over there where I was growing up, no televisions yet. No electricity in my house that time. We had well water. We draw our own water. We do our own plowing of the farm. The ox was used. No machines. The other animals were ox, cows, lamb, chicken, cats, dogs, everything. And then we had a parrot. Then one time we had a turtle. We tied a rope to it and used to run around with it. All of a sudden, after a long time, the turtle disappeared. We don’t know where it has gone.

There were traditions and festivals in Punnala. Big, all kinds of traditions. It was rich in tradition in Kerala. We had Onam, the biggest festival. That is usually in August. It’s a new year of a Malayalam new year. So, it’s a harvest festival. Everybody will have new clothes that time. It’s a ten-day festival and a big celebration. That was the main festival. Then we had Christmas. We had Easter. Easter was bigger than Christmas. Then we had the festivals Deepavali and Vishu. We celebrate everything.

I looked forward to school always. That’s all we did was going to school. We did look forward to summer vacation. Summer vacation is usually two months and it was a good time. Summer vacation we go to uncle’s, auntie’s, houses all the time. Everybody, the uncle’s kids come to our house and we go the other way. We kind of exchange or go together, play most of the two months. Different uncles and different places. When I was growing up, the most common work is farming. Most everybody is a farmer. There is no factory, there is no other, very small banks and school. Very few people work in their school and all.

From living in a small town, I have gained closeness. The togetherness with the family, neighbors, and friends. We had much tighter relationships with people. We had all different culture, different people living all, everybody together, as a family. So it was much more bounded. I’m lucky that I have a childhood like that. I learned the value of human being when I was a child.

India is very much diverse in religion. All religions are welcome. Actually when I was growing up, we were the only Christian family in our area. We had to go to church walking five miles. Every Sunday we get up in the morning as soon as daylight comes. We get up and we walk to church. We come back by when the church is finished. Our neighbors, we had Hindus, we had Muslims, we had caste system, lower class, upper class, Brahmans. Every kind of religion in India we had. So religious freedom is there. No difference between a Hindu and a Muslim or a Christian when they come to the house. But they did have a class system those days. We wouldn’t let a lower class person come in your kitchen or in your house inside and sit with you to eat in a dining room or something. They have a different place to eat. They have different utensils and different plates. You don’t serve the regular house utensils to them. They’re supposed to sit in a different place, in back of the kitchen, and they are supposed to be served in a different kind of dishes. So they were considered to be Untouchables. Things have changed. They don’t do that anymore.

Kerala had no rich people. Kerala is one of the states in India has more middle class than any other states. They don’t have rich or poor. Everybody has a home, at least in their standard. But people are not rich. They are middle class. But in North India, I went to school in North India, is where you can see very much the low, very poor and very highly two classes. It’s a big time poverty there. 

Interviewed by Biju Babu