CALICUTCITY:KETTANGAL

I was having a Milk Shake recently and happenned to remember the Banana Milk Shake and Mango Milk Shake which I used to have sometimes with my batch-mate S V Giri in Kettangal. Kettangal is a hamlet adjacent to REC NIT Calicut. During our times we used to visit Kettangal for milk shake which used to cost Rs. 5/- at one of those outlets run by some very elderly person. He used to peel the mangoes himself and empty them into an old mixi and a roar of the mixi for few minutes and he empties a thick soup of Mango milk shake into a tumbler and it was pleasure having one. It must have added value to our health in those days supplying vital nutrients to the body.

I have not visited Kettangal of late but must be more intense in population by now. Kettangal is basically a confluence of four roads. One that comes from Calicut via Kunnamangalam and proceeds to Mukkom, another that goes adjacent to the E hostel and proceeds to Koduvally, and another towards Mavoor .

Kettangal had some three hotels one of which used to be Ali's joint.In Ali's hotel you get Mixture with onion laced on it and on a rainy evening having it with a cup of tea used to be Heaven.

Kettangal never sleeps.It is active at night too with small eat outs working overtime supplying bread omelette and tea.

I dont know what would be the future of this joint? With increase in population may be the roads here might need widening which could change the face of this place. Kettangal! You were a joy of our lives on any given day not to mention the music played at some of these joints which could be heard aloud and a saloon nearby.

The Cherupuzha (Chaliyar river tributary) near REC NIT - Calicut:CALICUTCITY

Few  kilometers behind the REC NIT Calicut is a river. This must be one of the many rivers that flow into the Arabian sea from the western ghats. (I did a full fledged course on Environmental Law at NLSIU  by which my very awareness about the environment stands increased and compounded.). I understand now that the water supply of many cities in the world is undertaken from the rivers that flow by and there will be no rivers in the absence of mountain ranges. How ever technically brilliant one might become mankind is always subservient to nature for his fundamental needs. The Romans appear to me were one of the first in this class to build aqua ducts that brought water from rivers into cities and it continues to this day.

The river that flows nerar REC NIT _Calicut is the source of water for the campus. I have written elsewhere that water is pumped from this river to a water treatment plant near the D hostel gate from where it is pumped into over head tanks. I  think the name of this river is Chaliyar and a bridge over this river can be seen  at Chathamangalam .

Many students who play Holi visit the banks of this river for cleaning up their colored countenance. They move in large numbers during the afternoon of this day and take the approach road adjacent to the E - hostel. Even I was drawn into the Holi melee though inadvertently and dumped into large cans of colored water. My room mate Binod Anand Mishra did this to me once and I have not forgotten his grin seeing me half immersed in color.

I fondly remember this river for other reasons. Many times few of us would take a stroll to this river and sit on its banks for tew hours..the errie silence with the noise of the river rustling beside and the thick vegetation around and the sands reflecting the evening sun light made a perfect setting . We used to take the approach road adjacent to co-operative society and largely a winding and hilly terrain and it must be around three kilometers from our campus and stopping for tea at some road side stall.

I dont know what this place looks like now. Things must have changed and transformed by the pressures of time. Somewhere I read that a bridge has come up over this river linking Koduvally with Kettangal. Incidentally Kettangal is the hamlet or a cross-road adjacent to our campus and must have made travelling time lesser between these points and also changing the environmental equations of this place.