Kerala - Thrissur   

An oasis of calm on a noisy road

K. Santhosh

VERITABLE PARADISE: The shanty that M.V. Kumaran built at Kanimangalam. - Photo: K.K. Najeeb

Thrissur: If you post a letter to M.V. Kumaran, Wayside Makeshift House, Kanimangalam, it may reach the addressee in all probability!

The postman would enter a cabin (if it can be called so), made out the frame of a cart and covered with plastic sheets, on Thrissur-Kodungallur road, and hand over the letter to a man with a white beard.

Creepers have been grown and shaped to form the walls of the cabin. The small space that leads to the single room is abloom in roses and dahlias.

Kumaran, 90, claims to have lived in this road-side shanty for 30 years. Like a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson, he has made it out of junk and turned it into a space of green.

"I live in tune with Nature,'' he says.

Birdsong wakes him up and he goes to bed, listening to the chirp of the cicadas.

"This is an oasis of calm,'' he says.

Kumaran, formerly a sawyer, has seven children, including a trade union worker. "My wife lives with the kids. But I prefer to stay alone. I called on her recently when she fell ill,'' he says.

Kumaran's day begins early. He leaves the cabin at dusk for his friend Paul's house. Paul serves Kumaran food.

Kumaran's cabin has no door. Only a diaphanous curtain separates the interior from the outside world.

Is the cabin safe at night? "I own nothing, including this space. What can be robbed from a penniless old man? I have nothing to lose except the peace I enjoy,'' he says.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

An oasis of calm on a noisy road
New legislation on medical practice sought
Ayurveda physician dead
Woman, girl drowned

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu