Para Chaal (Thrissur)

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  Sudheesh Narayanan (guest)Sudheesh Narayanan (guest)

  This is also the river (chaal) where I accidently stepped away from safe depth zone and almost drowned. I was somehow saved by one of our friends (Anil). We (I, my two brothers Pradip and Vinod) used to frequent Parachaal for bath during summer holidays due to inadequate quantity of water available from wells. Except one of the brothers, other two didn't know how to swim. On that fateful (or lucky!) day, we were in the Chaal for bathing, when I decided to spent little more time in the water. My two brothers were finished their bath and was standing ashore talking to each other and both facing away from me. I used to crosss the 'chaal' by walking through the mud just for the fun of it. the water used to be upto my neck in and around the middle of the chaal. The safety zone was usually marked by a rope at the shore and I used to walk strainght from that point to the other shore and back. However, on that day, I some how stepped away from the zone (may be due to under current)and started to feel the danger I was in. I could feel the bottom of the river becoming loose and I knew that I was slowly plunging into it and was seeing the water raising over my mouth and nose. When I was struggling to breath I remembered one of my brothers old friend who was drowned in a local well. Also some scenes of an old mini truck (with rough look) came to my Mind. later I remembered of an old accicent (again a student from the Guruvijayam school) who was killed by a running truck. Some homw, my hands and partial face were up above the water and trying to wave and make noise to get attention. Unfortunately, my brothers were facing away from me and was not aware of the danger I was in. Meanwhile, one of our neighbour (Anil - Ottali Kumaran's son) came to the same area to grass their cow. Fortunately he noticed me in the water with hands and partial face in the air.Shouting, he immedately jumped into the paarachaal and pulled me out and swam to the shore with me on the shoulders. I was totally shaken but was in a bad shape. I was conscious and was able to stand on the shore while my brothers watched me thoroughly making sure I am ok. We thanked our neighbour who happened to be at this dangerous scene and was able to act accordingly. We all came back to home and was silent for a long time afraid of Amma scolding at our carelessness. But the silence was broken by one of the brothers telling the whole story > We all were so much shaken due to this. I remember, later on that day Achan and my other two brothers heard the story and was putting an end to our Parachaal trip for the rest of the holiday period We were in the 12-15 age range at that time. me probably in the 7th standard and brothers in 9th and 10th respectively. We haven't seen the Parachaal for a long time after that. The Summer holidays on that year ended and we all entered into our higher grades. Achan and Amma and all five of us (all boys) grew us up in Vadookkara the small house (also plotted on the wikimapia)and finished our school and college studies. later in early 90's we sold our house and moved to Kuriachira, nehru Nagar. The younger ones finished their professional degrees at this place. Decades after, I am writing this from my office desk in Cingular Wireless AT&T in Atlanta. I live with my wife Nimmi and we have a lovely daughter Maya now aged 2 and a half yrs. Our Achan and Amma are in Ancheri (Near Ollur) now. All of us are in different parts of the world now

  18 years ago | reply | hide comment
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  babukoorathyahoo.com (guest)babukoorathyahoo.com (guest)

  I am satheesan chettan, your neighbour. Now I am settled in Delhi. Parachal is an attached living memory of vadookara people. Especially in vacation time, peoples of koorkenchery, the other side of railway track, used to come for bathing due to scarcity of water there. I have a bad memory of parachal. One of my friend lost his younger brother in parachal during vacation time (Thoppil Dhruvan is my friend). Still I enjoying the childhood memory of spending long times in parachal. God bless you.

  16 years ago | reply | hide comment