An ode to Ponnani.

Paved a visit to Ponnani. For those of you who have no idea of Ponnani, its a place in northern Kerala and has geographical, historical, cultural and commercial significance, and to us it's culture and history appealed the most.

Since I have no intention of subjecting you to a verbal guillotine, I propose you to take a quick tour of the following:

This was our first stop-off at Ponnnani. The place called Azhimukham or Estuary is a meeting place of BharataPuzha with Arabian Sea. There were some locals around who were very helpful in providing information, In fact all the people we met and interacted were best in their approach and manners.

This is the harbor and many fishing boats were anchored there at the moment and were busy offloading to the shore and venturing to the seas.

This is an auction that is in progress. Also, one can see offloading boats in the background.

After spending considerable time observing the nuances of spot auctions, we slowly progressed to another section of the harbor where families were in queue to avail the boating services of the place. After having a couple of ice-cream bars, we decided to roll on to the next stop.

The Grand Old Mosque of Single Wood!

The 'valiya jumahath palli' or the 'Big Juma Masjid' is considered by many locals as an engineering marvel composed out of the log of a single tree. While it is true about its magnanimity, it isn't entirely true about its construction. The fact that a single type of wood is used for the making of the grand mosque got masqueraded in the eventuality of time to be passed on as a ' Single Wood Mosque.' We were lucky to know this fact from a tea shop when the single wood fantasy peddler (who happened to be the supposed owner of the shop) was challenged by a tea sipping agent of truth. If it not for their privacy, we would have happily put out their pictures, so bear with us.

Following are the pictures of the grand structure that is believed to have come into existence for the first time in 10th century.

It is the first hall that you will come across after a flight off steps. Notice the woodwork and the 'nilavilekku' in place.

The main hall and sub-hall are surrounded by a portico with a series of doors.

Yes..! it's beautiful!

This must be an old tradition preserved in place. The Jar seem to contain oil and the evidences thereof are suggestive of a lighting system.

it's a beautiful structure reverberating serenity and calmness. The style is reminiscent of temple art yet bearing muslim art forms including calligraphy.

There are many more pictures to present before you but due to time constraints, we are compelled to wind it up, however, one special picture need to be put forth for your notice and consideration for its cultural value is immense and this is it...:-

It's called muttapathiri in the ponnani region and is served either plain or with meat curry . This crispy but oily food is made up of rice,'maida and egg'.

See You. Take care.

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