The Chalappuram Gang and the Ameen Lodge
Posted by Labels: Abdurahman Saheb, Ameen Lodge, British Calicut, Calicut congress, Chalappuram Calicut, Malabar - English period 1900 -1950, Moplah rebellion
Those turbulent years, Calicut (1920-34)
Calicut under British governance was a different place than
you see it today. My own memories of childhood in Calicut take me to the days I
spent with my aunt at Ambalakkat house, Chalappuram. I still remember the walk down
the road from Ambalakkat towards Tali, turning right and going past the
Chalappuram post office, past the gates of the Achutan Girls school and
drifting to the Ganapati School, during my younger days in Calicut. And I
recall the temple behind N Ambalakkat, the house of Karunakara Menon my grand
uncle, Keshava Menon, Norman Achutan nair, the Anakara Vadakath people, and the
homes of so many others who are going to be mentioned in this article, though
they belonged to a bygone era. As I wrote in a previous article, it was a time
when there were horse driven jutkas, cycle rickshaws and hand pulled rickshaws
on the road. On those serene mornings, an odd Ex-servicemen bus roared by,
scattering the people on the road hither and thither, and people were sometimes
witness to a man (people held their noses as the wheelbarrow like cart with the
galvanized iron pots passed by) held in much disgust, the ‘thotti’ who would
trundle by, head hung low, pushing his night soil cart. Horns were hardly
heard, the rickshaw drivers yelled ‘kooyi’ or rang a bell to get a right of
way. The 30’s was still different, there was no electricity and the one person
who gave a personal account and provided a vivid description of life in Calicut
in the 1930’s is ARS Iyer.