Picture at the top: Drive through the road infront of the NSSHS, Kudassanad. Each inch around is counted, read the story below.
Bottom: A snap at the IOB road that going to the Anikunnathu Mahadevar Temple. The tiled roof building belong to the church seen in the picture is under renovation and is proposed for a facelift with a concrete structure. The IOB building which is already on 3 floor may go up further. Our honourable Ex-Patron Sri. Satyadevan is not a simple guy to open his mind so easily to the public at large, to whom this building belong..! The road widening work has begun, probably extending to Padanilam temple junction via Chappuram and further to Chunakkara etc. Hence very shortly we may expect bus services in this route.
To purchase some potatoes and onions I went to a vegetable shop in Kudassanad and gave a hundred rupees note. While returning the change the shop keeper leaned forward and whispered something in my ear: “There is some property, shall I arrange it?”
I got stunned and felt outrageous. During the evenings such questions are not unfamiliar around Esplanade area in the Calcutta city that one may confronted frequently with such tongue in cheek questions from strangers.
But I am now standing this calm, serene and my sleepy ancestral village.
With increased curiosity I asked him, “What’s up?”
“It’s could cheaper than you expected, but thing is fine. Since we are known people I can make some adjustments”.
This time I could not control my outbursts, “Hey man, are you mad? I just came for a short vacation. This is not what I expected from the people around here. And, if I come to know again that you uttered such words once again to anyone, and then will chop off your tongue.”
This time it was his turn to get astonished. Knowing the mistaken communication, He apologised and said, “I was talking about a piece of land around here”.
“Are you a land broker?”
He said, “Yes, it is my part time - main business. These days vegetable are costly. People normally go Pandalam to get their requirements. And there is no use in sitting here and ‘beating the flies’. And return from one good deal is enough for a lifetime. ”
I asked again, “How much do you make from the land deals ?”.
He said frankly that it was depended on how cleverly put the trap around and how idiotic the victim who walk in. “We say one price to the original owner and put the bait with a few thousands more to the potential party. And we do not connect them each other.”
Our conversations concluded with his sincere note, “Why do you waste your time in Gulf? When you can have a full feast here itself you people are begging around for a pittance in the desert there.”
For him vegetable are just a cover up to spend the day in the village town waiting for the potential victims who come for on short visits to walk in.
Following this I went to another grocery store nearby. The same story repeated there. Along with a 20 rupees change returned, the shopkeeper whispered something politely, “Would you please interested to have look in to a property? It’s very cheap, just fifty lakhs only.”
Subsequently, the question from person whom I met at the adjacent bakery was not that straight but on a similar line. May be that personally he was not familiar to me and hence his quotes were moderate.
To escape from such predators I went to the corner of the street. Suddenly I felt someone standing behind me and tapping on my shoulder. I turned around and found that was an old acquaintance, but he has not been bothering me for quite some time. I got further confused when he gleefully started asking about my welfare and other family details. After around ten minutes of conversation which was going on in a directionless manner he concluded with the killer question, “There are some property, shall we look in to it?” Before he could complete his sentence I ran away from there for my life.
A ‘foran’ visitor to Kudassanad is definitely going to confront with such touts like this. After June-July season, the December-January is going to be a good harvest season for them. They expect a flock of people would be landing on vacation in connection with the New Year, annual church festival etc. Be it a potential buyer or a property owner, these days no one is going to escape from such predators clutches who are prowling around our village streets. I think it is very lucrative loot or I call it a descent robbery.
For instance, an agent repeatedly kept reminded me about a property with a warning, “don’t tell anyone, it is just because of you only at this rate of Rs.5 lakhs per cent”. Annoyed such inflated market hype and doubting this personal intention, I decided to meet the original owner about the veracity of the situation. To my amazement he told me that he was not aware of such plan and he was not interested to sell any of his properties. Then to the question why his name was dragged, he explained the possible reason that recently he constructed a house. Seeing the majestic building some of the jealous neighbours calculated he must have bankrupted and spread the rumour that he was going to sell some of the properties. Anyway, even without the knowledge of the actual owners a much inflated trading is going on fictitious properties.
It is said that due to the touts came in between, a price of piece of land sold at a rate of Rs.7 lakhs per cent in Kudassanad which is much higher than Kadavanthra in the heart of Kochi or Whitefield in Bangalore city, where you can much get cheaper residential house plots or commercial properties than in Kudassanad village.
So, who is behind all these hypes? The real owner or do we have that many number of millionaires from our village?
My answer is “neither”.
These are created by somehow shabby looking village touts who are probably are our own relatives with greedy eyes, wandering around planning how to perform the magic of transporting your hard earned money from your pocket to their wallets while your mind is conscious and eyes are open.
There is some truth also in the story.
After all at the end of the day, for the rags to riches quick millionaire gets the impression of his NAV (Net Asset Value) of public impression by how many such parties approached him!
In another instance, I was looking for an electrician for quite some time during my stay there and finally after around two weeks he appeared in front of me.
“Where are you coming from?”, I asked. He said that he was on his way back from installing air-conditioners at person’s house who do not have a specific job, but very recently entered in to realty business.
Let me conclude this episode with a lesson to those Americans affected with the financial crunch, Gulf people with emotional insecurity, the Europeans infected with the real winter cold: think twice before flying home. You call a small hill a mountain, then what will you call when you see our own Pulikkunnumala...?
Jose G
(To be continued with another story)