Reflections...

MY VISIT TO VALIYATHURA KADAL PALAM

I had a visit to one of the oldest kadal palam (Sea Bridge) in Kerala yesterday, it’s situated at Valiyathura. It’s nearly 7 km from Trivandrum city and very near Shankumugham beach. This place was once a dock yard for small vessels, and also when all big ships came here to Trivandrum, she will be angered in the sea which is the nearest, from there passengers and goods are carried here in small boats, at that time they use to take the goods with the lifts there, but now all the lifts have been removed from the bridge. There was also a customs office which worked for the need of the port, and also a flag hoisting place to make know the fisherman about the climate. The ruins of the godown which was used for storing goods can also be seen here. Now here there is a officer who undertakes the daily happenings here, this include some TV serial shooting or such things. Now here the local fisherman use this elevated place for fishing with hooks, and also the locals use this place for launching the Kattamaram (Catamaran) to go to sea. I saw some visitors also at the bridge to watch the fishing, and to see the sunset.
Really when technology was not so much developed, building this type of a bridge at that time might be immensely tough.

By visiting this Kadal Palm I could once more recollect that we people don’t take care of buildings or anything once its build and handed over to public. We never take care of monuments also, some thing it’s all left behind for new, but the thing is that we can never go forward forgetting with our culture and sentimental values.

surabhi sudarsan