Cheeru muthachi

THEKKEVEEDU

The land around was step-like. Terraces formed on a gently sloping small hill. The house situated on the very center of the property from where the supervision of the whole land was possible. The lowest terrace has mainly plantains and banana trees on it. There were new saplings grown from the mother plant that were long due for replanting. Coconut trees and arecanut palms constituted the majority of trees.. Most of the arecanut palms had black pepper vines grown on it. Orange-yellow spots on the bottom the palms betrayed a harvesting in due. Jackfruit trees, mango trees and teaks stood among other trees. There were wildly grown grass and shrubs everywhere, among which Janu spotted some yams, colocasias and tapiocas which she couldn’t decide were planted or simply grown with the wilderness.

 These lands were long neglected. She sighed. She thought at least her uncle was visiting regularly to take care of the lands. He was the karanavar after all. But he was never been one to neglect his duties. She once heard about some workers reluctant on coming here. But that couldn't be it, right? It is not like there is a shortage of workers in this area. Only the coconut trees seemed to be harvested regularly, which was too good an income not to. Her father would have been very angry if had seen the state of these lands. He was a hard-working farmer.