A pond filled with royal history

By Faris Arakkal A Pond that makes you ponders over the history of the city. That is how MD Francis sums up the relevance of the pond in front of his house. A huge one that is as deep as 24ft, at some places. At the age of 74, Francis keeps a strong bond with the pond, preserving it like a treasure and a reminder of a historic era. Francis came to Chembukkavu deciding to settle down in Thrissur in 1982. Scouting for land to build his home, he came upon a large pond used by the royalty for bathing. He remembers there were two separate sections for men and women to take in the pond. It is not just the pond that makes Mangalam, Francis' home, a keepsake of history - the remains of a padka, large wooden buckets used to water large plots through bullock carts shows that the pond was also used for watering the entire vegetation in the area. The plot owned by one of the kin of the royal family came to Francis by sheer serendipity and officials had visited him recently searching for the pond. "They measured the length and breadth of the pond and went back; nothing has been heard so far from them", added Francis. "Constructing a home was not easy, as the entire land was a pond", Francis remembers. He had to fill up some part of the pond with mud in order to plan his home. The pond had a rich school of fish but the night poachers queuing up around the pond had forced Francis to stop keeping fish. He regrets the day when the pond was poisoned by the raiders. The sight of dead fish floating over the water was heart-rending for Francis. The heavy rain often makes the pond overflow but the valves he had installed which opened to a big pipe line beneath the adjacent road keeps water off from the premises of his home. Francis had also tried to pump the water out of the pond once. "Two motors worked for five days in vain", laughs Francis with a tint of surprise and mystery. While the authority has strict rules of preserving old monuments and relics, Francis has more strict self-imposed rules preserving his pond. [Pic on P2]