Perumanoor 'Peruma' - the Place and its People - 1

Perumanoor - It is a big name. It could be spelt Perumanur as well.  That's how the postal department spells it. Is there any other place by that name in the world? I don't think so, Thus it is a unique place indeed.  It's unique number is 682015. 

It includes perum (big), maan (maanam - honour), oor (ur - place) -  So it should be a place of great honour.  I wonder whether any of those from Perumanur has every thought to look at the place from this angle.  In my short engagement with Perumanur for the initial 15 years of my life, I have not seen anything that can be thought of as of great honour in Perumanur.  Being part of gradually growing metropolis of Kochi, and just 4 kms away from its heart (downtown of those days) - from railway station and bus stand and boat jetty, and just less than 2 kms from the airport of those days, having the Southern Naval Command just on the otherside of the backwaters, it could have been a place of importance, a happening place. But I have seen it devoid of any unique culture, cohesion, activity or ownership as a locality, as a kara, as a community. All the same most of the families were known to each other, a predominantly Catholic population of both Syrian and Latin traditions. 

Later on, after my short stint in the US in 2001, when I came back, I felt that the place could be made into a place of interest from many angles, and I approached the local representative in this connection, regret to say, he didn't evince any such interests. 

I made a research proposal to the ICSSR for developing local history through participatory data generation, but it didn't receive the expected approval.  Perumanur can be seen as a very unique place - it is a small locality, just about 4 sq mts in area, which holds one of the biggest and profitably surviving public sector units of India - the Cochin Shipyard (though for most of us, over the time, it has become another country) 

Remarkable Boundaries: It has on its western boundary, the beautiful and expansive Vempanadu backwaters; and on its southern border the famous Thevara thodu (canal).  On its eastern border we have the noxious and hence infamous Thevara-Perandur canal, which cries re-claiming its vital figures which have been 'reclaimed' by unscrupulous predatory dwellers of Kochi. It has a Syrian Catholic Church, an Orthodox church, a Latin rite chapel, a Lower Primary School, 2 high schools (all run on government aid), a beautiful mosque, and the only Gurudwara of the state.  

There were some people linked to this locality, who come to my memory as people who stand out. From my very limited memory of the place, those 15 years as a young school boy, I am making a list, which could be expanded. I am making it in the alphabetic order.  My initial list had just four or five; but when I continued the listing, it has become a rather long one.  I will try to present them one after the other in due course.  Some were born here and lived here all through.  Some were born here and were transplanted else where, some others made this place their home. Perumanur owes whatever peruma (fame) it has, thanks to them.