Name: Kaliyamma
Age: 80 plus
Occupation: Sweetmeat seller
Fort Kochi: The wrinkled face bearing a cane basket full of sweetmeats and groundnuts, right beside the entrance of the Chullikal St. Joseph’s School is a familiar sight for many. Except for Sundays, she is always seated at the same spot and has been doing so for almost 60 years now.
For the many generations of students that passed out of the school, the tastes that her basket offers are something they can never forget. But none remembers the face of the seller. They don’t know her name, where she comes from or where she goes when the sun goes down. They just know her as ‘Mittai-amma’.
Kaliyamma or Mittai-amma has her roots in Telengana. If you ask her about her age, family, siblings or children’s names, she has no clue at all and says that her memory fails her. There is even a funny saying among the Chulikal natives that the Mittai-amma and St. Joseph’s school were born to the same mother and they are inseparable. Some students that passed out from the school have come back to the same place as teachers, and others have their children studying in the same school. Kaliyamma and her basket is the only constant element here.
She has some vague memories of coming here from Palakkad as a 20 year old, and that she was married into a Chettiar family at the age of 15. Though an illiterate herself, with the meagre income that she got, she was able to send her children to the Chulikal School till Class 7. Her children have been married off, but one died of a mental illness and ever since then Kaliyamma has grown weak.
She lives at a rented home in Panayapally with her grandchild. All that was dear to her has left her memory except for the way to St. Joseph’s School. Her daily income is just around Rs. 50, but she still makes it a point to carry her basket on her head to walk 1 km to the school every day.
It’s not about the money. If somebody cares to give her a little extra, she never accepts and shows them her treasured money pouch. She has enough, she says!