Devaki is a star at the age of 91, thanks to her grandson Vinu Janardanan. Memoirs of Devaki – Oru Ammoommakkaalam, a short documentary shot and directed by Vinu, looks at COVID-19 through the eyes of the nonagenarian, as she reminisces about the epidemics and contagious diseases that Kerala has encountered till date.
This “lockdown documentary”, as Vinu calls it, is set at his ancestral home at Sooranad in Kollam district. “I work in Thiruvananthapuram and have spent perhaps not more than three days with ammoomma, my father’s mother, in the last 10 years. But the lockdown has given me something to cherish for a lifetime,” he says.
Devaki in a still from ‘Memoirs of Devaki - Oru Ammoommakkaalam’ | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Vinu has been recording his conversations with his grandmother for some time and it became a regular affair during the lockdown. “She is active for her age, she reads and has her own perspective about everything. When I was young, I used to ignore much of what ammoomma had to say because she went into the details of everything she narrated. But, later, I realised that if I don’t document those experiences, those stories will be lost for ever,” he says.
One such discussion during the lockdown was about outbreak of diseases such as cholera, small pox and whooping cough (which she refers to as jwaram in the video) . “When someone contracted small pox, people wouldn’t stay even in the neighbourhood. In the case of jwaram, it took at least 28 days to get cured,” she recollects.
Vinu Janardanan | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Devaki remembers how scared and cautious they were. “Once, when a neighbour contracted small pox, their children were brought to my parents’ house. We stayed indoors. We cooked only kanji and, as was the belief then, there were no preparations with roasted coconut; tempering and fried pappadams were also proscribed. I remember my parents telling me that those who died were cremated only at night,” she tells in the video.
Vinu says that Devaki considers COVID-19 the worst of all the epidemics she has heard about. “She has kept herself updated about the pandemic by reading newspapers and following news channels. Even though she doesn’t venture out much even otherwise, she felt marooned because there were no regular visits from our relatives. These family get-togethers were also the time when relatives exchanged home-grown vegetables and seasonal fruits. She kept telling me that there has never been such a situation in her lifetime when everyone was asked to stay at home,” Vinu adds. But she firmly believes that this too shall pass although she wants everyone to be careful.
Vignettes from daily life
As she recounts her experiences, Vinu’s camera captures vignettes of her daily life — reading the Srimad Bhagavatham and the newspapers in the morning, conversing on the phone with her family and talking to Vinu about various topics during her evening stroll. “The visuals were not created for the camera. Be it her smiling at her photos in my parents’ wedding album or lost in a pensive mood during the rains, those were all candid frames. Even the last scene in the documentary, where she is seen holding on to the gate and looking out into the open, is something she does every day after her evening walk,” Vinu says.
Devaki in a still from ‘Memoirs of Devaki - Oru Ammoommakkaalam’ | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
And when Vinu showed her the final output, Devaki’s first observation was that she ought to have worn something nicer!
Vinu says that, initially, it was difficult for him to be away from the buzz of the city and poor Internet connectivity did not help. However, gradually, he fell into the groove. He began to find it refreshing to be surrounded by greenery, paddy fields, vast expanse around the house, the flora and the fauna and the rain. He enjoyed “listening to so many natural sounds”, which he has used as the soundscape for the documentary.
Vinu is the co-writer of the National Award-winning documentary on Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Chembai — My Discovery of a Legend, scriptwriter of the short film Rabbit Hole and director of The Agam Story, a ‘rockumentary’ on Agam, the progressive Carnatic rock band. The 4.49-minute documentary has been edited by Karthik Jogesh.