[This is a short memory piece on Anna Tharakan (Pennamma to her loved ones) (1921-2021), who pursued her love for music from the 1920s till her passing in 2021. It is written lovingly by Reju George, as an FB post in the group Byegone Plantation Days (25 June 2024)]
Annamma/Pennamma Tharakan was born with an ear to music on Oct 15 , 1921 to a Syrian Catholic planter family in Kanjirapally.Her father K I Thomas was a First Generation Planter.
Late 1920s Bangalore : A young girl walking around sightseeing Bangalore , hears some new sound first time in her life. This young girl was Pennamma Thomas, though originally called Annamma. She was visiting Bangalore with her parents. While walking around sightseeing, she hears beautiful kind of music for the first time in her life. She follows and goes inside a house and finds a lady playing on a big box like instrument. She was seeing the Piano for the first time in her life. She had seen a harmonium at home which she had learned to play. She was awed seeing something bigger box like than Harmonium. She asks the lady playing what it is. This was Pennamma’s first introduction to Piano. Later coming out of the house , she expresses her wish to her mother to ask her father to buy her a Piano before she gets married. Those memories she still remembers nostalgically at the age of ninety nine years.
She did not have to wait for her marriage to get one. Her father K I Thomas bought her a Piano, when she was in Fourth Form in school , which costed Rs 1000 that time , a princely sum those days when 1000 coconuts costed Rs 15. It was still an era of time in Kerala when wealth was measured in how many coconuts fell in their farm and how many paras (measuring vessel ) of rice was got from the paddy fields.
2021 : She now a great grandmother in her 100th year, is Pennamma Abraham, playing the Piano live in Thycattussery, Cherthala, Alleppey . She brought the Piano after her marriage to agriculturist & planter, Abraham Tharakan, Parayil to her new home in Thycattuserry. Penamma Tharakan still composes music on the Piano. Her son Anthony Tharakan remembers that his mother was busy while raising her eight children, but whenever she had time , she could be seen in front of the piano.
Despite the handicaps of her age, She still has a great interest in playing the piano and sewing a little. Sometimes she sings old English songs with her children and grandchildren.
After studying in Athirampuzha Math in the first class, Pennamma studied at St. Teresa’s School, Ernakulam from the second class to the Sixth Form ( 10th Std). It was during this time that she started learning the piano, under Sister Redumpta.The instructor told the girl’s mother, who came wearing the traditional attire of a Syrian Christian girls of those times – the mundum chatta , that she could not come to class in that dress.Her parents insisted on her taking piano lessons and the instructor agreed if she could play something to display her aptitude. She was not afraid and accepted the challenge. She sat in front of the piano and started playing .The tutor liked it and agreed to teach her . Her mother then let out the secret that her daughter had learned to play the harmonium at home and her father had a Music Sir come home to teach his daughter. Pennamma recalled the blocks of the piano suddenly yielded to her fingers!
Piano exam before the Trinity College, London..
The piano test was conducted in Cochin by the representatives of Trinity College of London. The next problem cropped up when it was time for the exam. The Sister in the school , Sister Redumpta said she could not play the piano wearing the traditional attire of chatta and mundum. If you want to play the piano in front of the English Examiner who comes from London, you have to wear a frock to the exam. But Pennamma was not ready for any test wearing an attire something foreign to her. She would only do it in her traditional apparel she was accustomed to wearing .Eventually they had to give in. The girl recalled with a mischievous smile that the Englishman looked curiously at her who was about to play the piano wearing a dress something alien to him.
Pennamma Tharakan celebrated her 100th Birthday on October 15, 2021.
She left the earthly abode few months later after celebrating a century , with music being her leap of joy & faith .
Please see her live interview link on You Tube below
Swatantryavaadini 