THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kattakada assembly constituency will soon embark on a mission to curate its history with the help of social media. The plan is to launch a Facebook page to discuss the name, social and cultural history of important places.
I B Sathish MLA who mooted the idea said the project will be launched in May second week. The tentative name is “Oorum Perum”.
According to Sathish, he got the idea after he got into trouble by sharing an information on the 119-year-old Kundamankadavu bridge across the Karamana river. He’d attended a function organised by the students of Kannasa Mission School, Peyad, to honour the iron bridge on April 18, World Heritage Day.
“Later, I posted on my FB page that the bridge was built by the British to connect Thiruvananthapuram town with Kattakada. Several responses came correcting me. In fact, the bridge was to connect Company Mukku near Vellanad with the town. The British had a lead mining enterprise there,” he said.
“That mistake did more good since it prompted me to think of a forum to discuss the toponymy (study of place names) and culture and history of places in the constituency,” he added.
According to Sathish, there are several places with unusual and interesting names in his constituency. “Kattakada itself derived from ‘Kattalkada’ that throws light into the town’s past.
‘Kattal’ means wild banyan tree and ‘kada’ shop,” he said. “Initially, Kattakada was a place where there was a market under the shade of a huge banyan tree. And hence the name Kattalkada,” he said. Another curious name is “Naruvamoodu” which is a corruption of “Nari Vazhum Moodu” meaning a place ruled by jackals.
He also plans to bring out a print version of the opinions shared in the FB page.