ALAPPUZHA: The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, and the reaction of Ponnamma, 82, to it has been one filled with shock and grief ever since. It has nothing to do with faith though.
It was on a fine November morning that year that her husband Sivarama Karanavar — without telling her — had left for Ayodhya from Karuvatta near Haripad in Alappuzha as a kar sevak (volunteer). He has not returned yet and Ponnamma has been waiting for the past 28 years. As news of Ayodhya getting ready for Wednesday’s Bhoomi Pooja comes in more frequently, Ponnamma has mixed feelings.
“My husband’s friends searched for him for a few days and told me that he had left for Ayodhya along with a group of kar sevaks from Kottayam in a train. A few of his friends from our place had also planned to go along with him, but they pulled out at the last minute. I realised later that my husband found the money for travel by selling his sewing machine and taking the sum we had saved for farming that year,” said Ponnamma.
“I’m expecting his return though I know chances are getting thinner with each passing year. When he left us he was around 60 years. So I’m not sure whether I will see him again in this life,” she said.
Youngest son Raveendranatha Karanavar said: “My father used to run a tailoring shop at the TB Junction in Karuvatta. He was an active member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. We came to know later that he had discussed his plans to go to Ayodhya as a kar sevak with many friends and relatives. Most of them discouraged him, but he was adamant. He abandoned our mother and us five children for kar seva.”
“Those kar sevaks from Karthikapally taluk, who went along with my father, returned after the Babri Masjid demolition. When we realised that our father was not among the returnees, we lodged a complaint with the police and conducted searches on our own in many places, but all efforts turned futile,” said Raveendranatha.
“I rued my luck, yet waited for him all these years. My children helped me to move on. In between, they got married. There were times when we struggled to make both ends meet and we had to sell our ancestral property to survive,” said Ponnamma, who now lives with Raveendranath.
“The Bhoomi Pooja at Ayodhya is auspicious, but we had lost all our happiness with the demolition of Babri Masjid,” Ponnamma said.