Digging deep into history: Kanyakumari farmer’s ‘tool’ to preserve heritage for posterity and beyond 

KANNIYAKUMARI:  Taking the saying 'a good worker never blames his tools'  to the whole nine yards, a 69-year-old farmer from Thuvarancadu has been safeguarding his vintage agricultural equipment to exhibit it across the state. P Chenbagasekara Pillai, a member of the district agriculture production committee, has been involved in agriculture work for the last 50 years. Hailing from a family of farmers, the BA Economics graduate has a wealth of antique tools used by his ancestors for agriculture work.

"My aim is to inform future generations about agriculture and its equipment used by our ancestors. Each piece of equipment has a story.  They were operated without any fuel and relied only on manpower. Special types of woods have been used for ploughing, tilling. Other equipment include handles for spade and sickle," said Chenbagasekara Pillai.

The farmer said he has been preserving paddy and rice measuring tools such as Marakkal, Pakka and Uzhaku, big pots called  'Kulukai', and stone tubs for cattle to drink water. "These equipment have been sent to Chennai among other places for exhibition," he added.