Granny - A Glimpse into the Life of Meherban Narielwala
by Hootoksi Tyabji, March 2021
Our family has several interesting tales and one of them is about my paternal grandma’s family.
My beloved granny passed away on the 5th of December 1971 three days before my wedding, amid war between India & Pakistan. She had some premonition of her death as she made my father promise that come what may, my wedding would take place on the planned date and nothing would stop it. The celebration was small, and my heart was heavy but filled with admiration for this gentle woman who I had known and loved dearly all my life.
My granny was a Parsi Zoroastrian, born in Alleppy in the southern state of India. She spoke fluent Maliyalam and her family, owned coconut plantations and had a thriving coir business. Their last name was Narielwala, loosely translated as “coconut seller” as Parsees often based their surnames on their trade. We have Doctor, Engineer, Daruwala, Canteenwala, Screwala (the mind boggles with that one!) and many other such names.
The Zoroastrians fled religious persecution in Iran and some of them escaped in boats and landed in Sanjan on the West Coast of India. The ‘Qessa-ye Sanjan’ or the Story of Sanjan written in 1600 was based on oral tradition and is an account of the early years of the Zoroastrian settlers on the Indian subcontinent. There is intense debate in the community over the exact date of the exodus, 716 CE, 775, 780 and 936 have been cited.
My ancestors lived and worked in Western India mostly in Bombay, so the story of the Narielwala’s migration to the South is a fascinating one told to my cousin Cyrus Pundole, by my aunt Naju, granny’s younger daughter.
In the late 1700’s the family (I do not know what their surname was at the time, it wasn’t Narielwala) was involved in trade, they plied boats up and down the West Coast carrying goods from Surat all the way down to Kanyakumari, the Southern tip of India. The leader of this operation was an ancestor whose name we do not know, but he made a great impression on the Maharajah of Travancore, who, fascinated by this man of Persian origin, often invited him to court. On one such occasion, when the Maharajah’s daughter was extremely sick, our ancestor was summoned to find a cure for her. The Maharajah completely disregarded the fact that the merchant knew nothing about medicine. He in turn, was unable to go against the wishes of the King, so he began with a prayer, put some herbs together in potions which were administered to the child who miraculously was cured!
Our ancestor was viewed now with greater respect and admiration, and as a token of his gratitude the Maharajah gifted him a large tract of land with a small house on it in Alleppy.
The land and house lay vacant for many years until Grannies great grandfather Nowroji, decided to move there from Bombay sometime around 1850, perhaps even earlier. He started the coconut plantation, and the family began to be known by their trade, Narielwalas, that became their last name.
Granny had two sisters and three brothers; She had a carefree and happy childhood. Her father was the Wazir for the Maharajah of
Travancore, and all three girls were married off to men who lived in Bombay, while the three brothers continued living and working in Alleppy.
Granny had five children, two girls and three boys of whom my father was the eldest son. She gave birth to her eldest child my aunt Maki in Alleppy, the rest of the children were born in Bombay.
In 1964 Granny was excited when she heard that Dr P V Cherian had been appointed as governor in Bombay, and she sent him felicitations. He was delighted to hear from her, and promptly visited her in her apartment, where they chatted away in Malyalam while they vividly recalled the childhood games that they played together in Alleppy where they had been neighbours.
When the plantation and family business was sold off, one brother Meherwanji left Alleppy after the untimely death of his wife Motee, and the other two brothers Cowasjee and Dadabhai, started a little café cum motel called The Wayside Inn. It was the first and only place of its kind at the time. We understand that Gandhiji stayed there on one of his Yatra’s through the country, and in later years it became the venue for all Rotary Club meetings.
As far as I know, the Narielwala Family was the only Parsi Family that lived in Alleppy. They had a small prayer hall and in later years when they died, their bodies were buried in a cemetery in Calicut 204 KMS away.
Robert and I visited the cemetery and the prayer hall in 2017 in Calicut and we found a few graves of our ancestors there. They are being looked after and maintained by the Calicut Parsi Anjuman Trust overseen by the Marshall family which is the only Parsi family in all of Calicut!
I recently connected with Rani Michael-John a classmate of mine from school, who lives in Alleppy. She very kindly sent me the only visual record of what is left of the Narielwalla’s presence in Alleppy.
From Aunty Pareen's Diary
From Aunty Pareen's Diary
This delightful account was forwarded to me by my cousin Aban Lalkaka from the diary of her mother Pareen. I remember my father telling me about the fun times he and his siblings shared with my aunt during the summer holidays in Alleppy.
“While talking about Maki Sukhia in Pune I remembered having a lovely time with Maki, Naju and Noshir, as a young girl. We were staying with their Uncle Cowasji and Aunt Rhoda in Alleppey. They had a lovely sprawling bungalow in a large compound.
At that time Alleppy was a sleepy village. There was a lovely virgin beach not far from their home where we used to go every morning.
We had a strange experience the first time we went there. The water was calm. There was just a gentle breeze and no one except us. We started running up and down the beach trying to catch each other, when we saw what we thought were a number of crows sitting in a line! All three of us started to go towards them slowly so as not to frighten them into flying away. What was our surprise when we saw them rise together waving what we thought were their wings!! They were not crows but men who were waving their arms to tell us to go away!! They had been squatting, using the beach as their toilet!!
We saw the Kolar Gold Mine and also went to Kanya Kumari or Cape Comorin—the southernmost tip of India facing Ceylon (Sri Lanka). We stayed in the small Guest house which had just a small sitting-cum-bedroom! There was a bed with an old mosquito net and a large table. We stayed there for the night.
I was told that it was the season when we could see the Southern Cross in the sky at night. Naju and I slept on the table. I kept my torch and my wristwatch near me. A little after midnight I quietly slid down from the table, put on my shoes and covering myself with a shawl went to the beach where I was lucky to see the Southern Cross.
Oh, I nearly forgot to mention the holy cow. There was a cow that came into their compound every day. This cow was different from all other cows for it ate paper and clothes!!
The very next day, after our arrival, while we were having our breakfast we saw the cow enter our compound. We rushed out to salvage our clothes that we had hung up to dry! Uncle Cowasji told us that she had eaten the whole of his prayer book, [the Avesta], which he had left on the chair outside by mistake!
So, from that day she was named the Holy Cow!”