Long before branded umbrellas hit the market or before the television advertising era, there was a time in Kerala when Olakkuda , a type of sunshade made of palm-leaves and bamboo stick, was the only form of umbrella used by people.
Though forced out from the public realm by the changing times, these umbrellas are not extinct yet. They do survive and surface at least once in a year with the arrival of Onam. And when they come, they get a regal treatment as they go straight to the hands of Mavelis, the prototypes of the legendary king, whose fabled return to his people once a year is celebrated as the Onam festival.
P.K. Sudhakaran, a traditional Olakkuda- maker from Olavanna near here, is one of the very few remaining craftsmen in the region who continue to make them and make a living out of it. Mr. Sudhakaran, started making palm-leaf umbrellas with his father as early as when he was a schoolboy. “That was a time when students as well as teachers would come holding a palm-leaf umbrella during the rainy season,” he says.
Now at 50, Mr. Sudhakaran, who has witnessed the influx of different varieties of modern umbrellas into the market, observes that the type of umbrella he makes exists largely thanks to the Onam festival. “I sold around 90 umbrellas this time,” he says. People from different parts of the district approach him with orders as the festival draws close. Very rarely, he also gets an order for an umbrella or two from local temples in connection with their annual festivals.
He makes two types of Olakkuda. While one comes with a shaft in the middle, the other is made with a cap-like arrangement inside so that it sits freely on the head. The former was traditionally used by priests and aristocrats while the latter was conventionally used by farmers, fishermen and boatmen, whose work requires use of both hands even as they use the umbrella.
“On odd occasions I still get orders from paddy farmers for the latter variety, which is called Thoppikkuda ,” says Mr. Sudhakaran, who believes that both the skills and the raw material required for making it are fast fading from the scene.
