Vyloppilli's Mambazham and its link to a Mulanthuruthy school

THE SIMPLE, yet powerful image in Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon's pensive poem Mambazham (1936) of a mother offering a mango to her son, where he had been buried, months after she had reprimanded him for plucking its flower buds and him, in a seemingly prophetic uttering, saying that he won't be there to pluck the fruits, is one that continues to pull at the reader's heartstrings even nearly a century after it was penned.

- ROSE MARIA REJI

NEERASAM bhaavich nee poyithenkilum... Kunje neeyithu nukarnnale ammakk sughamavu...

- Lines from Mambazham by Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon

While Mambazham is well known, not many are aware of its connection to a school in Mulanthuruthy, a southeastern suburb of Kochi, which boasts an equally storied legacy—St Thomas School (now called the Government Higher Secondary School).

History of the school

The construction of St Thomas School began following the directive of Geevarghese Mar Gregorios, the metropolitan of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, to empower girls in the region through education. In 1886, a two-storey building was completed and Kochukora Chaly was appointed as the school's manager, reads a line from a Church souvenir.