Words! Words! the Wine of Life: One

Alley and Ally are close in spelling and pronounciation. Alley is a narrow lane between or behind buildings.  An alley is too narrow to be a street.  It is often used as a pedestrian walkway or a corridor. These are often made by people walking over a period of time.  It may be in a garden or around a garden or park boarded by hedges. And once an alley is allowed for over a certain period it cannot be stopped. The word alley is derived from Old French word alee, which means corridor or passage.

An ally is a person or organisation that works in conjunction with another person or organisation. The plural of ally is allies. In the Second World War, the confederation of nations working to defeat Germany Japan and Italy were known as Allied forces. 

 

Causeways are ways along the bank of a river, stream, or between the paddy fields, or accross the paddy fields. They serve as walkway and preserve water in the field.  The first causeway in my village to connect with Cheruvannur was built by members of Basel Evangelical Mission who built a the first tile factory on the banks of Chaliyar. The factory situated on a small hill called Marakkad (a woodland). It was a beautiful sight. The rivers, the hill, the paddy fields a small islet between the rivers, and the magroves around the islet, on the banks of rivers and on the banks of a small spring draining into the river. The spring is called Thonichira (തോണിച്ചിറ) The causeway commenced from Beypore Calicut road and terminated on the bank of the spring. There was a dyke accross the spring. The shutter of the dyke was used to prevent saline water entering the spring. The causeway was built for the purpose of riding the horses of missionaries; and these missionaries were the entrepreneurs of the tile factory, which was one of the earliest mark of our industrialisation.  These are local traditions, that are not taught in our schools.  The overzealous and indoctrinated system gives a flawed view of history.

Railways build causeway to lay their lines through low lying areas.

Lane and Path: A lane is a straight narrow street usually without a sidewalk or foot path.  A path is not normally paved and is dedicated to pedestrians.  Once our soldiers who fought many battles for their chieftains half naked, but with the sword in one hand and the shield in the other walked along these paths.

Street and Road: Nowadays both the words are synonymously used.  A street is a public way with shops or houses on either side. There is a vernacular word for street: theruvu (തെരുവ്) ഒരു തെരുവിന്റെ കഥ. തെരുവത്ത് became a Sur name of a person whose house stood by a street.  Village or town, a market used to have streets.

A road is a public way connecting two locations. In Malabar bituminised roads were first built by the British. Even bridges across the the rivers were built by the British. Beypore Kallayi Road was built by the East India Company to connect Beypore to Calicut. The first bridge across the Kallayi river was built by East India Company in 1813. It was a wooden bridge. 

Gangway: A raised platform or walkway providing a passage.  In British English the meaning is different: it is a passage between rows of seats, especially in a theatre or aircraft.  Gangways are used for connecting ships to shore.

Tidbit: A small piece of gossip or information. 

It can also be a small dish of pleasant tasting food.  Gossips are always pleasant to the teller and hearer and when you leave the scene the you are the subject of gossip.