Alappuzha: Doctors call it syndactyly-a medical condition in which fingers or toes are joined together.
But for a blacksmith family at Kavunkal in Alappuzha its God’s blessing. As many as 140 members of the Kannatthu family have webbed hands over the course of two generations. Though they can be treated surgically the family members do not want to do it. “The webbed hands look like a snake’s hood. Our ancestral home has a sacred grove where snakes are worshipped. We consider it as a blessing,” said 65-year-old Jagadamma, a member of the family.
They gather for pujas every year but since many of the family members live outside the state not all of them take part. This time around, as many as 50 of them came for the annual ritual-all have webbed hands.
“My grandfather had told me about a feud our family had with a Christian family over our property boundaries. The Christian family cut down one of the trees at our sacred grove. Ever since, the children of our family were born with webbed hands. The Christian family too were besieged by some kind of illness and they soon abandoned the land and left the place. We don’t know whether the story is true or not,” says 66-year-old K M Bhargavan.
