Punalur (Malayalam: പുനലൂര് Punalūr) (Tamil: புனலூர் Punalūr) is a city situated near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border in the Kollam district of the southern Indian state of Kerala. It is situated on the banks of the Kallada River and derives its name from the Tamil words; punal, meaning "water" and ooru, meaning "city", literally, "city of water". It is about 45 kilometres (28 mi) north-east of Kollam and 75 kilometres (47 mi) north of Thiruvananthapuram. It is also known as the "Lap of the Western Ghats".
Oldest bridge in India is situated in Punalur. It is also the first motorable bridge in India, constructed in 1877. It was build as a suspension bridge due to lack of technology of concrete. The second-largest city in Kollam and the fifth largest in south Kerala, it is home to a paper industry with the Punalur Paper Mills, established in the 1850s, one of the first industries in Kerala and a pioneer in the industrial development of the state. Punalur become an important trading and transport centre between Kollam and Sengottai (Tamil Nadu) under the rule of the Travancore Kingdom. Steady progress by the Punalur Panchayat administration saw an upgrade to municipality status in 1972. Despite this elevation in status, Punalur still lacks the basic infrastructure to cope with an ever growing population and an influx of tourists and pilgrims.
This is the cry of a people
who were robbed and raped from their homeland
and their loved ones.
A people stripped of their culture,
their dignity, their liberty and their rigths
and by the cruel and presumptuos
hands of the colonial and imperialistics slavers
were cargoed into the west,
where for over 400 years they have toiled and laboured,
and with their blood, their sweat, them tears and hands
they have built the great city of Babylon,
only to be paid with the wages of the taskmaster's
whip,
torture and death.
Oh yea yea! This is my history!
Oh yea yea yes! Oh!
We've been down in the valley much too long.
We've been down in captivity oh so long.
We've been down in humillity much too long.
We've been down in slavery oh so long.
But we're gonna rise and shine!
And win our liberation,
for now is the time
when all nations must be free.
So rise and shine!
Restore your strength and power,
waste no more time,
remember your history.
We've been down in a sufferation much too long.
We've been down in a condemnation oh so long.
We've been down in a segregation much too long.
We've been down in humilliation oh so long.
But we're gonna rise!
As the morning sun that surrounds you,
it's international morality time,
where mankind must be born anew.
So rise and shine!
For the sake of the younger generations,
putting hearts and minds,
to brotherhood and unity.
Oh yea yea yea yea yes!
Remember the slavemaster's ship!
Remember the taskmaster's whip!
Oh yea!
We've been down in the valley much too long.
We've been down in captivity oh so long.
We've been down in slavery much too long.
We've been down in humillity oh so long.
But we're gonna rise and shine!
And win our liberation,
for now is the time
when all nations must be free.
Rise and shine!
Restore your strength and power,
waste no more time,
remember your history.