Hi everybody! you have been in the maddening crowd of city but have you experienced a deafening silence! Then you should go to a village.Now a days many films bring the nativity of villages to our theater screens.When I went to school I had to cross many such villages where we can see old people sitting under the trees with Dailythanthi, youngsters would be playing carroms, aadupuli attam and cards and young kids halfdressed roll in the mud and be busy in sand play which our Montessori schools offer our kids nowadays, life seems to be carefree and I wonder why I had to take that large practical notes to school to learn.On festive occasions a loud speaker would be set with the maximum volume the knob could turn.The whole village flocks around the temple and they seem to enjoy life to the full extent.
I had been to such village festivals as my periamma lives in one such-I wouldn't call it as a village but a hybrid of a village and a town.Take a paper and draw a line for Madurai Batlagundu road and draw a very small line perpendicular to that and that is the hybrid town -Nilakkotai.you enter into the main bazaar as soon as the bus withers you .I wonder why do they call main bazaar because it is the only one area there.But you could see lovely jewellery shops there.When I was a small child it was rare to see any traffic there except bicycles and TVS 50s in which farmers carried loads to nearby villages.Jasmine gardens surrounded the entire town and it is such a lovely sight to see women and children plucking jasmines from the garden.My aunt used to take us to touring talkies there and for this we have to walk through the fields.I was lucky to have that experience of watching film sitting in the sand and relishing tasty native snacks like murukku ,seedai,,ellurandai etc.we can get out of it anytime but we always had to view movies that was released before three years in my town.
Nilakottai will be a colourkottai on Mariamman festival held there during the month of march.The whole bazaar will be roofed with thatches and the street will be bordered by the fashion accessories shop for young girls there.While the kids would be throwing temper tantrums to buy their dream toys,girls would be busy applying nail polish from the fancy stores.The cool drink shops would display all the hues of orange in long bottles and sugar cane will be crushed.Men would flock around parotta stalls and the clattering sound of kotthuparotta would raise above the loud speakers blaring through the air.Mostly they would be dressed in radiant colours- the ones which showroom designers use for their show rooms(panjumittai.arachamanjal) to paint their walls.It would be such a fun to watch them come in bullock carts and many loving fathers would be having their kids seated around their shoulders and above their heads.The mini giant wheels would have only four baskets.We would sit in one of them and place a stone in the first round and take it in the second round and will repay the owner without getting down and they would run it manually by elegantly passing between the rods.We had gone for jolly elephant rides.On the main festive occasion children would be sitting from its head to tail.Poor creature! The big giant wheels will take us to top where we could see buses going on the main roads, we get stuck there due to a powercut ,my aunt would narrate the tale of how they were get caught in the giant wheel due to leaking electricity somewhere and how fire engine came to their rescue the day before, to get them down.While in the evenings people seem to be very pious taking agnichatti and all that,in late evenings the whole atmosphere will be set into a gala time .The stage shows would be teenage boys with a young girl in the center displaying their talents in gutthu songs.In these recent times the girl dances to "Aasai dosai appalm vada" almost every year for the past half a decade and the whole crowd dances with them. We also could see many Muthalagus and Parithiveerans roaming about .When we go back we really miss all the fun there,but till now I envy those people for several reasons.
I had been to such village festivals as my periamma lives in one such-I wouldn't call it as a village but a hybrid of a village and a town.Take a paper and draw a line for Madurai Batlagundu road and draw a very small line perpendicular to that and that is the hybrid town -Nilakkotai.you enter into the main bazaar as soon as the bus withers you .I wonder why do they call main bazaar because it is the only one area there.But you could see lovely jewellery shops there.When I was a small child it was rare to see any traffic there except bicycles and TVS 50s in which farmers carried loads to nearby villages.Jasmine gardens surrounded the entire town and it is such a lovely sight to see women and children plucking jasmines from the garden.My aunt used to take us to touring talkies there and for this we have to walk through the fields.I was lucky to have that experience of watching film sitting in the sand and relishing tasty native snacks like murukku ,seedai,,ellurandai etc.we can get out of it anytime but we always had to view movies that was released before three years in my town.
Nilakottai will be a colourkottai on Mariamman festival held there during the month of march.The whole bazaar will be roofed with thatches and the street will be bordered by the fashion accessories shop for young girls there.While the kids would be throwing temper tantrums to buy their dream toys,girls would be busy applying nail polish from the fancy stores.The cool drink shops would display all the hues of orange in long bottles and sugar cane will be crushed.Men would flock around parotta stalls and the clattering sound of kotthuparotta would raise above the loud speakers blaring through the air.Mostly they would be dressed in radiant colours- the ones which showroom designers use for their show rooms(panjumittai.arachamanjal) to paint their walls.It would be such a fun to watch them come in bullock carts and many loving fathers would be having their kids seated around their shoulders and above their heads.The mini giant wheels would have only four baskets.We would sit in one of them and place a stone in the first round and take it in the second round and will repay the owner without getting down and they would run it manually by elegantly passing between the rods.We had gone for jolly elephant rides.On the main festive occasion children would be sitting from its head to tail.Poor creature! The big giant wheels will take us to top where we could see buses going on the main roads, we get stuck there due to a powercut ,my aunt would narrate the tale of how they were get caught in the giant wheel due to leaking electricity somewhere and how fire engine came to their rescue the day before, to get them down.While in the evenings people seem to be very pious taking agnichatti and all that,in late evenings the whole atmosphere will be set into a gala time .The stage shows would be teenage boys with a young girl in the center displaying their talents in gutthu songs.In these recent times the girl dances to "Aasai dosai appalm vada" almost every year for the past half a decade and the whole crowd dances with them. We also could see many Muthalagus and Parithiveerans roaming about .When we go back we really miss all the fun there,but till now I envy those people for several reasons.
- They lead a very simple life -they have time to eat even it is palaya sadham amd mormilagai and relish the taste while we have to cook fast,eat fast,run fast to work and then to other chores.
- Turban men are least bothered about the rise or fall of share markets while the same turns the life history of urban men.
- Their life goes around petti kadai,tea buns,news papers and of course lot of tiring manual work while people's life here is filled with bank loans,programming,computing,share markets,empty nutrient pizza and soft drinks.
- women apart from doing their hard work in fields are busy watching serials in kalaingar tv while city women are busy both in homes and offices.
- They seem to enjoy the travel in open lorries and bullock carts but we are not able to go without air conditioners switched on.
- While we here are discussing about the despotic rule of Catapi, they would be lamenting for the demise of MGR singing melancholic songs into the microphones who had passed away before two decades.
- while our kids would be answering questions like which woman went into space first the kids there will be bubbling with general knowledge by commenting"pombala wandi oottudhuda" if they happened to see a woman riding in a scooty through their village.
- While we had to see films of punch dialogues they would be serving their eyes with kudiyirandha kovil or ragasiya police in Eastman colour.They would have seen them for more than their fingers could count.
- The kids play with the so-called bats before the so called stumps .They are contended with 1 buck top while our kids are not satisfied with a UMD we buy ,their eyes go roving the shelves and their fingers points to some other thing as well.
- One rupee turmeric powder does wonders in their skin while we have to dissolve our money in Olay creams and facial bleach and still come out of the parlours as wonderful as a a witch.
- They don't mind powercuts while we make a lot of fuss overthat.
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