One long street spanning about a quarter kilometer in length with houses packed on both sides, not leaving space for even a small whiff of air. Every house meticulously built in an extraordinarily orderly manner following a standard set of rules making sure they all align perfectly with their frontyard - thinnais touching each other. The simple houses boasted of the builder's devotion to plain geometry and Vaasthu shatra principles. The colours on the houses were predominantly red, white and Kaaavi (orange) portraying the Hindu Brahminness in every brick of theirs.
Through the railway track adjoining the village, the Erode passenger passed exactly at 4.30 in the mornings rattling the entire Agraharam, which now had become a daily alarm for the women of all the households to rise from their 'Pathamadai Paai' and start their daily activities.
The grown up men, for their part wake up to perform their daily exercise of drawing water from the wells. About 20 to 30 buckets of water is drawn as the lady picks one by one and starts filling up the appropriate containers. She then goes to the frontyard and begins the 'Vaasa thelikkal', wherein cow's dung is mixed with water and sprayed in the front of the house. This daily 5-minute activity followed by the 'Kolam Podal' event sets the trend for many more socializing episodes to come during the day, for all the maamis.
Some of the familiar areas of conversations go as follows:
'Maami,Nannaa thunginaelaa?'
'Illa Maami,engaathla Odomosum Tortoiseum theendhu poachu...Orae kosu kadi'
'Oh..Engaathla naanga goodknight thaan use panroam'
'Seri..iniku enna samayal ungaathla?'
'Iniku..arachuvitta kuzhambu..kathrika curry..Rasam'! Ungaathla?'
'Engaathla saathamadhu..Vendakka Currimedhu'
Just as the conversations begin to mature, the male of the household gives out a cry, indicating that its time to stop and begin the household activities, following which the ladies act like robots programmed to do routine tasks, without deviating from the routine.They take their baths and then enter the kitchen to cook the delicacies, which the entire house devours upon later in the day.Then its time for the moms to wake the kids and get them ready for school.In between,the males in the house are forced to perform a multitude of tasks ranging from splitting open the coconut from its hardshell,for which a unique contraption called a 'Urikoal' is used;Start the fire at the back of the house to boil hot water for the kids to bathe;Climb the paran(attic) to retrive enough rice for the day from the gunnybags etc.
With M.S singing Suprabatham in the background,followed by Yesudas singing a couple of Ayyappa songs,the ladies perform their poojas and circum-ambulate the thulasi madam in the 'Mitham' - the roofless portion of the house with a few iron grills on top, which stands right in the middle of the house.
The kids wait patiently for the moment the camphor is lit and shown across all the hundred different pictures of Gods and Godesses, after which it is the much-awaited time for the prasadam,which usually is a mixture of dry fruits and cashew or badam,followed by a sweet concoction called the 'Paanagam'!
Once the breakfast is over,the kids get ready to go to school,either by walk or in the townbus that comes every 30 minutes.Every kid carries the trademark yellow Sarathas bag,laden with old front-coverless books which were inherited from his or her elder brother;an old Nataraj pencil box with a hero-pen,an wooden ruler,a light blue-colored eraser and a piece of chalk to suck the ink in the event of an unexpected ink deluge ;a small stainless steel tiffin box for lunch,which mostly consists of Curd Rice and mango pickle.
To be concluded...
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh | 
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