It was an old Agraharam styled house. It had a spacious Thinnai in the front of the house where I used to play one pitch cricket all the time with my friends. The space was perfect for 3 or 4 kifs to play cricket. My mamas would also join us once ina while and we had a great time spending at least 1 hour playing there. The Thinnai also doubled up as a Tution center for my Arunachalam mama to take Maths/accountancy tuition to the students from the village. The sessions would start very early in the morning around 6 am and go on till late evening. On a given day, there would be close to 50 to 100 students attending the tuition sessions. Sometimes I used to join those sessions finishing up my 10 std Maths problems or homework. The Thinnai was also our favorite place to hang out in the evenings as a family. I used to sit with Paati on the steps and Thatha used to get his "Easy Chair" out and put it facing the Perumal Koil. The whole evening would pass by so effortlessly as I heard stories from Paati and as we struck conversations with people walking past our house as they returned from work in the evenings. The steps of the house were also very distinct. Couple of them were just large pieces of Granite laid on top of each other. There was one cement step that had been created much later. I can still remember the Kolams paati used to put in front of the house which had the Cow dung as well as Hibuscus flower as decorations as well. Opposite to the house was a large vacant land which had a huge stack of Hay and couple of bullock carts. Behind the vacant land ran the Railway Lines. The trains were so punctual that Thatha used to tell time based on what trains passed through and at which speed. The goods train was a slow moving train whose sound lasted for close to 3 minutes. There were many times when I used to count all the bogies and even wave Byes to the train guard. I have walked through the railway lines and on the side of the railway lines many a times to go to the official Jeeyapuram railway station. Thatha used to take me there to the market streets to buy local stuff or go to the local tailor or shoe repair guy there. On the way to the jeeyaruram station there used to be couple of temples - One of them was the local ellachaami temple.I used to spend a lot of time at the temples around Jeeyapuram. My friend gokul and I used to do the Hanuman koil alankaram and even do the archanai/shlokams for Hanuman every Saturday evening. We would then take the prasadam(naatu chakarai/paanagam that Gokul used to bring from home) around the agraharam and share it with every house. Most of the mama and mamis used to bless us everytime we went and give us 1 or 2 rupees for the upkeep of the Hanuman sannadhi and buying prasadam/Suudam etc.One of my pleasant memories is the weekly alankaram/pujai Gokul and I did at the temple. It always gave a sense of satisfaction. Gokul was a great friend. He always looked after me as I was 2 or 3 years younger to him and was only 7 or 8 yrs old then. His house wouldn't have anything great to snack on or eat but he would always make sure that he shared whatever was there at home. sometimes he would just find Pottu kadalai or kalkandu and we used to be so happy to snack on those. Other friends I used to hang out together were Sethu (Gooch), Chandru , Prem Anand, Raaja. Most of them were elder to me but then they were very cordial and involved me in all the activities we did be it - play cricket or go across the cauvery river to Pluck Kodukapuli or spend 2 hours bathing in the Cauvery river where we played several games in water. My fond memories of Cauvery are with Thatha taking me and my sister chitra fr bath and meticulously applying soap and washing us and then applying Vibuthi on my face/hands/stomach. He used to then do Sandhya Vandhanam and then we used to go back home. The Nila choru we ate during Pournami at the banks of the cauvery wherein it used to be a PotLuck. All the maamis would pitch in with their choiciest food such as Thenga saadham/Puliyam Saadham/Thayir Saadham etc and about 30 to 40 folks would go to the Cauvery banks and eat in the bright moonlit sands. During the evenings, we used to play cricket under the banyan tree behind our house. We also used to play in the Cauvery sands when there was little to no water flowing. Great memories..More to follow as and when I remember....
Posted by rajesh | 
