It was in the year 1960, I joined the TAHS in the 6th form (now it is called VIth standard).
Class was covered by roof made out of coconut tree leaves woven with architecutral beauty and gave a very cool shade. Coming from a very far away place - about 7 Kms walking from a remote village known as Naduvakkarai to Tiruvidaimarudur gave me a thrilling experience. My seniors about 3/4 students used to come from this village and exactly we used to start from home at 8.00AM to reach class puncutally.
I have to come across Palm trees before the place Thirubuvanam crossing two canals with vast paddy fields, full of green carpet spread all over and the scene itself did have the cooling effect to the eyes and the feelings were as if we were walking along with a colourful world of nature. Water snakes tresspassing along with crabs, coconut trees making a buzzing sound coupled with many fruit trees like guava,pine apples made me a temporary owner of these places. Of course povery was the only tool which we could not properly handle in the family. A very medium ayyangar family, always looking at the arrival of a postman to the village with money orders from far away places like Bombay/Chennai. My grandmother and mother brought me up along with my two brothers in a very dignified manner though there was shortage of finance in the family. Curd bath was the staple food for all of us and even in the lunch time, I used to bring the same packed in a dry banana leaf with a little pickle Narthangai. At the lunch time, there used to be a big group share the lunch brought from different homes.
Mahadhana Street from where students and friends used to come were ruling majority in the school and no doubt the name Mahalingam was the prominent,eminent and above all, a great recognition due to the Mahalingaswamy being the diety of that place. We used to confuse between one mahaling and the other and pet names will be conferred on each every individual to identify them. For example, PMali,chinnagu mali, S Mali, K.Mali,Pattabi Mali and so forth. My close friend one Sri Ramachandran was staying behind Mahadana Veedhi and I became very close to their family. Those days during school hours, one cannot leave class and go for any marriage to take lunch.
However, Kitti Sir was my class teacher for whom I as a pet student. I went and stood before him with silence and he asked what was my problem. I sought his permission to attend the marriage of the sister of Sri Ramachandra. He said "Go and come back as soon as possible and attend other classes" My joy knew no bounds and I ran so fast that I did not see anything except the imaginary jangiri and kunjaladu before my eyes. These were very precious items and hence attachment was more for these items of eatables. I ran so fast I dashed against a cyclist only to see bleeding on my forehead. In spite of this I somehow I managed to get up from the dust and started running towards the Mahadhana veedhi and at last I reached the place where lunches were served almost all the people and there was no place to sit.Seeing my agony, Sreeramachandran called me insited and told me to site in a place where I had to squeeze my entire body and supported myself on the small wooden pillar in the middle of the house after cleaning my forehead which was bleeding still. The food items were dropped on my banana leaf one by one and I felt that some kind of boon has been granted by the Lord to make me eat all those items...........(to be continued )
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