Naduvakkarai Sridhar’s Ninaivugal

Dear TDR ites,

First of all accept my greetings on the Happy Diwali !

Diwali brings me many past tracks in my mind. It was between the years 1962-64 - years that have gone deep in my mind bringing me to share some of the events in my life. It is but natural that a function or festival like Diwali is celebrated with enthusiasm, galore and above all the expectations to enjoy! I remember, buying crackers in a family is a very big event and calculations in bringing up a budget to this purchase normally discussed in a house at length where children are more. List of crackers will be first discussed, then the price part of it and arriving at a ceiling of budgeted price thus coming to a conclusive theme of arriving at an amount reasonably to fit in the expenditure. In my case these things were not at all counted as we used to expect Rs.100 every month for the monthly expenses of household through money order from my father. I remember once he sent me in my name a parcel containing three pieces of pant cloth, three pieces of shirting cloth through post and the postman tried to deliver it at my house - address being East End Last house, Naduvakkarai Village, Umamaheswarapuram post and when the parcel arrived just two days before the Diwali, the postman went and asked for me at around 10.30AM when I was in the school at Ammachathiram, 3 kms away from my village. My grandmother was pleading the postman to deliver it to her asking him take his signature on the receipt but alas the postman was strict and said that the addressee alone should sign and take delivery of the parcel. In the scorching sun, my grandmother accompanied the postman walking through the 3 kms stretch and reached the elementary school in Ammachathiram and she was stopped at the HM's cabin as the English period was going on - and a boy was sent to my class to fetch me at HM's room. It was a rude shock for me to see my grandmother there and my imagination flew as to whether there would have been a complaint against me. To my surprise, the postman asked my name and I told him my name and immediately my grandmother was pleading with the postman to take my signature and deliver the parcel. The postman was not satisfied with that but he asked the HM to identify me and at last that drama was over and he handed over the parcel to my grandmother. I was inquisitive to know what was in the parcel but that time being school time and I had to wait till at least 4.30PM to know what it contained. It was like a thrill for me. I ran home in the evening and found that my father sent me new clothes for Diwali. It was only one day left for the event and my grandmother and my mother were expert tailors themselves and they started cutting and stitching three trousers and three shirts to their professional skills and made it ready for the Diwali. What a great event to cherish.

In those days, there used to be a high profile cloth called terylene which was a commodity to be possessed by only decently rich people and I had seen two to three friends wearing this material and I straight came to my grandmother and asked whether she could buy for me a shirt of terylene. She said it is all for rich and we are in the middle class and only when I go for earning that time I could think of it. Thus, the terylene era also got over after about three to four years - probably after the year 1967, the terylene started to diminish. Bell bottom pants and colourful shirts were the fashion trend those days.

In 1964, being the elder  to two brothers, I was given only Rs.2/- to buy crackers. What a pity it was Rs.2 and I had to buy for three of us. I was wondering what to do and my both the brothers wanted to accompany to Thiruvidaimarudur where in the old palace - a very old building in the Mahadana Street. the Chandrasekarapuram Coop. Society opened a cracker shop where I reached to bargain for rupees two. What I bought was 1 doz cape boxes, single cracker, olai vedi and small items. Somehow whatever I bought I carried them as if a great treasure to be brought back to my house with lot of arguments amongst us what would be the share for each. Discussion took place in the long stretch of more than 6 Kms distance and on reaching home we sorted out the great issue. Every one could get only a handful of crackers and we had to satisfy with that. All my friends in that agraharam used to conduct a study as to who bought more crackers in the street and that would be decided on the basis of the scattered pickings that used to be produced after the burst of crackers. I wanted to prove to them that in our house we had purchased more crackers for which early morning when all others were to wake up, just few minutes before I used to take a bag and collect all the papers scattered in front of each house and bring them nearer to my house spread it to the entire length and breadth of the house just to show to the village that we had busted large volume of crackers.

Besides this I used to collect the crackers which failed to burst and bring them home and unpack the roll to collect the sulphur stuffed inside in a big paper to make again a big cracker. Unfortunately when I was collecting them there was a small candle which fell on to the paper make the paper to catch fire and a big flame rose above my face making my face black and my fingers were burnt. Pain was so much I could not do anything and tried to make an alarm whereby my friend came and poured the entire ink bottle (it was Parker ink bottle) which came as a slight relief. In spite of all these difficulties and pains, we used to enjoy the pleasure. Exchange of items prepared at every one's house with the other gave us lot of satisfaction to eat different varieties and the medicinal value that used to be prepared under the brand name Marundhu used to come our rescue in solving our problem of indigestion. Great ideas, great plans and great executing methods founded by our forefathers in celebrating festivals are unique. Culture, etiquette, manners taught by our parents and teachers in spite of being poor in status, we had richness in our behaviour.

Visiting Kumbakonam from Naduvakkarai village is a great sojourn and a luxury item. Ten paise for the Route No.1 bus from Swamimalai Kumbakonam used to thrill us. There used to be a Driver called Vembu Iyer  - a very unique Iyer driver rare to find those days as a Bus driver - used to be very kind to me. I used to walk across two small canals from Naduvakkarai to reach Thirubhuvanam where I used to join my friends there and the track will lead us to join in the main road near Kumbha Rama Nagendra Silk Saree shop and if it happens that the Route No.1 bus with the Vembu Driver on it passes through and he used to locate me in the crowd he will command me to get into the bus, of course, without any bus ticket. Kind hearted person, short tempered, a very cautious but an expert driver. He used to remove his shirt and hang it near to his driver's cabin and he used to drive with banian in his own style. Rough voice, melting heart and a great lover of children, I cannot forget him.

Entry into the school behind the Singaneer Kulam is a thrill too. If I am late to the school, the back door entry used to help me slowly to go and join as a last boy the queue without the knowledge of any one but in spite of that there used to eagle eyes watching me and used to point out to the class teacher. Thrill again in every moment that we spent in the school. Looking at some one's grace to share a kadalai mittai, looking some one to share his note book, expecting some one to tear few pages of ruled sheets from wisdom note book, asking some one for an extra pen to write, taking liberty in borrowing pencil and rubber, scale - do we not recollect these silly moments as the greatest events that have been enjoyed and gone are the days and now we are bringing them back through this TDR times.

Look out for some more interesting events in the coming days and to be continued....................

Sincerely,

Sridharan RBI